I’m please to have Judy Penz Sheluk pay another visit to my blog. She is the Amazon international bestselling author of the Glass Dolphin Mysteries and the Marketville Mysteries. Her short stories appear in several collections.

Judy is also a member of Sisters in Crime International, Sisters in Crime – Guppies, Sisters in Crime – Toronto, International Thriller Writers, Inc., the South Simcoe Arts Council, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Crime Writers of Canada, where she serves on the Board of Directors, representing Toronto/Southwestern Ontario. Find her at www.judypenzsheluk.com.

Welcome back, Judy.

How Small Towns Influence My Writing

Judy Penz Sheluk

In her July 29, 2018 post, Lesley wrote about her reasons for writing cozy mysteries. https://lesleyadiehl.com/why-i-write-cozy-mysteries/. In her post, she says “Because my work was always set in a small town and the sleuth was always an amateur with an insatiable curiosity about murder, it became clear I was writing cozies. They were a fit for me, not only because I have always lived in small communities, but because the tone of cozies fits the way I prefer life to be.”

I get that philosophy. Although I was born and raised in Toronto (the fourth largest city in North America after Mexico City, Los Angeles, and New York) and I’m no stranger to suburbs and subways, my parents also owned a modest cottage on the Gull River about two hours northwest of Toronto (some folks call cottages, cabins). It was the place we spent every weekend and two or three weeks every summer. Given that the nearest town had a population of 200 and one independent grocer, I soon acquired a taste for a simpler life.

Years later, I was offered two jobs at the same time: one was in downtown Toronto, working for a magazine. The other was in a small town northeast of Toronto at an insurance company. The magazine had glamor. The small town won. I left Toronto, and though I’ve moved around some, I’ve continued to call small towns my home.

That brings me to what I write, which, in addition to a few short stories, includes two mystery series of the cozy-ish variety (I say cozy-ish because while there is no overt sex, violence or bad language, there are also no cats, crafts, or cookie recipes).

Series one, the Glass Dolphin Mysteries, includes The Hanged Man’s Noose and A Hole in One. It’s set in the town of Lount’s Landing, named for a real life Canadian politician, Samuel Lount, who was hanged for treason in the nineteenth century. While Lount’s Landing doesn’t exist, Holland Landing, where I lived for many years, does. I made a few modifications, adding a historic Main Street and a few colorful characters, but the bones of it are the town I lived in (and yes, Samuel Lount really did live and work there).

Series two, the Marketville Mysteries, includes Skeletons in the Attic and the recently released Past & Present. Once again, I patterned the town after one I knew well: Newmarket, a commuter town south of Holland Landing and north of Toronto. And once again, I made a few modifications, though locals will recognize some of the fictionalized landmarks.

When I first started writing, people told me that I should set my books in the U.S.—no American would be interested in a book set in Canada. Thankfully, Louise Penny proved that theory wrong, but even if she hadn’t, I couldn’t imagine transplanting my characters to a place I didn’t know or understand. Because places are like people: they have personalities and quirks and if, as a writer, I’ve done my job, they’re somewhere you’d like to visit, if only for a short time. I hope you do. My characters are looking forward to meeting you.

Past & Present: A Marketville Mystery, was released September 21^st in trade paperback and on Kindle, where it is currently on sale for the introductory price of $2.99 (reg. $5.99).  http://authl.it/afj

 

 

 Judy’s other books, all really great reads!