Emmie Lyn, author of the Cooking Club Murder mysteries, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today to share with us how she gets her ideas for her novels.

Welcome, Emmie. I’ll turn the floor over to you –

One of the questions writers are often asked is: Where do you get your ideas?

I wish I had a clever answer, but the truth is, they come from everywhere.

A conversation I overhear. A place I visit. Something strange I notice while I’m out walking. A dog doing something that makes me laugh. A meal. A garden. A family story. Sometimes it’s nothing more than a random what if? that refuses to go away.

Then my imagination takes over which can be a little dangerous when you write murder mysteries.

A perfectly innocent situation can quickly become suspicious. An interesting house makes me wonder what secrets are hidden inside. A quiet little town looks like the perfect setting for a murder. Put a group of people around a table and I start wondering which one of them has something to hide.

Fortunately, most of this stays inside my head.

Writing a book, however, isn’t quite as magical as having the idea for one.

There’s a lot of staring at the computer screen. Writing something I love one day and wondering what on earth I was thinking when I reread it the next. Moving scenes around. Discovering a clue appeared before I actually planted it. Realizing a character knows something she couldn’t possibly know yet.

And then there are the characters themselves.

They don’t always cooperate.

Sometimes a character I intended to have a small role wanders onto the page and refuses to leave. Other times someone who seemed perfectly innocent starts acting suspicious.

And occasionally characters like Ivy and Nadine appear.

I’m not sure anyone could control those two.

Tango is easier.

Usually.

One of my favorite things about writing cozy mysteries is creating the community around the mystery. Of course, I want readers to wonder who committed the crime and why, but I also want to create a place they enjoy visiting.

That’s where the food, friendships, pets, humor, and everyday moments come in.

I love writing about people sitting around a table together. Neighbors helping one another. Friends teasing each other. A dog noticing something the humans missed. Those quieter moments are just as important to me as the clues and suspects.

Maybe more important.

Because when I finish a mystery, I don’t want readers to remember only who did it. I hope they remember the people.

That’s one reason I enjoy writing a series. I get to go back. Characters grow and relationships change. A fictional town begins to develop its own history. Someone who was a stranger in one book becomes part of the community in another.

And somehow, while I’m busy figuring out murders, these fictional people start to feel very real to me.

Writing also makes me look at ordinary life a little differently.

I garden, hike, watch birds, spend time with my family, and do plenty of everyday things that have nothing to do with books. But there’s always a tiny part of my brain paying attention.

Could I use that?

Would that make a good setting?

What if…?

I’ve learned not to ignore those little thoughts.

Some of them go nowhere.

Some become a scene.

And every once in a while, one becomes an entire book.

That’s part of what keeps writing interesting for me. At the beginning, I may know where I’m headed, but I don’t know exactly what I’ll discover along the way.

It’s a little like my garden, which I affectionately call my chaos garden. I plant things, move things, occasionally wonder what I’ve done, and watch as everything grows together in ways I didn’t necessarily plan.

Eventually, somehow, it works.

Writing is a lot like that.

Only with more murder.

Thank you for sharing this with us, Emmie, and good luck with Crime and Croissants, a Cooking Club murder mystery. Readers can learn more about Emmie Lyn by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook, and Goodreads pages. You can also join her Mystery on the Menu newsletter.

The book is available online at Amazon 

About Emmie Lyn: She has written several cozy mystery series and a romantic suspense series.

Emmie lives in a small New England town, the kind where everyone knows your name—and your secrets. It’s no surprise that her fictional worlds are filled with the same charm: scenic, close-knit communities full of quirky, unforgettable characters. She loves crafting mysteries laced with clever twists and turns, the kind that keep readers guessing and turning pages well into the night.

She lives with her husband and a black cat who rules the house with a velvet paw and a terrible attitude. Their twelve-acre homestead is a haven for deer, bunnies, turkeys, and a chorus of songbirds. When she’s not plotting fictional murders, she’s out hiking wooded trails, or spending time with her grandchildren.