Welcome to Cozy Wednesday!!
I am so excited to welcome Joyce back to Escape With Dollycas!
THE TOP FIVE THINGS I’VE LEARNED WRITING A COZY SERIES
5. It’s not as easy as it looks. Believe it or not, there are readers out there who think that cozy mysteries are inferior to other mysteries. Obviously, they’ve never tried to write one. I’ve found it takes quite a bit of skill to kill someone and not gross out the reader. The cozy writer has to get the horror of the murder across without showing much in the way of blood, guts, and the like. You have to describe what happened without actually describing what happened. This also applies to any sexy scenes. I’m perfectly content with not having to write those kinds of scenes. Banter, innuendo, and an occasional kiss that leaves the character’s knees weak is enough for me. I like to leave the rest up to imagination.
4. It’s sometimes hard to find adequate substitutes for swear words. I worked as a police secretary for ten years. Believe me, cops swear. I learned a whole new vocabulary when I worked for the police department. When you have officers talking in a cozy, you can’t very well have them use what must be their favorite word in the whole world because they say it three times in every sentence. And you can’t have them say gosh, darn, or golly either. Andy Griffith could get away with it, but that’s about it. My protagonist’s dad is a homicide detective and in one scene I have Max say something like, “My dad rarely swore but I could tell he held back a string of words that would have turned the air blue.” I do throw in an occasional damn and have used the letters S.O.B. Sometimes I’ll interrupt the dialogue just before the swear word would be uttered. So far, it works. I think.
3. There’s a fine line between educating the reader on the character’s craft or occupation and boring them to death. No one wants to read page after page of how your character does something. My protagonist Max is a craft brewer and there’s a lot of chemistry involved in brewing beer. If I started rambling on about how to calculate the specific gravity of a certain brew in order to calculate the alcohol by volume, I don’ t think readers would be too happy. In the best case scenario, they’d skip those pages; in the worst case, they’d throw the book against the wall. It’s a mystery novel, not a textbook. Information like that must be sprinkled in lightly.
2. Recipes are hard to come up with. I’m usually thinking more about the plot and what the characters are doing than about what they’re eating or cooking. I’ve had to train myself to actually stop and describe certain foods and then search for a recipe to include. That’s probably why the first book, To Brew or Not to Brew only had two recipes. I did a little better with books two and three. Tangled Up in Brew
has four, and next year’s A Room With a Brew will have five.
1. Write everything down. When I was about halfway through writing the first book, I realized I was NOT going to remember which character had blue eyes, who had brown eyes, how tall a certain someone was, etc. I started what we call a Character Bible. I jotted down each character, what they looked like, and anything else I thought might be important. I did the same with each shop and location in the series. I even drew a little map so I’d remember which store/shop/restaurant was where. And thank goodness I did. I refer to it constantly. Between that and the style sheet (which has even more detailed info on it) from my copy editor, I’ve saved hours that would have been spent searching through previous manuscripts for one tiny tidbit of information. All because I couldn’t remember something I thought I would.
These are the top five things I’ve learned writing a cozy series. Readers, what have you learned reading one?
~Joyce
About The Author
Joyce Tremel was a police secretary for ten years and more than once envisioned the demise of certain co-workers, but settled on writing as a way to keep herself out of jail. She is a native Pittsburgher and lives in a suburb of the city with her husband and a spoiled cat.
Her debut mystery, To Brew Or Not To Brew has been nominated for the 2015 Reviewers’ Choice award for best amateur sleuth by RT Book Reviews. The second book in the series, Tangled Up In Brew
has just been released.
Author Links
Webpage – Facebook – Twitter – GoodReads
Tangled Up in Brew (A Brewing Trouble Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting – Pennsylvania
Berkley (October 4, 2016)
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0425277706
E-Book ASIN: B01AHKXIAQ
Synopsis
Another intoxicating mystery featuring brew pub owner Maxine “Max” O’Hara—from the author of To Brew or Not to Brew
.
BEER TODAY, GONE TOMORROW…
Brew pub owner Maxine “Max” O’Hara and her chef/boyfriend, Jake Lambert, are excited to be participating in the Three Rivers Brews and Burgers Festival. Max hopes to win the coveted Golden Stein for best craft beer—but even if she doesn’t, the festival will be great publicity for her Allegheny Brew House.
Or will it? When notoriously nasty food and beverage critic Reginald Mobley is drafted as a last-minute replacement judge, Max dreads a punishing review. Her fears are confirmed when Mobley literally spits out her beer, but things get even worse when the cranky critic drops dead right after trying one of Jake’s burgers. Now an ambitious new police detective is determined to pin Mobley’s murder on Max and Jake, who must pore over the clues to protect their freedom and reputations—and to find the self-appointed judge, jury, and executioner.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Belly up to the bar and try one of Max’s new brews.
Brew pub owner Maxine “Max” O’Hara and her chef/boyfriend, Jake Lambert, are 2 awesome characters. Working with your significant other can be tough but these two compliment each other nicely and each have their own strengths. Max knows beer and Jake knows food and the Three Rivers Brews and Burgers Festival is the perfect place so show everyone their talents. But cranky critic Reginald Mobley is not a fan of the Allegheny Brew House fare and delvers a scathing review. It puts them in the police’s cross hairs when he dies in front of a crowd of people while eating Jake’s burger. Max’s dad is also on the case but his partner has his mind made up. It may be time to call on a higher being, Max’s brother is a priest so he will be praying but Max is determined to save Jake, herself, and their pub any way she can.
The characters in this series are very interesting. Setting the story at a festival draws an eclectic group of people too. They are also very well crafted. The lead characters are both strong and independent, equals and very supportive of each other. They lean on each other but are not dependent on each other. They have known each other most of their lives and that gave them a strong bond before they even started dating.
The author also gives us a very strong plot with plenty twists. Reading the first book in this series, I figured out the culprit before Max, this time I was right there with her and figured it out at the same time. My early suspicions were totally wrong. She also gives us enough depth into the world of micro-brews with overwhelming the reader. I love learning new things.
I enjoyed the setting of the festival and could easily picture the booths and their layout. Ms. Tremel’s descriptions were so rich I could almost taste the beer and those burgers,
This is a fantastic addition to this series and I am really looking forward to the next installment, A Room With A Brew. Now if I could just have a glass or two of Max’s citrus ale to hold me over until then…

Thanks to the publisher I have 2 copies to give away!
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Can’t wait to read this series, it sounds like a great reading adventure.
I love cozies, and I think they are hard to write, for the reasons you say. It’s easy to be graphic, not so much with cozy writing. One of the reasons I like cozies is because there’s not a lot of swearing. It makes someone sound so unintelligent, when they might not be. I like the sound of this book. Can’t wait to read it!
Another cozy mystery series I haven’t read yet. Thank you for bringing it, and all the other’s, to my attention.
Looks like a great cozy mystery series–next one I’ll check out!
I’m so excited to read what happens next with Max and her brew pub in the ‘Burgh! I loved To Brew or Not To Brew and will have to re-read it before I get my hands on this new one. Thanks for the review and the giveaway!
Today breweries are at an all time high. It’s also a great time to write a cozy mystery involving one. Thanks for including Joyce Tremel’s A Brewing Trouble mystery series on your blog and also for sponsoring a giveaway.
Sounds like a great cozy.
Sounds like a great series. Thanks for a chance to win a copy.
I’m really excited for this release! Yesterday was a packed First Tuesday…the list of must haves was amazing. I have the first in this series and love it!
This cozy sounds captivating and special. Thanks,
Since I’m a native Pittsburgher I have got to get started on this series. I like your top 5, I figured there had to be a way to keep all your characters straight. Congrats on your new release and thanks for the chance to win.
Haven’t tried this series yet but thanks for the review. Will put on my TBR list.
Your books sound wonderful — I would love to read them. Thanks for visiting Escape with Dollycas!
I really enjoyed book one with it’s many twists and turns , I’m looking forward to this book for more of Max and Jake and twist and turns.
five excellent tips
I loved reading this post and found it sooo interesting. I also would love to get into this series and would love to win a copy of the book! Thank you for the chance.
I love this series…Brew Pub and murder? Super.
This is a new series and author to me and I’m looking forward to reading the series. The storyline being centered around the brew house sounds really interesting.
Thanks for the kind comments, everyone!
Good point about working in the details of the characters craft without overwhelming the reader. Sounds like a fun series.
Just love cozies and yours sounds so good. I would love to read and then post reviews after i read it.
What a great post, Joyce! I have learned countless amounts of trivia over the years via favorite cozies! Jobs and crafts I didn’t know anything about! I have tried knitting and oodles of recipes over the years! Thanks!
This sounds like a really fun series. I look forward to reading it!