Welcome to Beverly Rearick, Paranormal Cozy Mystery Author.
Beverly A. Rearick is the
author of paranormal cozy mysteries. The paranormal has always been something
she's been interested in since she was young. She even did some paranormal
investigations at one time and even worked as an executive producer for a radio
show about the paranormal. Besides her love of the paranormal, she is also a
lover of anything to do with bats. You will find a bat somewhere in every story
she writes.
Website: www.beverlyrearickauthor.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/beverlyrearickauthor
Do your characters come before or after your plot?
My characters always come before the plot. To me, the characters
are what make the plot. I get this image of certain people and scenes. From
there I start to fill in the blanks. Once I know the characters well enough,
they direct the plot.
When I started planning my current series, I though about what I
always wanted to see in a main character. I’ve never read a paranormal cozy
mystery where the main character didn’t have any magical abilities, but lived
among paranormals. I knew that is what story I wanted to tell. Samantha
Reitenbach, the main character in my Moonflower Mysteries Series, came from
this. I knew I wanted someone who had to deal with everybody around her being a
paranormal in one type or another and being almost an outsider. She just grew from
there. And know she is such a part of my imagination that she actually takes
over the stories as I write, telling me how things are going to happen. It can
really cause havoc on a plot because I will need to go back and change a bunch
of things after the first draft is written.
How do you choose a villain and how do you make them human?
My villains usually come from the main victim in the story, but
not always. Typically, I will think about who is going to die first in the
story and figure out which characters have a reason to want that person dead.
Sometimes there can be a very long list.
Once I know who will be the killer, I take a close look at them.
What caused this person to get to the point where they are willing to kill? I
don’t like to have a villain who doesn’t have a real reason, at least in their
mind, to kill the person. The reason for killing needs to be more than just
they are a bad person. And I try to show this reason throughout the book by the
way they act and the things they say.
Do your reading choices reflect your writing choices?
Absolutely. I read cozy mysteries exclusively. From the moment I
read my first one, I fell in love. I’ve always loved mysteries and trying to
figure out who did it. To the point that my family don’t enjoy watching shows
with me because I’ll guess the answer before the show gets too far in.
Cozy mysteries give you the mystery, along with a dose of love and
laughter. It’s nothing for me to be reading and just start laughing because of
something that happens in a book. The more I laugh, the more I love the story.
I occasionally will read other genres, but cozy mysteries are my
go to. Looking at my list of books I’ve read in the past years, the list is 75%
cozy mysteries. And when I finally decided to take my writing career from just
a hobby to a profession, I knew I wanted to write in this genre. And of course,
I had to go in the paranormal route because that has been my interest for as
long as I can remember.
Which type of characters are your favorite to write?
In my series, there is a group of older paranormals who meet every
morning at the diner to gossip. They are called the Morning Club. They are a
mixture of people I have met throughout my life, including one who is close to
my heart. I love writing their interaction with the main character because it
is always fun, while also full of clues.
What are you working on now?
I always have several projects going at once.
My second book in the Moonflower Mysteries Series, Construction,
Curses & Crime, is in the final revision before sending off to my fabulous
editor. I’m going through the comments I got from my beta reading group to make
sure there are no loose ends and everything makes sense.
I just finished writing the first draft of Reunion, Runes &
Revenge, the third book in the series. Now I am getting ready to go back
through and try to get the beginning to match the ending since halfway through
the book my main character took over and the story went in a completely
different direction I had planned.
Party, Potions & Peril mentioned an incident that happened
with my main character when she was a teenager and I’m working on a short story
to give the readers the complete story. I’m hoping to have the finished soon.
And, finally, I am plotting out future books in the series and also starting the initial preparations for a whole new series.
What sort of research do you do for your work?
Reading other cozy mysteries is the one
research I do that I enjoy more than anything else because I’ve been an avid
reader since I learned to read.
But I am a researcher at heart. I love
learning new things. I researched runes for Reunion, Runes & Revenge. Just
recently I researched growing mushrooms for a story. It all depends on the
story and what I need to know. I try not to go too deep into the research
though because I can spend too much looking into a topic and not focusing on
the book.
PARTY, POTIONS & PERIL
Birthday parties can be deadly.
Samantha Reitenbach is the only non-magical witch in the small,
paranormal town of Moonflower. Being a single parent while working at her
great-aunt’s diner was never how she imagined her life turning out, but this is
where she ended after her husband’s death.
A huge party to celebrate her daughter turning fourteen turns
deadly when a body is discovered in her grandmother’s potion room. To make
matters worse, the handsome vampire sheriff believes Samantha’s best friend is
the killer.
Between raising a teenager, a cursed talking bat, the sheriff
breathing down her neck, and an old flame, can Samantha find the killer before
her innocent friend is charged with murder?
Party, Potions & Peril is the first paranormal cozy mystery
in the Moonflower Mystery Series.
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