  Mystery
This week: Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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"All that I see or seem is but a dream within a dream"
Edgar Alan Poe
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Welcome to this week's edition of the Mystery Newsletter. A mystery by nature is a question in search of an answer - a puzzle! And when we uncover the answer to the question, effectively solving the puzzle moments before the writer gives us the solution, follow clues tactile and cerebral, the momentary satisfaction is sublime! And we can frolic and have fun along the wayHolidays and celebrations abound - with the potential for some intrigue and sleuthing ~ whether in this or an alternate reality. |
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Greetings, last month we explored the blending of mystery with horror to create stories in prose and verse that make you flinch when the furnace kicks in and double check the back door. Well, as the days up north grow ever shorter, inviting us to come inside and read and write and dig out holiday decorations, perhaps we can explore another form of mystery.
The Holiday Mystery has as its theme a major holiday – think Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Solstice, New Year’s Day, Boxing Day, and so on. The puzzle usually opens with the crime (true mystery) or alludes to a crime (suspense mystery). The sleuth, generally an amateur human or non-human, is challenged to follow clues along with your reader to arrive at the satisfying (not always happy) solution.
For example, a couple of guys on their first winter snipe hunt take shelter in an abandoned paint factory and stumble over an old dude with a tangled beard and a torn red suit who tells them he’d been mugged, robbed of the key. Okay, now you can blend in either/or fantasy, adventure, comedy, horror, with your mystery if you choose.
A holiday mystery puzzle is most often (but not always) solved by amateurs (a cozy), may include a caper, may or may not be resolved by your sleuth (and reader) with a happy ending. The villains may be expendable, even superfluous, unless you twist the story, where a villain is changed and becomes the flawed hero resolving the mystery.
Note that I opened with an obvious Maguffin, a device merely to advance the plot, i.e., the guys ‘snipe’ hunting? Your reader will soon forget about the ‘snipe,’ which is really nothing (paraphrasing Alfred Hitchcock, the Maguffin as nothing; yes, the same can be said for the snipe ). Holiday Mysteries also are ripe for a red herring or two to misdirect your sleuth and, perhaps, your reader as well, but make sure they are able to find their way back in a believable way to the actually puzzle they need to solve to get to the bottom of the ‘story.’
For example, judging from my example, are you thinking there might be an element of fantasy here, what with snipes, and a guy in a red suit being robbed? Well, as the author of this mystery, I know the ending and will share it. I’ve planted some clues to both direct and misdirect. The red suit – mugged in a paint factory. The beard, did I say how long or what color? (subtle misdirection). So now, do you think the key winds a top perhaps? (Hanukkah) No, I’ll tell. You can reveal what they key is for, and your story would be more of an adventure than mystery.
Or, if you keep the information with the old guy and focus on the mystery, while adding the adventure of recovering the key, there’s room for a caper perhaps or a red herring or two as the sleuths and your reader works to solve the mystery of the key and the identity of the old guy.
Okay, I’ll tell. The key in my example is a remote device that is programmed to release the massive glittering ball on Times Square to count down midnight once the correct passcode is entered on the numeric keypad, which the old guy designed and programmed (he’s a scientist). Now if you don’t reveal this in the opening, it becomes part of the mystery, part of the puzzle for the sleuths to solve. The why of it being stolen and whether or not the ‘snipe’ hunters help him get it back, that I leave to your Muse’s vision.
Holiday Mysteries can be comical, dramatic, suspenseful, frightful, challenging. They can also be inspiring, reaffirming beliefs by posing some questions, and having your ‘sleuth’ figure out what if, or how, or why or why not? If you have such a denominational holiday mystery in mind, you might check out the following contest guidelines link before November 20th for possible print publication (no author’s fee requested):
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I hope you enjoy reading, solving, (and reviewing ) the following 'mysteries' offered by members of our Community
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Here's one you can take part in solving ~ and plant some more clues perhaps
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How about these challenges to inspire the Muse Festive to explore a holiday
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Thank you for this welcome to your virtual home.
I wish you some fun sleuthing and a Happy Thanksgiving, in company of loving family and stalwart muse.
Until we next meet,
Keep Writing!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Mystery: November 12, 2008 Issue [#2711]
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