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The Cozy Contract—What Readers Expect and Why Authors Can't Break It · Reality Writes

0:05
Ellie Alexander: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Reality Writes.
0:09
Ellie Alexander: I am author Ellie Alexander.
0:11
Ellie Alexander: This is the podcast where we talk about all things bookish, writer-ish.
0:14
Ellie Alexander: We try to give you a deep dive into what it means to publish multiple books and series and be readers and writers and creatives out in the world.
0:24
Ellie Alexander: And I am here with the Tech Guy.
0:28
Tech Guy: Hello, hello.
0:29
Tech Guy: Uh, just doing some creating today.
0:32
Ellie Alexander: Just doing some creating today, as you do.
0:35
Ellie Alexander: I do always like to clarify for any new darlings who might be listening in for the first time, that you are my husband.
0:44
Tech Guy: Yes, yes.
0:45
Tech Guy: Uh, I think it's probably a good idea to refresh everyone's memory or at least state that fact every season of Reality Writes, because darlings, we've gotten some crazy comments before.
0:58
Tech Guy: Um, rightfully so.
1:00
Tech Guy: Like if you're jumping into the middle of this podcast and you don't know, because we're in different rooms, uh, Ellie is actually just to my left um through the wall here.
1:13
Tech Guy: But we have our own spaces, and um it sometimes it gets a little flirty, apparently, because uh what you got one comment.
1:22
Tech Guy: Um this was last year, uh, and I'll let you tell it.
1:26
Tech Guy: But it it is it was gold, it was absolute gold.
1:30
Ellie Alexander: Gold.
1:31
Ellie Alexander: A reader was very worried because they knew that I was married, and they were quite upset that I was flirting with the tech guy.
1:38
Ellie Alexander: Like, that's because he is my husband, but okay.
1:44
Tech Guy: She was so kind and polite, though.
1:46
Tech Guy: She was, it was, it was actually, it was genuinely heartfelt.
1:50
Tech Guy: Like she was truly worried for you.
1:54
Tech Guy: Um, and and that that that made it all the much uh all the all the better.
1:59
Tech Guy: Um, yes, we are married.
2:01
Tech Guy: Uh, we have been married for 28 years now.
2:06
Ellie Alexander: So yeah, yeah.
2:07
Tech Guy: So it's a long time.
2:09
Ellie Alexander: Very good.
2:09
Ellie Alexander: Oh, very good.
2:10
Ellie Alexander: I had to bring it up again because I just did an online book event last week with a group of darlings who have been listening to the podcast, and they also did not know that you were my husband.
2:21
Ellie Alexander: So I was like, oh, okay, probably this is a good time to revisit that topic.
2:27
Tech Guy: That's funny.
2:28
Tech Guy: Yeah.
2:28
Tech Guy: Uh yes, I am uh contractually obligated to do all the creative things that I do for Ellie.
2:36
Ellie Alexander: So and I write murder, which was what we're gonna talk about today.
2:41
Ellie Alexander: So you're really contractually obligated and wait a weave in the topic for today because that's what we're gonna talk about.
2:48
Ellie Alexander: We're gonna talk about the cozy contract today.
2:52
Tech Guy: Oh, you say it like I did that on accident.
2:54
Tech Guy: Of course.
2:54
Tech Guy: That was that was intentional.
2:56
Tech Guy: It was a pun.
2:57
Tech Guy: Yeah.
2:57
Ellie Alexander: Uh-huh.
2:58
Ellie Alexander: I'm impressed.
3:00
Tech Guy: The cozy contract.
3:02
Tech Guy: Let's get into it.
3:03
Tech Guy: What is the cozy contract?
3:07
Ellie Alexander: We've talked about this a little bit in the past in terms of just sort of what the cozy is and everything.
3:12
Ellie Alexander: But I think as an author, and so this is a great episode for any of you darlings who might be new writers or aspiring writers, but I hope also as readers that you will appreciate what goes into making sure that as a writer writing cozy mysteries, that I fulfill my end of the contract.
3:32
Ellie Alexander: And there are some non-negotiables that are unique to this genre.
3:36
Ellie Alexander: And we're just talking about a cozy contract today.
3:40
Ellie Alexander: If you're writing or reading sci-fi or romance, the rules are totally different.
3:46
Tech Guy: The contract has a different lawyer managing that.
3:50
Ellie Alexander: Exactly.
3:50
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
3:51
Ellie Alexander: Or team of lawyers, depending on the other.
3:54
Tech Guy: Yeah, there's always more than one.
3:56
Tech Guy: Yes.
3:56
Ellie Alexander: There's always they come in packs.
3:58
Ellie Alexander: Sorry.
3:59
Ellie Alexander: Okay.
4:00
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
4:01
Ellie Alexander: So because this is a contract, I'm gonna break this down into clauses because we're very legal here, obviously.
4:09
Ellie Alexander: I know my legalese.
4:11
Tech Guy: That that is appropriate.
4:12
Tech Guy: I like it.
4:13
Tech Guy: All right.
4:14
Tech Guy: So what is clause number one of the COSI contract?
4:19
Ellie Alexander: Clause number one is that justice will be served.
4:24
Tech Guy: Yeah, that uh that checks for sure.
4:28
Tech Guy: So whoever commits the crime, they're gonna do the time.
4:34
Ellie Alexander: Whoever commits the crime is gonna do the crime.
4:36
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, so that at the beginning of the book, we're going to have some sort of crime.
4:40
Ellie Alexander: In the cozy, it's a body.
4:42
Ellie Alexander: You do need a body.
4:43
Ellie Alexander: There are some cozy that break that rule, but as a general point, you need a body.
4:50
Ellie Alexander: There's going to be a crime.
4:52
Ellie Alexander: By the end of the book, the culprit will be behind bars, there will be justice, everything will be right in the world again.
5:02
Ellie Alexander: And that is a really critical element and reason that readers, darlings, keep coming back to this genre.
5:10
Ellie Alexander: We don't have a lot of instances in the real world where everything is wrapped up neat and tidy with a bow at the end.
5:18
Ellie Alexander: And that happens in these books.
5:20
Tech Guy: That is something that I have particularly liked about getting to know the cozy mystery genre over the years of being married to you and having you having you write in this genre is just always knowing that whoever commits the crime is is going to see justice in the end.
5:45
Tech Guy: So you're going to feel like justice has been served, and you're going to feel good about what the resolution of whatever the action is that takes place.
5:57
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
5:57
Ellie Alexander: And there's something so rewarding and satisfying as a reader to come along from this starting point where something really horrible happens.
6:05
Ellie Alexander: And then at the end, you're going to have closure, and the guilty party has been taken away by the local police or, you know, whatever it is.
6:13
Ellie Alexander: And as a writer, you can't break that clause in this contract.
6:18
Ellie Alexander: You can't at the end leave all of these things dangling.
6:22
Ellie Alexander: There has to be justice.
6:23
Ellie Alexander: You must close the case.
6:26
Tech Guy: I imagine that is something that is the first thing that readers look for in a cozy mystery is ensuring that justice is going to be served.
6:35
Tech Guy: I can see that being something that would upset readers if the killer gets away with it in the end.
6:41
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, it breaks every moral code in the contract to let the killer be running free through the streets.
6:47
Ellie Alexander: That just cannot happen in a cozy.
6:50
Tech Guy: Okay, so that is clause one.
6:53
Tech Guy: Is this the I'm assuming there are more than one clause in uh in this contract, correct?
7:00
Ellie Alexander: I think this contract could have a lot of clauses.
7:03
Ellie Alexander: We'll try to keep it, you know, semi-shine and sweet for today's episode because my goal in this is to really give you, darlings, a sense of what you expect in a COSI and what our job as writers are when we are writing a COSI.
7:17
Ellie Alexander: So, yes, there there are there are a few, but not too many.
7:21
Tech Guy: Okay.
7:21
Tech Guy: Can I ask one question and just back up for a second?
7:24
Tech Guy: Who wrote the contract?
7:26
Tech Guy: And is this something that, like, if it's broken, people can seek damages for?
7:33
Ellie Alexander: Yes, yes, from you, from the tech guy.
7:36
Ellie Alexander: You will be responsible for that.
7:37
Ellie Alexander: The contract, I think, really started in the golden age of mysteries with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L.
7:43
Ellie Alexander: Sayers, and a lot of like the OG mystery writers when this genre really started taking root.
7:51
Ellie Alexander: And um, there's actually a pack that's out there by Agatha and a few other golden age mystery writers that you can look up that um they swore an oath at a conference, and um, you know, that's really held true for all these years.
8:04
Ellie Alexander: You can play around with these rules, but if you're calling it a cozy, you have to stick to these clauses.
8:11
Tech Guy: Okay, all right, that makes sense.
8:13
Tech Guy: Was it a blood oath?
8:14
Tech Guy: Like, is there a dark side to cozy mysteries?
8:17
Tech Guy: I'm not that I don't know about.
8:19
Tech Guy: I'm kidding.
8:20
Tech Guy: I kid.
8:21
Tech Guy: I kid that no.
8:22
Tech Guy: Right, yeah.
8:23
Tech Guy: Okay, moving on.
8:25
Tech Guy: What is clause two?
8:27
Ellie Alexander: Clause two, and this is a real doozy, and um, I think darlings will understand it right away when I bring it up, and that is that the people I love are safe.
8:38
Tech Guy: Oh, yeah.
8:39
Tech Guy: This one's super important.
8:41
Tech Guy: I've learned over the years, this is really important.
8:45
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
8:45
Ellie Alexander: So the main character, if we're if we use my bake shop mysteries as an example, Jules, who is our pastry chef and um is always on the case solving the crime with the police, right?
8:56
Ellie Alexander: Um, beloved characters do not die.
8:59
Ellie Alexander: Now, they should be put in peril.
9:01
Ellie Alexander: They should be put in danger.
9:03
Ellie Alexander: We need to raise tension and stakes throughout the book, but none of the secondary cast, the characters that you love, are going to meet an untimely faith, fate.
9:14
Ellie Alexander: They are all off limits as far as murder goes.
9:17
Ellie Alexander: You're never gonna see Lance or even Richard Lord, like any of the major cast of characters are safe.
9:25
Tech Guy: Oh, even Richard Lord?
9:27
Ellie Alexander: Even Richard Lorde.
9:29
Tech Guy: Oh right now, there are darlings out there that are like, no.
9:35
unknown: Ah.
9:36
Ellie Alexander: I have thought that um, although then the darlings would kill me, and I would be breaking this clause in the contract, so you could sue me for damages.
9:44
Ellie Alexander: That at the end, when I eventually end the series completely, that it could be that Richard Lord is a serial killer spelled with a C as in serial that you eat, and he's been doing it the whole time.
9:57
Tech Guy: But that would break free rule.
10:00
Ellie Alexander: I can't do it.
10:01
Ellie Alexander: No.
10:01
Ellie Alexander: Um, but the characters that you love are safe.
10:04
Ellie Alexander: So you're reading these as an escape.
10:06
Ellie Alexander: You are going to feel like Jules, you should not go down that dark alley, or please don't go talk to that person alone at night.
10:14
Ellie Alexander: She's gonna do it, and maybe, you know, somebody bumps her or she gets hit in the head or breaks a fingernail, but or ruins her souffle.
10:24
Ellie Alexander: But the characters that you love are off-limits for murder.
10:28
Ellie Alexander: They are all gonna be okay at the end, which again goes back to this idea of that is why darlings are picking up this particular genre.
10:35
Ellie Alexander: You also want to feel safe.
10:39
Tech Guy: And they know those characters, those same characters, are going to be in peril at some point in the book or or may be in peril.
10:46
Tech Guy: Uh, they just know that that peril is not going to result in them being offed in in a particular book.
10:54
Ellie Alexander: Right, exactly.
10:55
Ellie Alexander: Yes.
10:56
Tech Guy: Yeah.
10:56
Tech Guy: So I don't want to get into detail about it because I would I know I would be giving massive spoilers to people, but there is a TV show that I think can be classified as a cozy um TV mystery.
11:10
Ellie Alexander: It's a it's a British TV mystery.
11:14
Tech Guy: And they broke this rule in the biggest and most shocking way imaginable.
11:21
Ellie Alexander: Yes.
11:22
Tech Guy: Several years ago, by killing off the main character, literally killed them in an episode.
11:29
Tech Guy: And I remember, I still remember watching that episode, and you and I were both like, what just happened?
11:37
Ellie Alexander: I know, and then is it gonna be a dream?
11:39
Ellie Alexander: Is this character gonna come back?
11:40
Ellie Alexander: We were we were tongues on the floor, just mortified, could not believe it.
11:46
Tech Guy: Yeah, and then we the next or later in that episode, a new protagonist was introduced, and we were just just stunned uh after that episode ended, and looked it up, and it all had to do with the actor that played the protagonist, the original protagonist was done with the show, didn't like being away from his family, and so on and so forth.
12:12
Tech Guy: And so it it they had to write him off, but it was shocking, and that was definitely that was definitely a violation of clause two.
12:23
Ellie Alexander: Violation of clause two, do not do it, do not do it.
12:27
Ellie Alexander: And to any darlings out there who might be working on your first cozy, if you decide to um get rid of any of your main characters or even your supporting and secondary characters, find a different way to do it.
12:39
Ellie Alexander: Do not kill them.
12:40
Ellie Alexander: No, that's off limits.
12:43
Tech Guy: There are plenty of ways that they you're plenty of reasons that they may leave and just use one that doesn't involve violence.
12:50
Ellie Alexander: Exactly.
12:52
Tech Guy: Yes, all right.
12:54
Tech Guy: Moving on, clause three.
12:57
Ellie Alexander: Okay, this clause is important, and this talking about violence.
13:01
Ellie Alexander: The violence stays off the page.
13:04
Ellie Alexander: And I talk about this all the time that it's like off stage, off-screen.
13:08
Ellie Alexander: This is the opposite of CSI.
13:11
Ellie Alexander: So the whole focus of a cozy is that our sleuth is an amateur.
13:17
Ellie Alexander: Your protagonist is a pastry chef or a brewer or a bookstore owner.
13:22
Ellie Alexander: And the whole focus is piecing together the puzzle of the crime.
13:27
Ellie Alexander: We're not going deep into forensics.
13:30
Ellie Alexander: There's not going to be a crime scene.
13:32
Ellie Alexander: We are going to see the body.
13:33
Ellie Alexander: It's like I said at the beginning, one of the clauses is that you do need a murder because we have to solve something.
13:40
Ellie Alexander: And we are going to start from that point.
13:42
Ellie Alexander: And your sleuth is going to be running around town, asking questions, digging, researching whatever it is, but they are not analyzing a crime scene.
13:51
Ellie Alexander: We're not going to see a lot of gruesome details, gore, or violence.
13:56
Tech Guy: Yeah, you know, the uh the DNA testing machine there in the tort kitchen that they use all the time in the series, right?
14:04
Tech Guy: No.
14:05
Ellie Alexander: Right.
14:06
Tech Guy: Yeah.
14:06
Tech Guy: Yeah.
14:07
Tech Guy: You know, it's uh it's funny that that you mentioned this as clause three, because this is the first thing, the first example that I use every time when somebody asks me about you.
14:20
Tech Guy: Oh, your wife's an author.
14:22
Tech Guy: What does she write?
14:22
Tech Guy: And I explain cozy mysteries.
14:24
Tech Guy: And a lot of the time people are like, Oh, I love cozy mysteries.
14:27
Tech Guy: But there are times where people are like, What's a cozy mystery?
14:30
Tech Guy: And that's the first thing I say is that it's a murder mystery, but the the deed takes place off the page.
14:38
Tech Guy: So there's no, you somebody may get stabbed, but you don't see them get stabbed.
14:44
Tech Guy: They just they're discovered after the fact.
14:47
Tech Guy: You might see a little bit of blood, but there's not going to be gore everywhere on the floor that you know people are slipping in and everything.
14:54
Tech Guy: So um that is the number one way that I describe them.
14:59
Tech Guy: And and people are generally like, oh, and usually they're like, like murder she wrote.
15:03
Tech Guy: And I'm like, yes, like murder she wrote.
15:05
Ellie Alexander: That's right.
15:06
unknown: Yeah.
15:06
Ellie Alexander: And the crimes themselves, I mean, you know, again, you have to like separate some things out because yes, a body has still been found.
15:14
Ellie Alexander: Like somebody has died.
15:15
Ellie Alexander: And your sleuth needs an emotional reaction to that.
15:18
Ellie Alexander: That's one thing that I find new writers struggle with a lot, especially when I'm coaching and teaching mystery writers, because it's like, oh, uh, they found a dead body and now they're off doing this thing.
15:28
Ellie Alexander: I'm like, okay, wait, we need to take a beat for a minute and have your sleuth sit with the reality and also have that be part of the motivation why they might want to insert themselves into this crime.
15:39
Ellie Alexander: But we're also not talking about, you know, the really violent kids don't die.
15:45
Ellie Alexander: There aren't, it's not serial killer.
15:47
Ellie Alexander: There's just the the tension is much lower because it is about the puzzle and why we do the things and what's the psychology behind the reason why somebody might have been driven to make this decision.
16:01
Ellie Alexander: All of those things are front of the page, everything else is off page.
16:07
Tech Guy: Yeah, kids and animals.
16:08
Tech Guy: Uh you touch the animals, I'm coming for you.
16:12
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, that's right.
16:13
Tech Guy: All the adults are fair game, like that's totally fine.
16:16
Tech Guy: Um except for our main characters, except for main characters and the and the sub characters.
16:21
Tech Guy: That's true.
16:21
Tech Guy: That's true.
16:22
Tech Guy: Um, this is interesting too, because you you said something that that uh resonated with me, which is you know that sleuths are amateurs, so are the killers, right?
16:33
Tech Guy: There's no like there's no professional hit people, there's no serial killer, there's you know, it's even with a C.
16:41
Tech Guy: Um, there's just there's the so the crimes themselves are puzzles because they're they're usually committed in haste, or um, you know, the the uh um method is something that they've they've planned out, but they're that they don't do this for a living.
17:00
Tech Guy: So there's you know, there there are things that that that need to be figured out that you I guess wouldn't necessarily think of right away because they've probably just thought of it in the minute and and you know, or in the moment, and and really just kind of it it was emotionally triggered or whatever.
17:19
Tech Guy: So um that's that's interesting though.
17:22
Tech Guy: Yeah.
17:23
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
17:23
Ellie Alexander: And I think again, this is a fine line that you have to walk.
17:28
Ellie Alexander: And it's it's harder than you might think, darlings.
17:30
Ellie Alexander: And it's something that I've spent a lot of time working on with every book and continue to do because you want the stakes high enough that there is, like you mentioned, you know, like Jules is gonna stumble upon somebody with a stab wound, or you know, maybe somebody's been poisoned with a cup of tea to and go back to Agatha Christie.
17:48
Ellie Alexander: So you need that.
17:50
Ellie Alexander: You don't want something that's so tame, but then, you know, you can quickly go really dark.
17:56
Ellie Alexander: And the expectation for readers then is like, wait, I I'm not here for the blood and guts.
18:02
Ellie Alexander: I am here for the setting, the food, the vibes, the feeling of security, knowing that people are safe.
18:10
Ellie Alexander: So that is a real critical point and a clause you cannot break.
18:16
Tech Guy: And blood and guts would break the break the clause for sure.
18:19
Ellie Alexander: So absolutely.
18:21
Ellie Alexander: Yep.
18:22
Tech Guy: All right.
18:23
Tech Guy: What does that bring us to you?
18:24
Tech Guy: Clause four?
18:26
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, I think so.
18:27
Tech Guy: All right.
18:27
Tech Guy: What's clause four of the contract?
18:31
Ellie Alexander: Clause four is that the setting endures, the setting is a character, and I talk about this so much, and I'm sure, darlings, you get tired of hearing me talk about it.
18:41
Ellie Alexander: But the setting gets to stay the same.
18:44
Ellie Alexander: It is always gonna be cozy.
18:46
Ellie Alexander: Every time you come to Juliet's version of Ashland, her sweet little Hamlet, you're gonna walk through the streets, you're gonna see the sun kissing the top of Grizzly Peak, you're gonna pop into tort and get a cardamom latte and a morning bun.
19:00
Ellie Alexander: You might have a run-in with Richard Lorde.
19:03
Ellie Alexander: You're gonna walk through Lithia Park, all of those setting details, like our main characters, they're off limits.
19:11
Ellie Alexander: You can't create this magical world that readers want to come back to again and again, and then in book two, three, or four change it and make it totally different, make it darker, make it gruesome.
19:23
Ellie Alexander: You can add and enhance the setting, but the setting itself is a character and needs to be treated as such.
19:32
Tech Guy: So just like the main characters, the setting is safe.
19:35
Tech Guy: It can it can grow and expand, but it can't be burned to the ground, uh, which almost happened in real life to the real life setting Ashland, Oregon, for the Bake Shop Mysteries series.
19:49
Tech Guy: Um, you know, there was a wildfire several years ago that unfortunately burned many, many buildings and homes in nearby Talent and Phoenix, which are just north of Ashland.
20:02
Tech Guy: And had the wind been blown the other way, the setting for the Bake Shop Mysteries would have burned to the ground.
20:08
Tech Guy: And had that happened, what would you have done for the Bake Shop series?
20:14
Tech Guy: Knowing that clause four exists, what what would you have done?
20:19
Ellie Alexander: Do you know Ashland would have just continued, probably.
20:22
Ellie Alexander: I mean, I I would have created that world and kept it the same because it is a fictional version of Asheland anyway.
20:30
Ellie Alexander: And I think I think COVID is a good example of this.
20:33
Ellie Alexander: Oh, yeah.
20:34
Ellie Alexander: Because, you know, uh, we I COVID happened.
20:38
Ellie Alexander: I wrote this series all through COVID.
20:40
Ellie Alexander: There's never a mention of it in the books.
20:43
Ellie Alexander: We just sort of pretend like that didn't happen, even though these are set in modern times.
20:47
Ellie Alexander: And if you look at the timeline, you know, it would have stretched all through that because this is fiction.
20:52
Ellie Alexander: These are books meant to be an escape, as I keep saying.
20:56
Ellie Alexander: And so you don't want to be in a world where then you're suddenly flooded with memories of a time that was really challenging and a struggle for so many of us.
21:05
Ellie Alexander: So I think the same would be true.
21:07
Ellie Alexander: Over the years, I've had readers say, Oh, you should use the fire in a story.
21:12
Ellie Alexander: Like that's off limits for me too, because it really happened.
21:15
Ellie Alexander: And so if you're writing about a real place, I do think you need to be sensitive about real events that could have happened.
21:22
Ellie Alexander: Um, just because you want this to feel like a world that is sunshine and roses and unicorns, and everyone in town loves each other, and the whole village is gonna come together to solve this crime together and make sure to go back to clause number one that justice is served and all is right with the world at the end of the book.
21:44
Tech Guy: Yeah, and COVID is a great example because there were real life casualties to Ashland as the setting because of the pandemic.
21:53
Tech Guy: There were beloved businesses that are no longer there because it, you know, it.
21:59
Tech Guy: Because life happened.
22:01
Tech Guy: So the setting endures regardless of real life.
22:05
Tech Guy: Uh, and I guess you know, uh, we get comments sometimes from readers of like, oh Ellie, but what about this?
22:12
Tech Guy: What about that?
22:12
Tech Guy: You brought up one about the fire and everything, but but the thing is, like, while Ashland is a real place and the and the bake shop mysteries are set there, these are also fictional books.
22:22
Tech Guy: There's a pastry chef that's solving crimes.
22:25
Tech Guy: And I'll I'm the first one to tell you right now, Ashland is a town of under 25,000 people.
22:30
Tech Guy: There have not been 22 murders there in the last several years, right?
22:35
Tech Guy: So it it's so you know, you can't apply your thinking or a rule to one aspect of it, but not all aspects.
22:44
Tech Guy: So I think I feel like this is a good one because I feel like when people do keep coming back to the series, they want Ashlin to be there and to be the same place that they were introduced to in book one.
22:56
Tech Guy: Um, you know, if not not book seven, for those of you who might be there, what about if I pick it up in the middle?
23:02
Tech Guy: If you go back and listen to a previous episode, we talked about that.
23:05
Tech Guy: You cannot read a series out of order.
23:07
Ellie Alexander: No, no.
23:08
Ellie Alexander: We've just we've established it.
23:10
Ellie Alexander: We're not we're not reopening that case.
23:12
Ellie Alexander: Uh, I would also say that, and this is something that I have learned over the years too.
23:18
Ellie Alexander: There have been a few books where Jules and Crew have gone on location somewhere else, like to Costa Rica, to a coffee farm, or up to Lake of the Woods for a winter getaway.
23:29
Ellie Alexander: And inevitably, I will hear from darlings, I will hear from readers.
23:33
Ellie Alexander: I I enjoyed that book, but I really I need her back in Ashland.
23:36
Ellie Alexander: Is she going back to Ashland for the next book?
23:39
Ellie Alexander: And I think there's really something valuable and important in that.
23:42
Ellie Alexander: Now, of course, for me, I want to make sure that the series changes and grows because it's been going for so long.
23:49
Ellie Alexander: I want to find ways to keep it fresh.
23:50
Ellie Alexander: But the setting is such a character and such a part of the experience of reading a series that it's important that, especially for somebody who might be working on a new book, that you really establish that before then you're sending your sleuth other places.
24:06
Ellie Alexander: Um, and you think about like, oh, how am I going to make sure that the setting is a touch point?
24:11
Ellie Alexander: Like even when I'm sending Jules off, which doesn't happen very often.
24:14
Ellie Alexander: So don't panic, darlings.
24:16
Ellie Alexander: But if she's off on some sort of adventure somewhere else, the book always starts and ends in Ashland because that is our home base, our grounding point, our center point.
24:27
Ellie Alexander: It's important.
24:28
Tech Guy: And then Ashland as the character, it makes an appearance in every book.
24:32
Ellie Alexander: Yes, exactly.
24:33
Ellie Alexander: Right.
24:34
Ellie Alexander: Right.
24:34
Ellie Alexander: Just like you would want Jules or your main sleuth to make sure that they're in every book.
24:38
Tech Guy: Totally.
24:39
Tech Guy: Okay.
24:39
Tech Guy: Uh what is clause five?
24:43
Ellie Alexander: This one is interesting because I think it is pretty unique to the cozy.
24:49
Ellie Alexander: It's a secondary trope that shows up in a lot of cozies, and that is a love arc.
24:55
Ellie Alexander: And I know darlings have strong feelings about whether these should be included, whether they shouldn't be included.
25:02
Ellie Alexander: That's up to you.
25:03
Ellie Alexander: That's completely up to the writer.
25:05
Ellie Alexander: If you are going to include some sort of love arc, triangle, et cetera, whatever it is, it needs to have movement or closure or it needs to grow or change with time.
25:19
Ellie Alexander: You can't just stretch that out forever without any sort of resolution because we don't want that as readers.
25:27
Ellie Alexander: Like that's so frustrating if you're following along for 22 books and nothing has progressed with a love arc.
25:34
Ellie Alexander: You're really breaking that clause.
25:36
Ellie Alexander: And I will say, this wasn't an Agatha's clause back in the day.
25:40
Ellie Alexander: This is a modern take because I think we see a lot more of a love triangle or a little subplot of a romance in the cozy in modern times than we used to back in the day.
25:50
Tech Guy: Yeah, it it is something that makes an appearance quite often.
25:54
Tech Guy: And it's also something that is controversial.
25:57
Tech Guy: I mean, I think we, you know, that is something that even in series like the Bake Shop Mysteries, very early on, Team Thomas, Team Carlos, there was there was there was big drama there.
26:09
Tech Guy: Um and it was funny though, because there were readers that even three books in were like, okay, Ellie, it's time to wrap it up.
26:17
Tech Guy: Jules just needs to pick, she just needs to pick a guy and and go forward.
26:21
Tech Guy: It's like, whoa, you know, that because this is a fictional world that you've made up, this could have been less than a year of time that's passed between those three books, you know, and and wanting it wrapped up that quickly was would would have been interesting, but but I can definitely see that it would be frustrating for a reader if that particular art was just stagnant and sitting there for book after book after book with no movement or resolution.
26:48
Ellie Alexander: Right.
26:48
Ellie Alexander: And you can do different things.
26:50
Ellie Alexander: That doesn't mean that they that your character has to end up with either of the people if you have a love triangle or, you know, if if it's just one person of interest, but there needs to be progress.
27:01
Ellie Alexander: You cannot just leave it out there dangling.
27:03
Ellie Alexander: And I would say this also goes for any kind of subplot.
27:06
Ellie Alexander: We talked about the fact that a lot of my books have secondary subplots like another murder or another crime to solve.
27:13
Ellie Alexander: You can't stretch that out for 20 books either.
27:17
Ellie Alexander: You need to have resolution for any of these arcs.
27:20
Ellie Alexander: And then you can come in and bring in a new idea and have your sleuth be working through a new emotional arc or a friendship or whatever it is.
27:29
Ellie Alexander: But um, yeah, you have to have movement and progress.
27:32
Tech Guy: I was just gonna ask that if you had a protagonist, let's say Jules, and Jules decides, yeah, neither of these guys are for me.
27:39
Tech Guy: Can you bring in two more guys and start all over again?
27:43
Tech Guy: Yeah.
27:44
Ellie Alexander: I mean, tell us, darlings, what do you think?
27:47
Ellie Alexander: I think you might get some feedback, but I think that's better than dragging something out that is clearly not working and you're gonna spend 12 books developing.
27:56
Ellie Alexander: But I think I think the idea again, if we sink into the idea that these are really modern day fairy tales, because everything's gonna be right in the world, we're in this beautiful setting, you have this community and village.
28:09
Ellie Alexander: That goes back to that idea that in the clause, the expectation is that there's some resolution for finding love or finding yourself or whatever that journey is that your sleuth is on.
28:21
Ellie Alexander: That's important because we're looking for that ourselves when we're reading.
28:25
Ellie Alexander: We're seeing ourselves in Jewel's worldview, or we're trying to seek those stories, maybe in a moment that's really hard and difficult.
28:35
Ellie Alexander: I think readers tend to come to cozy's during darker times in their lives and they're looking for something that's light.
28:42
Ellie Alexander: So they want closure and resolution on every level.
28:45
Tech Guy: Totally.
28:46
Tech Guy: They want a protagonist to bring a killer to justice and then walk down the street and start baking a batch of delicious pastries.
28:53
Ellie Alexander: Damn straight they do.
28:54
Ellie Alexander: And who doesn't?
28:55
Ellie Alexander: Like, I want that.
28:56
Ellie Alexander: Well, I don't want the first part, maybe, but yeah.
29:00
Tech Guy: Well, you want you want the justice to be served, though.
29:02
Tech Guy: That was clause one.
29:04
Ellie Alexander: So yeah, I do.
29:06
Tech Guy: All right.
29:06
Tech Guy: There are likely more clauses to the contract, but for the sake of brevity here, let's we're gonna wrap it at five.
29:13
Tech Guy: Can you recap the five clauses that we covered for the the darlings out there?
29:19
Ellie Alexander: Can I give you one more bonus one?
29:21
Tech Guy: Oh, you've got a bonus clause?
29:23
Tech Guy: Perfect.
29:24
Tech Guy: Yeah, let's do it.
29:25
Ellie Alexander: Okay, because I think this one is this is important, and this is especially important for any darlings who are writing.
29:32
Ellie Alexander: And this speaks to the idea of the formula.
29:36
Ellie Alexander: You have to follow the formula.
29:40
Ellie Alexander: The formula is the blueprint, it's the outline, it is what we all as readers of The Cozy expect.
29:47
Ellie Alexander: We need a body, we need suspects, we need progression, we need to have red herrings, and then we need closure at the end.
29:54
Ellie Alexander: What makes every series, every book, every story unique is your own spin that you put inside that formula.
30:03
Ellie Alexander: That's where all of the creativity falls in.
30:06
Ellie Alexander: But if you're breaking the formula, if you have 22 suspects, and so I would the we're struggling to just keep track of who everyone is, if the you know, anything that you do that breaks that formula is a massive, massive no in terms of this clause.
30:26
Tech Guy: I'm gonna tell all the writers out there, aspiring, professional, whatever, if you've got 22 suspects, you've broken every clause in every contract of all time, like forever throughout history.
30:40
Tech Guy: Like please, please don't have 22 suspects.
30:44
Ellie Alexander: No, and I think at some point we should do an entire podcast on formula because it is so important.
30:50
Ellie Alexander: And it's it is more unique, I would say, to the mystery genre.
30:54
Ellie Alexander: Every genre has its own style and formula, but there are certain things that are unique to the mystery and to the cozy that are critical and important.
31:03
Ellie Alexander: And sometimes there's this negative slant, then, because it's like, oh, you're following a formula when you write.
31:11
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, the formula is what drives plot.
31:13
Ellie Alexander: These are plot-driven books.
31:15
Ellie Alexander: And then that doesn't take away the fact that you get to pour all of your creative energy into the setting and the characters and how the crime is going to occur and how you're gonna piece those puzzles together.
31:28
Ellie Alexander: That's the fun and the creative part of it, but you have to follow a structure.
31:32
Ellie Alexander: If you're not following the structure, you're not writing a cozy.
31:35
Tech Guy: Yeah.
31:35
Tech Guy: Well, in a cozy genre is not the only one that follows a formula.
31:39
Tech Guy: So anybody, anybody who scoffs at these books having a formula to them isn't really paying close enough attention to the books they're reading.
31:48
Tech Guy: Because I'll tell you right now, one of my favorite series is Murderbot, uh, you know, Martha Wells series, those books are all formulaic.
31:56
Tech Guy: Like I know exactly what's gonna happen, and yet I wholeheartedly dive into every new book the first day it's released because I'm craving that formula.
32:07
Tech Guy: I know what's gonna happen, and yet I'm still surprised every time because of what she puts inside those guidelines.
32:16
Tech Guy: It's amazing.
32:17
Ellie Alexander: Absolutely.
32:18
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
32:19
Ellie Alexander: So embrace the formula.
32:22
Tech Guy: Embrace the formula.
32:23
Tech Guy: I like it.
32:24
Tech Guy: That that is a good one.
32:25
Tech Guy: Um, and if you break the formula, you're breaking this is special clause number six of the contract, right?
32:32
Tech Guy: Yeah, all right.
32:34
Ellie Alexander: It could be the most important in some ways, too.
32:37
Tech Guy: Oh, well, same as a lot of things.
32:38
Tech Guy: Sometimes they are, yeah.
32:40
Ellie Alexander: Don't break that one.
32:42
Tech Guy: Do you have any other surprise clauses for me?
32:45
Ellie Alexander: No, I think that's it for now.
32:46
Ellie Alexander: I mean, we we could continue because we got some more rules, but these are the big picture.
32:51
Ellie Alexander: I think that gives hopefully, darlings, you a vision of what my responsibility is as a writer and what you're going into a cozy expecting and hopefully receiving by the end.
33:03
Tech Guy: That's really good.
33:04
Tech Guy: And so for the darlings out there, uh, we want to know what what is it that you expect when you pick up a cozy mystery?
33:12
Tech Guy: Are do these six clauses cover everything that you're looking for in a cozy?
33:16
Tech Guy: Or are there things that we haven't covered yet that that you expect from a writer every time you open the pages of a cozy mystery?
33:22
Ellie Alexander: That's right.
33:22
Ellie Alexander: Tell us, share here.
33:24
Ellie Alexander: We want to hear your thoughts.
33:26
Tech Guy: Definitely.
33:27
Tech Guy: All right.
33:27
Tech Guy: Well, until next time.
33:30
Ellie Alexander: Until next time, break out those clauses.