In a super fun twist of fate I went from reading cozy mysteries about cats to writing cozy mysteries with my besty! Check out our books and learn how we became “Octavia Cogsworth” and “Lavinia Brassington”, mystery mavens extraordinaire!
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How It Started
Over the years I have been sending my friend Barb (who is an actual author of fiction books) ideas that I wanted to read about, hoping that she would write a book for me!
Talking cat mysteries… nope. Time travel… nope. Well, what about if we had a mystery where the protagonist is a writer and her husband frames her using her Google searches (this comes to mind because I am a true crime junky and my Google searches could curl your toes!)
She didn't shoot that one down and we started brainstorming ideas, using ChatGPT to come up with ideas.
Using ChatGPT To Write Books
I KNOW this is going to ruffle some feathers, that we used a new technology to help with the writing process, but hear me out!
First off, Amazon appears to have a filter that won't allow ChatGPT written books, but we were not using it to write the books, just to help us flesh out an idea we already had!
Second off, Barb was the rockstar here who took Chat's ideas, our ideas and her writing expertise and functionally rewrote the whole thing in a way that makes sense.
Come to find out it is worthwhile to have actual experience in world building, character development and plotlines to write an actually GOOD mystery book!
I on the other hand WANTED to use ChatGPT because as an internet marketer I have to stay up on the latest developments, much the same way that I was an early adopter to Twitter and LinkedIn.
Also, I was super excited to be able to an AI image generator to make pictures for our Brimstone Bay Facebook page. More practice using new tools for marketing! Whoo whoo!
Becoming Octavia Cogsworth and Lavinia Brassington
My nom de plume is Octavia Cogsworth and Barb's is Lavinia Brassington. How cool and steampunky is that? Our protagonist for the books is Lillian Hargrave and the books are set in Brimstone Bay, Maine.
All of the names we chose were a giggle-fest as we picked the most macabre and creepy options that our friend Chat suggested!
Who Does What?
One thing you might like to know about is how we split up the work of being cozy mystery writers!
Octavia (me) is the pretty pictures, fancy videos, book covers and murder methods gal! I spend all my time watching true crime Youtube so I probably have put my 10,000 hours into figuring out how to off someone in a creative way!
My proudest hour was when Barb asked me how to kill Eric in the first book… and I did it!
Lavinia (Barb) is the one who does all the heavy lifting with writing the books. She is the keeper of the canon and has to know which shop names, streets the town has and dates when things are supposed to have happened.
While not a murderer at heart, Barb does have her moments of glee when she figures out a cool twist or fancy turn!
Our Cozy Mystery Books
Our thought behind the books is that they are Dexter, set in a cozy sea-side town like Murder She Wrote, with dash of Midsommer Murders thrown in!
Deceit's Edge: Endgame for a Grifter (Lillian Hargrave Murder Mystery Book 1)
Deceit’s Edge is a tantalizing journey into a realm of mystery where the line between love and hate blurs. Join Lillian Hargrave as she battles not only to solve the ultimate puzzle but also to reclaim her life from the pages of her husband's twisted imagination.
Deceit's Edge Cover
Deceit's Edge Trailer
Cozy Mystery Writing Wrapup
I hope you had fun learning how my besty and I became mystery writers! I will keep you up to date as our books come out and we become internationally famous writers!