Truly, the reason I write what I write is the same reason most writers do what they do: Nobody else is writing the book I want to read. So I'll fill the gap myself.
I'll tell you what I DON'T want to read:
* Anything that will make me sad;
* Anything that will turn my stomach with unnecessarily detailed violence;
* Anything so cozy that if you're not wrapped in a shawl and drinking tea you might as well not bother;
*Anything that assumes a person who works at the flower shop, the craft store, the bakery or the local cheese shop is better at solving crimes than detectives;
* Anything that centers on a sleuth so cynical and damaged he (inevitably) should be under psychiatric care;
* Anything "shattering," "gut-wrenching," "devastating" or "deeply disturbing." I'm not looking for that.
This is not to say that YOU shouldn't want to read any of those books. If that fulfills your needs, you should run toward it. It's just not going to make it for me. Life is short, and I don't have that kind of time.
So I write books that I think have interesting characters but add a decent amount of laughs. I write plots that might not hold water all the time, but should keep you turning pages. I think about how to show new sides of my characters perhaps more than what the most innovative way to dispatch some non-entity to get the plot going might be.
I like to laugh. I like to follow interesting, nuanced characters. I hope to write a mystery that's as good as TED LASSO. I'd also like to read such a book (doesn't have to be a mystery).
If you know of something I'd probably enjoy reading, please don't hold back. I'd genuinely like to know.
