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From the award-winning author of the ANNALISSE MYSTERY SERIES.

THE VISIT THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING.

Celebrity chef Laura Harris dwells on the horror of finding her mentor’s body in the groundskeeper’s disheveled bed—pillow and bedding half covering her open eyes—purple bruising around her mouth. A grisly snapshot in time revealing the Texas woman’s last moments during her attack. The elderly matriarch from the small town of Stenburg has left the physical world, and Laura is shattered.

She is catapulted headlong into the pursuit of a casual executioner, one bold enough to come and go from the crime scene with ease, dropping bizarre crumb trails designed to mock the deceased. But Laura herself doesn’t go unnoticed. As she digs deeper, she is followed and bombarded by warnings to leave the state.

When the victim’s attorney informs Laura that she’s to inherit the entire Stenburg fortune, the last act of kindness has made Laura the main person of interest in the investigation.

Message by message, Laura is methodically taunted by someone so deranged and driven they’ll do whatever it takes to dislodge Laura from Texas – permanently.

Book Details:

Genre: Amateur Sleuth/Mystery/Cozy Mystery
Published by: Ewephoric Publishing
Publication Date: October 1, 2024
Number of Pages: 368
ISBN: 979-8-9863409-6-8

To purchase, A Hush at Midnight, click either link: Amazon | Goodreads

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Guest Post — A Hush at Midnight

How to Write: Outline or Fly by the Seat of Your Pants?

As I worked though my first attempt at publishing a romance novel, I had zero organizational skills—the book’s chapters fell together in a roundabout, rickety way. Far from pretty. My frustration level was high, and several times I nearly gave up on the project. What I understood about being a wordsmith back in 2009 came from watching movies. Many were screenplays based on novels but none portrayed the images and characterization a descriptive novel requires as a backbone. Backdrops and dialog are as important as the characters themselves. Details on the screen were snippets in time, as if taking a brisk walk through each scene and onto the next.

To make matters worse, I continued to watch movies and tossed out the idea of reading romances altogether. What a mistake to make! It was a lengthy and difficult way to suffer through the first four drafts that ended up as nine in total before publishing book one, Stolen Obsession. Being a natural visual artist as a young girl hadn’t helped as much as I’d hoped it would. I had to dig deeper to allow my mind to create the visuals painted in my head and match them with prose.

I flew by the seat of my pants because I didn’t know another way. I hadn’t bothered with how-to books on writing. There were and still are many great tutorials for beginning writers that frankly, I ignored. The fear of plagiarizing another author’s published work weighed so heavily on my mind, I stopped myself from picking up novels to read how bestselling authors put their sentences together. It wasn’t like I’d planned to cut and paste their words verbatim; I wanted to stay away from inadvertently picking up their language and style. In practice, if a writer isn’t reading both before and during the writing process, his/her body of work will suffer.

A superb developmental editor who also writes screenplays saw my difficulties immediately and showed me the easiest way to draft, complete the book with ease, and control wandering subplots from confusing the main theme. The day I began to outline using 3×5 cards changed everything. I’m a structured person by nature and this process came easily. Keeping track of each scene on a separate card can direct the story straight ahead to completion.

By the time I had the fifth draft done on my first book, the story had taken on a new life and had become a crossover of two genres. The five or six different subplots I’d managed to acquire during the early years were set aside for next novel series installments. (I’m still using them.) I totally recommend outlining a novel first. Start a new journal with each book and keep the 3x5s with general information with it. For extra details, add those to the journal as well as any new ideas that come to mind. Journal pages can include character names, who they are in the book, and their personality traits. Jot down a list of loglines or taglines for the new title, too. Short summaries come in handy later on—one or two lines that intrigue and explain what the book is about. The outline approach directs the plot away from minor character’s antics who should stay along the sidelines until needed.

Read an excerpt of A Hush at Midnight:

Author of A Hush at Midnight — Marlene M. Bell

Marlene M. Bell has never met a sheep she didn’t like. As a personal touch for her readers, they often find these wooly creatures visiting her international romantic mysteries and children’s books as characters or subject matter. Marlene is an accomplished artist and photographer who takes pride in entertaining fans on multiple levels of her creativity.

Marlene’s award-winning Annalisse series boasts Best Mystery honors for all installments including these: IP Best Regional Australia/New Zealand, Global Award Best Mystery, and Chanticleer’s International Mystery and Mayhem shortlist for Copper Waters, the fourth mystery in the series.

She offers her children’s picture book, Mia and Nattie: One Great Team! written primarily for younger kids based on true events from the Bell’s East Texas sheep ranch. The simple text and illustrations are a touching tribute of belonging and unconditional love between a little girl and her lamb.

To learn more about Marlene, click any of the following links: www.MarleneMBell.com, Goodreads – @dorsetghal, BookBub – @dorsetgalwrites, Instagram – @marlenemysteries, Twitter/X – @ewephoric, Facebook, Facebook – @marlenembell, Amazon Author Page

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10/07 Interview @ Literary Gold
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Elena Hartwell | Elena Taylor