Writing Books around Seasons

By June Shaw

Have you written any mysteries around a holiday or season?

Have you picked up any books to read because they were centered around a holiday theme or a season?

Lots of books seem to come out each year centered around Christmas. Quite a few take place around Thanksgiving.

I've seen a number of books centered around Fourth of July. But what about Flag Day? Can you come up with an idea about that?

Mother's Day? Any story has to be filled with conflict. What conflicts could arise during that supposedly happy weekend?

Winter has attracted many mysteries with its imagines of things dying. So has snow which covers bodies. But what about spring? New birth? And a death or two?

Graduation--commencement--the beginning. I used that happy time to center my first mystery, Relative Danger.

Taking a cruise--yes--what pleasure--unless people you know start dying. And then there's your class reunion--what fun--unless one of your good friends is a killer--and you need to find out. I had so much fun with that concept with my newest mystery, Deadly Reunion.

While you're coming up with a place for your story to take place, maybe you'll want to give more thought to the occasion or season in which you set your story. Doing so can sometimes give it extra dimension.