Author: Tricia L. Sanders

Welcome to author Tricia Sanders who traded in her suits and lesson plans for the cozy mystery writing world.

Describe your favorite writing spot or space.

My favorite writing spot is my patio with my feet up, an iced tea, and my current playlist playing softly. The breeze in my backyard makes it an ideal spot almost year-round, and the patio is covered to protect me from the elements.

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

Too many to count. I still have books on floppy disks. Most are outlines, chapters, or high-level summaries. I do have four or five that just need a polish to make them publishable, but I’m so invested in my current work that I haven’t taken the time to read them and do the necessary work to publish them.

Do you write under a pseudonym? If not, have you ever considered it?

Nope. What you see is what you get. I did consider it and wish I had followed through. It would be like a secret identity and I’d be living a secret life. I’d be Shelby, Queen of Novels and such. Or maybe, Zelda, portrayer of all things fiction. Ummm, no. I’m Tricia, cozy mystery author.

What comes first for you, the plot or characters?

My characters always come first. I want my readers to fall in love with my them so I try to take extra time fleshing them out before I write their story.

How do you select the names of your characters?

My character names come from everywhere. One of my characters was named for two counties in Tennessee. Sometimes my readers name them like in Flea Market Felony. I’ve used baby name lists, obituaries, even census records. And a bit of trivia—Cece Cavanaugh in my Grime Pays series started out as Sissy.

What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?

Trying to have men say what they would really say and not what we women want them to say. It’s hard to get into a man’s mindset. But it’s also fun to make them say exactly what we want them to say. Ha!

Can you hear your characters talking?

Oh yes, mostly when I’m trying to sleep at night. I’ve even had arguments with my characters when I try to justify doing something to them. One of my characters Nancy, in my Grime Pays series, refused to be a one-book character. She showed up unexpectedly in book 2 and would not leave. She’s made it to book 4 and I don’t see her leaving anytime soon and let me tell you Cece was not happy.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I’m a timeline kind of person. When I start writing a book, I create a calendar and set a word count objective each day. If I deviate from the schedule, then I edit it before I continue writing. I think it’s an OCD thing, but It’s a holdover from my corporate days when I created monthly to-do lists.

What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?

Hands down my laptop. My handwriting is atrocious. Years ago, I used to write on legal pads. Well, scribble is probably more accurate. It was always a crapshoot whether I’d be able to decipher what I’d written. Sometimes, I look at a sentence I’ve written and have no idea what it says. Probably something very genius, but alas, due to my chicken scratch it will forever be lost to humanity.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Travel and take photographs. With the pandemic I’ve not been traveling. You can only take so many photos of your backyard. I’ve recently moved to Texas and am so excited to get out explore my new state and capture the beauty all around me.

What is your favorite childhood book(s)?

The Donna Parker series by Marcia Martin. There were seven books in the series. My mom bought me the first one when I was nine years old.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Find your balance and learn how to maintain it.

Tricia L. Sanders lives in the Austin, Texas area and writes about women with class, sass, and a touch of kickass. A former instructional designer and corporate trainer, she traded in curriculum writing for novel writing, because she hates bullet points and loves to make stuff up. And fiction is more fun than training guides and lesson plans.

When she isn’t writing, Tricia is busy crossing dreams off her bucket list. With all 50 states checked, she’s concentrating on foreign interests. She’s an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan, so don’t get between her and the television when a game is on.