C.M. Waggoner: Let Yourself Experiment With Different Ways of Doing Things
In this interview, author C.M. Waggoner discusses how marathoning “Murder She Wrote” helped inspire her new cozy supernatural mystery, The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society.
C. M. Waggoner grew up in rural upstate New York, where she spent a lot of time reading fantasy novels in a swamp. She studied creative writing at SUNY Purchase and lived in China for eight years before moving with her husband to Albany, NY. In her spare time, she volunteers, performs kitchen experiments, asks if she can pet your dog, and gardens badly. Follow her on X (Twitter) and Instagram.
In this interview, C.M. discusses how marathoning “Murder She Wrote” helped inspire her new cozy supernatural mystery, The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society, her hope for readers, and more!
Name: C.M. Waggoner
Literary agent: Bridget Smith
Book title: The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society
Publisher: Ace Supernatural cozy mystery
Release date: September 24, 2024
Genre/category: Supernatural cozy mystery
Previous titles: Unnatural Magic, The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry
Elevator pitch: It’s “Murder She Wrote” meets “Buffy the Vampire Slayer!”
What prompted you to write this book?
I’d been streaming episodes of “Murder she Wrote” in 2020 (along with a lot of other people looking for something cozy and comforting to binge-watch while sheltering in place, I’m guessing!) and after idly Googling the show found some articles from the late-90s talking about how someone had crunched the numbers and concluded that Cabot Cove had a higher murder rate than Caracas. I thought it was very fun to contemplate why exactly everyone in this charming little seaside town seemed so completely unruffled by their shocking murder rate. The best explanation I could come up with was supernatural!
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
It took about four years in total from the first germ of an idea to publication, and mostly just changed by slowly expanding from a funny idea I had to a whole book. Some of my favorite parts of the book, like Lord Thomas Cromwell the cat, ended up being much bigger players in the final version than they were in the first draft.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
I was honestly surprised that my publisher jumped on the idea in the way they did—I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought it was funny!
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I expected writing a real whodunit would be hard, but I probably underestimated how much work I (and my poor long-suffering editor and copy editor) would end up having to put in to make sure that the clues, timelines, and possible suspects were lined up just right for the big reveal at the end. It gave me even more respect to mystery writers who successfully pull it off over and over again!
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
A few fun hours of reading with some decent laughs sprinkled in! I’ve been a huge fan of Agatha Christie and other cozy mysteries since I was a kid—I remember tearing through books in the The Cat Who… series in elementary school—and this book is my little love letter to the genre. I hope that readers can feel that affection when they read it.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
I see people online talking about being “plotters” or “pantsers” as if they’re immutable character traits. I’m a pretty chaotic loosey-goosey person by nature and pantsed my first book, but my first contract required me to submit an outline for my works in progress. Having that outline to refer to when I’m really in the weeds while working on subsequent books has made my writing life 100 percent easier, even if I often still go way off-script and change things as I go.
Because of that, one piece of advice that I have is to try not to wed yourself too completely to an idea of yourself as a specific “kind” of writer. I think it’s a better idea to let yourself experiment with different ways of doing things until you find a method that makes the writing process as joyful and stress-free as possible, and results in completed, readable books.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
