A Writer’s Unexpected Path to Cozy Mysteries
Kristine Raymond discusses her transition from romance to cozy mysteries, the inspiration behind her small-town settings, the challenge of balancing suspense with romance, and how her characters take on a life of their own.
Kristine Raymond is a writer of remarkable versatility and creative range. From historical western romance to contemporary fiction, and now to the charming yet intriguing world of cozy mysteries, she has captivated readers with her vivid storytelling and unforgettable characters. In this exclusive interview for Reader’s House Magazine, she shares the unexpected journey that led her to create Finn Bartusiak and the antique writing box, her love for small-town settings, and the challenge of balancing romance with suspense. With wit and warmth, she offers a behind-the-scenes look at her writing process and the characters that seem to develop a life of their own. Dive in to discover the inspiration behind her stories and what’s next for this talented author.
What inspired you to write the Cozy Mystery novel featuring Finn Bartusiak and the antique writing box?
So this is a funny story. After years of writing romance, I had the urge to try my hand with something dark and twisty. A blood-and-guts thriller came to mind, featuring a sadistic serial killer who dispatches his (or her) victims in the most gruesome ways imaginable – I’m talking cleavers and machetes and woodchippers – and I was ready to pen a novel certain to keep the likes of Dean Koontz and Stephen King awake at night. Prepared mentally and emotionally for the grueling endeavor I was about to undertake, I sat down at my computer, opened a new Word document, began typing…
and quirky, eccentric, easily distracted Finn Bartusiak appeared. Try as I might to transform her from an exuberant, quippy shopkeeper into a hyper-focused, dogged, fighting her own demons detective, Finn refused me the option to do so, thus firmly establishing herself as the protagonist of a story I’d had no intention of writing.
To be fair though, once I capitulated to the idea of writing a cozy mystery, it was a lot of fun exploring and testing the boundaries of the new-to-me genre, and the characters and plotlines that developed along the way made the process even more enjoyable.
Looks like, for the time being, my machete-wielding psychopath will have to wait.
How do you develop the small-town settings in your books, and are they inspired by real places?
I’m a sucker for small towns; both the idea of them and the actual residing in them. It fills me with a sense of continuity. I grew up in a smallish town in New England, not quite as close-knit as the settings I depict in my stories, but modest enough that I knew the majority of neighbors on my street, and attended kindergarten through high school with the same group of kids. I wanted to infuse my stories with that feeling of familiarity, to give my readers a sense of home.
For the most part, they are inspired by real places. In Seasons of Love, this is especially true. The setting for each of the stories in that book is based on somewhere I’ve either lived or visited. It’s just one of the ways I incorporate my ‘true’ self into my writings.
The Celebration series features characters facing unexpected love—what draws you to writing about second chances and new beginnings?
As someone who has been married to the same man for close to thirty-two years, I have no real-life experience with either second chances or new beginnings, yet a part of me clamors to tell these stories when my characters ask me to. And by ask, I mean demand. The characters dictate. I transcribe. I’m indisputably at their mercy.
Okay, that’s not entirely true, but that’s what writing feels like for me most of the time. The themes and ideas I transform into stories come from a place deep within my soul that I’m unaware exists until a who-falls-for-whom-within-a-set-time-frame storyline pops into my head and knocks on the door of my brain until I answer. At which point, I’m compelled to jot down the romantic goings-on, regardless of whether I can personally relate to the fictional situations my brain – and heart – conjure.
So, what draws me to writing about second chances and new beginnings? I’m not really sure. All I know is, I’ve learned to trust the process – and the hidden romantic within me.
How do you balance romance and suspense in your Cozy Mystery stories to keep readers engaged?
One of the hard-and-fast rules of the cozy mystery genre is no sex, at least not on the page, and while I understand that sex and romance aren’t necessarily the same thing, and it’s entirely possible to have one represented without the other, in my fictional worlds, the two concepts are more often than not intertwined.
I knew I wanted to create a love interest for Finn, someone who would play an integral part in the plot. The challenge became cultivating a relationship between the two characters in such a way to convey romance and intimacy without showing romance and intimacy. All of my previous books basically entailed the two main characters ‘getting it on’ at some point in the story, and while I wasn’t adverse to Finn and her honey doing the same, I had to constantly remind myself that Finn-agled wasn’t a romance novel, and that passion and desire had to take a back seat to the mystery. It was tricky at times unlearning a style of writing I’d incorporated into my life over the previous six years, but I’m proud of myself for trying something new, and hopefully readers think so too.
Can you share any behind-the-scenes insights into your writing process for crafting engaging characters like Spencer Dane?
I’ll let you in on a deep, dark secret. My characters create themselves.
No, seriously. They do. All I have to do is think about the role I need filled and presto – an image of that person pops into my head. It’s like a casting call for fictional beings. I may make a tweak here and there to better incorporate them into the story but, ultimately, I allow their personality to emerge as I write. After all, my characters are real people, at least to me.
