Ryn Shell's December 2021 Newsletter

"Grab a drink, put your feet up,
I've a lot of freebies,
special offers,
and news to share."

What a few years we have all been through since I was last active with my novels and reader's newsletter. I think we all deserve a group hug. I know many of you have seen stressful times, far more than I've experienced. I've adapted enough to my new lifestyle to be able to be a full-time creative again—and oh how I love it.

My thanks to the staff of Hepburn House who care for my husband, Reg, so well and make my being able to be an artist and author possibly.

The coping tip I can offer, from out of my experience of the last two years, is when dealing with a major life upheaval that involves some form of loss, keep a journal and take time every day to write one or more things about your new lifestyle that you are grateful for.  Hang on to those positives—they help us adjust to change.

I've been somewhat insulated from the outside world for all of 2020/21.
Hard to realize that I've lived in beautiful Hepburn House, assisted living aged care here in the beautiful highlands of Victoria for almost two years.

Talk about a major life transition for one as fiercely independent and active-minded as me. But what fodder and experience to add to my writing, and I AM WRITING, and loving it.

What have you been up to creatively since I last connected with you?

Ryn Shell Books

To Kill for Land is a story of Crime, Betrayal, RESILIENCE, Love, and Australia, where land is everything — but is it worth killing for?

Stolen Years is a three-novel family saga, the author, Ryn Shell.

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I'm Back Writing Full-Time.
Meet the WIP NEW Series

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Ryn Shell's "A View from The Balcony Mystery" novels are set in the Central Highlands of Victoria and feature just-turned-fifty, ex-lawyer, and emerging artist Angela Paige.

Angela's former lover inconveniently gets himself killed, just as she undergoes her midlife crisis and leaves him. She also recently quit a stressful legal career defending criminals. Now her plan to escape to the central highlands of Victoria to paint, read, write and potter in a garden filled with the peaceful song of birds has been thwarted by the doggedly determined Detective Inspector Harrison Moore, who is out to build a case against her. He plans to close this case and then go fishing—for the rest of his life, and no clever murderess will outsmart him and delay his retirement.

Under orders not to leave town, Angela returns to the home she'd shared with Logan and cares for his orphaned and noisy budgerigar. The bird prompts her that things are not as she'd imagined they would be. Bird song isn't necessarily peaceful, so maybe behind the charming smiles on the faces of her and Logan's friends might lie the mind of a killer. But everyone who knew him appears to have loved him, and now only the bird in a cage trusts her and is eager to talk.

The quirky locations, richly drawn characters, and witty suspense involving a Robbin' Hood criminal in the cozy mystery, "What The Caged Bird Knows," will warm your heart.

I'm Also Back Painting My Book Covers

NOTE: I did not create the first four covers for my new work in progress series. 

My NEW soft-boiled cozy mystery series, A View From The Balcony Mysteries, will be closed mysteries. The reader doesn't know who the murderer is until the end of the novel, and they have fun guessing and trying to match wits with the character who reveals the killer.  In true cozy style there is no extreme violence, sex or profanity in the books.

Two Special Loves in My Life

My husband Reg 81 years, and our therapy puppy, 11-month-old Tess the miniature Cavoodle, (or Cavapoo if you are from the US)  live here in Hepburn House with me.

Tess, like me, loves my room and its amazing views. We look out over Kidds Gully Daylesford, in the central highlands of Victoria. I'm at the end of an upstairs wing, so able to live the creative life of a semi-hermit, just as I'd done previously in my rural retreat.
Sunrise and the moon rise are wonderful when viewed through my studio window.

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Something For My Author Friends

I love assisting my fellow authors

Those who know me understand how I deplore writing genre tropes that glamourize bully romance and women depicted as victims or abuse of women in any form as the main topic in a novel.

Rather than focus on the negative, I have always positively striven to assist my fellow ethical author through author cross-promoting (never spamming) the work of creators with similar clean and cozy creative work. By clean, I don't mean religious—that's a whole different genre I'm not getting involved with.

I have past experience of managing author cross-promotions of well-edited, professionally presented, works, on similar ethical guidelines.
If you think I'm fussy, have sympathy (grin) for my amazing carers at Hepburn House.

Talents I can share to help other artists are:
Mentoring. Critiques through to marketing. 
Your book videos. They take me about 21-hours to cut an excellent under 5-minute video.
EBook cover creation from your licensed images.

I could easily manage a website built solely to promote clean and cozy eBooks, and promote your free books and featured specials. If I had fellow authors eager for this and understanding it's a pay it forward and assist someone else situation, to have your books featured.

All those services could be done as an author support exchange of services, within a small group of ethical authors wanting to mutually assist each other. There are many ways to help a fellow author that require no special talent. Heck, my Goodreads author's page is a mess, I'd love someone to smarten it up for me with all my latest book covers prominent. I have my weaknesses as well as skills, mine being a lack of patience to maintain a Goodreads page, and my books also need a final proofread prior to publishing. 

Contact me if we can ethically assist each other, and others. 
Together, as a group of ethical authors, we can succeed faster than trying to do everything alone.

Love, Ryn.

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Nature is My Inspiration

With two panoramic windows in my room, I turned the one facing north, into art and indoor garden display. Sun filter curtains protect the plants in mid-summer.

I love my room. Though room service is provided here at Hepburn House, I strive to maintain independent living and self-care as much as possible, and that includes putting my stamp of character on my bed-sit-studio.

Do you agree, this looks nothing like you expect an aged care resident's room might look? I feel so fortunate to have discovered and accepted into Hepburn House.

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What is an Open Mystery

I adore, 'open mystery' which you would also call crime fiction. It is what I read, and what I wrote for Stolen Years seven novel series.

I have always been interested in psychology. I find books that contain troubled characters I can believe could be real, more interesting than novels I know to be a flight of fancy.

I can wave a lot of skepticism and merge a ghost with a childhood imaginary friend or an old man's delusions, as I did in To Kill with a Ghost, so I have a mild level of 'believable' fantasy in books I read and write.

I'm a Ruth Rendell fan.
I found the novel "Judgement in Stone" easy to read, with no gore or profanity, mystery. It doesn't follow the usual cozy mystery format due to the psychological thriller contrasting with sensitive character revelations as the reader discovers what motivates the killer.  

Ruth Rendell Wrote Open Mysteries

In Ruth Rendell's Judgement in Stone, the opening lines tell you who the murderer is.
The reader gains an understanding of why the murder happened, and how the killer is caught.

There is a powerful character study of a murderer's thought process, without the book becoming gory or grotesque. I engage with Ruth Rendell's open mystery more than I've done with many more traditional format closed mysteries. I want to understand why anyone would commit murder. I don't want to remain disconnected from the antagonist, the novel's villain.

Those writers who can hold me within the pages, such as Ruth Rendell, are brilliant. I'm awed by their greatness. Their books never fit 'popular' or clearly defined genres and would be difficult for an Indie author to market in today's heavily genre-defined market.

But, for overall great reading, a mystery doesn't need to be a closed who-dun-it style mystery. The why-they-dun-it, and when will they be caught, is often more thrilling.

What do you think?
Have you read many open mysteries?
Do you also love a gripping open mystery?

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Happy reading, happy creativity to you. I'll send all my subscribers a New Year greetings and rewards newsletter in early January.
Cheers, Ryn.

My Print Meme for your use

Thank you to Rachel at Hepburn House for being my beautiful model.
My artwork is copyrighted and prints are available on demand from my print store. However, the memes I create from them, such as the one above, are available for my supporters to use as my thank you.  You are welcome to share them, along with the link to this newsletter or my website.