Judging Writing Contests

I’ve been a judge a number of times for writing contests. In 2013 I was a judge for the Mary Higgins Clark award for Mystery Writers of America. I received over 130 books to judge. The criteria were a suspense novel in the tradition of Mary Higgins Clark:

·       "The protagonist is a nice young woman whose life is suddenly invaded.

·       "She’s self-made and independent, with primarily good family relationships.

·       "She has an interesting job.

·       "She is not looking for trouble–she is doing exactly what she should be doing and something cuts across her bow.

·       "She solves her problem by her own courage and intelligence.

·       "The story has no on-scene violence.

·       "The story has no strong four-letter words or explicit sex scenes."

 

Of the books I received to read approximately one hundred were cozy mysteries with a female protagonist, not a suspense novel. After reading a few pages, I could determine that these were not consistent with the guidelines. Over the next year, my wife and I read all the cozy mysteries and started chuckling about the cozy tropes. This inspired me to write A Mystery Yarn that will be published later in April and is now available for pre-ordering. It’s a parody that includes these tropes:

·       The protagonist is a woman who runs a craft store

·       She had a bad previous relationship

·       She has a sort-of relationship with a man in law enforcement

·       She finds a dead body and becomes a suspect

·       She has a dog

·       She has a cat

·       There’s a ghost in her store

·       Her best friend is a gay guy

·       There are recipes at the end of the book

It was an enjoyable exercise to write a humorous cozy. As an example, the protagonist can’t cook. Her recipes include toast, grilled cheese sandwiches, mac and cheese, scrambled eggs, and s’mores.