The Corpse’s Secret Life

Writing The Corpse’s Secret Life required taming a wildcat.

In her marvelous book, A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki says “an unfinished book, left unattended, turns feral…” I can relate to that assertion. Normally it takes me four months or so to tell my stories; that wasn’t how it went with this book. I started working on The Corpse’s Secret Life just as the CZU wildland fire hit Santa Cruz County, California, where I live in August of 2020. 

Technically, my house survived the fire, but the sheetrock, carpet, water, electric, hvac, insulation, and windows did not. Neither did soft goods like upholstered furniture and mattresses and most of my clothing. My house was uninhabitable for eight-and-a-half months, and when I returned home, it was to live amid a construction zone.

Perhaps it’s just me, but I found it impossible to write in the midst of compressors and noisy workmen with loud music surrounding me. And don’t get me started about how the constant interruptions of, “Hey, Nancy, what should we do about this?” destroyed my concentration whenever I sat down, full of resolve, to make progress despite my circumstances.

Living with me in the middle of life as it was, The Corpse’s Secret Life morphed from a gentle housecat I loved to stroke and play with into a wildcat who hissed at me when I approached my computer, refusing to be caged and finished.

Thank goodness for the characters in the book who became good friends and mentors I counted on to help me write about their adventures. I got so involved with Syda, private investigator Pat’s best friend and sidekick, in her ever changing search for her artistic muse, that when Syda took up making jewelry, so did I. I now have a few dozen earrings ready to be sold along with the books at the next live event I do. When they are gone I won’t make more. It won’t matter because I’m confident that by then Syda will have moved on to her next creative endeavor. 

In trying to tame my feral book, thank goodness, too, for the research―something I always enjoy doing―needed to inform the story. I spent hours following the history of female Royal Canadian Mounties. I delved into stories about sin eaters―necessary pariahs who for a fee assumed the sins of the recently dead after Henry VIII banished last rights and the Catholic Church in England so he could divorce Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. There were Goths to be understood, PO Box keys to track down, and determining what the corpse might be like after remaining undiscovered in her bed for more than a month. 

I’m a visual writer who likes to see the places where I set my mysteries, but with Covid, I’ve been hunkering down at home so a real trip, much as I wanted to take one, to England’s countryside to investigate a connection to the corpse and her secret life was out of the question. I had to settle for virtual travel. Since I’m not mentioning Covid in my books I blamed my protagonist Pat Pirard’s immobility on financial problems and kept her at home, too.

Stay-at-home me did do my research, but online. I found a small village in England with a perfect church to use in the book, so though the disclaimer in the book’s frontispiece says all locations are fictional, they aren’t exactly. The vicar and his wife, Pat’s eyes and ears in England are made up characters, though, inspired by all the British mysteries I love to watch on PBS. 

And then, of course, the identity of the corpse had to be discovered. Dealing with that part of the book gave my protagonist Pat Pirard a chance to use her investigative skills. Along the way she needed help from one of my favorite characters from The Funeral Murder, book two in the series, the middle school student with exceptional computer skills and hacking knowledge and a “whatever” attitude who was able to make a cameo appearance in The Corpse’s Secret Life.

As Pat uncovered clues and secrets about the corpse I was able to start reining in my wildcat of a feral book. I had always planned a tense scene where Pat was in peril―de rigueur in a cozy―and planned to end the book on a Pat-quirky romantic note. I was looking forward to writing those scenes and couldn’t wait to get through the rest of the book so I could start work on them. 

Once I made real progress, a curious thing happened. My wildcat of a feral book once again became domesticated and purring happily to its conclusion. I’m happy to say The Corpse’s Secret Life is now available in selected bookstores and on Amazon in print and ebook format.

Now on to the next book.

Learn more about Nancy Lynn Jarvis at www.nancylynnjarvis.com. Want more author news? If so, click here to read my Behind the Story interviews from your favorite authors.