This week on the Crime Cafe podcast, Joy Ann Ribar will be my guest. She’s also giving away an ebook or paperback book from the Bay Browning series. Winner gets to choose which book. Here’s the latest.
To enter the giveaway, just email Joy Ann at ribarjoy@gmail.com
And, without further, here’s her guest post!
Olympic Training For Authors
by Joy Ann Ribar
To say writing more than one mystery series is the same as competing in two Olympic events might be accurate if the two events were in the same sport. In reality, penning two mystery series is more like competing in figure skating and speed skating – the commonality is that both series are written just as both Olympic events are done on skates.
An Olympian might be comfortable in their signature event, the one they perfected after ten thousand hours of practice, but what happens when the Olympian is driven to compete in another event?
The same dilemma happens to authors.
You just got comfortable with one series, maybe you’re three or four books in. Your style is spot on. Your characters are refined. Your plots have an edge. Then, another story idea invades your brain, an itch demanding to be scratched.
For five years, I wrote the Deep Lakes cozy mystery series, five books in five years. I understood what my characters wanted, their motivations, how they would evolve. I could traverse the picturesque tourist town of Deep Lakes like my own hometown; it was mapped in my brain. I recognized victims and villains and could navigate in one smooth swish from exposition to conflict to resolution, cozy style.
Enter the Bay Browning mysteries, with its edgy vibe, literary elements, and paranormal twist. Three books in three years entered the market in a disruptive pattern. The first Bay was published while I circled back to the sixth Deep Lakes, then dove back into the Bay books again.
If you’re an author writing more than one series, I have a few coaching tips to share.
- Start with a training manual. Often this is called the Series Bible.
- List your characters by name and physical description
- Character backgrounds: life events, occupation, family, education, etc.
- Character quirks, habits, goals, strengths, weaknesses, conflicts
- Character arc in progress
- List the important places in your setting – streets, bodies of water, names of businesses, favorite spots where your characters hang out
- List important keepsakes or objects connected to your characters and their significance. (Bay Browning collects blue-green Roman glass. Her sister has a treasure box of Florida shells. Frankie has a delft locket.)
- General description of each book’s plot (Since I write mysteries, I include murder weapon, motive for the murder, clues discovered, red herrings)
- Keep your muscles in shape. For writers, that would be the brain.
- Exercise your muscle memory by frequently connecting to your main characters.
- While writing in one series, take your other series characters out for a spin. (I like to take meditation walks when I’m stuck on a plot point. I also spend time with my main characters from either series, imagine their conversations, even allow them to talk across series.)
- Jot down new story ideas for the next book and the next whenever the Muse visits.
- Do some heavy lifting: after finishing a book in one series, read passages from the other series before you write even one sentence in the newest book for that series. Remember, if you haven’t jumped from the diving board in some time, you won’t be starting on the high dive. Get reacquainted with the water.
- Consider your training center and gear. This is good advice for writers of all kinds.
- Keep your writing space free of distractions.
- Consider more than one space to maximize inspiration and productivity: home office, library, a space in nature, a retreat.
- Be ready to write anywhere you may be – carry a notebook, a small tote or case with paper or journal and pens, a portable tablet, your phone (I use a notes app when I walk), or a recording device
- Join a critique group or other writing community
- Swap your writing/books with other authors as reviewers
- Offer your writing to beta readers or in ARC form on promotional sites
If you’re a new author, just starting on the first in a possible series, do yourself a favor and create that training manual/bible with your first book. You will save yourself precious time when you write the second installment of your series.
Authors need daily workouts just like Olympians. Even though the brain is a complex organ, like the muscles in the body, it flourishes when stimulated, exercised, and nurtured. Writing is a skill that loves routine and daily practice – the routine creates flexibility so writers can perform mental gymnastics with finesse. Like Olympians, we authors enjoy the adrenaline rush from accomplishing words on the page, honing a story, and offering our best to the world. And yes, seeing your work in print does feel like winning a gold medal.
*****
About the Author
Joy Ann Ribar is an RV author, writing on the road with her author husband, LJ, roaming around in their Winnebago View. Joy’s cocktail of careers includes news reporter, paralegal, English educator, and aquaponics greenhouse technician, all of which prove useful in penning mysteries.
If you want pastries without calories, wine without the hangover, and drama with a dose of laughter, come home to Wisconsin and the Deep Lakes Mysteries. Frankie Champagne and her business partner, Carmen, serve up pastries (recipes included), fruity wines, and witty conversations at Bubble & Bake, while they investigate crimes on the side.
Joy’s Bay Browning Mysteries blend edgy, traditional, and paranormal elements twisted around classical literary themes that readers will recognize. Join Bay and Cass, a pair of polar opposite sisters in a mid-size Wisconsin town, trying to avoid trouble, even as trouble finds them. The Medusa Murders is a triple award-winner (Book Fest, Readers Favorite, PenCraft). Shake-speared in the Park is currently a finalist for the Mystery and Mayhem 2025 award from Chanticleer International Book Awards. Her newest installment in the series, Poetry Slammed, was published in January.
