Cynthia Harrison

Diana, my cover artist, is an…artist! I would have never thought to reflect the sky in the water. She brightened up what I thought might be a too dark image after my fun beach cover from Jane 1. Jane 2 is more edgy than cozy. Although there’s also some wonderful romance. And while the murder plot is twisty, the romance part is fun. I’m about half way through Jane 3, which jumps forward a few years. Although I have put J3 aside for a few months to work on a Christmas novella. My publisher is doing a special holiday theme for 2024 and I adore reading (and writing) about Christmas.

Novellas, if you are wondering, can be anything from 50-150 pages. Shorter than 50 is a “long short story” and longer than 150 is a novel. Jim Harrison (no relation, darn it) writes novellas. I can’t think of anyone else I read who does them except for the sweet Regency novellas I read in the 70s which are coming back on Kindle from the authors. I’ve been loving them all over again. As for long short stories, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood are two faves who write unforgettable long short stories. Atwood’s “Stone Mattress” is a mystery masterpiece.

I hope to have two books out in 2024 because I want to wrap up the Jane trilogy. I just read the final Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway novel–an entire series that kept the lovers apart most of the time until the last pages, when you find out what happens. I think there were sixteen novels in that series. And while I wanted resolution so bad, I also didn’t want to ever give up those characters. As Griffiths is British, I had to wait longer than my friends across the pond for the new installments. It was not easy. It is not easy to write a long cliffhanger like that either, which is why Jane only has three books. She’s older than Ruth and needs her happy ending!

When she gets it depends on how fast my fingers can type. 🙂