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A Field Guide to Homicide by Lynn Cahoon
A Cat Latimer Mystery Book 6
Kensington • February 1, 2020
Cat Latimer and her writer’s retreat group go on a hiking trip—but a murderer has been lurking off the beaten path…
Cat’s sweetheart, Seth, is going all out on an outing into the local mountains—for the benefit of the writing group Cat’s hosting at her Colorado B&B. But when they try to identify some plant and animal life, they find death instead. The body belongs to a man with a gold claim a few miles away. Instead of striking it rich, he’s been struck down.
To his surprise, Seth recognizes the victim from his military days—and up to now believed he’d already died during his last tour of duty. Now Cat has to solve this mystery before the killer takes a hike…
Building a Writer’s Retreat
Big thanks to Brooke for hosting me today.
Hi guys, I’m Lynn Cahoon, author of the Cat Latimer cozy mystery series. Cat is a paranormal young adult author who decided to open her recently reacquired Victorian home to host a writer’s retreat once a month. Book 6, A FIELD GUIDE TO HOMICIDE releases this month.
When I started writing the series, I’d never been or developed a writers retreat. So it grew out of what I would want as a writer. I love taking college classes so having Covington College in Aspen Hills gave Cat access to a professor to teach an hour session during the retreat. So far, it’s been about Hemingway, but that might shake up this book. And I wanted to talk one on one with a real author and a bookstore owner. What secrets should we know as writers from these people?
The retreat also has access to the college library. And since it’s in Colorado, it has a huge amount of original source western expansion documents. Which one of my fictional writer guests drooled over when he arrived in SLAY IN CHARACTER.
A lot of what happens in the books at the fictional retreat is time for actual writing. (Well, when the guests aren’t trying to solve the most recent Aspen Hills murder.) Guests do word sprints- timed writing sessions to increase their word count and keep them focused on the work.
Since I started writing the series, I’ve actually had two annual retreats of my own. My BFF and I get together at someplace beachy (Galveston and San Diego) to meet for a few days as well as do book signings for local readers. Getting time to think about not only the current works I have in progress, but also, what I want to be as an author helps keep me attached and excited about the work. One year we focused on marketing and made goals and changes to our 2019 plans. Then before the retreat, we judged the effectiveness of the changes.
As always, some things worked, some didn’t, and some got lost in the day to day work.
And we walk, and talk, and eat. It’s rejuvenating.
I’m so looking forward to next year’s retreat.
So as you’re reading the Cat Latimer series, I hope you’re thinking about what type of retreat you’d like to attend? A reading retreat? A cooking retreat? A knitting retreat?
Let me know in the comments below.
Have a great month,
Lynn
About the Author
Lynn Cahoon is the award-winning author of several New York Times and USA Today bestselling cozy mystery series.
Lynn Cahoon is the award-winning author of several New York Times and USA Today bestselling cozy mystery series. The Tourist Trap series is set in central coastal California with six holiday novellas releasing in 2018–2019. She also pens the Cat Latimer series available in mass market paperback. Her newest series, the Farm to Fork mystery series, debuted in 2018. She lives in a small town like the ones she loves to write about with her husband and two fur babies. Sign up for her newsletter at www.lynncahoon.com.
She lives in a small town like the ones she loves to write about with her husband and two fur babies.Author Links
Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5857424.Lynn_Cahoon
Twitter – https://twitter.com/LynnCahoon
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LynnCahoonAuthor
Amazon author page – https://amzn.to/31cCDsk
Website – http://lynncahoon.com/
Thank you for being part of the book tour for “A Field Guide to Homicide” by Lynn Cahoon. Enjoyed reading Lynn’s guest post.
Always enjoy this author’s book and can’t wait for the opportunity to read this one. Love the cover!