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Inside A Murder at Midnight—A Spoiler-Free Sneak Peek · Reality Writes

0:05
Ellie Alexander: Haunted?
0:06
Ellie Alexander: You think the bookstore is haunted?
0:08
Ellie Alexander: I cupped my hand over the phone and raised my eyebrows at Fletcher Hughes, my business partner in all things bookish and crime.
0:15
Ellie Alexander: Until approximately two seconds ago, his head had been buried behind stacks and stacks of reference books.
0:22
Ellie Alexander: He was deep into the fall semester at Redwood College, where he was focusing his studies on Sherlocan lore.
0:29
Ellie Alexander: An appropriate subject given that he was already an expert in the life and writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
0:37
Ellie Alexander: His broad brow furrowed as he closed the book he had been studying and sat up taller, suddenly locked into my conversation.
0:46
Ellie Alexander: Fletcher was a few years older than me, in his mid-thirties, with sharp angular features and astute eyes that didn't miss much.
0:53
Ellie Alexander: He belonged in a different time with his fitted khaki slacks, buttoned-up houndstooth shirt and black vest.
1:00
Ellie Alexander: Like me, he had found his spiritual home at the secret bookcase, the Agatha Christie inspired store we ran together.
1:08
Ellie Alexander: And he was in his element where whether he was deep in golden age mysteries or poring over the fine details of our real life investigative work at The Novel Detectives, our newest venture.
1:23
Tech Guy: All right.
1:24
Tech Guy: Oh yeah, I should have been ready with the uh it's a throwback.
1:34
Ellie Alexander: And just like that, welcome to Reality Rights.
1:37
Ellie Alexander: I'm author Ellie Alexander and I'm here with the Tech Guy.
1:40
Tech Guy: Hello, hello, and it's uh new book time.
1:42
Tech Guy: It's a new book.
1:43
Tech Guy: We have another new book releasing from Ellie Alexander.
1:50
Tech Guy: This is book four in the novel detective series.
1:55
Tech Guy: And that's really wild to say because I know that you're already several books ahead in writing the novel detectives.
2:05
Tech Guy: Uh, but this is the fourth book that's releasing on October 13th, and it is available for pre-order now in Buy Books.
2:13
Ellie Alexander: And yes, this is the fourth book in the novel detectives series, but there are six previous books in the secret bookcase series, which the novel detectives spun off out of.
2:24
Ellie Alexander: So, spun off out of?
2:26
Ellie Alexander: I'm not sure if that's a thing, but we'll call it a thing.
2:28
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, sure.
2:29
Tech Guy: It's our podcast, we can make it up.
2:31
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, that's right.
2:32
Ellie Alexander: We can say whatever we want to say.
2:33
Ellie Alexander: So technically, this is book 10, which is just bananas to me.
2:37
Ellie Alexander: I don't know how that happened.
2:38
Tech Guy: Yeah, well, in a very short period of time.
2:41
Tech Guy: When when did the first when did the first book in the secret bookcase mysteries come out?
2:48
Tech Guy: Do you remember?
2:49
Ellie Alexander: Oh, I don't remember.
2:51
Tech Guy: Yeah, it was but it was like it was like two years ago, right?
2:54
Ellie Alexander: 2023, I think.
2:56
Tech Guy: Okay, three years ago.
2:57
Tech Guy: Uh still yeah.
2:59
Ellie Alexander: Ten books in three years is not so shabby.
3:01
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
3:01
Tech Guy: Yeah.
3:02
Tech Guy: Yeah.
3:02
Tech Guy: Yeah.
3:02
Tech Guy: You're doing better than Castle.
3:04
Tech Guy: Uh longtime fans of that TV series will know what I'm talking about.
3:08
Tech Guy: So that's right.
3:09
Tech Guy: Um I, in addition to a new book release, which we're gonna talk about, A Murder at Midnight, the fourth book in the novel detective series in this episode.
3:21
Tech Guy: And just so everyone is okay, like there are no spoilers.
3:26
Tech Guy: No spoilers are gonna be happening.
3:27
Tech Guy: You got a little preview of uh the the intro of the book, but uh that's it.
3:32
Tech Guy: You're not you're not gonna get any spoilers.
3:34
Tech Guy: So we're gonna talk about the book and the series and uh get into some um spooky things because this one is this one is spooky.
3:44
Tech Guy: Uh but I have actually a piece of news for you, Ellie.
3:48
Tech Guy: Oh uh do tell this is our 75th episode of Reality Rights.
3:55
Ellie Alexander: Shut up.
3:56
Tech Guy: No, that's not possible.
3:57
Tech Guy: 75.
3:58
Tech Guy: Yeah.
3:59
Tech Guy: I was I was like when I was getting ready to uh set up everything to record the episode, I was looking back through the folder uh and I just happened to look down in the status bar of the Finder window, and 75 episodes across three seasons so far.
4:20
Tech Guy: So yay us.
4:22
Tech Guy: I'm gonna I'm gonna give us a little applause.
4:24
Tech Guy: Um we deserve that.
4:27
Ellie Alexander: It's fair.
4:28
Ellie Alexander: We're putting out as many Reality Rights episodes as I'm writing books.
4:33
Ellie Alexander: So we're just in the creative flow.
4:36
Tech Guy: Totally.
4:36
Tech Guy: Yeah.
4:37
Tech Guy: Um, but that being said, 75 episodes, we've talked a lot about the the writing world, the reading world, um, everything in between.
4:45
Tech Guy: And so for everyone out there listening, let us know what you think.
4:50
Tech Guy: Have you enjoyed it?
4:51
Tech Guy: What else do you want to hear about in any of those areas?
4:55
Tech Guy: Uh, we would love to hear from the darlings out there.
4:59
Ellie Alexander: The darlings are gonna be like, we've heard it all.
5:01
Ellie Alexander: It's good, we're done.
5:03
Ellie Alexander: Thanks.
5:03
Ellie Alexander: Thanks, guys.
5:04
Ellie Alexander: We don't need any more.
5:08
Tech Guy: 75.
5:08
Tech Guy: Well, now it's only 25 to 100.
5:10
Tech Guy: So we'll have to do something special for the 100th episode, which it will happen sometime in season four next year.
5:18
Ellie Alexander: So okay, yeah.
5:19
Ellie Alexander: So we got to start thinking now.
5:20
Ellie Alexander: I like it.
5:21
Ellie Alexander: Okay.
5:21
Tech Guy: Yeah, yeah.
5:22
Tech Guy: All right.
5:23
Tech Guy: So, where do you want to start talking about a murder at midnight?
5:30
Ellie Alexander: A murder at midnight.
5:32
Ellie Alexander: Well, I would love to give the darlings a little primer again, always spoiler-free because these are mysteries and they are part of a series.
5:39
Ellie Alexander: And whenever you're writing a series, there are subplots and other pieces of development that may build and expand, even though you can read all of these books as a standalone.
5:50
Ellie Alexander: But I will not be giving away who who the killer is or any major series spoilers on this episode.
5:57
Ellie Alexander: But for starters, A Murder at Midnight is set in the fall pre-Halloween season.
6:04
Ellie Alexander: So the bookstore, the secret bookcase where this entire series is set, is as you heard in the intro, the little snippet I read is an Agatha Christie themed bookstore in the fictional town of Redwood Grove, California.
6:21
Ellie Alexander: And Annie and Fletcher get a phone call from Ghost Hunters, a very popular ghost hunting TV show who wants to come to the secret bookcase, take over for a weekend because they are convinced that it's haunted.
6:39
Tech Guy: Whoa, so this is a ghost story.
6:41
Tech Guy: Does that make this a paranormal cozy mystery?
6:44
Ellie Alexander: No, not so much.
6:46
Ellie Alexander: I would say this is a spooky, like I like to think of it as like a grown-up Scooby-Doo, right?
6:53
Ellie Alexander: Darlings, you already know this, and of course, Tekka, you know this about me.
6:56
Ellie Alexander: Scooby-Doo was always my favorite growing up because it's fun, it's kind of spooky, but it's really not scary.
7:03
Ellie Alexander: Like, there's always some pretty benign explanation as to whatever's going on behind the scenes that the gang is investigating.
7:10
Ellie Alexander: And so those are sort of the vibes.
7:12
Ellie Alexander: Now, paranormal cozies are a thing.
7:16
Ellie Alexander: There's a whole entire sub-genre where there are paranormal elements, you might have witchy things, you might have supernatural, you might have something that's maybe not even cozy, like a lot darker.
7:26
Ellie Alexander: That's not the case.
7:27
Ellie Alexander: Annie is fully grounded in, of course, the secret bookcase is not haunted, uh, but she gets convinced to have the ghost hunters team come to the store because they think it's going to be good press.
7:40
Ellie Alexander: And, you know, independent bookstores, they need all the eyes they can get on their books, so that she gets convinced that this is the right thing to do.
7:48
Ellie Alexander: Is it the right thing to do?
7:50
Ellie Alexander: I don't know.
7:51
Tech Guy: That makes sense.
7:52
Tech Guy: I mean, you get shows like that coming in, and suddenly, you know, your store could pop off, right?
8:00
Tech Guy: Um, they'd be like having uh Josh Gates uh come and and investigate, right?
8:07
Ellie Alexander: Exactly.
8:07
Ellie Alexander: That's kind of one of the inspirations for this particular book in this series.
8:11
Ellie Alexander: We used to watch his show and they were so campy and fun.
8:16
Ellie Alexander: Uh, and again, not so scary, but I I love the idea of somebody coming and like having the whole TV crew.
8:24
Ellie Alexander: And of course, from a writing perspective, it gives me ample suspects.
8:28
Ellie Alexander: There are plenty of um potential flare-ups and drama between the cast.
8:35
Ellie Alexander: And um yeah, and then I just love the idea that during October and the spooky Halloween season, you would have ghost hunters who want to camp out and stay up all night in the bookstore.
8:46
Ellie Alexander: And of course, Annie and Fletcher have to be there with them because they have to protect the books in this process.
8:52
Tech Guy: Yeah, the only thing I'd say is hopefully Annie and Fletcher are better at coming to a resolution of a mystery than Josh Gates because they never solved anything on that show.
9:04
Ellie Alexander: No, I'm so curious.
9:06
Ellie Alexander: Now, darlings, do you remember?
9:07
Ellie Alexander: So one he had like three different shows, but this was Expedition Unknown.
9:12
Ellie Alexander: Was that the first one?
9:13
Tech Guy: No, I think that's his most recent one.
9:15
Ellie Alexander: Is that his most recent one?
9:16
Tech Guy: Okay, but anyway, yeah, the it they're all the same, right?
9:19
Tech Guy: They're all very similar in style.
9:22
Tech Guy: So yeah.
9:23
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, it's like reality TV meets ghost hunters meets history, all the things.
9:29
Ellie Alexander: And in fact, there's a historian um who is one of the suspects in this particular book, in A Murder at Midnight, who comes along with the team.
9:37
Ellie Alexander: She's part of the crew because she wants to do all of the historical research to add this layer to the to the show, the ghost hunting show, um, that builds in like real lore from around the community.
9:51
Ellie Alexander: And and that used to always be one of the things that I enjoyed.
9:54
Ellie Alexander: And Josh Gates would do things like, you know, a deep dive into what happened to Amelia Earhart or lore and legend, but then you never got any real answer.
10:05
Ellie Alexander: So you're like, oh.
10:07
Tech Guy: That's funny.
10:08
Tech Guy: So this one is set in fall as pre-Halloween, uh, but um the uh they do like so the ghost hunters are coming in, they're gonna do a sleepover at the at the bookstore.
10:19
Ellie Alexander: They're gonna do a sleepover.
10:21
Tech Guy: Knowing the the real life house mansion that uh the secret bookcase is modeled after, that would be super creepy.
10:30
Tech Guy: Even if it wasn't haunted, it would be super creepy.
10:33
Ellie Alexander: It would be super creepy.
10:34
Ellie Alexander: So the secret bookcase is modeled after Phyloli, and we've talked about this on previous episodes on one of our 75 episodes before this.
10:42
Ellie Alexander: Phylloli Gardens is a real place in Northern California, and the house itself is what I imagine the secret bookcase to be like.
10:49
Ellie Alexander: It's this old Edwardian mansion.
10:51
Ellie Alexander: It's out in the middle of nowhere, gorgeous grounds, surrounded by redwood and eucalyptus groves, but you're pretty remote.
10:59
Ellie Alexander: And the house itself is massive.
11:01
Ellie Alexander: It has, you know, a billard's room and a smoking room and a full dining room and sitting room and all of those beautiful, stunning places from something that was built in the early 1900s.
11:14
Ellie Alexander: But it is also haunted.
11:17
Ellie Alexander: And we know this because we got a personal tour behind the scenes.
11:21
Tech Guy: Yeah, definitely.
11:23
Tech Guy: Uh, including the attic, which I will never go back to ever, ever.
11:27
Tech Guy: Ever.
11:28
Tech Guy: That was creepy, and all the lights were on.
11:31
Tech Guy: It was still creepy.
11:33
Tech Guy: Oh, yeah.
11:34
Ellie Alexander: So creepy.
11:35
Ellie Alexander: And uh that that was a couple years ago at Halloween.
11:39
Ellie Alexander: So, what always happens when I'm working on series is that I will just sort of take copious notes in the moment when I'm experiencing something, knowing that I'm probably not gonna write about it at that particular moment, but I'm gonna save it for something in the future.
11:54
Ellie Alexander: So after we had our private tour of the house and the attic and everything, I came home and I took lots of notes about, ooh, okay, what would this play in or how would this play into the secret bookcase?
12:07
Ellie Alexander: And um I didn't really think about it until like a year or two later.
12:11
Ellie Alexander: And then as I was mapping out the idea for this particular book, I was like, oh yes, that's right.
12:16
Ellie Alexander: The attic is haunted, so ghost hunters could come to town, and then it all sort of spirals from there.
12:22
Tech Guy: Totally.
12:22
Tech Guy: Yeah, well, so talk a little bit about Annie and Fletcher because they are a bit different from your other cozy mystery series in that they work in a bookshop, but they're also private detectives.
12:38
Tech Guy: So they're real investigators, unlike, say, Jules, who is a pastry chef in the Bake Shop Mystery series and has no private investigator license.
12:51
Ellie Alexander: And really has no purpose being on a crime scene whatsoever, as we've established.
12:55
Ellie Alexander: They're no police officer is going to invite a pastry chef to come study the crime scene with them.
13:01
Ellie Alexander: So, yeah, it's nice.
13:02
Ellie Alexander: With this series, I get to do a little more in terms of the crime, the cases, the grittiness, the weight of what Annie and Fletcher are investigating because they own a professional private detective agency that they run out of the bookstore.
13:18
Ellie Alexander: And Annie has her California state license to be a private investigator.
13:25
Ellie Alexander: So I have done so much research that will never make its way officially into a lot of the book because it's unnecessary into what private investigators can and cannot do, particularly in the state of California, because those laws obviously change based on whatever state you're residing in.
13:44
Ellie Alexander: But I'm always surprised.
13:46
Ellie Alexander: It's a lot, it's a lot more than you think.
13:48
Ellie Alexander: And private investigators do consult with the police and they get access to five.
13:53
Ellie Alexander: I mean, not in every instance, but of course, there are many situations in which um there are true partnerships with the police.
14:00
Ellie Alexander: So I enjoy getting to explore that and getting to really have a viable reason to have Annie be involved in the crime itself.
14:11
Ellie Alexander: Now, of course, these are still cozy mysteries.
14:14
Ellie Alexander: So in the real world, probably the police are gonna do the heavy lifting and the private investigators are gonna come in as support and you know, maybe they're gonna research financials or they're gonna have other conversations with suspects, that sort of thing.
14:27
Ellie Alexander: But um, in this case, Annie always has to be the one to solve it because she's brilliant.
14:34
Tech Guy: Yeah, yeah.
14:35
Tech Guy: Well, hey, darlings, uh, when we were talking about this earlier, this particular episode and this private investigator thing came up, I told Ellie, hey, you know what would be a great idea is if we got our private investigator licenses and started our own private investigation service and actually solved a crime.
14:54
Tech Guy: Like, how cool would that be if a mystery author was a private investigator and solved a crime?
15:00
Tech Guy: That would be amazing.
15:02
Ellie Alexander: So we're not announcing that next year we're going to hit a hundred episodes.
15:08
Ellie Alexander: We're announcing that we are opening Ellie Alexander in the tech guy, investigate.
15:14
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
15:15
Tech Guy: There you go, darling.
15:16
Tech Guy: Yeah, send it, send us your agency name uh ideas, and we will we will pick a winner.
15:24
Tech Guy: And yeah.
15:26
Ellie Alexander: And then um in you know, the comments, please give us your most pressing puzzles that you need us to solve.
15:33
Ellie Alexander: The first case will be free, of course, because we need to build our repertoire and experience.
15:39
Ellie Alexander: So yeah.
15:41
Tech Guy: I I am really good at finding and rescuing animals.
15:45
Tech Guy: So there is that.
15:47
Tech Guy: Yeah, I've got a long, I've got a long history in that.
15:50
Ellie Alexander: So collectively, yes, you would be good at that.
15:52
Ellie Alexander: You're great at maps and directions.
15:54
Tech Guy: You are not.
15:55
Ellie Alexander: I'm not at all.
15:56
Ellie Alexander: So there's that.
15:58
Ellie Alexander: I would um for stakeouts, I'd be great at bringing snacks.
16:02
Ellie Alexander: Snacks.
16:03
Ellie Alexander: I could put a mean playlist together.
16:06
Ellie Alexander: I would have fabulous outfits.
16:11
Tech Guy: Okay.
16:12
Ellie Alexander: Um, I would get caught instantly because I I am not stealth in any way, shape, or form.
16:18
Ellie Alexander: I would be immediately called out on any kind of stakeout.
16:22
Tech Guy: You'd have to stay in the car for sure.
16:24
Ellie Alexander: But I would still be found out in the car, I feel like.
16:27
Tech Guy: No, because I would, I would bring, I would bring the tech side of things and we would we would have the best gadgets.
16:33
Tech Guy: This would be a miserable failure as an actual business because we would spend so much money up front buying the top-of-the-line like secret agent gear, and then we would get called out to you know make $50 to find somebody's lost cat.
16:49
Tech Guy: And that's right.
16:50
Tech Guy: And my all my drones and and uh you know, secret microphones and video cameras would be totally useless for something like that.
17:01
Ellie Alexander: Well, it's funny that you say that that, and you don't know this, but there is kind of this thread that's been building as the novel detectives have grown that Fletcher is constantly buying all of this, you know, very high-end spy gear that Annie's like, we don't need this, but this might be a tiny bit of a spoiler for a future book.
17:21
Ellie Alexander: At some point in time, all of Fletcher's tech does come in handy.
17:25
Tech Guy: So that's what I this this guy sounds very familiar to me, honestly.
17:31
Tech Guy: And I tell you all the time, like, this stuff is gonna come in handy.
17:35
Tech Guy: So okay.
17:36
Ellie Alexander: Well, you already hear first, darlings.
17:38
Ellie Alexander: Obviously, we don't have enough to do.
17:40
Ellie Alexander: So, what we should really do is start our own private detective agency.
17:44
Ellie Alexander: I'm in, count me in.
17:45
Tech Guy: Totally.
17:46
Ellie Alexander: All right, solid yes, okay.
17:48
Tech Guy: Back to the book.
17:49
Tech Guy: Back to the book.
17:50
Tech Guy: Everybody's like, whoa, this episode really went off the rails.
17:53
Tech Guy: Um, can't wait for a hundred.
17:55
Tech Guy: Um yeah, so this is before Halloween, but is is the store decked out for Halloween?
18:05
Ellie Alexander: Of course.
18:06
Ellie Alexander: Okay, yes.
18:07
Ellie Alexander: Oh, yeah, it's got all the Halloween vibes.
18:09
Tech Guy: And where did you get that inspiration from?
18:12
Ellie Alexander: I don't know.
18:13
Ellie Alexander: Yeah, I have no idea.
18:16
Tech Guy: No, tell everybody about going to Phyloli for Halloween.
18:19
Ellie Alexander: That is so Phyloli, in addition to getting to do this private tour a couple years ago, Phyloli every year for Halloween has nightfall, and the grounds are completely decked out for the season.
18:31
Ellie Alexander: So we're talking fog machines and thousands of carved and lit pumpkins all throughout the fields and arches and witches brew and sound effects, and it's just this fully immersive experience.
18:45
Ellie Alexander: And then the house is all backlit, and in the inside of the house, there are these elaborate, like bloody cake displays and ghosts floating around the ballroom and all of the things.
19:01
Ellie Alexander: So if you've ever been to Phyloli and then you read A Murder at Midnight, you'll be like, wow, Ellie really does not stretch her imagination much at all because exactly what I saw there is what ends up on the pages of the book, pretty much.
19:17
Ellie Alexander: Um, but it's great inspiration.
19:19
Ellie Alexander: It's so fun to be able to experience something like that and then come home and make it my own somehow.
19:28
Tech Guy: Yeah, it is.
19:29
Tech Guy: It is such an amazing experience.
19:32
Tech Guy: And um, in addition to everything you described, there are also a couple of actors dressed up.
19:40
Tech Guy: Well, at least I think they're actors.
19:41
Tech Guy: Maybe they were ghosts.
19:42
Tech Guy: I don't know.
19:43
Tech Guy: I think they they might have been ghosts, but their costumes are pretty, pretty incredible and creepy.
19:51
Tech Guy: In creepy.
19:51
Tech Guy: In creepy.
19:53
Tech Guy: Yeah, yeah.
19:56
Ellie Alexander: There was like a ghost seated at this elaborate um ballroom feast.
20:02
Ellie Alexander: The table was all decked out with gothic candles and like swaths of cobwebs and black drapery and all the things, and then there was a woman seated at the end that I thought was a mannequin and part of the decor.
20:17
Ellie Alexander: And then as we walked by, she moved.
20:19
Ellie Alexander: And of course, and it's not it's not like a haunted house experience to go to nightfall, but I turned it into one, which again proves my point that I should not be on a stakeout.
20:29
Tech Guy: Yeah, there are no jump scares there, but it is it is almost creepier to be looking at someone and then just have them slowly turn their head and look at you, you know.
20:41
Tech Guy: That's yeah.
20:42
Tech Guy: So those are those are the kind of vibes that that you're gonna get from a murder at midnight, not the uh not the jump scares.
20:49
Ellie Alexander: Not the jump scares so much.
20:50
Ellie Alexander: I mean, I think the moral of the story when you peel back my layers of writing is that everything I do in the real world finds its way onto the page.
21:01
Ellie Alexander: The other sort of thread that runs through this particular book is that um Annie and Fletcher, over the course of the last few books, have expanded the staff at the bookstore because you have to.
21:12
Ellie Alexander: Not only are they running a massive mystery bookshop, but now they have a detective agency too.
21:18
Ellie Alexander: So they need some support staff.
21:20
Ellie Alexander: And a couple of those staff members are younger high school and college kids because that's what really happens in the book world, right?
21:26
Ellie Alexander: You've got this rotation of younger staff that come in along with some more mature staff, shall we say.
21:32
Ellie Alexander: And um, they are playing a game called Fugitive in Oceanside Park, which is the park that backs up to the secret bookcase and is sort of the central part of the village square in this series.
21:45
Ellie Alexander: And uh that inspiration came because when Sky Guy, our son, was in high school, the kids would play this game Fugitive.
21:53
Ellie Alexander: And it was um incredible how involved it was.
21:57
Ellie Alexander: And they were running all over town.
21:59
Ellie Alexander: Up until midnight, 2 a.m.
22:02
Ellie Alexander: Like, love it.
22:04
Tech Guy: Yeah, you can get away with that in a small town like Ashland.
22:07
Tech Guy: Um, the the the teens running around town and and playing this game in the middle of the night didn't really freak anybody out.
22:15
Tech Guy: So benefits of a small town.
22:18
Ellie Alexander: Benefits of a small town.
22:19
Ellie Alexander: Good reason to set your cozy in a fictional small town because again, everybody's like, oh, they're playing fugitive, like they do.
22:25
Ellie Alexander: It's fine that they're you know chasing each other at the park at 2 a.m.
22:28
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
22:29
Tech Guy: Right, right.
22:30
Tech Guy: Totally, totally.
22:31
Tech Guy: Well, are there any other subplots going on in this book?
22:38
Ellie Alexander: This book has and the entire series this far thus far, especially the novel detectives, because the secret book case started with Annie's best friend from college, Scarlet, being murdered and Annie trying to solve that murder for a decade.
22:53
Ellie Alexander: Once that resolved with book six and we spun off into the novel detectives, there is another thread that has been there since the very beginning, since book one, which is that Hal Christie, the original owner of the secret bookcase, believes that he is the long-lost grandson of the one and only the great dame of mysteries herself, Agatha Christie.
23:17
Ellie Alexander: And so there have been little snippets about that throughout all the books.
23:22
Ellie Alexander: And for the last few books, the investigation into whether there could be even a kernel of truth to his belief is starting to ramp up.
23:31
Ellie Alexander: And I'm building to that as the series is growing.
23:34
Ellie Alexander: And I am very cognizant, and this is another thing that we've talked about before, and it's something that I really have deep conversations with when I'm doing coaching or writing work with new writers is how long do you let a subplot linger?
23:51
Ellie Alexander: Because I know as a reader, I really love a subplot.
23:55
Ellie Alexander: So I want to know is how related to Agatha Christie?
23:59
Ellie Alexander: Spoiler alert, right now, I don't know.
24:01
Ellie Alexander: No, I'm just kidding.
24:02
Ellie Alexander: I know, you don't know.
24:03
Ellie Alexander: But um, so it's fine, I think, to dangle that for a while.
24:09
Ellie Alexander: And and each book you get a little, a little bit more, or maybe a new clue that shifts direction, but there has to be resolution or closure.
24:19
Ellie Alexander: This is linking back to the whole Josh Gates thing, right?
24:22
Ellie Alexander: You don't want that to be a letdown at the end, like okay, well, nothing really happened.
24:27
Ellie Alexander: So we are building toward finding those answers, is what I will say.
24:32
Ellie Alexander: And uh that thread is still continuing.
24:35
Tech Guy: Oh, awesome.
24:36
Tech Guy: Well, speaking of continuing, so we talked about this being book four in the novel detective series, and that there were six books in the secret bookcase mysteries prior to this that are all related.
24:50
Tech Guy: Uh, do you have any news about the novel detective series that you want to share with the darlings?
24:58
Ellie Alexander: This is just like an episode of exciting news all the way around.
25:01
Ellie Alexander: A new book, our 75th episode.
25:03
Ellie Alexander: And yes, I just signed a contract through book 10.
25:06
Ellie Alexander: So there are definitely gonna be more.
25:10
Ellie Alexander: I'm working on book eight as we speak, so I'm already much farther ahead in the series, but there will be 10 books for sure.
25:17
Ellie Alexander: And as part of that 10, we will know for sure whether Hal is a real Christie or not.
25:23
Tech Guy: Oh wow, you're not gonna not gonna end it on a cliffhanger.
25:27
Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
25:28
Ellie Alexander: In scene.
25:32
Tech Guy: That's awesome.
25:33
Tech Guy: Oh, 10, 10 at least.
25:34
Tech Guy: Yeah.
25:35
Tech Guy: 10 at least, right.
25:36
Tech Guy: Right.
25:36
Tech Guy: Yes, right.
25:37
Ellie Alexander: For sure, 10.
25:38
Ellie Alexander: I'm signed on for 10.
25:39
Ellie Alexander: So 10 it is.
25:41
Tech Guy: And what uh have you released the name of the next book in the series?
25:46
Ellie Alexander: The next book in the series comes out in January.
25:49
Ellie Alexander: Its title is A Fatal Frost.
25:52
Ellie Alexander: Um and it's actually up for pre-order now, too.
25:56
Ellie Alexander: The quick premise for this one is that um Annie has moved into a new cottage and she wakes up hearing her neighbor scream.
26:07
Ellie Alexander: And her neighbor has found dead rodents and graffiti and all sorts of unpleasant things in her new garden cottage shed in the back yard.
26:22
Ellie Alexander: And um Annie starts to investigate that and um gets in the mix with um some new neighbors.
26:34
Tech Guy: I'm I'm I I can tell you're trying, you're on the fly, you're trying not to reveal anything.
26:41
Ellie Alexander: Because I realize as I'm saying this that there are some embedded spoilers that I'm dancing around here.
26:49
Ellie Alexander: So um, yeah, that's all I can say.
26:50
Ellie Alexander: But a fatal frost, it comes out in January.
26:53
Ellie Alexander: It's already done.
26:54
Tech Guy: Thank thank you for doing that.
26:56
Tech Guy: So I don't have to go back through and bleep out half the half the words there.
27:00
Tech Guy: That's awesome.
27:01
Ellie Alexander: I know, but all the darlings are gonna be like, she doesn't even know what that book is.
27:04
Ellie Alexander: You're right, right.
27:05
Ellie Alexander: I do.
27:06
Ellie Alexander: I've written this.
27:07
Ellie Alexander: Sure, sure.
27:08
Tech Guy: You've written the book, Ellie.
27:09
Tech Guy: Sure.
27:09
Tech Guy: Is it written?
27:10
Ellie Alexander: No.
27:12
Tech Guy: No.
27:12
Tech Guy: Um I'm gonna put on my private investigation skills and see if I can find out.
27:17
Ellie Alexander: Okay.
27:19
Tech Guy: All right.
27:20
Tech Guy: Uh, anything else that you want to share with the darlings about a murder at midnight before we wrap up here?
27:27
Ellie Alexander: No, I'm just so excited to share this one with you.
27:29
Ellie Alexander: And it's been such a delight to get to build this new series in this world and hear from you that you're enjoying it.
27:37
Ellie Alexander: And this is the first series that I've written that is based on real places, but is set in a completely fictional town.
27:44
Ellie Alexander: And it's been really fun to do that for the first time and just sort of completely build a world based on taking little snippets of things that I like and mashing them all into one place.
27:54
Ellie Alexander: So I'm just so delighted to get to share this one with you.
27:58
Ellie Alexander: And I hope it gives you all the spooky Halloween vibes without keeping you up at night.
28:04
Tech Guy: Actually, that brings up a good point.
28:05
Tech Guy: So I'm gonna take, I'm gonna use my tech guy, um, play my tech guy card here and just actually have you talk about that for a minute.
28:13
Tech Guy: So all of your other series are set in real life places.
28:18
Tech Guy: And this, so what comes with that is sometimes, even though this is a fictional series, or you know, that all of them are fictional series, if they're set in real places, um, people will take issue with certain things, like because you even though they're set in real places, you might move something or you know, farther away than it really is, or you might make something smaller than it really is, or bigger than it really is, or a red building might be blue in the books, or whatever it is.
28:50
Tech Guy: You don't have that problem with this series because this isn't a real place, right?
28:55
Tech Guy: But you've taken real things from other places.
28:58
Tech Guy: So for the darlings out there, which do you like better?
29:01
Tech Guy: Which do you like writing?
29:02
Tech Guy: A real place or a or a fictional place?
29:05
Ellie Alexander: Oh, yeah, that's good.
29:06
Ellie Alexander: I mean, of course, all of my fictional series, even though they're inspired by real places, to your point, I have made them my own.
29:15
Ellie Alexander: But there are definitely readers who will sometimes take umbrage with the fact that yes, like, no, that doesn't really exist there, where I'm like, I know, but I needed it to for the purpose of this book.
29:28
Ellie Alexander: Uh yeah, I'm curious too.
29:30
Ellie Alexander: I let I love both, but I think it's fun, especially because I do write more than one series, not at a time, but in a year.
29:37
Ellie Alexander: You know, I go back and forth.
29:38
Ellie Alexander: So I I write a Redwood Grove story and then I'm back in Ashland.
29:42
Ellie Alexander: Um, so it's nice to kind of have both for myself as a writer because I think it stretches my creative energy slightly differently.
29:50
Tech Guy: Yeah, interesting.
29:51
Tech Guy: Okay.
29:51
Tech Guy: Yeah.
29:52
Tech Guy: I just I thought that was really curious when you were talking about it.
29:56
Tech Guy: I I realized that yes, this is the first series where it's actually a fictional place.
30:01
Tech Guy: So that's awesome.
30:02
Ellie Alexander: It's all made up, it doesn't exist.
30:04
Ellie Alexander: Except Vite Lily does.
30:05
Ellie Alexander: So if you happen to be in the Bay Area for the month of October, go check it out.
30:09
Ellie Alexander: I'm not, we're not getting kickbacks or paid, but uh, it's worth a visit.
30:13
Tech Guy: Definitely worth a visit.
30:14
Tech Guy: All right, so that is a murder at midnight, the fourth book in the novel detective series.
30:20
Tech Guy: It releases on October 13th, and it is available for pre-order now.
30:25
Ellie Alexander: That's right.
30:25
Ellie Alexander: And October 13th is such a perfect day for uh sleeping with the spirits.
30:31
Ellie Alexander: That's the name of the ghost hunters uh TV show that is in the book to come out.
30:36
Ellie Alexander: Like chef's kiss for that.
30:38
Tech Guy: Nice.
30:38
Tech Guy: All right.
30:39
Tech Guy: Well, with that, I'm gonna say until next time.
30:43
Ellie Alexander: Till next time.