The Morelville Mysteries Full Circle Collection Boxed Set

The Morelville Mysteries Full Circle Collection Boxed Set-4

Harsh Reality #2 - Working with an Insular Environment

People that don't like tiny community living find a way out and they leave them. Others never stray far at all. They're lifers. Some leave for a time, find they don't like life outside the friendly confines of a tiny village or burg and they return. Many who live in the proverbial hick towns of the U.S. don't much care what's going on in the outside world or care about the changes in thought, customs and cultures. The world passes them by on these points.

Writing a story set in hick town from a socially progressive perspective just won't ring true for your readers. That isn't to say that you can't have people of color, non-European nationalities or people with alternate lifestyles in your stories - far from it. It is to say that you have to walk a fine line to stay true to the mores of the typical hick town while introducing people and situations that are different without coming off as preachy and heavy handed.

Harsh Reality Number 3 - Everybody Knows Your Characters Business

Move into any small town anywhere and within a few hours of telling a single person your name and what house you've purchased or you're renting, at least half the adults in the village will have heard all about you and, if anyone knows you or a family member of yours at all, within a day, the entire village will know or think that they know your life story. You have to write portions of your stories set in such locals with that in mind. There are no true secrets. People may have something slightly wrong or they may be missing a small piece of the puzzle but everybody knows something about everybody. Twist that fact and use it to your advantage.

In all of my books, Sheriff Mel Crane, of course, knows a lot of people and has learned a lot of things based on her day to day duties but, inside Morelville specifically, her own mother, Faye Crane, stepped up in books one and two and provided key pieces of information to her. Those came from a lifetime of living in one tiny area and being in tune with what's going on there. That, and having a memory like a steel trap!

Harsh Reality #4 - You Have to Use Everything at Your Disposal

Make your setting a good one. Hick town doesn't have to mean boring. Your characters have to have someplace to go and something to do besides stand around at the general store all day. Their environs, if you intend to write a series of books, can't be an oasis in the desert. Readers will be bored if your entire book is conversation among people coming in and out of the barbershop or if it's completely set inside of one home. Have grandpa take junior fishing, send the city girl out to the barn for something, have your main character stranded on a dirt road in the woods...you get the idea.

Harsh Reality #5 - Once You've Created it, You're Stuck with It

If you intend to write a series of books, a saga or even just a couple of sequels, you best make darn sure you like the little hick town you've created. Why? Because you're stuck with it. Readers will get to know it, hold it in their minds eye and take comfort in it. Taking your characters out of that setting for more than a couple of chapters if it's, say a cozy mystery series set there, or for more than a book for just about anything else will turn your fans off.

When I created the Morelville series, I didn't want to be completely tied to Morelville. Book one, Relic, leaned on it about 50% of the time and book two, Busy Bees did even more so but book three, Dana's Dilemma, took place almost entirely out of town. My readers hadn't come to expect the stories to be set all in one locale. For a spin off cozy mystery series that I'm contemplating, that won't be the case. Morelville will be the center of the story universe. I'm glad I created a town that has some flexibility because I'm hoping for some crossover readers between the two series.

The Morelville Mysteries Full Circle CollectionOriginally published July 24th, 2015

*Spoiler Alert!* Mel and Dana have a rough road from point A to point D but they do get there. In honor of their journey, I put together a boxed set, the Full Circle Collection, that includes all four books that cover their love affair (and several mysteries along the way) from it's shaky beginning to it's sweet resolution and prequel to the next stage of their lives.

The set includes *Relic (Book 1), *Busy Bees (Book 2), *Dana's Dilemma (Book 3) and *Hitched and Tied (Book 4). You'll meet Dana and Mel as they first meet in the gas station where it all started and follow them along through murder, mayhem, injuries, doubt, and redemption to where they finally end up as a loving couple ready to take on the world together.

The Morelville Mysteries series will continue after Book 4; Book 5 is actually in the works now. Of necessity, the story changes as the series switches from a focus not only on crime solving but on romance to one that is primarily about the crimes. Both heroines will still figure prominently in each story, but I didn't want to leave them hanging out there forever in a never ending will she/won't she romance. They have bigger fish to fry...er, and plenty of family issues to deal with now that they're all official.

If you want the whole saga to date, all in one neat little package, this set is for you. The next book in the works, *'Viva Mama Rossi!' takes the ladies in a whole new direction. You can read a little about Mama Rossi here and more about the book here. Look for it in late August or early September. I'm also planning a special release, just in time for Christmas, of a sixth book in the series. The details on that project will be released much later. I think I've offered up enough spoilers for one day.

*All of the starred links lead to sss pages for the individual books. ‘Relic’ is available from multiple outlets. The other three, as single books are only available on sss or in this widely available boxed set.

Character Profile - Chloe 'Mama' RossiOriginally published July 18th, 2015

In Book 4 of the Morelville Mysteries series, Hitched and Tied, I fully introduced Dana's family to Mel and to the series. They'd only been briefly mentioned before other than Dana's ex-husband Nate (Books 1 and 3) and Nate's family (Book 3).

Dana was born and raised in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania suburb of McKeesport and her parents Marco and Chloe Rossi still live there. As the series begins, Dana is a 34 year old woman and the only daughter of Marco and Chloe. She is the older sister of both Vince (the middle child, a Pittsburgh cop) and Nicco, who goes by Nick, (the baby, an IT director) Rossi.

Dana's always been an independent sort who isn't as close to her own family as Mel is to hers. Even given that, it's evident that Marco, Chloe and the boys are all very close and that they all love Dana very much. Chloe Rossi is especially is supportive of her eldest child in a way that Mel's own mother Faye sometimes fails to be. Chloe worries no more about Dana doing police type work than she worries about Vince doing it and doesn't see her daughter as a woman doing a man’s job. She also doesn't care at all that Dana is gay, only that she is happy and she sees plainly and accepts that Dana is very much in love with Mel.

Chloe Rossi is a housewife who's always looking for just a little more excitement. She and Dana's dad are both 56 years old. Marco is still working in Pittsburgh steel mills and, though his health isn't what it used to be, he plans on putting several more years in to beef up his retirement. Chloe longs for a life where they can do things on a weekend whim rather than planning things around the mill schedule, where they can relax in the heat of summer and get away in the cold of Pittsburgh winters. She's a risk taker who likes to go to casinos and gamble a little (with her girlfriends or with Marco) but only what they can afford for her to lose...not that Chloe ever thinks about losing. She thinks she's got the knack and she's usually right. Lady luck always seems to be on her side.

To make a little extra fun money and to save some too, Chloe learned to do nails once her children were all in school. She's been doing them for years for friends and family and she's quite the regular at the beauty supply store where she gets her materials and catches up on the latest trends and the latest gossip. While she's working on women's manicures and their paint jobs, they often talk as if they've known her forever or talk about the earth as if she isn't even there. She's become a good listener, a skill which she adds to her keen sense of observation.

Chloe is an Italian woman at heart. She can be sharp tongued and quick witted but, beneath a sometimes slightly gruff exterior, lies a curious, determined woman. If she wants to know something - anything - she'll find out and she'll charm you or shame you into telling her.

'Viva Mama Rossi!' is a HybridNo, not the woman; the story!

Originally published July 23rd, 2015

I took a break for a week after book 4 in the Morelville Mysteries series, Hitched and Tied, was published. I know what some of you are thinking; I took a vacation before it was published that actually delayed it being published too. Yes, you remember right; I did. The vacation was a much needed mental health break. The week I took off after publication was to charge up a new writing strategy in my mind. It worked.

The Morelville Mysteries series will continue. Rest assured Mel and Dana fans, there will be other adventures for them. I'm working on Book 5, 'Viva Mama Rossi' now. I'm also planning at least a book for Christmas about them with an all new mystery to solve.

In Book 4, I introduced Dana's family very briefly. I built a lengthy character profile of Dana's mother, and shorter ones, for my own information, of her father and brothers. Chloe's character just begs to be explored more and, frankly, I've been becoming more interested in trying my hand at writing traditional mysteries (more recently referred to as Cozy mysteries). A Cozy series with her as the lead protagonist could be a lot of fun.

I started outlining Book 5, on Monday. I started writing it Wednesday...it's the fastest an idea has ever jelled for me. It will be a hybrid because it's going to be a very blended book. Mel and Dana get the mystery surrounding an 'accidental death' to solve while they're - away - and, meanwhile, back at home Chloe and Mel's mother Faye, are tearing up the village over another death that they're the only ones to believe wasn't an accident. The plot is both hard boiled in that, even though Mel and Dana's death is older (it happened a month or so in the past), they're still professional law enforcement officers (er, Dana was...) and cozy in that Chloe and Faye are definitely not. It's going to be fun to write!

Finally, for those of you whose big beef with the first book, Relic, was that I had more than one protagonist (two: Dana and Mel), get ready; this one has four!

Why Dana Got a Boston TerrierOriginally published November 13th, 2015

A note from Anne: For those of you just getting to know me and my books, I’ll tell you that my wife and I are also haunted house entrepreneurs. She worked for years in the haunt industry and I have a little acting experience in it myself and a whole lot of business experience. The lead in to this next post that was published in November of 2015, refers to our first venture in the commercial haunt side (i.e. not haunting our own home for the fun and entertainment of family and friends.).