WHEN A MYSTERY WRITER CAN’T FACE MURDER, by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer

Bank Robber Aiming at Security Camera, Cleveland, Ohio, March 8, 1975, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition “Crime Stories: Photography and Foul Play,”

Whether you write cozies, thrillers, police procedurals, or suspense, the plot of a mystery most often revolves around murder. Suspicious death is endlessly fascinating to our readers, and therefore to us as well. Grisly and graphic or gentle and off-stage, it’s people killing people that makes a good story. Right?

But what if murder suddenly comes too close to home? A while back I was working on a cozy mystery in which someone was murdered in a small, coastal town. Then it happened— a friend was killed near our beach house in Ocean Park Washington. Suddenly I couldn’t face the words I’d so callously scribbled on the page. Suddenly murder wasn’t fun anymore.

Thankfully I came out of it after some time and went on to write many more stories involving violent crime. But that experience taught me to be gentle. I will never know how my writing affects my readers. They may be suffering in ways I cannot guess. 

When my last mystery was published, I requested a review from a well-known reviewer. She was happy to comply, but she asked first if there were any references to suicide in my book. Her son had killed himself, and this was someplace she didn’t want to go, even in fiction. I was thankful she could be so candid about her trigger.

Recently more and more bloggers are posting “trigger warnings” at the top of their posts so people with various issues know before they read that the content may be disturbing. I love this. I’m reasonably tough when it comes to reading material, but I appreciate knowing if the post will contain anxiety, rape, violence, harming of animals, or such so I can make the choice whether I’m up to it or not.

I write both cozy mysteries and sci-fantasy. Either way, I want my stories to make people happy in spite of their morbid theme. In a cozy mystery, the crime is a puzzle for the reader to solve while enjoying interesting characters, attractive scenery, and a few mild chills along the way. In my cat sci-fantasy, I shake it up a bit, but I still wish to leave the reader with a sense of hope. Other writers write other stories for other readers. For example, Stephen King made his millions pushing the horror envelope. But no matter what you write, be thoughtful. I still see no excuse for killing the pet.

8 WORDS FOR MURDER, by Mollie Hunt

What mystery writer can avoid murder? Most mysteries involve at least one homicide and often more. Many more! But even if it’s only the one, you can bet that despicable act will be mentioned multiple times. How do we keep from repeating ad nauseam the simple word, murder?

Well, that is the question, isn’t it? The answer seems to be, We don’t. Though there are many synonyms for the act of taking someone’s life, using them in a quotable sentence seems to be another matter. When I perused the web for apt passages, I found very few variations on the standard murder-murdering-murdered murderer.

 

1. Killing: “Killing is not so easy as the innocent believe.”  -J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2. Slay: “Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.” -William Faulkner

3. Exterminate: “Exterminate!” the Daleks, Doctor Who

 

 

4. Extinguish: “Kill me? Lex Luthor? Extinguish the greatest criminal flame of our age? Eradicate the only man on Earth with Superman's address?” -Superman II

5. Slaughter: “I was in the war. I know how to kill. I was over there. I know how to do it. I've done it before. It's no big deal. You just make an adjustment. You convince yourself it's all right. That's all. It's easy. You just slaughter them.”  -Sam Shepard, Curse of the Starving Class

 
 

 

 

6. Deathwork : “If your work is deathwork, one weapon is not enough, just as a plumber would not answer an urgent service call with a single wrench.”  -Dean Koontz, Brother Odd

7. Dispatch: “And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.” -The Bible, Ezekiel 23

8. Snuff: “First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.” -Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

 

 

 

 

 

So, fellow writers, let’s purge, butcher, and erase our victims; let’s off them, terminate them, take them out; let’s waste them and put them down. Whether homicide, manslaughter, or assassination, there are plenty of words to describe besides tiresome and overused murder.

 

 

 

Check out more blogs by Mollie Hunt at:

Mollie Hunt: Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries and more

 

Happy reading!

 

 

THE WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF by Mollie Hunt

 

 “Suspension of disbelief or willing suspension of disbelief is a term coined in 1817 by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who suggested that if a writer could infuse a "human interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgement concerning the implausibility of the narrative…” ~Wikipedia

 

Without what is known as the suspension of disbelief, there would be no story. At least there would be no fiction, and I bet a good percentage of essays and memoirs would take a hit as well. Suspension of disbelief is the leap of faith the reader must take to enter into worlds not their own.
 

Without suspension of disbelief, old ladies could not be young again in the arms of the handsome prince, stranger, outlaw, bad boy, bad girl, or alien. Without suspension of disbelief, space ships couldn’t zoom across space “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” Without suspension of disbelief,  a small New England town couldn’t sustain a murder a week for 12 years. Without suspension of disbelief, zombies couldn’t apocalypse, heroes couldn’t save the world, cats couldn’t talk, and pigs couldn’t fly. You get the picture.
 

 

 

How does a writer achieve suspension of disbelief? It’s far more complex than tossing out a quirky plot to see where it lands. A reader must be drawn in gently as if into a trap, inch by inch without ever realizing they are being led. That requires a preliminary foundation, baby steps down the rabbit hole.

 

 

FANTASY FAIRY KITTEN CATS

by Artist Cyra R. Cancel

 

In my sci-fantasy series, Cat Seasons, I need my reader to believe cats can save the world from alien and otherworldly threats. To do that, I first must convince my reader that cats can talk - within the first chapter! I personally have no problem accepting miraculous cat behavior – I wait longingly for Tinkerbelle or Little or Red to say something! Anything! It doesn’t have to be profound or prophetic, just a hi, how are you would be fine - but some readers need more convincing. It turns out my protagonist does, too. As the cats convince her, they convince the reader as well. It’s not just dialogue, though – “Hi, I’m a talking cat” doesn’t cut it. There has to be more. Environment, a dream-like state, an intense sensitivity to scents and sounds,  and a sprinkle of deviant moonlight all help to persuade. I try to create a picture so compelling, the reader wants to believe.

 

In my Crazy Cat mysteries, I parallel  a truer universe, one where people work and volunteer and pay bills and go to the bathroom. But then suddenly the path takes a twist into the unfamiliar, landing the reader in the midst of murder and mayhem, where hopefully, they don't in reality go.

 

 

Mystery Cat by LadyTashigi

 

Suspension of disbelief is in the details, the mix of fact and fantasy. It’s in the description, both what is offered on the page and what is left out. It’s in the presentation of evidence that, unlike law, is not beyond reasonable doubt. It is the miracle of possibility.

 

Do you believe? Do you want to?

 

 

Elf Ranger by cypritree

 

 

Check out more blogs by Mollie Hunt at:

Mollie Hunt: Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries and more

 Happy reading!