by Penny McGinnis

When I’m driving, I’m not a fan of passing other cars if it’s a two-lane road. On four lanes, my anxiety lessens, and I’ll pull ahead if the other car is driving too slowly.

In life, I’ve often been challenged to switch lanes. Child of God, daughter, wife, mom, sister, employee, retiree—all come with different roles and a variety of responsibilities.

When I volunteer in my daughter’s class (she teaches first grade) I might have four different little ones tugging for my attention to listen to them read, tie their shoes, or fix a Chromebook problem.

As a writer, I’ve found I have trouble staying in one lane. When I started writing, I chose to focus on romance with a side of mystery. In articles I’d read and classes I’d taken, I learned romance novels were the top sellers, plus I had read and watched plenty of happily ever after stories and enjoyed the tropes.

To be honest, and why wouldn’t I be, I don’t love writing romance. After penning three clean and inspirational romance stories in my Abbott Island series, I decided to make a change.

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My first love in novels is cozy mystery. The sweet stories with a small community, an amateur sleuth, a pet of some sort, and yes, a murder. I love solving the puzzle of who dun it, and several readers and friends had suggested I pen a cozy mystery.

At a conference I attended, I spoke to an agent simply to inquire about the probability of getting a cozy published. Her words discouraged me at first. She told me cozies are not being published much in the Christan fiction realm. The person I spoke to had no idea she had thrown down a challenge to me. I see people searching for good cozy mysteries in Facebook groups which focus on Christian reads. So, why not write one?

Did I mention the huge learning curve between romance and cozy mystery? There is one.

I dug in and read several how-to-write-a-cozy-mystery books. Red herrings, clues, suspects, innocent bystanders, and so many more elements had to be discovered and placed judiciously in my pantser universe.

After I learned the proper way to write a cozy, I bought a journal and wrote down every detail as they developed. For this to turn into a series, I had to keep accurate details. The process took time and considerable word juggling.

Now, seven months later, I can say I changed lanes and completed my first cozy, and I loved the process. My plan is to self-publish (another learning curve) early in 2026. Changing genres for me has been a challenge, but also a blessing. I’m looking forward to where the Lord leads me with the writing and hoping the words bless readers.

 

 

Penny Frost McGinnis, author of the Abbott Island series and picture book, Betsy and/y Bailey: No One Will be Just Like You would live in a lighthouse, if she could. Instead, she and her husband are content to live in southwest Ohio and visit Lake Erie every chance they get. She adores her family and dog, indulges in dark chocolate, enjoys fiber arts, and baseball. Her life’s goal is to encourage and uplift through her writing.