Guest Appearance with author ~ Katharine Schellman

How do you come up with and put together the intricate details of your plots and then keep track of all the pieces of the story you’ll tie together in the end?

The first time I tried to write a mystery, I had no idea that was what I was writing. I had two characters in mind—which quickly became three when I decided that maybe the story was a romance.

By the time I made it to chapter three, though, it had become clear that my main character was not going to find love in this book. This young, newly widowed woman in Regency London who I had named Lily Adler was still very much in love with her late husband. What she needed, more than romance, was supportive friends and a new challenge.

That might have been the end of that book. I had planned to write a romance, after all, and had just realized that no romance was in the immediate future for the people I was writing about. I had every reason to close that Word doc and try something else. But I was enjoying my characters. I was too interested in them to stop. I kept writing, and for several more chapters my characters wandered around London in search of a plot until, at last, Lily Adler stumbled over a dead body.

Oh thank goodness, I remember thinking. It’s a mystery.

I loved reading mysteries. I learned to read listening along to a cassette of Richard Scarry’s The Great Steamboat Mystery, turning the page every time I heard the ding and sounding out the words with the narrator. I spent years watching PBS Masterpiece Theatre adaptations of Agatha Christie with my parents, eventually realizing with delight that these stories were based on real books that I could check out of the library. I might never have written a mystery before, but I felt confident that I could figure it out.

That confidence carried me through over a year of writing a first draft that, by the time it was done, clocked in at 145,000 words. For context, most mysteries that you pick up in a bookstore are about 80,000 to 100,000. I had written a meandering, overstuffed, messy book-and-a-half.

Once again, that might have been the end of that book. But unlike the previous two and a half novels that I had written (none of which will ever see the light of day) I didn’t want to stop working. I still loved those characters, and I was certain that somewhere in those 145,000 words was a mystery someone else would want to read. I sat down to start the hard work of cutting, tightening, and polishing the whole thing up.

That book eventually became The Body in the Garden, my first Lily Adler mystery, which was published in April 2020. Today, the fifth book featuring Lily, A Scandal in Mayfair, is making its way onto bookshelves. In the course of writing those five books—plus four in my second mystery series, set in New York during the Jazz Age—I’ve learned a few things about how I write mysteries.

Some mystery writers can start a book without knowing whodunit, howdunit, whydunit—or maybe even what it is. I am not one of them. I like to outline before I start drafting, writing anywhere from a couple of sentences to a couple of paragraphs for each scene. I’ll usually spend two or three weeks thinking through the plot and how it shapes the characters’ individual arcs. I’ll decide what I want the book to accomplish, both for the series it’s part of and on its own. I’ll work through tricky problems, place clue discoveries, and generally make sure the whole thing holds together.

Of course, once I start writing, I will inevitably discover that some part of it does not hold together. Maybe some plot points need to happen in a different order to give them more weight. Maybe two characters’ journeys are more similar than I realized at first, and I need to spend time emphasizing that parallel. Maybe a few scenes were nice when they were only 200 words, but once they reach 2,000 they actually need to be cut to keep the plot moving.

That never bothers me; editing is an essential part of the writing process, after all, and it’s going to happen whether your outline in excruciating detail or completely fly by the seat of your pants as you write. Maybe one day I’ll be inspired to sit down and write with no plan in mind once again, just seeing where the story takes me as I go. If that happens, I’ll let you know whether I end up with a book or a book-and-a-half once again.

– Katharine Schellmamn

Thank you so much, Katharine Schellman, for sharing with us!

First, I want to say that I’m pretty sure reading anything Katharine writes would be absolutely delightful! I had so much fun learning about the making of this serious that I’ve so deeply fallen in love with.

When she said she could have ended after book one, Death in the Garden, “But I was enjoying my characters. I was too interested in them to stop.” I feel that with my whole heart!! I can tell how much she loves her characters and that love translates into to a lifelong bond for the reader as well! I have read many books throughout my life and it’s rare to find characters that you love quite as much as I love Lily Adler and her circle!

I absolutely love that writing the (shall I say, genious) storylines was as much of a journey of discovery for the author as it is for the readers! I think that gives the book even more life while at the same time making it amazing that she is able to write in such mysterious layered depths! She writes as though creating a zigsaw puzzle, and every single piece holds significance as to how the final masterpiece will look. I have a great deal of respect for her writing style and her finished work!

I can not wait to dive into her other series, The Nightingale Mysteries

Read my full review of A Scandal in Mayfair

A Lily Adler Mystery

Sometimes danger lurks in plain sight, and in the cutthroat London Season socialite Lily Adler must race against time to catch a killer.

Fans of Bridgerton will delight in this Regency-era mystery featuring an intrepid sleuth, plenty of intrigue, and a touch of romance.

London, 1817. The London Season is beginning once more, and Lily Adler’s return to her home on Half Moon Street feels different this year. No longer a recent widow, she has a life and friends waiting for her. Lily also has new responsibilities in the form of her protégée Amelia, the sister of her longtime friend Jack Hartley, who is escaping her own brush with scandal and murder.

It doesn’t take long for Lily’s growing reputation as a lady of quality who can discreetly find what is missing or solve what is puzzling to bring a desperate young woman to her doorstep. But helping her means unraveling a tangled web of family secrets. Soon, a missing will, a dead body and the threat of blackmail leave Lily facing danger every way she turns.

The glittering society of Mayfair conceals many secrets, and the back alleys of London hide even more. Lily Adler will need to find the connection between them quickly if she wants to stop a killer before it’s too late.

Genre: Historical Cozy Mystery
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: August 20, 2024
Number of Pages: 320
Series: A Lily Adler Mystery, Book #5 | Each is a Stand Alone

Book Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | Penguin Random House

Tour Participants:

08/19 Interview @ Literary Gold
08/19 Showcase @ Silvers Reviews
08/20 Review @ ashmanda. k
08/20 Showcase @ Books, Ramblings, and Tea
08/21 Review @ Guatemala Paula Loves to Read
08/22 Guest post @ Cozy Home Delight Book Reviews
08/22 Review @ Novels Alive
08/23 Review @ Cozy Up With Kathy
08/23 Showcase @ Celticladys Reviews
08/24 Review @ The AR Critique
08/25 Review @ feliciaisbooked
08/26 Review @ Country Mamas With Kids
08/27 Review @ Because I said so
08/28 Interview @ darciahelle
08/29 Showcase @ Binge Reading Books
08/30 Review @ Why Not? Because I Said So Book Reviews
09/01 Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader
09/02 Review @ Review Thick & Thin
09/04 Review @ Nanas Book Reviews
09/05 Interview @ Words by Webb
09/08 Guest post @ The Mystery of Writing
09/09 Showcase @ Mystery, Thrillers, and Suspense
09/10 Review @ Words by Webb
09/12 Review @ One More Chapter
09/12 Showcase @ Kenyan Poet
9/11 Showcase @ Avonna Loves Genres

Katharine Schellman is a former actor and one-time political consultant. These days, she writes the Regency-set Lily Adler Mysteries and Jazz Age Nightingale Mysteries. Her books have been praised in outlets from Library Journal to The New York Times, with reviewers calling them “worthy of Agatha Christie or Rex Stout” (Library Journal). Katharine writes in the mountains of Virginia, where she lives with her husband, children, and the many houseplants she keeps accidentally murdering.

Catch Up With Katharine Schellman:
KatharineSchellman.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @KatharineSchellman
Instagram – @katharinewrites
Facebook – @katharineschellman