Cozy Mysteries, They're Not All Tea Parties

Each author has a setting for their mystery stories. The genteel county manor, the secluded beach, a romantic cruise, a tea party with suspect tea...the list goes on. Since my mysteries tend towards (fake) haunted houses, mysterious islands and such I thought I would share one of the things that truly creeps me out. 

Okay truth to tell many things creep me out, I’m a coward that way, but the number one thing is…trees. Seriously, they are creepy.

Don't believe me? I have photographic evidence!

 

Extremely Creepy Looking Trees. Don't They Fill Your Heart With Terror?

See what I mean? They’re just…there. Waiting. For what? Who knows? That's creepy. But that doesn't mean they don't do stuff...

Disgusting Leaves Left By Creepy Tree I Will Now Have to Clean Up

Okay I'm bitter about this, but that's beside the point. So what is the point? It never ends! And let’s not even get into the sap that gets on your car and you can’t get it off without ruining the paint job. It's a conspiracy I tell you.
And worst of all...

Creepy Birds That Live In Creepy Trees That Drop You Know What

Okay so it's fake chicken on a bush. I couldn't get a real bird to pose. Why?  Because they're creepy, they know it, and they don't want it documented. I'm on to you creepy birds!
Now my mother, a very logical person, has told me I need to get over this tree conspiracy thing because they are just trees after all, but don't confuse the creepy factor with logic. Sure they're pretty and all, and they look harmless, but I tell you it's all part of their evil, creepy plot to rule the world.

Okay that's probably an exaggeration, but get tree roots into your plumbing sometime and you begin to wonder.

Please tree lovers don’t judge me. I know trees aren't really evil, at least that's what they want you to think, but this all comes from growing up in an area where scary tree stories were everywhere.

First there was The Orchard, The Evilest place on Earth (yes it really existed I didn’t just make it up for the books). Okay, it was gone by the time  I got old enough to remember things, but I was told by my sisters that it was truly the most frightening place ever. They know because our older brother Jack told them so. True Jack was known to love to torment his little sisters with scary stories but what's that got to do with anything? 

Then there was the Gully, a forest…okay a grove… okay a line of trees where you went in but never came out. I know this because my sisters told me and Jack told them...Oh you've noticed a theme here huh? Come to think of it Jack was a bit a stinker, a loveable one, but still a stinker. 

Also, now that I'm an adult, I know they were only stories. But these things tend to stick with you, and even today I still tend to give trees a second or third look before enjoying their shade in hot California summers. When I'm desperate.

So you see not all cozy mysteries are tea parties, especially if you have a tea party under the trees. If so you may want to watch out, they may be up to something.

 

Mystery writer C.L. Ragsdale is the author of The Reboot Files a Christian Mystery Series. A California native, she loves to "surf" the web to research plot details for her fun, quirky stories with just a bit of whopper in them. She has a degree in Theatre Arts which greatly influenced her writing style. Working in various fields as a secretary has allowed her to both master her writing skills and acquire valuable technical knowledge which she uses liberally in her plots. She loves to embroider and knit and is a big fan of the old Scooby Doo cartoons.

Current E-Books
THE REBOOT FILES:  The Mystery of Hurtleberry House, The Island of Living Trees, The Harbinger of Retribution, and The Wrong Ghost.

www.shortmysteriesandtalltales.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CL-Ragsdale219184744858421

 

Better Late than Never!

My apologies to both the readers of Cozy Mystery Magazine and my fellow mystery author-bloggers. Today was the last day of summer before my kids head back to school, and already the PTO has their claws in me.

I have been looking forward to this day's blog post with a little list of things to share: best way to chemically fake a heart attack, three ways to hide a body at a funeral, icky things that make great biological clues, fun mysteries to enjoy on Netflix while you catch up on housework now that the kids are back in school. As you can see, especially if you aren't on the left coast like I am, I didn't get it done.

But I did notice from the previous two posts that it is tea time! I can dig that. I've got my own little collection of tea pots, two for Christmas, two for pretty, and one we use everyday. Well, not literally, but several times a week.

A tea party, Hilton style, looks something like this:

The tea pot is Target, circa 2001. It was a wedding present from my Aunt Sally. I knit the cozy myself. Many an evening finds my husband and I sitting at that pine farm table with that teapot in that tea cozy enjoying a cup of Tetley while we work. I write novels, blogs, and tweets. He preps for the class he teaches at the community college in his spare time and blogs.

Other nights the tea pot follows us into the bedroom where we snuggle down and watch our favorite mysteries. I can wholeheartedly recommend Rosemary and Thyme, a very cozy British Mystery available for streaming at Neflix.

But I can't leave it at just this picture. My post feels incomplete without offering you a little something to take home. So...here is the pattern for a great tea cozy you can knit!

Pattern for Tea Cozy at Pamela's Blog.

(image from Pamela's Blog)

And with that, I must be off. Tea doesn't steep itself!

Traci Tyne Hilton is a mom, Sunday School teacher, novelist, and award winning playwright from Portland, Oregon. She is madly working on her next mystery series which has finaled in the Books of Hope Contest at Write Integrity Press and has an impending deadline.

Traci earned a degree in History from Portland State University and lives in the rainiest part of the Pacific Northwest with her husband the mandolin playing funeral director from Kansas, their two daughters, and their dog, Dr. Watson.
More of Traci's work can be found at tracihilton.com

The Mitzy Neuhaus Mystery Series is available at Amazon.

Cozy Mystery Crime--A Tempest in the Teapot by Linda Kozar

Last week Nancy started us off with a discussion about tea cozies. She has quite a lovely assortment, a fact which brings me to a sad confession.

While I have quite a collection of teapots and teacups, I have but one tea cozy. (See below)

Bought this on a trip to England of course.

Oh gosh--I forgot about the teapot set with the built-in cozy covers on the pot, creamer and sugar bowl! Here it is:

Built-in tea cozies

To make up for it though, I've included a picture of my favorite mystery writer's teapot. I love the pistol, the typewriter, picture of Marilyn Monroe on the desk and all the rejected pages the author crumpled and tossed in the trashcan.

The Mystery Writers Desk

Tea Time Break:

Whimsical dessert teapot and MUGS!

For good tea, one must have boiling hot water. The first and most crucial step is to pour some of that boiling water into the empty teapot and replace the lid. Allow the teapot to get good and hot for a few minutes. Then pour off the water, add loose tea and pour the rest of the boiling water over the tealeaves. Place a tea cozy over the pot and let it steep. Wait about five minutes, fill your teacup and enjoy with or without cream and a few sugar cubes.

While crime novels revel in gore, true-life descriptions and hard-edged wisecracks, cozy mysteries are similar to tea cozies in that the sleuth must uncover what is brewing beneath the surface. And that sleuth or someone close to her (or him) is sure to wind up in hot water at some point in the investigation.

Detective fiction flourished in a “Golden Age” from the 1920s to 40s. Agatha Christie was of course, the leading lady of the “Cozy” mystery. The cozy genre can be best described as gentle mysteries involving a murder off stage and an investigation by an amateur, yet remarkably astute sleuth in a comfortable setting.  These gentle mysteries contain no violence (save for the off stage murder or crime to be solved), sexual reference or abusive language. 

Alice in Wonderland collection

My sweet Irish clovers!

The characters are often miscast, not the kind of person one would think of as best qualified to solve crimes. Think of Agatha’s “Miss Marple” and you’ll have a fairly good idea of what a cozy mystery character is. Humor, both subtle and not so subtle is also employed in cozies. The main character can entertain odd penchants or peculiarities or is avid in some sort of craft like cooking or collecting, knitting, scrapbooking, gardening, etc. Many Cozies are thematic. Explore the mystery aisle at a bookstore and you will most likely find a mystery that is—ah—your cup of tea.

With the above assortment of themes, it is no surprise that most cozies are read and written by women.

Which brings me to my latest mystery--Strands of Fate. It released as an eBook last week and comes out in print this October.

The character, Shannon McClain is a Scottish widow trying to put two kids through college while making ends meet by beading, knitting and crafting. An unexpected inheritance lands her on American shores, Oregon to be exact, and right in the middle of a mystery. Did I mention that Shannon LOVES a strong cup of tea? She's very particular about how her tea is brewed as well. And she has a favorite teapot. . .

To order Strands of Fate in eBook form or to pre-order the print book,which releases in October, click here: www.creativewomanmysteries.com

Linda Kozar is the co-author of Babes With A Beatitude—Devotions For Smart, Savvy Women of Faith (Hardcover/Ebook, Howard/Simon & Schuster 2009) and author of Misfortune Cookies (Print, Barbour Publishing 2008), Misfortune Cookies, A Tisket, A Casket, and Dead As A Doornail, (“When The Fat Ladies Sing Series,” eBooks, Spyglass Lane Mysteries, 2012). Her latest novel Strands of Fate releases in October 2012 (Creative Woman Mysteries). She received the ACFW Mentor of the Year Award in 2007, founded and served as president of Writers On The Storm, a local ACFW chapter for three years. In 2003, she co-founded, co-directed and later served as Southwest Texas Director of Words For The Journey Christian Writers Guild. She and her husband Michael, married 23 years, have two lovely daughters, Katie and Lauren and a Rat Terrier princess named Patches.