[Guest Post] IF IT’S TUESDAY, IT MUST BE TROUBLE! Mel Thompson Series Book Two By Kathleen Allen

Guest Post From Author Kathleen Allen

I am an urban faerie born without wings but I fly on the wings of imagination tethered to this mortal coil. Moonlight sustains me and sunlight devours me. Stars swim in my eyes and my soul bleeds on a daily basis. I am a writer. 

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IF IT’S TUESDAY, IT MUST BE TROUBLE-a Mel Thompson, P.I. mystery

Greetings All!

Thanks for hosting me today on your blog. Let me tell you a bit about myself. First of all, I consider myself a young adult writer. What? But isn’t your latest release a murder mystery that is not YA? Yep. I’m confused. Please explain.

Glad to.

I write YA fantasy but each one always has an element of mystery to it. I read mysteries in my spare time so I thought I’d try and write one. My first murder mystery is, IF IT’S MONDAY, IT MUST BE TROUBLE. I love reading about female sleuths who get the job done and I wanted to write a main character like that. My female P.I. is tough, strong, independent and flawed. Exactly the way she should be. She’s a former cop who got shot on the job and now has a permanent limp and works as a P.I. She has a cop boyfriend who is her former partner. She loves him but doesn’t want him, or anyone to get too close to her. She’s terrified of losing her independence and her current disability plays into a lot of it.  This case she takes on is trying to find the killer of an up and coming fashion designer. Mel knows next to nothing about fashion, her idea of fashion is pulling out a T-shirt from the laundry pile that may or may not be clean and pairing it with jeans. She’s willing to pretend to be a fashion intern in order to find the killer. She doesn’t expect to like any of the fashion people or to put herself in harm’s way again. But, both of those things happen.

I am having fun writing a more adult character and I have to say I am looking forward to tackling the next book in the series as soon as I can finish editing my NaNoWriMo (30 days and nights of literary abandon) YA urban fantasy and writing the third YA faerie book in the Lore of Fei series. Book two, War of Fei is coming out in Feb. 2013.

The fun thing about writing a mystery is that you have to stick to a formula of sorts. I mean there’s the murder that happens, a killer who has to be someone introduced early on but not anyone who is suspicious, next you have to have several red herrings these are the ones you suspect might be the killer but aren’t, and you have to put your main character into some kind of danger.  I don’t usually plot out my novels but for mysteries you kind of have to. Plus you have to make sure your timeline fits.

And that’s it. Here’s the info on me and my books:

IF IT’S TUESDAY, IT MUST BE TROUBLE, the second Mel Thompson mystery , November, 2012

IF IT’S TUESDAY, IT MUST BE TROUBLE!
Mel Thompson Series Book Two
By Kathleen Allen

Mel Thompson, P.I., former cop returns in her second murder case. It’s the first case she’s taken since she almost died at the hands of the murderer from her last case, three months ago.

Things are looking up a bit though, her cop boyfriend moved back in, the back surgery she had seems to have dulled the pain in her leg and she’s working as an intern in a fashion house in order to catch a murderer.

The fashion world is an alien one to Mel but she’s eager to learn in order to figure out who killed an up and coming designer who just happened to be the sister of the senior buyer.  Mel plans on being an intern for a few weeks, getting the information she needs and getting out.

She didn’t plan on actually liking the people in the fashion house. And she didn’t plan on being in harm’s way, again.