Cozies are a subset of the mystery genre in which the author distracts the reader from the PTSD areas of their lives. They’re the gentle hugs of stories, and yet they revolve around some crime, because nothing is as entertaining as gossip.
</snark>
Cozies actually:
- Feature a main character you wouldn’t mind going on vacation with. The character might be annoying, but in such a way that you could totally put up with for a weekend.
- Are set in a place that you would like to go on vacation, or center around a job/lifestyle that you wouldn’t mind having yourself for a few days.
- Are about the messiness of life finally getting sorted out for five minutes.
- Are generally about the theory that if people would just talk to each other, it would all work out for the best.
- Are about selfish geting what’s coming to them, and generous people who make terrible mistakes and get mercy and forgiveness instead, although they first have to be genuinely sorry.
- Feature things that people enjoy as part of their relaxation rituals. Pets, hobbies, food, hot beverages, walks through picturesque landscapes, warm blankets, friends who are there for you, hugs.
- Should be like being offered a hand. “Come with me,” says the author. “We will make real life hurt less.”
An Agatha Christie quote I pulled from Goodreads:
“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”
Like that 🙂
…
It takes writing time to write these posts. If you enjoyed this post, please take a moment to check out my latest book, One Dark Summer Night, or sign up for my newsletter.