Author events can take a lot of shapes. They can be a solo presentation or talk, a one-on-one interview, or a panel discussion on any number of topics. One of my favorites is Mystery Making put on by the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime.The Mystery Making events I participate in are panels comprised of authors who write different genres of crime fiction. When the audience arrives, we ask them to give us character names, motives, weapons, settings, and occupations. From their ideas, the authors then create a new story on the fly. Think of it as jazz improv for the literary set.
It's fun for the audience to see where their ideas take us and it's fun for the authors to riff with our friends.
At a recent event in Manchester Vermont, we received the following ideas:
Settings: Vermont, dairy farm, Dunkin Donuts
Names: Mammie, Matilda, Anna Belle, Ronald, Llewan, Dr. Horatio Cornbliss
Weapons: dictionary, rake, snake venom, plunger
Motive: Cold coffee
Occupation: Poet, dog walker, farmer
We brainstormed, laughed, and decided what occupations folks had and who killed who and why. Then we put our prompt into Co-Pilot, an AI tool. Our story was a bit different. The biggest difference? We did not see that particular use of the plunger!
Here's the prompt we created:
Sent by Copilot:
And here is what we received:
Log Line
When a Dunkin Donuts manager is found dead on a Vermont dairy farm, a volunteer sleuth and her farmer husband must unravel a web of deceit, where the motive is as simple as a cup of cold coffee.
Story
On a crisp autumn morning in Vermont, the tranquility of Mammie and Ronald’s dairy farm was shattered by a chilling discovery. Llewan, the Dunkin Donuts manager known for his notoriously weak coffee, lay lifeless near the barn, a dictionary clutched in his hand. The cause of death? Snake venom.
Mammie, an avid volunteer and amateur sleuth, couldn’t resist the call of a mystery. With Ronald by her side, she began to piece together the events leading to Llewan’s demise. The farm, conveniently located near the Dunkin Donuts, had seen a steady stream of visitors, including Anna Belle, a local poet who often complained about the coffee, and Matilda, the dog walker who had a peculiar habit of carrying a plunger.
Dr. Horatio Cornbliss, the eccentric veterinarian with a pet Chihuahua, was also a frequent visitor. His expertise with animals made him a prime suspect, especially since snake venom was involved. However, his alibi was solid—he had been at a veterinary conference the night of the murder.
As Mammie delved deeper, she discovered that Anna Belle had a motive. Her poetry readings at Dunkin Donuts had been ruined by Llewan’s weak coffee, driving away her audience. But Anna Belle had an airtight alibi; she was performing at a local library at the time of the murder.
The red herring came in the form of Matilda, the dog walker. Her odd behavior and the plunger she always carried made her seem suspicious. However, it turned out she used the plunger to retrieve tennis balls from the lake for the dogs she walked.
The breakthrough came when Mammie found a hidden stash of snake venom in the barn. It led her to Ronald, who had been secretly experimenting with natural pest control methods. Ronald confessed that he had accidentally spilled the venom on the dictionary Llewan had been reading, not realizing the deadly consequences.
In the end, it was a tragic accident, but the motive behind the investigation remained clear: a simple cup of cold coffee had set off a chain of events that led to an unexpected and fatal conclusion.
