A Death In The Dark—A New Mystery Plotted on a Road Trip

A man staggers into a detective agency covered in blood with no memory of the night before and...

The Tech Guy and I go spoiler free on a brand-new cozy mystery, A Death In The Dark, the latest entry in my Novel Detectives series (a spin off connected to the Secret Bookcase Mysteries), then pull back the curtain on how the story came together in a very specific place: a six-hour road trip with a my runner son as my brainstorming partner.

We also get practical about the publishing side, including why the ebook release lands before the paperback this time and what a big US print run means for local bookstores. If you’re a reader who loves series order, new releases, and behind-the-scenes context, we keep it clear and friendly without giving away the twists.

For writers, we talk about how to plot a mystery novel from a single “glimmer” of an idea, how asking what-if and why questions generates suspects and motives fast, and why research matters even when most of it never makes it onto the page. We even touch on dialogue and grammar, because sometimes writing “wrong” is exactly how you make characters sound real.

Subscribe for more writer-ish and bookish chats, share the show with a friend, and leave us a rating or review so more book lovers and writers can find Reality Writes.

🎉 Join me on Patreon for bonus content.

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Transcript

Welcome And Grammar Pet Peeves

Ellie Alexander 0:05

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Reality Writes. I am author Ellie Alexander, and this is the podcast where we talk about all things writer-ish, bookish, and whatever else is on our mind. And I'm here with the Tech Guy.

Tech Guy 0:19

Hello, hello. How's it going today?

Ellie Alexander 0:23

It's pretty good. How about you?

Tech Guy 0:25

Good, good. Uh yeah, it's good, it's going well. Good, well, I don't know. You know.

Ellie Alexander 0:33

You know, the world is upside down right now.

Tech Guy 0:35

So I will say, just quick aside, because that's what I'm known for on uh Reality Writes. Um I don't like it when somebody asks me how I'm doing and I say good, and then I ask them how they're doing, and they say, I'm doing well. And they say it in that tone, right? They give you that tone that I know well is the more appropriate answer. I don't care. I'm doing good. How's that?

Ellie Alexander 1:06

It's bringing back flashbacks to when my dad would correct me for saying, with whom, with whom are you having like the air? I know.

Tech Guy 1:13

Yeah. No, this is, I mean, I guess this is a a podcast about writing, uh, in part, right?

Ellie Alexander 1:20

So maybe I should start saying well, but no, I don't think you should because um this comes up a lot in my writing, especially if if I'm writing dialogue. And I think we've touched on this before, but like characters talk the way that we talk in the real world. So it doesn't like grammar doesn't always translate, especially in dialogue.

Tech Guy 1:40

Uh that makes sense. Yeah. And I agree. Um, so for the darlings out there, are you doing good? Are you doing well?

Ellie Alexander 1:48

Or both.

Tech Guy 1:49

How are you doing? Let us know.

Ellie Alexander 1:52

A bit of both, you know. Yeah.

Share Rate And Send Messages

Ellie Alexander 1:54

It's all good.

Tech Guy 1:54

Actually, before we get into today's topic, um, I just want to remind everyone to please share reality rights with a friend or uh family member and anyone that you know that is into reading, writing, or just wants to come and hear Ellie talk and maybe get some words of wisdom or not wisdom from the Tech Guy. Uh so much love from you. Okay.

Ellie Alexander 2:17

All right. You're you're you're the one doling out wisdom. Awesome. Good. I've got a lot of questions today, then. Bring it on.

Tech Guy 2:24

And if you would be so kind, please leave us a rating. Uh, it really does help. It helps uh with discovery of the podcast for other listeners. And we just want to spread the writerish and bookish love. Um, new feature alert, though. If you're listening to this podcast on your favorite podcasting platform, be sure to head down to the show notes after this and click uh send us a message. There's a new way to get in touch with us. And uh you can drop us a question, a comment, tell us how much you love the show, tell us how much you don't love the show. Actually, just don't worry about that. Um and uh hey, maybe you'll hear it on the air. Uh, there's even an option to leave us a voicemail if you would like to do so.

Ellie Alexander 3:07

So we're going back to 1980. I was just thinking about this the other night. It's so funny because um I can remember my childhood phone number. I can remember my childhood best friend's phone number, like anything from the 80s. It is solid up in my brain. I don't know Sky Guy, our child who's 22. I don't have his number memorized. Like I have no one memorized post iPhone whatsoever. But yeah. Okay, so you can leave us a voice mail and you don't even have to pull out an old phone book to do it. This is great.

Tech Guy 3:42

Yeah, yeah. It's uh it's a new new service we're using for the podcast. I'm super excited. I'm gonna be rolling out a bunch of really cool changes for reality rights, uh changes but improvements. So um, and this is the start of it. Um, I'm I'm really excited and can't wait to see what this does in terms of engagement. Um, you know, I'd love to hear from the uh the uh darlings out there, and so there you go. Send us a message.

Ellie Alexander 4:11

Send us a voicemail.

Tech Guy 4:14

Right.

Ellie Alexander 4:15

The question is can we crank call back?

Tech Guy 4:19

Uh no. Unfortunately, um the messaging system, we are we're able to reply to the um you know, once to the written messages, but uh I don't believe we can reply to the voice messages. I don't know though. I'll look into it. But if you leave us a voice message, you might hear your voice on a future episode of Reality Rights. So be kind.

Ellie Alexander 4:45

I mean, we do talk about murder, so if you've got a great murder idea, bring it on.

Revealing A Death In The Dark

Ellie Alexander 4:50

Okay, well, that's a good segue to today because we're gonna talk about a new book.

Tech Guy 4:56

A new book, another new book. Yeah. Wow. I mean, it's just well, I I wasn't ready for it, but here we go. Let's get let's have some applause for the new wait, wait. What which what's the title?

Ellie Alexander 5:11

Oh, right. The title is a death in the dark.

Tech Guy 5:16

All right.

Ellie Alexander 5:17

I thought it was gonna be dumb dum dun, so I was much more animated about my title, but okay. I can do it.

Tech Guy 5:23

Okay, well, do it again. Do the title again.

Ellie Alexander 5:25

Okay, great. Ready? A death in the dark.

Tech Guy 5:33

Yeah. There you go.

Ellie Alexander 5:36

That's more like it. That's more like it.

Tech Guy 5:38

All right, and this is a new book in the novel detective series.

Ellie Alexander 5:43

This is the second book in the novel detective series, but the novel detective series technically is a spin-off of the secret bookcase series. So all of the same characters have continued on through the novel detectives. So while it's book two, it's also sort of technically a book. What is that then? Eight, I guess.

Tech Guy 6:04

Book eight, yeah. Yeah. You know me, I I love a good spin-off. So I'm like, I think I I watch every version of NCIS. So and then some. And then some. There you go. Uh no, but this is that's that's that's totally cool. So what do we what are we what are we learning? And again, we'll just say up front, this is gonna be spoiler free, as always, uh when we promote the new books, spoiler free. So don't don't worry about yeah, don't worry about having to uh turn the podcast off.

Ellie Alexander 6:40

Well, I think there are a couple things to touch on. One, I want to talk a lot about uh the process of writing this one because it was a little different, and I had a writing partner for this uh particular book, too. But before we dive into that, there's a little bit of a change in the pub schedule for this one.

Ebook First Paperback Later

Ellie Alexander 6:57

So the ebook will be out on April 21st, followed by the paperback the next week on April 28th, because the publishing house for this one Storm is in the UK and they've done a big print run and partnered with the US printer, but because of the state of the world and um delays and shipments and all those good things, the paperback will be out a week later. So do not panic, darlings. If you're like, ooh, there's a new book out in the novel detectives, I'm gonna go find it. Like the the paperback is coming. The ebook is just coming first. So I guess it's a bonus if you're an e-book reader, you get it a week early. Right. That's not by design. That doesn't usually happen.

Tech Guy 7:40

No, no. The uh definitely the plan is to have them both released at the same time. But um, obviously, you know, things happen in the physical world, and sometimes it's just easier to get the e versions out sooner.

Ellie Alexander 7:55

Yeah. I'm so excited that it's doing a big print run here in the US because that means you can go to your local bookstore, your local library, you can request it at your local library, your local bookstore can get it easily. So I'm super um thrilled to have it out in both. So don't panic. It's coming. That's just my talking point. I promise it's coming. Because I've already gotten a few emails from readers being like, wait, where's the paper map?

Tech Guy 8:21

Oh yeah. Always happens.

Ellie Alexander 8:23

It's okay.

Building The Core Mystery Hook

Ellie Alexander 8:25

Uh, this book, though, I a little over a year ago did a road trip with Sky Guy, our son, because he was putting on an event at a Comic-Con and uh he needed somebody to help him schlep all of his equipment back and forth and set up his booth, which was super fun. And of course, I'm always up for a road trip. So we did a six-hour drive. And on the drive, we brainstormed this entire book together, which was great because he ran cross-country all through middle school, high school, and even his first year of college. And so obviously, he knows a lot about the running world. And the way that a book will start is I will just have one little glimmer of an idea. So, my idea for this one was that someone is going to stumble into Annie and Fletcher's office at the novel detectives, and they're covered in blood, and they have no memory of what happened the night before. That's all I had. That was like my little glimmer of an idea. But I didn't have anything else.

Tech Guy 9:29

Okay. So, Wait, you you started out the road trip, you had this idea already, and you voiced this idea to him.

Ellie Alexander 9:37

Yes.

Tech Guy 9:38

And then what happened? Did he take it from there?

Ellie Alexander 9:40

Or was it uh yeah, he was driving. And so I had my notebook. And you know this because over the years we have plotted, I can't even tell you how many books on road trips. It's kind of one of my favorite ways. I would never be able to physically write a book, but like sketching out ideas on a notebook and like pulling together a plot and there's something about the moving car and the scenery, and you're also trapped, right? You don't have really anything else to do. So it's I can't be distracted doing anything else. Um yeah, so I gave him that pitch and I was like, I kind of feel like, and maybe it's just because I'm with you, but I'm like, what if the guy who stumbles into their office is the high school track coach? And then, you know, from there, it just really spiraled um with ideas about like, okay, who's gonna be on the track team? Who are the people, like, who are the players? What drama can we pull up from your past? Like, yeah.

Tech Guy 10:35

I love it. So keeping the uh the content uh um very relevant to his life experience.

Ellie Alexander 10:42

Yeah, exactly. Which you have to do. You pull from your own life experience, right?

Tech Guy 10:46

Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.

Ellie Alexander 10:48

He did not ever have a track coach that stumbled, you know, into the local police station or the at least that we know of, maybe he did.

Tech Guy 10:57

Thankfully, we we did not have that happen. Yeah. That would that would have been that would have been a little uh nerve-wracking for sure.

Ellie Alexander 11:04

Yeah.

What If Questions For Plotting

Ellie Alexander 11:05

But one of the main things that I I do myself when I'm in that initial stage of putting together a plot. And this is something that I often encourage new writers to do too, is just ask a lot of what if questions or like why questions, how questions. I'll just kind of riff on questions. Okay, so if it is the track coach, why is he there? Like when I when I started, and you know, again, no spoilers, because we don't know. Like, is the track coach, like, is he the killer? Like, are Annie and Fletcher gonna have a client who could be a killer? Are is he gonna be innocent? Is he somehow involved? You know, like all of those questions start to flow. And I think it's really important when you're first plotting a novel to just let yourself explore all of them.

Tech Guy 11:59

That's interesting. Yeah. Um, yeah, of course he could could be the killer. Came in covered in blood. Wasn't his blood. So wasn't his blood. Looking guilty already.

Ellie Alexander 12:13

Looking real guilty already. And then how intriguing for a private detective. How do you not want to take that case, even if you are suspicious right off the bat about whether your client is telling you the truth or not? Which of course Annie and Fletcher are because they're sharp and savvy and trained professional detectives. So yeah.

Tech Guy 12:32

Yeah. So was that the entirety of the conversation from the time you left Sunnyvale to the time you got up to the Ashland Medford area?

Ellie Alexander 12:44

That was pretty much, I mean, we spent a good solid six hours. I have my notebook here. If you want some like ASMR, just like shh going through suspects, talking. I asked him a lot about like practices and things that like this book is not necessarily running heavy. It's still a fun mystery, you know. There is this touch and this element to um track and cross-country that that plays a tiny little role. A lot of that never makes it onto the page, which is fine. But um, we did map out every single suspect, and each of them, of course, had a motive. And then working back to not only the victim, but also the track coach's connection to each of them because that was a little different. I have a I have a lot of fun with this series because I get to really play up this investigation piece in a way that doesn't always make sense with, let's say, like the bake shop mysteries, because Jules is ultimately a pastry chef who stumbles upon murder every now and then. Annie is actively seeking client work like this. And so for me, it's tapping into a little bit of my favorite uh back in the day, like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone alphabet murders, or like Veronica Marr's, like kind of weaving a touch of that inspiration into this series. So for these, which is slightly different than the way that I plot my other mysteries, I'm really thinking about the case itself and then how everything's gonna wrap around the case potentially.

Research That Makes It Real

Tech Guy 14:20

Yeah, interesting. I, you know, it's funny that you say that not everything makes it onto the page. That's that's actually probably a good lesson for writers out there that, you know, a lot of your research, you learn a lot more about subjects than you can actually even use, but fit into any given book. But I imagine all of that knowledge helps, especially when it comes to making situations and scenes and and setting and everything more realistic for the reader, right?

Ellie Alexander 14:53

Yeah. And you want your characters to you want to be as comfortable as your characters to be able to speak about something, right? Um, so even for Annie, when it comes to things like running the bookstore, I have spent, we collectively have spent a lot of time and money in bookstores because that's kind of our jam. That's our favorite place to be. So over the years, I've made a lot of friendships, I've talked to so many independent booksellers. So I want to weave in all of the real life details of bookselling, where, you know, it's not always the fantasy that we think about where, oh, you own a bookstore, so you're sitting behind the desk, like reading books all day while you sip your tea, and then there's a little cat on the counter, and then you know, you're making a million dollars every year. Like, no, you're shelving books constantly, reshelving. And they, you know, so making sure that uh those little nuggets of truth are also woven. And so the same would be true for the track details. I don't want to say like we went for a I don't know, like 200-foot run versus like a 5k or you know, like for the terminology, you want to get that right.

Tech Guy 16:03

Any readers out there who are runners would be like, wait, what?

Ellie Alexander 16:06

What? Yeah.

Tech Guy 16:08

What did they do? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Oh no, it's interesting you say that about Annie. I I I thought of Annie, the character, the other day. I saw a reel of uh just some random reel came across my my feed on Instagram, and it was a young woman who runs, she owns a bookshop, a small independent bookshop. And she her whole reel was like, Come along with me, like a day in the life of a bookshop owner. And it was it looked amazing. Um, she was very relaxed and she had a nice soundtrack going and everything, but it also was a lot of work, right? It was everything you just described. It was like she was constantly putting books on the shelf, she was opening boxes of books, she was doing, you know, she was changing like the because it also was kind of a coffee shop. She was changing the menu and everything, and she was not sitting still. Uh, there was no reading involved when I saw. So yeah. Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 17:07

I know, yeah. And I I that's like always the running joke whenever I am chatting with any of my friends who are booksellers where they're like, Yeah, what did you do? I just I don't know. I just sat at my desk and read all day. It was amazing. Same as true and publishing, even too. Like, yeah, those myths are um they're kind of pervasive.

Tech Guy 17:26

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I that that goes, yeah, that goes for for writing uh too. You know, you're just sitting around, you know, just doing research and everything. I I gotta say though, I I was jealous uh when you told me that you and Sky Guy had brainstormed this book on the on the drive because that that's kind of my that's my thing. I know that's my job.

Ellie Alexander 17:47

I know, sorry.

Tech Guy 17:49

I'm getting replaced.

Ellie Alexander 17:50

Like what but you know, it's in his genes. We trained him well for murder, which I don't know what that means. Like he was great. He was like, Oh yeah, okay.

Tech Guy 18:00

Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. That's oh yeah, that's uh that we I might have to strike from the transcript.

Ellie Alexander 18:09

I know. No, there was literally this point where I was like, dude, you're really good at this. And he's like, Yeah, well, you know, I grew up. I'm like, oh yeah, right, you did. Okay, thanks for that.

Tech Guy 18:20

Mom, if you really want to get away with it, this is what you need to do.

Ellie Alexander 18:23

I know, right? What's my legacy? I have left him a treasure trove of murder knowledge that will live in his brain, rent-free. Yeah, no.

Tech Guy 18:34

Oh my goodness.

Ellie Alexander 18:35

And then uh the drive home, uh, we did a lot more work on it. So at that point, he had done the Comic-Con event and I went and like, you know, did some Ashland stuff and some mystery festive. But I also then started like really fleshing it out and sketching firmer ideas because in that initial stage, it is like, oh, okay, yeah, that that's that's an interesting motive. I'm gonna write it down. But then as I start to like really get to know the suspects more and more than anything, the victim, because that's where everything comes back to. Then it's like, oh, wait, maybe this path is better. So the drive home was also like refinement, I would say. But that was a nice chunk of like 12 hours to by the time I was home, I was ready to like start the first draft, no problem.

Tech Guy 19:23

Yeah. And and I guess that that is a a great um illustration for prospective writers out there about like this is this is the work that it takes to, you know, put put together an idea for a book. That's 12 hours of conversation with somebody else about like essentially you're doing research and then bouncing ideas back and forth off of each other. And and then I like that. The the the the drive up was kind of ideation and the drive back was refinement. Um I like that. It's very cool.

Why A Brainstorming Partner Helps

Ellie Alexander 19:57

It's the way it works. And um I think there's really something to be said for having a sounding board, a brainstorming partner. I mean, there have been plenty of books that I have brainstormed solo in the beginning, but it's always much more enlightening to have somebody else, whether that is your husband, your son, your best friend. Like if you have an opportunity to have a little brainstorming sesh, uh, do it because just having other ideas in the room helps you refine, I think, what you want even more or takes you down a path that I wasn't expecting. Like, oh, SkyGun has murder. Okay.

Tech Guy 20:40

Yeah. No, I'm excited because we have a road trip coming up here in a couple weeks. And and I'm looking forward to maybe brainstorming a new series. Um we will be. Although you you already have uh I it's gotta be over half a dozen like series uh ideas sketched out based on past road trips that we've done together that you just have not had the time to write yet. So I know there is that. Um so we're just gonna be adding to that pile. No, it's the other one. It's like what is there a pile like for for readers for the the darlings out there who are readers, it's the TBR, right? The the to be read uh pile. But for writers, what is it? To be the TBW to be written?

Ellie Alexander 21:24

Yeah, we need to start that. I have so many things in my TBW, it's not even funny.

Tech Guy 21:30

Yeah, you do. I know, and there's some good ones in there too. Um there's some really good ones in there. I I I mean, uh I'm kind of biased, obviously, but I think so.

Ellie Alexander 21:41

No, and we've brainstormed, like you said, we've brainstormed multiple new series and ideas that are just sitting in notebooks because I haven't had time. So I should almost implement some kind of travel ban. I can't travel and plot anything new until I get some of these written.

Tech Guy 22:00

No, no, we can't. We we just maybe we'll just have to we'll have to talk about something else. I don't know.

Ellie Alexander 22:06

Yeah. Boring.

Tech Guy 22:09

No, it's it's funny though, but you say that, but you know, early on in your writing career, we we drove everywhere. Like we four for book promotions for your book talks, for everything. We drove everywhere. And then when we moved to Ashland, which is in southern Oregon, uh, for those darlings out there who don't know, and our son was running cross-country and track, it took like nine hours to get to the next school to, you know, to watch a 15-minute race. So we had a lot of time to talk. And it's um it it it has just it's kind of become like, you know, that that I get excited every time when I know a road trip's coming up because that is like, I'm like, okay, I gotta bring my A game. I got some good ideas. I got some ideas that maybe might not be that good, but we'll we're gonna talk about them anyway.

Ellie Alexander 23:01

So um I got some people who've really pissed me off that are about to meet. Totally.

Tech Guy 23:06

No, my list of my list of victims is so long. Yeah. Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 23:14

A lot of material right now. A lot of material.

Tech Guy 23:17

Definitely, definitely. Um, okay, so book two in the novel detectives, to technically book eight of the the secret bookcase mysteries, just you know, but um, but with the spin-off. Um how many, but but you're are how far along are you in the novel? Are you uh yeah, in the novel detectives?

Future Cases And Cozy Mystery Rules

Ellie Alexander 23:39

I'm um I'm a little bit farther than that, let's just say.

Tech Guy 23:43

I know the answer, but I'm just trying to like you know build the suspense for the listeners.

Ellie Alexander 23:50

I just delivered book six of the novel detectives, and I can tell you there will be more after that.

Tech Guy 23:57

So Oh my goodness.

Ellie Alexander 23:59

Yeah.

Tech Guy 23:59

Oh, book six.

Ellie Alexander 24:01

Book six. And it's again going back to Annie and Fletcher being private eyes, uh, there's each one has such a different case, too. So I've been super excited. And part of my tbw is um future cases because there are so many cool, interesting cases, you know, like missing persons. Well, I won't go into too many details because you'll know soon enough, darlings. But yeah, there's a lot more to come for the novel detec detectives.

Tech Guy 24:29

No, but you could uh you could you could talk about that a little bit in turn just in terms of like the typical cozy mystery is like almost, I mean, I know there is are subgenres within the cozy mystery genre, but typically there's a murder.

Ellie Alexander 24:43

Right.

Tech Guy 24:43

Sometimes more than one. But for the for the novel detectives, that doesn't necessarily have to be the case because of the nature of them actually being private investigators now and not just the casual sleuth like the amateur sleuth, right?

Ellie Alexander 24:59

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I had a lot of conversations with my editor about this because there is something to be said for, and darlings, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. That idea that if if you are a mystery lover, you might feel a little cheated if there's not a body, but the bodies have all been slightly different so far. And there have been some that, you know, maybe it's more like a cold case. So it's not like happening right in this moment where Annie's stumbling on the potty, but she's trying to piece together a murder that's a little cold. Uh it's been chilled for a while, that kind of stuff. So yeah.

Tech Guy 25:35

That's awesome. So you're saying that if Annie and Fletcher were trying to find like a lost prize dog, that there may be a murder involved, even though the the initial investigation is just about a dog.

Ellie Alexander 25:48

That's right. Although, you know, um, as an aside, I always talk about that they are doing that kind of work too, but we don't do a deep dive in it. That's just sort of in the peripheral. We know that they're also, you know, finding lost cats around Redwood Grove or whatever else it is.

Tech Guy 26:02

Gotta pay the bills, gotta pay the bills.

Ellie Alexander 26:08

We need to know. Yeah.

Tech Guy 26:10

Oh, that's great.

Ellie Alexander 26:11

Um this one has a body.

Tech Guy 26:14

Okay. This one has a body. So darlings know this one, this one definitely has a body. All right. So when is it coming out again?

Release Dates Title Tease Goodbye

Ellie Alexander 26:22

The ebook is out April 21st, and it's coming out in paperback at your local bookstore on April 28th.

Tech Guy 26:30

All right. And your local library.

Ellie Alexander 26:33

Yeah, exactly.

Tech Guy 26:35

Although it might not be in the library exactly on April 28th, but it will be available after this, soon after that. Um awesome. Uh any last words about A Death in the Dark.

Ellie Alexander 26:47

Ooh, uh no, I'm excited. Uh, I'll be curious for you, darlings, to tell me after you've read it why you think I titled it a death in the dark.

Tech Guy 27:00

Oh, yeah. We didn't get into that. I purposely didn't ask that question because this is no spoiler episode again. So maybe if maybe after it's been out a few weeks, we can have a review of where we're at in the novel detectives. But for now, this is all you're getting.

Ellie Alexander 27:15

It's all you get.

Tech Guy 27:16

April 21st for ebook, April 28th for paperback.

Ellie Alexander 27:22

That's right.

Tech Guy 27:23

A Death in the Dark Novel Detectives book two. Awesome. Can't wait to read it. So without further ado, until next time.

Ellie Alexander 27:34

Until next time.