A Writer Writes: Writing an Amateur Sleuth Mystery Novella
Updated on: 24 June 2021
Hello, Book Lovers!
I’m super excited to announce that I’m writing an amateur sleuth mystery novella. I love reading. Through reading books, I’ve developed interests that have filtered through into the writing of my fiction novels. So, at the end of 2016, I decided to read more books within my genre.
In previous years, I adopted the philosophy of reading anything that piques my interest, and to a certain extent, I still do. But, as I finished reading The Brass Hall by Kevin Tumlinson, I became interested in the archaeological elements in this book. This newfound interest led me to search Amazon for the next book in the series, The Coelho Medallion. After finishing reading the second book, I started to develop an idea of writing a conspiracy thriller or action-adventure novel trilogy around an archaeologist, which I later named Maximilian Nicholls.
An Amateur Sleuth Mystery Novella
This new idea inspired me to merge my two-story worlds into a novella in a similar way that J F Penn has done with her Day of the Vikings novel. In this novel, she introduced a character, Daniel Blake into the world of ARKANE. The character Daniel Blake has his own trilogy, the London Psychic Crime Thrillers, which I love.
After careful consideration of my current fiction-writing workload, I decided to take a similar approach to test the reading market to see if I could find readers who are interested in my Maximilian Nicholls conspiracy thrillers. At the moment, I’m advertising the James Lalonde amateur sleuth mystery series as a nine-book series. I chose this option to give readers an understanding that the series is more than just three books. But realistically, I plan to write these books for three years, to start off and then for as long as there is a demand.
So, I’m excited to announce that I’m writing an amateur sleuth mystery novella titled, ‘Missing.’
A Quick Update
I know this is going to sound alarming, but I’ve not been happy with the first book in the James Lalonde Amateur Sleuth series, Missing. My unhappiness has led me to create a third edition with new scenes, improvements to the old ones, and a more satisfying ending.
This week, I sent the third edition, which is titled “Suspicion”, off to my editor. I’m so excited because I’m very close to publishing this new first-in-series novella. And, I plan to make this novella available for free to my James Lalonde Insiders reader club.
Happy reading, book lovers!
Amelia xx
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I’m Amelia. I write mystery and thriller novels under the pen name A. D. Hay and I’m the author of Missing the first book in the James Lalonde series. I’m the host of the Book Nerd Podcast and The Authorpreneur Podcast. Right now, I’m editing my soon to be published mystery novels, The Candidate, Duplicity, 24 Hours, and Immunity. When I’m not writing, hosting my podcasts or coaching aspiring authors, I love to travel around Europe with my Husband Roland, drink tea, and eat pizza.
