Charred: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery by G.P. Gottlieb
About Charred
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting - Chicago, Illinois
DX Varos Publishing (February 21, 2023)
Paperback : 320 pages
ISBN-10 : 1955065675
ISBN-13 : 978-1955065672
Digital ASIN : B0BLMFHSQX
Print length : 254 pages
Alene Baron is dealing with frustrated employees, closed schools, and a homeless man who harasses customers outside the door of her café. Then, two dead bodies turn up in the burned remains of buildings owned by the husband of Alene’s best friend and pastry chef, Ruthie. Both bodies are wearing jackets that once belonged to Ruthie and crumbled in the pockets are the café’s distinctive wrappers. At the same time, Alene's uncle, a convicted felon, has resurfaced after disappearing for 22 years. It's all too much for the owner of the Whipped and Sipped Café.
About the Author Guest Post
Tell Readers What They Need to Know
What happens when you tell a story that has too many characters, an overabundance of complex words, and constant eruptions of emotion? Your reader gets a headache and decides to go to the kitchen for a drink, which will lead to checking the fridge for dinner ingredients, which could result in a spontaneous grocery store trip, which might involve a stop for gas and a quick visit to the hardware store.
Four hours later, your reader will pick up your book to try again, but it’s been a long day, and maybe there’s another novel on the pile that’s easier to get into.
So, why are you going into such detail about the origin of a sliver of wood, the genesis of the song that was playing during the murder, or the location, furnishings, and menu of the imaginary coffee house at which your characters meet for the first time?
Remember that fabulous children’s book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?” If I read about wood manufacturing in a novel, I recall that my furniture needs dusting, and while I’m cleaning the table, I notice that the floor could use a good polish, which reminds me that my silverware has been looking embarrassingly tarnished. What book was I reading again?
If I read about a song that describes who wrote it, who performed it, where it was best performed, etc., it puts me in the mood to play a little guitar, maybe learn a new song, which gives me a hankering to sit at the piano and read through the Gnossienne of Eric Satie that I just downloaded. What was it I wanted to do this evening again?
Or, after reading a detailed description of an imaginary meal, I walk into my kitchen for a cup of tea and am immediately accosted by the smell of rotten bananas. Next thing I know, I’ve got the bowls and ingredients lined up to make banana bread, and I’ve forgotten about my tea and your book.
It’s the well-known “Tell Readers What They Need to Know” problem. You can avoid telling them more than they need to know by writing in a straightforward, non-convoluted, easy-to-read style without extraneous flourishes, unnecessarily long sentences, and big words that scream, “Thesaurus.”
So, do you have too many characters? If one character must be constantly watched because small things go missing when he’s around, another character is described as overly fond of chocolate, and a third is pining away for her missing boyfriend, why not combine them into one much-more-well-rounded character?
Do you incessantly use abstruse or enigmatic words with the intent to highlight your insightfulness and acumen, or to intimate your superior intelligence? Stop, or you will come across as an amorphous clod.
Do you constantly describe the protagonist’s emotional state? I recently read a novel (well, I got through the first few chapters) in which she, the protagonist, described her overwrought emotional state (in different sentences) with synonyms that seemed to come directly from the internet. At first, she was fatigued, tired, exhausted, weary, drained, and shattered. Then she ate breakfast and was excited, thrilled, happy, eager, anxious, and enthusiastic, because her friend was coming over to take her out for the day. Knowing that she began the day poorly and was revived by her toast and tea would have been sufficient.
And since I’ve said what I had to say, and told you what you need to know, I’ll stop here.
G.P. Gottlieb is the author of Charred: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery (D.X. Varos Publishing 2023), the third in her culinary mystery series. She has also interviewed over 170 authors as host for New Books in Literature, a podcast channel on the New Books Network. You can read more about her at gpgottlieb.com.
About G.P. Gottlieb
Known for her imaginative baking and fabulous dinners, G.P. Gottlieb was always an avid reader. She enjoyed several careers, but after recovering from cancer, turned to writing in earnest, melding two passions: nourishment for mind and body, and recipe-laced murder mysteries. She is also the host for New Books in Literature, a podcast of the New Books Network.
