5 Questions with Cozy Mystery Author Susan McCormick

Susan McCormick writes cozy murder mysteries. She is also the author of GRANNY CAN’T REMEMBER ME, a lighthearted picture book about Alzheimer’s disease. She is a doctor who lives in Seattle. She graduated from Smith College and George Washington University School of Medicine, with additional medical training in Washington, DC and San Francisco, where she lived in an elegant apartment building much like the one in the book. She served nine years in the military before settling in the Pacific Northwest. She is married and has two boys, plus a giant Newfoundland dog.

Q: What’s inside the mind of a cozy murder mystery author?

A:  Everywhere I look, I see mystery book possibilities. A cutthroat music competition that comes every four years and only one scholarship is given? I see a mom who will do anything to help her child succeed. An arguing couple in a National Park? I see a husband who might lean too close to the edge and “fall off.” I am kind, sedate and boring in my real life, but my imagination is full of mystery.   

Q: Tell us why readers should buy THE FOG LADIES.

A:  THE FOG LADIES’ quirky characters, with spunky older women and one overworked, overtired, overstressed young intern will appeal to cozy lovers young and old. It is set in an elegant apartment building in San Francisco, one of the most unique and beautiful cities in the world.

Q: What makes a good cozy murder mystery?

A:  Characters drive a cozy, and I tried to create a memorable cast of characters that will hopefully survive this killer in their building and persevere for more mysteries to come. Another cozy feature is an enclosed setting, like the elegant apartment building in my story, so the victims and the killer are all known to each other and it is hard to hide.

Q: Where can readers find out more about you and your work?

A:  My website is https://susanmccormickbooks.com

and facebook https://www.facebook.com/susanmccormickauthor/

I also wrote a lighthearted children’s picture book about Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, GRANNY CAN’T REMEMBER ME.

Q: What has writing taught you?

A:  Writing has taught me about a whole different part of my brain that I did not know existed. With my doctor work, sometimes a diagnosis or a concern about a patient will come to me in a dream, and these messages from my brain have always been accurate. Writing is the same. Though I try to plot and plan, my favorite part of writing is when characters I've created do unexpected things and get themselves into trouble. One of my characters, Enid Carmichael, discovers Starbucks lattes at the ripe old age of eighty. She loves the bitterness, the froth. I wrote that. Then she craved more, and the next thing I knew, she was stealing Starbucks coupons from her neighbor’s newspaper to feed her addiction. She did that. Not me. I have learned to give my characters a little space to be themselves, because the surprises they bring are a delight.