My Stay-at-Home Adventure: Writing a Cozy Mystery

I spend quiet moments at a lovely little inn on the Washington coast, smelling the salty air and hearing the seagulls argue . . .

Playtime in the Sandbox

As a full-time caregiver, it’s not that easy to slip away for a vacation or even slip out of the house for an hour or two but I have found I can take frequent breaks throughout the day to a lovely little inn on the Washington coast.

Just a few quiet moments to smell the salty air and hear the seagulls arguing over who got the biggest crumb from a discarded picnic wrapper. I can watch idly from the deck outside my room as the waves ebb and flow, tumbling across the sand.

In reality, I’m almost a hundred miles from the Pacific coast; there is no such inn and the view from my front windows is the neighbors’ rather untidy yards, telephone poles, and a few tall pines. The ocean’s roar is my imagination replacing cars, trucks, and motor scooters zipping along faster than they should on our busy street.

A casual observer might think I’m washing and folding clothes, running the vacuum, or stirring a pot on the stove. They are wrong. Very wrong.

What I am actually doing is writing a cozy mystery.

I’ve started such a writing project in the past, but it has always been to get it published. Good pressure with that! Right now I have all the pressure I can handle with other things, so my cozy writing is not making it on a “Must Do” list.

This time around it’s strictly playtime in the sandbox time.

I’m Enjoying Myself with This “Project”

While there is a faint possibility of it someday getting published, I’m more interested in having fun. I have cozy talks with my cozy characters as they do silly, probably crazy things.

Of course there is a murder, must have at least one. A ghost or two slips in uninvited from time to time, and sometimes, just to make a scene very cozy and correct, we pretend we know how to cook something that doesn’t mix up an ingredient or stay in the oven too long.

Who cares? They don’t. I don’t. We just enjoy each other immensely.

Of course, I can’t spend the whole day at the beach. But it’s surprising how my fantasy time relieves stress, makes me smile, and sometimes even invokes a laugh. Really, my characters are such lovely people (well, most of them); who wouldn’t enjoy spending time with them?

Other Places I Go Without Leaving Home

Books, of course. I love to read, but these days I want everything to have happy ever after endings without a lot of drama to get there. Murder mysteries I used to love I have dropped for calmer, more sedate reads.

I have taken to reading “Miss Read” books before I go to sleep. These books make today’s cozies feel like high adventure. They are simple, rambling, cozy novels about rural life in a small English village. My mom had some of her books that my sister had, and then gave to me so it feels like I am sitting there with my mom again enjoying them.

Then, while I watch TV with my husband in the evenings, I play a few games of solitaire, Sudoku, and Word Search on my Kindle. I am addicted at the moment to Vita jigsaw puzzles on my Kindle as well, though I get so annoyed with their ads that seem to get stuck in endless loops half the time.

Keeping a Foot in the Outside World

Still keeping on with a few outside projects that I can do from home, such as my radio show, Northwest Book Talk, and organizing a local book fair or two. Working with authors is always fun and keeps my social life active from the home front.

Oh! And I have started writing articles here for Sixty and Me which is also fun.

What About You?

I’d love to hear about the little escapes you find at home. Where do you go, even if it’s only in your imagination, when you need a break from real life for a while?