Darcy slipped from one tree to the next, hoping that her flight was undetected. She held her breath and listened, straining to hear above the hammering of her heart. Was that the sound of a foot crunching dead leaves? Did the noise come from her left or her right? She did not know which way to run or whether to run at all. Her pursuer might be as unsure about her location as she was about his. He could be hidden behind some tree or rock, waiting for her to move and reveal her hiding place.
The highway lay just across the little clearing in front of her–the highway and possible cars and people and help, but getting there could prove deadly. Bright moonlight filtered through the leaves of the forest, moonlight that made stealth nearly impossible. The light silvered the rocks and bushes, turning dead tree stumps and clumps of sumac into alien objects. Was her stalker hiding behind one of those rocks? That merciless moon would expose any movement as surely as a spotlight and Darcy did not know where her hidden enemy waited.
Sorry about that–the full moon which turns my street into a place of light and shadows must have gotten to me this morning. Imaginary plots and characters invaded my mind and insisted upon appearing on the printed page or, in this case, my new post. What can I say? The moonlight got to me.
Some mysteries begin with an enticing view; some begin with a character facing a harrowing situation and some begin with both. A story is where the writer finds it. It could be a phrase spoken by friend or stranger, it could be an unanswered question, it could be refusing to accept the status quo and asking, “What if?” However a story begins, to my way of thinking, it should begin with action, something that grabs the reader’s attention right away.
If I continued with the story above, using my character Darcy Campbell, I would have to change from third person to first person. In The Cemetery Club, Grave Shift, and in the third Darcy/Flora mystery, co-author Barbara Burgess and I wrote in first person. The scene above might begin like this: I slipped from one tree to the next, hoping that he did not see me. I held my breath and listened, straining to hear above the hammering of my heart…
Do you, a reader of cozy mysteries, prefer books written in first person or third? Personally, I like to read or write either but I do want to get inside the head of only one character. To me, going from one viewpoint character to the next, to the next is confusing.
Anyway, the picture is one I took this morning of that full moon peeking through the maple and the crepe myrtle and sparking a plot in this cozy mystery writer’s mind. Moonlight can be murder.
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