Visiting Authors: A Big Transition by E. Hepner

Today I’d like to welcome E. Hepner to My Funny View of Life. 

A Big Transition

Around this time two years ago I never would have expected to be almost finished writing my second debut cozy mystery—mainly because I loved them, but I was afraid I wasn’t much of a thinker to write one. When I started reading as a teenager I devoured mysteries, but when I got out of college I started writing erotica and erotic romance because up until then it was newly growing market and I could get in at the ground floor. Then there was Fifty Shades of Gray. Enough said about that. Then last year I took the plunge, locked up my insecurities, and started plugging away at Deadlines: A Written to Death Mystery. One word at a time I slaved away at it, constantly batting away the “why are you doing this, what makes you think you can” and the “what if it’s too easy to guess the killer” thoughts.

It was the perfect remedy for a grueling writing schedule and burnout on the highest level. But man, did all the twists and turns hurt my brain! Halfway through the first draft I doubted I’d make it through to the other side. As opposed to emotional plot I had to juggle a wacky cast of characters that wouldn’t follow my outline and all had their own agenda. An outline was a good idea, in theory. In practice, Ainsley and Co. ripped my carefully detailed plan to shreds with their red herrings and sneaky business. Even the killer changed at the last second! When I got to the end of the book I didn’t feel much like I was writing it anymore, it was their book.

So I let them takeover. Where as before I was working with a set two personalities dooking it out to be in a relationship, now it was a race to the finish to find a killer. A totally different animal. I wound up being just as excited and shocked as Ainsley with every turn. It was…dare I say it? Fun. Not a single thread of angst to be found and oh, wasn’t that refreshing. Writing cozies for me are not only the perfect palate cleanser, but the exercise a completely different part of my writing brain. It’s like doing a leg day at the gym after only doing arms for five years—I can only imagine what that person would look like and it would probably be very scary.

Cozy mysteries are the best friends I never knew I needed, the geeky shy girl who opens you up and gives you hugs for your brain. There’s no going back now. I’m in it.

E. Hepner is the cozy mystery pen name of erotica and erotic romance author Elise Hepner. She writes small town heroines with an alternative edge put in big time situations where death, hijinks, and overall shenanigans ensue on a daily basis. Also a little romance–which they may or may not be ready for, given the pile up of dead bodies.