Perhaps, upon reading the title to this blog, you might think that I am going to introduce a new cozy mystery to you. Nope! Instead, I am going to introduce myself…I have tried to add little things about myself throughout my site… If you have read the “B” page, then you know that my ALL TIME, VERY FAVORITE AUTHOR is not even a cozy mystery author… E. F. Benson‘s Mapp and Lucia series is the only series of books of which I have well-used copies… The series is the only set of books that I have read more than once, and plan on reading again…. and again. They are Cozies without the mysteries! (As an addenda, I am now – 2014 – making my way through Agatha Christie’s mysteries again, so I should add her to my very short list of authors who I have read more than once.)
When I wrote my definition of What Makes a Cozy Just That?, I submitted a little information about myself… (Don’t ask me why, but I made up a pseudonym for myself…. as if the people across the street might read the biography and know it was me!) Anyway, here is what I submitted as my biography:
“Erin Martin is a freelance author, an avid reader, and a fan of mysteries (of all types.) She has a master’s degree in education. Erin resides with her husband who also enjoys reading. Erin created and maintains the Cozy Mystery List, a Reader’s Guide to Cozy Mystery Books (and Other Favorite Authors).” (I used a pseudonym because at the time, I thought that I would possibly start writing articles for other sites to use… but, instead, this site has become my priority and takes up most of my computer time.) My name is Danna (as in banana… not Dana or Donna.)
So, why do I have this site?
Well, after joining several mystery reading groups, and making some very good friends who shared my love for cozies, I started branching out… and slowly started accruing all of these authors… one author “leading me” to another author through their similarities, etc.
I have been reading cozies for years, and I got very discouraged when I attempted to find new authors to try. I remember that I would go to Amazon to buy a book, and there would be all of these “come-ons” from different readers… and (at first) I would get so excited thinking that I would find new authors to try, just by clicking on the “cozy list-mania” type of lists. After clicking on many lists, I felt very discouraged to find that the person would have one or two authors he/she liked… listing the authors’ books out of sequence, and most of the time, not even listing all of the given authors’ books.
Also, after buying several books twice… (And that is no joke!) I decided that I would have to start writing down all of the authors and books that I read. I actually found that when I went to place a newly acquired book in my TBR section of my bookshelves, the identical book would already be occupying its proper space! Thus, my initiation into the world of compulsive author/book lists.
One of my cozy mystery book reading friends asked if she could have a copy of my list, and the rest is history! That is when I started to index all of my authors on my computer, trying to update whenever I found a new author or a new book for one of my “old” authors. And, after years of keeping a list on my computer, my husband suggested that I put the lists on the internet. So I made this alphabetical and chronological list of books and authors into the Cozy Mystery site that you see now… after several years (and thousands of hours!) of effort. A full disclosure about the links is here.
I sure hope that these author and book lists can be of help to you.
