Author Spotlight: Mystery Author Shelly Jones Is Here with Their Tule Debut Novel & a Giveaway!

We have a winner! Margie Senechal, you are Shelly’s giveaway winner. She will be in touch. Thanks to everyone for coming by and participating–we love talking with our readers! Spotlight authors have a great time and so do I!

Right off, wow! I’ve had so much fun talking to Shelly Jones, who is a new-to-me cozy mystery author. Their Tule Publishing debut novel, Player Elimination, just released yesterday, and I can’t wait to read it!

Shelly Jones is a professor by trade and a nerd by design. Woefully introverted, their pockets are full of post-it notes and their head is full of (unsaid) witty come-backs and un-won arguments from years past. When they aren’t grading papers or writing new cozy mysteries, Shelly can often be found hiking in the woods or playing a board game while their cats look on.

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Here’s our interview–enjoy!

N: Welcome to the blog, Shelly. I’m so delighted to have you with us today. You are a new author to me, so I went to your website and got lost in the links to your short stories—A Sea Change was a powerful story. How has the transition from short works of fiction to full novels been? Harder or easier because you have more word room?

A: Thanks so much for having me on your blog today, Nan! It’s a pleasure to be here. The transition from short work to novels has been both challenging and bittersweet. For years I thrived on short fiction, especially flash fiction, enjoying the challenge of squeezing a story into a short word count. With novels, I can stretch and soak in an idea longer, exploring the twists and turns with my characters. But sometimes I do miss the constraints of short fiction, which forces me to narrow and focus in.

N: Your bio says you are a professor at a small university in upstate New York, where you teach classes on mythology, writing, and transmedia storytelling. Explain transmedia storytelling—a fascinating term—to me.

A I’m actually in the process of updating the syllabus for this course right now, so this is fresh on my mind. Transmedia storytelling is, essentially, how we adapt or transform a story from one medium to another (e.g. Star Wars the film to the cartoon to the graphic novel to the video game to the theme park ride). I teach this class for our new Applied Communication program, encouraging our students to think about what ultimately makes a story, and how we can convey the essence of a story over/across/trans different media.

N: You’re also an editor for Analog Game Studies, whose research examines tabletop games, something you love. Your Tule Mystery debut novel, Player Elimination released yesterday, August 27. Did that story come from your work with Analog Game Studies?

A: In many ways, yes. I enjoy playing and studying games, and often bring them into my classroom. (For example, in my transmedia class we’ll think about how games can tell stories too.) Player Elimination, and more broadly my Wren Winters series, was definitely inspired by my work with games and the gaming communities I participate in. I’ve always loved mysteries and I’m not sure why it took me so long to consider writing one myself. But when the idea of writing a mystery about a gaming group hit me, I was hooked.

N: What is the most surprising thing you discovered about yourself while writing Player Elimination?

A: Honestly, that I could write a novel. Period. I’ve wanted to be an author since I was a little kid. Over the years, I’ve tried writing a few novels, but ultimately floundered and shelved the drafts, hitting maybe twenty thousand words or so. Much like long-distance running, I’d hit a wall that I just couldn’t break through. So I’d turn back to my short fiction. But with Player Elimination, I was able to bust through that wall and cross the finish line for the first time.

N: I’d love for you to speak to writing cozies. How do you create the twists and turns like the ones that happen in Player Elimination and keep the balance between cozy mystery and flat-out murder mystery?

A: When I was drafting, I was fortunate to get some wonderful cozy advice from fellow mystery author, Lisa Q. Mathews, who encouraged me to alternate between the high stakes/tense moments with quiet introspection and cozy homelife. In the case of Player Elimination, Wren’s down time either includes quiet moments with Pip, her black and white cat, or playing games with her friends. I think the cozy quality also comes in with a sense of community and family. The friendship between Wren and her gaming group is, I hope, palpable, and they all play off of one another.

N: How much of you is in your main character, Wren Winters?

A: There are certainly some similarities, though I think there are different facets of me in each of the main gaming group. Wren is reluctant to change (guilty!) and a homebody (also guilty!). We also both have an autoimmune disorder, which I wanted to include because I think that kind of disability representation is important. Her friend Jo is very logical and keeps the others from jumping off the deep end. (I like to think things through – sometimes too much). Charlie is a do-er and action-oriented. (My version of that is that I say ‘yes’ to too many things…) And Esther is a charismatic performer (something I am woefully not – but I can fake/mask when I need to be “professional,” even if it saps all my energy).

N: What are some of your very favorite games and do they appear in Player Elimination?

A: So I did a fun thing for all of my board gaming books: I made up my own games. I reference a few very popular real board games (e.g. Clue, Settlers of Catan), but I thought it would be fun to create fictional game titles for my characters to play. (I did this partly because I worried if a character was killed over a real game or even with a real game, that might not be a nice reflection of the real game.) I now have a spreadsheet (love a spreadsheet!) of dozens of fake board game titles and their basic game mechanics/the type of game they are.

Personally, I love a cozy tile laying game, preferably one themed around nature or crafts. Something like Calico, a puzzly tile-laying game about quilts and cats, or Cascadia, another puzzly tile-laying game about the wildlife of the Pacific Northwest, are great options for me. I also love a card-based, engine-building game like Wingspan, which is all about birding.

N: What is the most difficult part about writing for you?

A: Probably re-reading what I wrote. I think most writers are harsh critics of themselves. I could read the same passage on two different days and think it is stellar one day and the worst pile of nonsense I’ve even written the next day. Finding the truth somewhere in between can be tricky, and knowing when to stop futzing and move on. I am in the process of editing my third book now and I think I could play with it and tweak and perfect forever – but deadlines loom large. Maybe the next one will be more perfect.

N: Writing can be an emotional, stressful pursuit. Any tips for aspiring writers?

A: Write what you want to write about. My writing has shifted dramatically and I’m sure there will be more shifting and transformations to come. Embrace it, welcome it, and most importantly: keep writing.

N: What did you want to be when you grew up?

A: I always wanted to be a writer. Full stop. Other things intrigued me over the years (e.g. I loved the idea of archeology and thought it would be cool to go on a dig (ala Agatha Christie, I suppose!); I briefly considered law after reading The Street Lawyer by John Grisham because I wanted to help people…and then realized that whole pesky money/capitalism thing…). I did not envision myself as a teacher because I am very introverted, but I love working with students and helping them along their journeys.

N: Favorite book when you were a kid?

A: About a dozen titles just crashed through my head as I read that question…the first thing I thought of was my bookshelf headboard lined with those iconic, yellow-covered Nancy Drew books. I also devoured the Cam Jansen series, which was about a fifth grader super-sleuth with a photographic memory.

N: And here is my signature question that everyone loves: If you could choose three people, living or dead, to invite to a dinner party, who would they be and why?

A: Ooh, I like it. And immediately my brain jumped to the play Chamber Music, which depicts eight famous historical women living together in an asylum (Joan of Arc and Gertrude Stein did not get along in the play…so I want to try to pick people who won’t bicker over the appetizers).

(Thirty minutes go by in real time…) I think this is something I could keep mulling and changing forever, so I better just commit to the few folks that sprang to mind: Agatha Christie (what mystery writer wouldn’t want to meet the queen herself?); Alan Turing (because his work in cryptography to break the Enigma Code is astounding); Dolly Parton (because she is a national treasure and her advocacy to improve children’s literacy is life-changing). 

Giveaway: A signed, paperback copy of Player Elimination, a bookmark, a keychain that reads “On my way to buy more books,” a little notebook that looks like an old-fashioned library check-out card, a pen that reads “My weekend is all booked,” and a set of blue/gold dice.

Giveaway question: Wren Winters and her friends love to play games. What games do you play or did you play when you were a kid? Do you have fond memories of playing Scrabble or Uno on a rainy day? Or maybe there are games that frustrated you and made you want to flip the table (Monopoly and Risk spring to mind…)? Share your game night memories for a chance to win a signed copy of Player Elimination and other goodies!

Player Elimination

She loves to play games, but not when it comes to murder.

Wren Winters is a businesswoman on a mission, juggling an alumni event for a rising game designer while keeping her late husband’s retail store alive. With RSVPs pouring in and her cranky landlord threatening to bulldoze her shop for high-rise apartments, Wren’s plate is full—but she’s no stranger to overcoming challenges. From economic slumps to vandalism and vicious online rumors, Wren has always found a way to persevere.

But nothing could prepare her for what she finds one fateful morning: her landlord murdered, her store turned into a crime scene, her only employee under suspicion (and hiding something), and a missing piece from an unreleased game.

Now, with her store’s future hanging by a thread and the stakes higher than ever, Wren must channel her puzzle-solving skills like never before. Can she and her friends follow the clues, clear her employee’s name, and crack the case before it’s game over?

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