Jessica Brody

And I think it comes back exactly to what you mentioned right off the top is because this is the genre where you want that fair play with the reader.

Yeah, and, and I think there's a couple of things, and, you know, I'm, I'm thinking about the conversation that we recently had with Jessica Brody, where she talked about structure, and there are some rules around structure or expectations that you have to meet to make it a satisfying mystery.

And I think that's true, like you say, for any genre, right? In, in horror, uh, in romance, uh, um, mystery, science fiction, all of those.

There are, there are conventions that are associated with those genres that if you stray too far from those, readers who are very familiar with those conventions are not going to like your book.

Mm-hmm.

Definitely.

And once again, I'm thinking of something that Jessica Brody said to us that, because we know that the members of this club did break the rules, and I don't think many of their sales continually diminished.

But Jessica mentioned, and I think it was really smart, that if you're going to break a rule, that there needs to be a purpose for it and a reason for it, and do it in a very intentional way.

I really have to understand the character's world before I begin.

And when I feel like I have a really good handle on who these people are that the book is about, I'll do a beat sheet, kind of like what Jessica Brody was talking about on your show earlier in, in August.

I'll do a beat sheet to kind of get some general ideas of plot points, and then I'm ready to write, and that's where the bad choices come in.

So if you think about a character and they get to a crossroads in a story, lots of times the first thing that we think about are an easy choice and a hard choice.

Okay.

So I am going to rec how to write a murder by Jessica Brody.

Okay.

Sorry, my eyes just blurred for a second.

It's time to get Booked All Night.

I'm Jessica Mary, and today I'm joined by Libby Tanner, author of Better Than Gelato and Bigger Than Versace.

Welcome to

the pod,

Libby.

Thank you so much, Jessica.

I am delighted to be here.

I'm so excited to have you here.