Juneau Black is…On the Writing Block!

Sherry Ickes

Oct 6

5 min read

When it comes to cozy mysteries, there are all different careers amateur sleuths can have: baker, librarian, jewelry maker, scrapbooker, etc. The possibilities are literally endless! But have you read one where the sleuth was an animal living in an animal world?

The Shady Hollow Mysteries series is written by Juneau Black, which is the shared pen name of Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel. They started writing the first book as a lark for National Novel Writing Month, but then just kept going.

They share a love of excellent bookshops, fine cheeses, and a good murder (in fictional form only). Though they are two separate people, if you ask either of them a question about their childhood, you are likely to get the same answer. This is a little unnerving for any number of reasons. Sharon lives in Wisconsin, where she works as a librarian. Jocelyn lives in the city-state of Philadelphia, where she also writes romance as Elizabeth Cole.

Today’s interview is with Jocelyn Cole, but all those “we” answers reflect the fact that the books were co-written.

Are there any animals in your book? If so, describe them and how involved they are in the investigation.

I have to answer this question, because the Shady Hollow mysteries are 100% animals! It’s a world of anthropomorphic animals with zero humans. So we faced interesting and unique challenges in crafting believable and engaging mysteries when our detective is a fox and our victim is a toad, and all the suspects are furry or feathered or scaly. Think Knives Out + Animal Crossing.

Our characters do behave in rather human ways (they wear clothing, they live in a town, they read the newspaper and drink coffee), but we also worked to incorporate traits associated with whatever species they are. So our fox detective Vera is quick and curious. Our bear police officer Orville is slow and lumbering. Do we have a raccoon who happens to do a lot of petty larceny? Sure. Does the sheep knit excellent woolen scarves? You bet. How does a sheep hold knitting needles? STOP ASKING AWKWARD QUESTIONS, OK? We’ve got a murder to solve!

In short, we try to balance “normal” animal behavior with “normal” person behavior, and yes, it sometimes means glossing over things. But Disney animation does this all the time, so we can too!

Do you always know who the killer is, or do your characters surprise you in the end?

When we started the very first book in what is now a series, we didn’t know who the murderer was. About halfway through the draft (Nov 15, since we were doing it as part of the National Novel Writing Month Challenge), we sat down and discussed what we’d written so far, and who might have been the killer of our poor victim. Then there was some serious work to backfill clues and create the narrative that would explain the killer’s motive while still allowing our detective to discover things at a natural pace. What we’ve learned is that no matter how clever or obvious we think we’re being in placing our clues, there will always be readers who say that were totally shocked by the reveal, and readers who say they saw it coming a mile away.

In subsequent books, we’ve always decided on the victim and the killer right away. But side characters can also definitely surprise us. Usually it’s with a comic storyline, but we’ve got a whole family of beavers that undergoes really dramatic changes throughout the series, and they were just written as a goofy one-off for the first book. It’s important to not lock yourself in too much when writing, because especially if you’re building a whole setting, a lot of stuff may happen that will shape the course of future stories in that world, and letting your world breathe and grow will help you craft new plots and subplots that feel organic and fulfilling.

What is your ultimate goal as an author?

It’s simple but true: we want to entertain readers. We happen to do it with fun mysteries that are (hopefully) both surprising and comforting. And yes, it’s important to be paid for that work too, because artists should be compensated for their time, effort, and expertise. But the joy of writing is very special in how a book becomes its own thing once it’s in the hands of a reader. We’ve been so delighted and surprised by how many readers have shared their own impressions of the world of Shady Hollow, including things like homemade recipes for foods and beverages we mention in the books.

Will the constant changes in the publishing industry and technology allow us to be career authors for the next few decades? The rise of robot-writing (it’s not intelligent, despite the label) is a real and present threat, primarily because it uses stolen past human labor to suppress the viability of future human labor. I’ve yet to see an LLM craft a better story than a skilled human writer, but it is way faster. No one can actually say how it will all conclude, and if they do say, they’re just guessing. But I intend to write and publish stories for as long as humanly possible.

Any advice for other authors?

No matter what genre you’re writing, or whether you’re solo or part of a team, the most basic writing rules still apply. Read your genre. A LOT. Write regularly and work on your craft. Be professional and clear-eyed about not just the content you’re making, but also the business landscape, and adjust as needed. Maintain focus: writing a few books in one series or a connected world is generally more marketable than putting out random standalone with wildly different moods. But if you’re struck by inspiration (or opportunity), by all means go for it. If you’re not having fun writing a story, the reader probably won’t have fun reading it.

What is Shady Hollow about?

The first book in the Shady Hollow series, in which we are introduced to the village of Shady Hollow, a place where woodland creatures live together in harmony—until a curmudgeonly toad turns up dead and the local reporter has to solve the case.

Reporter Vera Vixen is a relative newcomer to Shady Hollow. The fox has a nose for news, so when she catches wind that the death might be a murder, she resolves to get to the bottom of the case, no matter where it leads. As she stirs up still waters, the fox exposes more than one mystery, and discovers that additional lives are in jeopardy.

Vera finds more to this town than she ever suspected. It seems someone in the Hollow will do anything to keep her from solving the murder, and soon it will take all of Vera’s cunning and quickness to crack the case.

*The Shady Hollow Mysteries are available everywhere in paperback, audio, and ebook.