Hmmm…a thousand ways to die you say?

There are a limited number of ways to kill someone. How do you keep from repeating them? Or do you not worry about that at all?

Yes, yes there is, and I’m interested in them all. Maybe that’s why I love the old mysteries like Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, as well as I like all the CSI series. Nothing piques my interest more than that moment in the book or show when we find out the victim was killed my some super rare interaction between the victim’s soap and perfume that mixed together to create a toxic fume that suffocated the poor dear to death. Makes me grin every time.

Naturally, I’m always thinking about the ways that everyday items can become deadly weapons with just a bit of tweaking at the fingertips of an adventurous writer, doesn’t everybody? I mean, seriously, who knew that eyedrops could be such a deadly weapon? Not I. And I’m still not convinced that if someone chose to off me using this method, my local coroner would sus it out, no matter how many times I’ve seen it on Dateline.

And what about allergies. Who can say with one hundred percent surety that you knew that the corn chowder you served to your soon-to-be ex with the life and death shellfish allergy, before he had a chance to take your name off of their life insurance policy, was flavored with a bit of lobster tail. Not guilty. Am I right?

I’m not a whodunnit kind of writer. In my books the death normally comes circumstantially. So, for my writing no real planning of the murder is necessary. I’m able to let the scene dictate the manner of death naturally. For example, if an argument happens in the kitchen that has to lead to death, it’s probably going to be a kitchen utensil like a knife, a fork, or even a cast iron skillet.  But, someday, I’ll write that book where I get to creatively kill. And when I do, I have a decent reservoir of ways to die. And if I ever run out, sadly, this world just keeps on supplying more.