Looking back at the drafting process for Leelu and the Halloween Mystery now that it’s published, I honestly wonder how I “kept it together.” Trying to weave the funny moments, the cozy routines, and the genuine spookiness into a single manuscript felt like trying to knit a sweater while riding a broomstick! There were days when I was convinced the plot was a tangled mess of thread, and the ending would simply never appear.

But that’s where the magic of the writing process comes in. You just keep showing up. You embrace the chaos, follow the leads that Leelu gives you, and trust that the story will finally click into place. It wasn’t always a graceful process; there were definitely more than a few days fueled by just biscuits and tea, wondering if the windy curse was real, but seeing the finished book, and knowing readers are enjoying the final result, makes every one of those chaotic drafting days worth it.

When I write a mystery, I start with something genuinely spooky or strange. For Leelu and the Halloween Mystery, the initial research took me deep into the folklore of unexplained natural phenomena and lost magical objects, the kind of old, dusty legends that make you jump when the wind blows outside.

But if I let myself get too deep into the research, I’d never finish the book! My strategy? Inject the fiction surrounding the Folklore, for every Folklore is mixed with fiction; we have to ask ourselves, which is the part that was the root of the Folklore and which is the one that has added to its myth? I intentionally mix those scary legends with absolute silliness. If Leelu is facing down a mysterious, windy curse, you can bet she’s also dealing with a disaster involving a pile of ridiculously oversized sweaters or a talking piece of furniture!

This is where my own writing ritual comes in: My cat, Gawain (it’s actually “Sir Gawain,” but it might go to his head, and he is already feeling waaay to entitled!) has to approve every sentence by sniffing my manuscript first, which I print, so that I can write notes on it. And no writing session is complete without my teapot at the ready, with my favorite tea. It keeps my mind sharp, and it is a type of fuel too, plus tea!! Hellooo! 🙂

My writing process is a mix of serious research, coming up with the perfect title, and rushing to get those ideas written in the handy dandy notebook I carry with me. It gets to be a bit of mess, with all of my research books surrounding my desk (yup, I love printed books, guilty!), but it’s how the magic happens. Now, if you’ll excuse me, the teapot is whistling, and Witchville is calling. See you in the pages!”

Until I write again!

MGL🌻🪄✒️