Searching for Mr/Ms Right

I recently, and reluctantly, asked for a reversion of rights for two of my culinary mysteries in the “Dinner is Served” series. Mission Impastable was in print. Prime Rib and Punishment waited in the wings.

It was very difficult to admit it was time to move on. My publisher had been wonderful to me, but her health issues over the past many years had made the future of the company precarious. For my own career, I decided to sever the connection.

It was clear it was the right decision, but that didn’t make it any easier. In fact, I delayed the actual request for rights until several months after I had made the decision. Maybe, it will work out. Maybe the company will right itself. But Maybes were all I had.

Last spring I compiled a list of small publishers of mysteries. There were quite a few of them who were open to submissions without an agent. Not a huge number, but still a respectable number to pursue. I prioritized them and wrote a query letter template. Still I stalled.

Procrastination. What caused it? Reluctance to start over. It’s a hard road, submission is.

Grieving for what had been was another cause. I thought I was done with submissions for this genre, and I liked where I had landed.

Fear of rejection was another. I’d been “accepted” to traditional publishing. Why did I have to prove myself again?

What if no one picked up my series right away? Did I abandon it? Indie publish? Continue submitting until I grew too old to hit the send button?

Serendipitously, I encountered an acquisitions and development editor for a small press at a conference I attended over the summer. I hadn’t come to the conference intending to pitch to anyone, but I quickly pulled something together and pitched my series while handing over a printed copy of the first book. I described book two. Told him I had three books completed in the series beyond the published one, and that books four and five were outlined. He loved the titles of books three through six: Potluck, Ancient Grease, Tequila Mockingbird, and Cooks in the Can.

He asked me to submit the traditional submission materials: a query letter explaining book two and the series, synopsis of book two, the first fifty pages, and a brief bio. I asked if he wanted a marketing plan, also. He seemed surprised I had one, and agreed I should attach that as well.

I sent it all off three months ago. And so the remembered-wait from previous submissions began. I am hopeful but not confident. Small presses only put out a few books a year. I was asking for one of those slots. So were hundreds, maybe thousands, of others. Did already having completed manuscripts give me an advantage? Or was it a liability to commit to a series before sales data on book one was in?

Another piece of the equation always is: so what if they do want me? Do I want them? Am I willing to sign with the first one queried? Shouldn’t I be searching for other publishers to get this process moving in multiple pathways and to soften the blows of rejection? I can always tell myself, “Oh, well. ‘Mysteries Are Us’ didn’t want me, but I still have ten more publishers to hear from.” 

But the procrastination continues. I’ll wait to hear from the conference publisher. If the highly-likely (given publishing odds) rejection comes, I do have my fall-back list of small presses to pull out, make my spread sheet, and send off submission materials. And wait again.

But my fingers, toes, and eyes are crossed in hope that won’t be necessary. You’ll be the first to know how it ends. Well, not really. But you know what I mean.

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Writing the Series, Continued

In 2014, I was on a panel at the Public Safety Writers Association Conference answering questions about series writing. The moderator provides, in advance, examples of the types of questions he/she will ask. To prepare, I always answer all of them in written form, and more completely than I’ll have time for on the panel.

Answering thoroughly gets my mind in the groove for the topic and allows me to identify “sound bites” that I can use during the discussion. That would be what Rod Stewart called in a song, “Her adlib lines were well rehearsed.” Ha!

1.  When you wrote the first book did you anticipate a series? 

Absolutely. I knew my characters could get into lots more mischief than one book allowed. As I wrote (and re-wrote) the first book, the second book plot came to me. Then future plots started spinning out. Before I even finished Mission Impastable, I had created dozens of punny food titles for future books. I will NEVER live long enough to use them all, so I wrote a blog post sharing some with other writers to use if they wish.

Here are some titles for you to use: Devil’s Food Wake, Fowl Play, Berried Alive, Doughmestic Dispute, Wok and Roll, The Taming of the Stew, Fried and Prejudice, Much Ado about Noshing, Whisk It All, Roux the Day, Bone Appétit, Under Lox and Quiche, Glazed and Infused, Crumb What May. Pretty good, eh?

2.  What are the major advantages of writing a series?

There are several advantages. For years I wrote books in my second professional career. We periodically revised the books in new editions. With novels, writ is it! You don’t go back and change novels (except for some possible edits for reprints). So writing the next book in a series is analogous to writing a new edition.

You get to change characters and let them grow. They aren’t frozen in time like the characters in single title novels. Another advantage is familiarity with the main setting (assuming it doesn’t change) and characters. You don’t have to figure them out each time.

The dialogue comes more easily because you know what they’ll say and how they’ll react. A third advantage is marketing. The audience knows what’s coming--ooh, a two-fer, a mystery with recipes.  

A fourth advantage is learning to write in the genre better. When the characters and setting are familiar, you can concentrate on the craft of writing. Less to juggle.

3.  When you write a series do you have a plan for the entire series?

I absolutely know what my characters back stories are and how those will impact future plot lines. I have a character arc for Alli, my protagonist in Mission Impastable, and for other characters. A character I love has to die, and I am planning for that. A character is confronted with her hidden dark secret and she has to decide how to respond. Someone finds permanent love, or does she? When you know back stories, you can project into the future and plant seeds a book or two in advance.

4.  What do you think is the idea number of books in a series, or do you think a series that goes on and on ( e.g.Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton) is a good idea?

Far be it from me to weigh in on the mega-series authors. Their success ought to be the answer. If readers stop buying, then they may have written one too many books in the series. But I don’t see that happening yet. Instead, fans like some books more than others, just as with any multi-published author, but they keep these authors near the top of sales.

I have plotted out five more books in the “Dinner is Served” series. But who knows, with all those titles, I could end up writing many more. But more likely, I’ll start a new series. More on that in an upcoming post. Baked Alaska, anyone?

For me, the ideal number of books is when I grow tired of my characters and need to switch. For someone who already writes in multiple genres that is not as likely to happen as with someone who only writes mysteries.  If I need a break, I write a paranormal romantic suspense or a series of short plays. I never get bored with my writing.  If one book has lost some of its luster, I go play with another one for a while. When I return, I get excited again. Having said that, I am thinking of another series set in a herb shop/garden with titles Mint to Be, Thyme to Die, Arsenic and Old Mace. Maybe she dabbles in marijuana infusions and salves.

5.  Is it always necessary to end an individual book in a series with a cliff hanger?

I don’t know that a cliff hanger is necessary, but there do need to be questions your reader wonders about that propel them to your next book. With Mission Impastable, I hope the reader wonders what will happen to the killer and whether the relationship with Alli will continue or be ended.

I want the reader to wonder if Alli and Gina will take the part-time job offered to them at the cooking school. I want the reader to wonder if their personal chef business will succeed or go belly-up. And just what is up with Evan and Alli’s relationship? Will Gina find love again?

6.  How do you let the reader know that the book is part of a series? 

That’s easy to answer. My cover says, “Dinner is Served series, Book 1”! That’s a clue for mystery readers!

But I think any textured book with lots of layers could potentially be a series. I know I have finished reading a book and wished there would be a sequel. I think all authors should write so that people want to know more about the characters and their lives so that a series is not a surprise but a pleasant bonus. All of our books should leave the reader craving more even if it’s not a series.

7.  What is the ideal time schedule for publishing each book in a series in order to keep readers interested?

I suppose the right answer is, how fast can you write them? I think in the romance field publishers ask authors to write 2-3 books a year. There are so many options out there, that if you aren’t keeping your name in front of readers, they may forget to come looking for you.

If I were only writing one genre, I could easily produce two or three culinary mystery books a year. But right now, as I search for a new publisher, I am sitting on three additional completed manuscripts and two more outlined. I’ll let the publisher set the time table for this series.

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A Month-of-Few Ingredients: Tender Chicken

Hi Ho, here we go! Back for another Month-of-Recipes? Well, while you’re here, don’t forget to check out the blog archive for Month-Of recipes from past years. Each February, I pick a category and post one or more recipes each day for the whole month. I’ve done soup, chicken, appetizers, eggs, and mini-desserts. Look in the column to the far right and click on different years to find each February's recipes.

When I polled readers last February, they told me that they wanted recipes with few ingredients. Ever one to try to please, I agreed to post recipes with two to five ingredients. This should be a fun month, right?

Now, house rules for what counts as an ingredient:

Salt and pepper are not ingredients.

Oil is not an ingredient when it’s for the cooking pan, not the recipe.

Water is not an ingredient.

That’s it. Not so hard, eh?

This month I will share few-ingredient appetizers, entrées, bread, soup, and desserts. Hopefully the cooking life will be simpler for you without so much preparation time.

As we are more mindful of our eating these days, we use small plates to aid in portion control. This dinner, with its small amount of chicken per person, is another part of that plan. If you like to eat more meat at dinner, you should increase the recipe accordingly.

Tender Chicken (serves two)

4 chicken tenders (or take a breast and slice into four equal strips)

¼ cup ranch dressing

½ cup seasoned panko bread crumbs (or add 1 tablespoon of basil to plain panko)

salt and pepper to taste

½ cup Asiago cheese, shredded (or other shredded cheese of your choice)

Put chicken tenders in zipper bag with ranch dressing. Refrigerate for at least an hour, turning periodically to get chicken equally coated during marination.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking dish with non-stick spray.

Mix together seasoned bread crumbs and shredded cheese. Place strips of chicken in the bread and cheese mixture and coat both sides, patting to get them to stick. Place chicken in prepared pan.

Bake for about 40 minutes. You want a nice browning on the coating to get some crunch.

I served this to DH with pasta tossed with teriyaki sauce with sautéed onions and celery. I added two cups of fresh spinach to the hot pasta and tossed until the spinach wilted. It made for a pretty dish!

DH’s Rating: 3 Tongues Up

Hmm. He said, “It’s too bland.” I think his taste buds are aging along with the rest of his body! I thought it was tasty. I mean, Asiago cheese, ranch dressing, seasoned bread crumbs? However, next time I make this, I’m adding in some pepper and basil to perk it up a bit for him. He probably would have been happy dipping them into salsa! Everything’s better (in his world) with salsa.

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On a publishing note, Prime Rib and Punishment is in final editing stages. I will let you know when to expect the sequel to Mission Impastable!

26+ Ways to Kill: Z is for Zoothapsis

Welcome! Since I write culinary mysteries, “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” deals with food topics and with mysteries. This month I am sharing ways to kill people—in your mysteries, of course—and some tips on getting away with it! To avoid the pronoun problem, I’ll use heesh (he or she), shis (his or hers), and shim (him or her) throughout the entries. Tune in for murder and mayhem.

Had I not done this challenge and had I, instead, written on Prime Rib and Punishment, it would be done. I have written, for this blog challenge series, over 18,000 words. That’s a lot of novel pages!  Dead ones, of course, because those pages don’t exist. Fits the monthly theme, right? How to kill a novel: D is for Don’t Write.

Ah, well, back to my normal routine today! However, I have categorized my various murder methods and will be posting the list (as a review for you) on another of my blogs: Write Away. Just check at www.samwriteaway.blogspot.com late next week.

But that’s not why we gathered here today. In looking for Z murder methods, I happened upon zineb, which is a white powder used as a fungicide. We’ve done various poisonings so that didn’t grab me. But one did.

Today Z is for Zoothapsis. Premature burial. This is similar to obvallate, but instead of sealing a person behind a barrier, this one is an actual burial beneath the dirt. We all have heard the horrific tales of Victorian casket exhumations. The shredded casket lining was testimony to someone awakening to discover heesh was buried while still alive. Imagine the terror.

Back before embalming or even in the early days of less rigorous embalmings, the fear appears to have been well-founded. Collected accounts in 1905 found 149 actual live burials, 219 near live burials, 10 cases of live dissection, and 2 cases of awakening during embalming. Gives one pause, eh? Zoothapsis is apparently real.

Taphephobia (fear of being buried alive) was so real, in fact, that the “safety coffin” was created. In one type, a bell above ground could be rung above ground from inside the coffin so that rescue could occur. An urban legend stated that the terms “dead ringer” and “saved by the bell” came from such safety coffins. Not true. Just so you know.

Your tale could involve a premature burial in the woods or it could be an accidental death (manslaughter) because the drunk mortician didn’t notice the body moving. Closed casket. No one realizes the victim isn’t dead—yet.

I hope you have enjoyed my little museum of horrors this month. I certainly had a great time tracking down and sharing some interesting unusual ways to kill off your victims. I hope you will drop by from time to time to see what else I post here. It’s a pretty far-ranging set of topics. And if you haven’t yet read the first book in my culinary mystery series, you might want to pick up Mission Impastable to read before book two hits later this year.

Happy murdering!

If you take time to share this post on social media, I would be most grateful. 

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26+ Ways to Kill: Y is for Yulo or Yperite

Welcome! Since I write culinary mysteries, “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” deals with food topics and with mysteries. This month I am sharing ways to kill people—in your mysteries, of course—and some tips on getting away with it! To avoid the pronoun problem, I’ll use heesh (he or she), shis (his or hers), and shim (him or her) throughout the entries. Tune in for murder and mayhem.

Yikers! Y is another tough letter for coming up with interesting killing methods. All could actually be included in other methods discussed this month.

I almost detailed yataghan, which is a long curved knife/sabre with a skinny blade, but I used so many other sharp things that I am leaving this one to you to figure out. The yataghan comes to us from the Ottoman Empire. It was used from roughly the mid-16^th century until the late 19^th. A yataghan is between two to three feet long, so it is longer than a knife and shorter than some sabres.

Re-read previous entries on killing with sharp pointy things for some story ideas if you like the yataghan for killing. But I finally lit on Yulo and Yperite for Y killing methods.

A yulo (sometimes spelled yuloh) is a Chinese sculling oar, so we are talking another bludgeoning death with this one. Some boat people think that the single oar of the yulo is more efficient than two oars on a boat. The single oar is waggled back and forth to propel the boat, unlike oars where the paddles are lifted to and from the water.

A yulo murder would take place near or on water so there would be access to a yulo. I can see framing a rival boat owner to take him out of the big regatta. Then again, one could have the murderer use the yulo that belongs to the victim. It certainly would be available and could confuse the investigators as they try to figure out who would have access.

Want to make your own yulo(h)? Here are some directions. I didn’t say easy directions. These things take time!

You know yperite as mustard gas. The substance might be impossible to obtain for individual use since it is regulated by the Chemical Weapons Convention. However, a rogue/terrorist military group might employ it. Perhaps as part of their xenocide plan.

The symptoms of yperite use are readily available online. It forms blisters on the skin and lungs. Symptoms do not immediately appear, and a mild to moderate dose is unlikely to kill. You want your bad guys to use a heavy dose to get the job done.

Your story could have a scientific team baffled by symptoms showing up in a section of the world and tracking down what is going on. International thriller possibly.

Are you coming back tomorrow to see how I finish off this murderous month? Whatever can be done with Z?

If you take time to share this post on social media, I would be most grateful. 

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26+ Ways to Kill: Xenocide or Xyston

Welcome! Since I write culinary mysteries, “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” deals with food topics and with mysteries. This month I am sharing ways to kill people—in your mysteries, of course—and some tips on getting away with it! To avoid the pronoun problem, I’ll use heesh (he or she), shis (his or hers), and shim (him or her) throughout the entries. Tune in for murder and mayhem.

Very short entry today as X is not loaded with killing method options. I’ll bet that doesn’t surprise you.

In fact, I only unearthed one legitimate method, and I’ll make the other fit.

Xenocide is not a method of killing. Rather xenocide, the killing of an alien population, can occur in multiple ways. Spoiler Alert: In Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card), Ender and his team think they are in training for defending Earth from a second alien invasion. They are training with a highly sophisticated and realistic video game. Well, guess what? It’s not a game, it’s the real thing. They do beat off the invasion and the team obliterates the entire alien population. Or do they?

Science fiction is rife with examples of alien extinctions. If you peruse a lot of the literature/filmography talking about or executing xenocide, you should come up with a balance of the arguments for and against the action.

Sometimes the xenocide occurs with a simple virus or element common to earth. Other times, high tech methods are used. Most of the time, in those stories, we just blast them into oblivion. I would challenge you to explore some uncommon method if you are commiting xenocide in your story. And somebody ought to raise the ethical issues surrounding the action.

In actuality, xenocide could refer to killing off any group that is foreign another group. Ethnic cleansing is a kind of xenocide, too. Your story could do to international thriller land with that scenario and a mad ruler.

The real way to kill today with X is to pull out your trusty xyston and whack away. The xyston was a short pike used by the Greek cavalry. It is an infantry weapon fashioned with a pointed metal head (steel or iron) on a long wooden shaft. One would kill by thrusting through a person. This is another foramination method.

A spear differs from a xyston due to length. Once the pole is too long to be thrown with accuracy as a spear requires, it is a pike meant for hand-to-hand combat. A pike is anywhere from 10-25 feet long allowing for some safety of distance. That is unless your xyston is 12 feet and the other guy’s is 13 feet.

The xyston (Greek version of the pike) wasn’t used after the Greeks waned. The pike continued on in Europe, but it too went out of fashion in the 1700s, thus you are again dealing with an historical mystery or with a contemporary mystery featuring an antique weapon. How many times have I said that this month, I wonder?

I can see a battlefield death in your novel of a feuding pair staged to look like the enemy killed the victim with shis xyston. Or it could be an accident, a sort of friendly-fire death, old-timey style.

Omigosh! We are almost to the end. Can you guess what Y killings will use?

If you take time to share this post on social media, I would be most grateful. 

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26+ Ways to Kill: W is for Wand or Whinger

Welcome! Since I write culinary mysteries, “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” deals with food topics and with mysteries. This month I am sharing ways to kill people—in your mysteries, of course—and some tips on getting away with it! To avoid the pronoun problem, I’ll use heesh (he or she), shis (his or hers), and shim (him or her) throughout the entries. Tune in for murder and mayhem.

Here’s a tip I picked up at mystery conference. If your killer wants to conceal blood residue from the crime lab guys, have shim take these steps. Clean up the blood thoroughly, that means even the cracks in the grout and paneling seams. Check the surrounding wall for splatters. Have your killer get a blood detector flashlight from Amazon (under $20 plus shipping) to be thorough. Or not! Missing a blood splatter could be the undoing of the murderer.

After cleaning with bleach or some other good cleaning product, your killer lets the area dry and then applies a coat of floor wax everywhere. Luminol can detect blood residue through bleach, but the wax barrier on top foils it. Do not use a wax with a cleaning substance in it. Defeats the purpose. How amazing is that to know?

I really thought about a wood chipper for W, but not only have we already done mangling deaths, but everybody remembers the scene in Fargo, so who would want to compete with that? I’m not up to that!

You could have your victim weighed down prior to being dumped in a lake or ocean. See the mafia links online for more information. This is a helpful tip for noyade covered earlier in the month.

Winterkill is to kill by exposure to cold. We’ve done that too, with gelation. In the case of winterkill you use the natural elements to freeze someone to death. It’s a relatively painless way to go. Your victim gets sleepy and drifts off. If planned correctly, the body could go undetected for months or years, and the freezing of the body would throw off the timeline for death by as much as months. And then they would only know because of the weather patterns. Winterkill could be interesting to try, yes?

In a paranormal book with magic elements, you can find ways to kill with a wand. There are lots of examples of this in literature, so you’ll have some models. But I would create a series of wands. Some wands I would use to vulnerate the victim before killing, just to have some fun and draw out the tension. Wounding the victim first also allows for the possibility of rescue. Not all murders have to be completed. Your killer can go to jail for attempted murder, too. Your call.

The whinger is more likely to appear in an historical mystery than contemporary, but you could create a contemporary plot wherein the victim is a collector of swords and daggers and is “hoist by his own petard.” A whinger is a dirk or short sword. This is another type of foramination murder.

If you take time to share this post on social media, I would be most grateful. 

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26+ Ways to Kill: V is for Venesect or Vesuviate

Welcome! Since I write culinary mysteries, “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” deals with food topics and with mysteries. This month I am sharing ways to kill people—in your mysteries, of course—and some tips on getting away with it! To avoid the pronoun problem, I’ll use heesh (he or she), shis (his or hers), and shim (him or her) throughout the entries. Tune in for murder and mayhem.

Venom, of course, came up with the letter V. Venenation is poisoning, but we’ve done that a couple of times. Something virose is poisonous or foul.

Your villain might be vafrous (cunning, sly) or be consumed with vindictoviolence (desire to take revenge). Such a killer might use vastation (purification through destroying evil elements) thinking heesh could heal shimself by destroying evil in others. That such killing would also destroy the evil in shim. That could be an interesting psychological story.

Another flogging word came up: vapulate. Interesting how many words there are scourging.

And to vulnerate is to wound. Lots of options for that this month!

I played with using venography (injecting radioactive material into veins for medical examination) for your death method. It would be a medical mystery requiring much research on your part. How much radioactive material? What are the symptoms? I rejected using venography for V because I couldn’t quite see how it could be done and the death, if death resulted, would be easily detectable and traceable. Those controlled substances are hard to use surreptitiously.

So what do I have to offer for V murder methods?

Venesect (open a vein for blood-letting) would be pretty fast, I think. If enough veins were opened, the blood should spill out quickly. A scalpel run along a few veins would do it. Your phlebotomist takes blood samples from you with a sharp needle with a vacuum tube. Heesh can fill a few of those babies in just a few minutes. Imagine how fast it could go with long scalpel cuts.

Just so you know, you need a medical tool for venesection to be efficient. Veins are tough little guys. And they slip around a lot. You have to skewer it and slice. Sawing away with your kitchen knife will be a mess. You can get 10 scalpels on Amazon for under $10 (plus shipping) in case your killer is into serial venesection.

My search turned up vesuviation. Notice the similarity to Vesuvius. This word is so fun. It is surrounded by myth and paranormal interpretations. You may know vesuviation by its more common moniker: SHC-Spontaneous Human Combustion.

History has recorded incidents of seemingly unexplainable incidents of vesuviation, a human body bursting into flames, purportedly from the inside out. A study of recorded cases reported these commonalities: the victims are elderly, female, and chronic alcoholics; the hands and feet fall off; the residue is offensively fetid and greasy ashes; and, the fire caused little damage to other combustibles the body touched. Oh, and some lighted substance came into contact with the body so there is no such thing as SHC. Careless smoker anyone?

I considered that you could have a dumb murderer who read about and believes in vesuviation (SHC) and thus stages the murder to look like one. I think it could work with the right details, but heesh would be caught rather quickly. That might work for a minor subplot in your story or as the killing in a short story. I keep thinking you could play this one for some laughs. Dumb crook and all, if you know what I mean.

If you take time to share this post on social media, I would be most grateful. 

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#Mystery writer, need killer ideas? V is for Venesect or Vesuviate. Lots of tips this month! #atozchallenge http://bit.ly/1VxBEw5

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Check out Sharon Arthur Moore’s culinary mystery, Mission Impastable  

26+ Ways to Kill: U is for Ustulation

Welcome! Since I write culinary mysteries, “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” deals with food topics and with mysteries. This month I am sharing ways to kill people—in your mysteries, of course—and some tips on getting away with it! To avoid the pronoun problem, I’ll use heesh (he or she), shis (his or hers), and shim (him or her) throughout the entries. Tune in for murder and mayhem.

Remember when I said that the last quarter of the alphabet is harder? Boy, howdy!

I only found one pretty good word for killing with the letter U, but then all month, I’ve given your lots of words with multiple letters, so no whining with the piddly one for today. And remember the title of this series is “26+ Ways to Kill”. You got your 26 a while back!

On my way researching U ways to kill, I came across some other words that you might be able to work into your story.

For example, urticate is to sting or flog with nettles. Yikes! I had a run-in with a nettle patch as a kid. Talk about itching! Well, it appears urticate is a BDSM kind of sex thing. Who knew? Speaking personally, that’s not the way I roll. I hate being itchy! For me, it would be the complete opposite of a turn-on. Still, in your novel, you might work urticate torture/teasing into a tale that becomes increasingly bizarre and dangerous so that death comes calling.

On the other hand, urtication had a more seemly side in the past. It was a treatment for paralysis, the idea being to create irritation. Yeah. Well. It must not have been very successful because the medical use of urtication is gone.

You could have your killer commit uxoricide, the killing of his wife. You’ve got lots of ways to do that this month, some more detectable or gruesome than others. How much does your killer want to dispose of her?

Also, I found that unguiculate is a clawed thing (an animal mostly, but it could be an object). You might maul your victim, but death would be unlikely unless you use the unguiculate as a foraminator.

Some writers kill unknowns (most often transients) to conceal deaths. No one is looking for them, so the killer is more likely to escape detection. Or if the unknown is located, with no connection—what investigators always look for first—the killer flies under the radar.

Today’s word for the letter U, however, is Ustulation, scorching, burning or roasting. I know we’ve done various pyrogenation (subjecting to heat) methods before, but this one is slightly different. In pharmacological terms, ustulation is roasting or drying or moist substances. Bodies = moist substances.

Interestingly, an obsolete definition for ustulation is lustful passion, a burning sexual desire. Funny how we ended up there again today!

For the more contemporary definition, I can picture a big barbecue spit that the body is tied to (with metal so it doesn’t melt and drop the body into the coals) or skewered on (through non-vital areas). I’d maximize the torture by keeping the body enough above the coals to create a slow ustulation death by cooking the body. Then, lower the spit and gets some crust on the victim for a cannibalistic meal.

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#Mystery writer, need killer ideas? U is for Ustulation. Lots of tips this month! #atozchallenge http://bit.ly/1TpGYxY

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Looking for new, fresh ways to kill (in books of course)? Check out Ustulation on “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” at http://bit.ly/1TpGYxY

Check out Sharon Arthur Moore’s culinary mystery, Mission Impastable