SKATING SUBTEXT
While I am always happy to see a positive review of one of my books, such as this one, from Nichtszusagen about Death Drop:
As with Axel of Evil, I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The skating details were just enough to ground me in the setting and to make me feel like a bit of an insider, but not enough to be overwhelming. Bex is a realistic, likeable heroine, and all the secondary characters were well-enough developed that even though there were quite a few of them for a relatively short (233-page) book, I didn't have any trouble distinguishing them....Amateur detective series tend to have trouble giving the protagonist reasons for continuing to stumble on and/or poke their noses into murder cases. So far, that's not a problem. I particularly liked the way Bex's involvement in this case was handled.
What I really loved about her review was the following:
One last thing: I didn't expect this while reading a cozy murder mystery, but the bits about fatherhood and what it means, especially one particular conversation between Bex and Craig, put a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.
That's because, when I was first outlining Death Drop in preparation for writing it (I know some writers can just make things up as they go along, but I'm one of those anal, got to have an outline before I start or else I don't know where I'm going and just end up rambling types; can you tell from these rambling posts?), the story didn't really gel for me until I understood that, beyond the murder and the skating and the mystery, Death Drop was really about fatherhood in all its permutations.
I never stated this fact in the story, I simply kept it in the back of my mind as I wrote every scene, giving the story (I hoped) a theme and a focus. And now somebody got what I was trying to do! I'm so excited!
As with Axel of Evil, I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The skating details were just enough to ground me in the setting and to make me feel like a bit of an insider, but not enough to be overwhelming. Bex is a realistic, likeable heroine, and all the secondary characters were well-enough developed that even though there were quite a few of them for a relatively short (233-page) book, I didn't have any trouble distinguishing them....Amateur detective series tend to have trouble giving the protagonist reasons for continuing to stumble on and/or poke their noses into murder cases. So far, that's not a problem. I particularly liked the way Bex's involvement in this case was handled.
What I really loved about her review was the following:
One last thing: I didn't expect this while reading a cozy murder mystery, but the bits about fatherhood and what it means, especially one particular conversation between Bex and Craig, put a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.
That's because, when I was first outlining Death Drop in preparation for writing it (I know some writers can just make things up as they go along, but I'm one of those anal, got to have an outline before I start or else I don't know where I'm going and just end up rambling types; can you tell from these rambling posts?), the story didn't really gel for me until I understood that, beyond the murder and the skating and the mystery, Death Drop was really about fatherhood in all its permutations.
I never stated this fact in the story, I simply kept it in the back of my mind as I wrote every scene, giving the story (I hoped) a theme and a focus. And now somebody got what I was trying to do! I'm so excited!
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