A Mauzzy & Me Mystery, Book 2
Cozy Mystery, Young Adult Mystery, Mystery
Date Published: 08-15-2022
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
After encountering a brief power outage at work, college student Sara Donovan might be allowing her imagination to run wild. The main vault in the Carlton Museum holds the Fire and Ice Exhibit, a collection of rare gems, including the Star of Midnight, a 175-carat diamond. Although all the stones are accounted for, Sara suspects the Star of Midnight was stolen and replaced with a fake.
While conducting her own investigation, what Sara uncovers is beyond even her wildest imagination: a coded message, papers with strange characters, and a mysterious set of numbers carved into an office wall. Despite dismissive historians and other experts, she is certain these clues point to a mysterious centuries-old legend.
Unfortunately, her colorful history of usually being right, but always being wrong, means she must solve the mystery to prove her theory.
Is There a Message in Your Novel That You Want Readers to Grasp?
That it’s okay to be different and to believe in
yourself even when those around you are doubting you.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Building out the plot. I
am an extreme plotter so I take months to research and ultimately develop a
document I call my blueprint. It is anywhere from 30-45 pages and includes the detailed
premise, subplots, complete character inventory, the protagonist’s darkest moment,
the plot’s main turning points (the dramatic opening or hook, the inciting
event, plot twists, pinch points, and the climax), and the supporting cast’s
relationships with the protagonist, villain, etc. Once the blueprint is
complete, I use it to develop a chapter/timeline document with thumbnails for
every scene. This document helps me get the pacing just right because I start
by dropping in the main turning points from the blueprint and then build out
the story around those key elements until I have all the chapters laid out. Although
I invest a considerable amount of time in these two documents, when I am done,
they jumpstart the actual writing while minimizing plot holes. With these two
documents in hand, I am able to write each chapter in 1-2 days.
How many books have you written and which is your favorite?
Two that have been published, Against
My Better Judgment and Fire & Ice,
which are the first two books in the Mauzzy & Me Mystery Series. I also
have an unpublished manuscript called If Words Could Kill that I am currently
in the agent querying process, and another called Coronet Foil that was
my very first attempt at fiction and will never see the light of day in its
current form. As for which book is my favorite, I have mixed feelings. Since Against
My Better Judgment was
my award-winning debut novel, there will always be a soft spot in my heart
for it. However, I absolutely love Fire & Ice. So, they’re both my
favorite, for different reasons. How’s that for a cop-out?
If You had the chance to cast your main character from
Hands down, Jennifer Lawrence. My main character,
Sara Donovan, is a klutzy and independent-minded person who is open, honest, and
naturally funny but can come off quirky and to her best friend, Zoe, at times more
than a bit crazy. Jennifer Lawrence is all this and then some. After all, who
can trip
up the stairs at The Oscars and still pull off an acceptance speech, and
then follow that up the
very next year tripping on The Oscars’ red carpet?! She’s so perfect for
the role, one would think she was my inspiration for Sara, but that wasn’t the case.
But she would certainly knock the role out of the park. I wonder if I should
send her both books for her reaction?
When did you begin writing?
I wrote an action/thriller in 1993 titled Coronet
Foil that a well-known editor read and told me it was ready for Hollywood.
Translation – my premise was good but the writing, not so much. I shelved the
manuscript and 20 years later I retired and wrote my first book, Against My
Better Judgment. However, it took another five years of rewrites, editing,
and querying, before I landed a publisher, The Wild Rose Press.
How long did it take to complete your first book?
I wrote
the first draft of Against My Better Judgment in about six or seven
months, but the finished product took another five years and was significantly
different because the manuscript went through developmental
editing twice, first with Cynthia
Luna and then with Jeni Chappelle.
I learned a ton from working with each, and the end results were a critically-acclaimed
award-winning book and the established writing process I discussed earlier.
Did you have an author who inspired you to become a writer?
As a child, I was fascinated by Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.
It really revved up my imagination and interest in writing stories. As far as
an author who inspired me as an adult to become a writer, the inspiration I drew
wasn’t to become a writer but rather to stick to it as a writer. These
were authors who had “day jobs” that refused to let rejections keep them from
getting published. At the top of the list was Tom Clancy (insurance
agent) and his The Hunt for Red October, which was rejected by
multiple publishers and was eventually published by the small academic Naval Institute
Press as its first work of fiction. Another was John Grisham, whose first book,
A Time to Kill, was rejected by agents and dozens of publishers. And
finally, Brad Meltzer, whose debut novel, The Tenth Justice, was
actually the second book he wrote. The first, Fraternity, received 24
rejections and as
Meltzer put it, “ It still sits on my shelf.” Just like my Coronet Foil.
What is your favorite part of the writing process?
Believe it or not, the writing of the first
draft. Since I have a detailed blueprint and also a chapter/timeline document
completed before I start writing, the actual writing process is very smooth
because I know exactly where I am going and how my characters are going to act.
And it feels so dang liberating to finally get the story out of my brain and
onto digital paper.
Describe your latest book in 4 words.
Humorous fast-paced layered mystery
Can you share a little bit about your current work or what is in the
future for your writing?
I am in the writing process for the third book in
the Mauzzy & Me Mystery Series (the blueprint and chapter/timeline
documents are already completed). Although the title may change, the current
working title is Grave Mischief and I’ll let that speak for itself. All I
will say is that, like the first book in the series, it will be set in the
Tuscaloosa/Birmingham area. I am also working on a short story called “The Gift”
for a magazine contest that is due 1 November.
As for my writing future, in addition to
continuing the Mauzzy & Me Mystery Series, I am also hopeful to get my Bill
Byrd murder mystery series into publication. As noted earlier, I am currently
in the agent querying process for the first book titled If Words Could Kill.
Once I finish writing Grave Mischief, I will dive into writing the
second book in the Bill Byrd series.
I also would like to expand “The Gift” into a
full-length novel, and maybe, just maybe, take a wrecking ball to Coronet Foil
and do it justice.
About the Author
B.T. Polcari is a graduate of Rutgers College of Rutgers University, an award-winning mystery author, and a proud father of two wonderful children. He’s a champion of rescue pups (Mauzzy is a rescue), craves watching football and basketball, and, of course, loves reading mysteries. Among his favorite authors are D.P. Lyle, Robert B. Parker, and Michael Connelly. He is also an unapologetic fantasy football addict. He lives with his wife in scenic Chattanooga, Tennessee.
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