Create cozy mysteries
readers love coming back to.

A good cozy gives you 2 things at once. A mystery you want to solve and a place you don’t particularly want to leave.

You care who did it. But you also want another afternoon in the bakery, another conversation with the grumpy neighbor and another excuse to visit the sleuth’s slightly chaotic life.

I’ve been publishing fiction since 2011, across multiple pen names, with books on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. I know how much thinking goes into a story readers enjoy without ever seeing the work behind it.

This course puts that work into steps you can follow with Claude or ChatGPT. You make the creative decisions. Your AI helps with the research, planning, drafting and checks. I show you what to look for before you keep the result.

You don’t need a ready-made town, a brilliant murder idea or years of writing experience. We build those foundations together.

Cozy readers have expectations. Your sleuth is an amateur with a believable reason to investigate. The mystery plays fair. The tone stays warm, even when someone in town has been up to no good.

You’ll learn those expectations before you choose your concept. Then they become part of your writing rules, so you and your AI have something specific to check the story against.

That makes the creative decisions easier. You’re choosing the kind of cozy you want to write while keeping the reader promise clear.

There’s a lovely opportunity in a series: readers get to know your people. When the next book arrives, they already have a reason to care.

You don’t have to invent a new town and a completely new cast every time. You keep the parts readers came to love, then bring in a fresh mystery, a different town event and new developments in the relationships.

That’s why we plan your series before drafting Book 1. Your recurring cast, longer story threads and series bible give the next book somewhere to begin.

A series gives your books more chances to find a reader and gives that reader more of a world they enjoy. The course helps you build the books behind that opportunity, without promising a particular income.

You’ll follow a sample series through the lessons so you can see the choices in context. Its sleuth, Del Corliss, is a retired music teacher who inherits a piano-tuning business in the lake town of Pell Harbor. Her perfect pitch makes her notice things other people miss.

Your sleuth and your town will be your own. The example shows you what to look for, so you have something better than a blank page to start from.

Start with Manual Mode when you first meet a step, then use Shortcut Mode when you’re ready. You can mix both throughout the course.

Cozy Mystery Writer comes in versions for Claude and ChatGPT, with installation guidance. Its workflow reads the cozy promise, so genre rules travel with the writing process. It also includes a voice interview and a clue checker.

The plugin keeps your project files together and gives you a way to see where you are and what comes next. You stay in charge of the ideas, the choices and the finished book.

You get worksheets for choosing your cozy lane, building the recipe and comparing story concepts. Then there are cast cards, a series-plan variety sheet, a murder-plan template and a clue map to help the story fit together.

When you’re drafting, use the chapter review checklist and quick fixes. When you’re editing, use the story and fair-play audit, then the phrase-cleanup sheet.

And when the book is ready for its next step, the blurb, book matter, keywords and cover-brief resources help you prepare what readers see.

You’ll find PDF versions and editable Google Doc copies in the course resources. You’re adapting useful starting points to your own book instead of trying to remember every detail.

The course takes you through Book 1 and helps you plan your series. You’ll create the sleuth, recurring cast, town and longer story threads before writing, so the first book gives the rest somewhere to grow.

After Book 1, you update the series bible and plan the next mystery. The people and places stay recognizable while the murder, suspects and town event change.

Your voice rules and review process come with you, too. You’re building a way to work that you can return to for the next book and the one after that.

You still read, choose and approve the work. Having the foundation in place makes the next set of decisions easier to approach.