I’m often asked what compels me to write mysteries. I know I’ve always been interested in crime fiction because that’s the genre I’ve read from a very young age. Devouring the Nancy Drew mysteries quickly evolved into reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, and Dorothy L. Sayer’s aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey and his mystery novelist companion and wife, Harriet Vane.
Why did I cross the threshold from mystery reading enthusiast to mystery author? I hold my beloved grandfather responsible for planting that pernicious seed. He knew I wanted to be a writer. When I was a teenager, we visited a local Barnes & Noble bookstore. He picked up Sue Grafton’s latest alphabet mystery, flipped it open to the author photo on the sleeve, and said: “If she can do it, so can you.”
So here I sit at my laptop, fifty years later with five and half mysteries in two different series under my belt. What a long, strange trip its been.
Looking back with perspective, why do I write? I’ll be brutally honest. It’s not for the money. According to recent Author’s Guild statistics, mystery, thriller, and suspense authors had a median book income of $10,000. When I poll that number to my author friends, most think that’s on the high side, that it’s closer to $5,000 or less. With two mystery series in production, I know I earn enough royalty to pay for my annual mystery convention trips. Generally, I tend to register and attend two or three of those around the country each year. I’m not getting rich, but writing mysteries keeps me busy and gives me a sense of accomplishment. It also gives me a great excuse to travel and catch up with my like-minded friends. That seems like a pretty fair swap to me.
I don’t write for fame although it thrills me when a reader gives my books a starred review or asks for my autograph at a convention. I feel like a rock star for one brief moment before the imposter syndrome comes crashing in and firmly puts me back in my place. If we’re playing true confession, I’ll also admit to the thrill I get when a family member finishes one of my books, looks up in surprise and says: “Seriously. You wrote this?”
The secret reason I love writing mysteries is because ever so rarely creative magic spontaneously happens. I make no claim to knowing how to do it, but it happens often enough to motivate me to keep adding to my current work in progress in case it happens again. Spontaneous creativity is simply the best feeling in the world. What is it? Suddenly, without premeditation or a warning, my storytelling imagination self-connects to a nugget of real time research and BAM. The plotline snaps into place the way a missing jigsaw puzzle piece suddenly pops into sharp focus. Events and characters take on a substance and life of their own. They get real. The story takes off with its own energy and its own tangent and gallops along its own flow like a racehorse returning to the stable. At this point as the author, I’m only along for the ride.
I don’t want to get all woo-woo about this. When I drafted my first novel, this creative spontaneity happened so rarely I chalked it up to pure chance. Now, almost six novels in, I don’t credit coincidence because these magical connections are happening more often. They’ve reached a point where I feel like something omniscient is guiding them to me like a silent partner. As if the story I’m working on is actively working to meet me halfway because the story itself wants to be told.
I’m not the first author to suggest this possibility. At conferences and online podcast interviews, I’ve heard authors say they feel like the story they wrote was channeled through them like water sucked through a straw. In his book On Writing, Stephen King suggested that all stories pre-exist in a common universal consciousness. That authors act more like stenographers than original content creators.
I’m taking the stand that we authors are a bit more proactive on story ownership than that. We put in the time and the effort to hone our craft and explore our creative spaces. We pursue our stories like prey and hunt them down. And if we stay honest and true to our writing talent, we are rewarded. As Sherlock Holmes famously said: “Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot.”
And while we put our heads down and dedicatedly keep typing, we hope: “All will be revealed.”
Martha Reed is a multi-award-winning crime fiction author. Her story, “The Honor Thief”, was included in This Time For Sure, the Anthony Award-winning Bouchercon 2021 anthology. Her initial Crescent City NOLA Mystery, Love Power, won a 2021 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award and features Gigi Pascoe, a transgender sleuth. Up Jumped the Devil, the second NOLA Mystery was released in December 2023. Martha is also the author of the Independent Publisher IPPY Book Award-winning John and Sarah Jarad Nantucket Mystery series. Her short stories and articles have appeared in Pearl, Suspense Magazine, Spinetingler, Mystery Readers Journal, Kings River Life Magazine, Mysterical-e, and in two Sisters in Crime anthologies. Lucky Charms - 12 Crime Tales and Paradise is Deadly - Gripping Tales from the Florida Gulf Coast.
LINKS:
Website: https://www.reedmenow.com/
Amazon links:
Nantucket Mysteries: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08X3DYLBD
NOLA Mysteries: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KY4FW6P?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=ast_author_bsi