October is my favorite month of the year. Fall is finally here, the weather has cooled off, but most of all it’s Halloween month! And that means good, clean fun. I don’t do horror—I’m a big chicken. (There, I said it!) I want to be fun-scared, not scared-scared (see my bio below). I even have the viewing tastes of a child. Give me It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown any day. Or Hocus Pocus, or Casper.
My point is that I don’t do scary, and real world stuff fits into that category. That’s why I write paranormal cozy mysteries. You get the fun ghostly stuff, along with a nice, gentle, murder mystery. Because with cozy, anything involving violence happens off the page. And in the books and stories I write, it’s the ghost who shows up first, and the murder investigation happens afterwards.
But it’s not always about murder. In A Stitch and Crime, from the third Insecure Writer’s Support Group short story anthology, the story involves a little ghost girl, the old nun who raised her, and a candy shop mystery. Reluctant Ghost Whisperer Indigo Eady, along with her ghost pal Franny Bishop, a former Victorian madam of some repute, solved the case and reunited the girl and nun who had been lost to each other for years. The story is fun, lighthearted, heartwarming, and most of all, has no violence. And a candy store background is a pretty sweet setting 😉
I have a friend with breast cancer recently say that she started reading cozy mysteries because in this increasingly violent, crazy world we currently live in, she enjoys escaping to the low stress of a cozy mystery.
If you’d like to escape into a cozy world…
From the same series as A Stitch in Crime…
And currently FREE at all outlets…
by Gwen Gardner
Indigo Eady can’t live on ramen noodles forever…She jumps on the first job offered. All she has to do is work undercover at Sabrina Shores Theatre, find a ghost thief, and cross him over. Easy-peasy, right? Until an actor is murdered and Indigo’s fingerprints are all over the pistol like ink on a Rorschach test.
Forced to dust off her rusty sleuthing skills to clear herself, Indigo enlists the help of her ghost friend Franny and her sort of hunky ex-boyfriend Badger to help solve the crime. Now, how to keep her investigation from the handsome inspector?
***
Indigo Eady is a reluctant ghost whisperer, but she’s grown quite attached to Franny Bishop, a former Victorian ghost madam of some repute. Franny’s afterlife makes Indigo’s life look like she has one foot in the grave. Much to Indigo’s chagrin, Franny is determined to find her a man. After all, there are plenty of handsome men around ripe for the picking, and Franny’s an expert. In the meantime, Indigo and Franny have murders to solve.
Gwen Gardner writes clean, cozy, lighthearted mysteries with a strong ghostly element. Since ghosts feature prominently in her books, she has a secret desire to meet one face to face — but will run screaming for the hills if she ever does.
Her lifelong love of books and reading transitioned naturally into a love of writing, where adventure can be found around every corner—or down a dark, twisting alley. She thinks there is nothing better than a good mystery (being an excellent armchair detective herself), unless it’s throwing a ghost or two into the mix to “liven” things up. Don’t worry, though. Ghosts may be tricky to keep in line, but it turns out they’re darn good sleuths.
