I love the way cozy mystery series take the reader from season to season. The blaze of a beachside read as I swelter beneath the sun gives way to the chill of a spooky autumn tale read beneath the snuggliest blankie. Kids dressed as spooks crunch through leaves to collect treats from grownups dressed as zombies. Thanksgiving flies past with the flap of turkey wings (at least it does where I live). Christmas rubs its cold-reddened nose as cozy authors add lingering kisses beneath the mistletoe or mugs of peppermint hot chocolate slurped in front of a crackling fire.

Of course, it’s a mystery and murder is sure to creep into even the coziest seasonal fare. Those toes toasting by the open fire might be attached to some sad-sack Santa slumped, cold as death, in an armchair. Who hides beneath the red costume? A drunk who stole the day’s take from the Salvation Army’s donations kettle? A cheating dad spotted smooching the wrong someone beneath the mistletoe? A kidnapper whose plan to snatch little Suzie from her long winter’s nap has gone awry? Justice has perhaps been served in the form of a poisoned chocolate chip cookie hardening on a saucer at Santa’s elbow. I haven’t added a Christmas mystery to my Pacific Northwest Cozy Mystery series just yet, but, clearly, deliciously deadly ideas are churning.

So far, Saffi Graywood—my RV-driving writer turned amateur sleuth—has rumbled through summer (Murder at Last Chance Cove) into fall (Death in the Haunted Wood), blasted straight past Christmas and is about to pump the brakes on a New Year’s Eve celebration in Last Chance Cove to board a frantic flight up the coast to a different town, a different beach. Last Monday, I returned the final author edits on the third book in the series, Silenced at the Book Show.

Final author edits require time—I have to reread the entire book again—and discipline. I can’t make stylistic changes or any of the other things an author might be inclined to do if allowed (revise the plot, add a twist, change whodunit). I can only point out actual errors. Believe it or not, after multiple reads by me, my editor, a copy editor, and a proofreader, I found a few. They will be corrected before publication, but if you’re a voracious reader like me you’ve probably spotted an error or two in many a published book. It’s a thing. As a reader, the occasional error allows me a moment of self-righteous satisfaction. “I caught this and you did not.” Ahem. Come on… you’ve all felt it. As an author, an error in one of my published books makes me cringe.

The gallery below shares highlights from my writing year. If you read the series, you’ll recognize bits and pieces that showed up in the books, and discover two hints to the setting for Silenced at the Book Show. If you spot anything that looks familiar from one of the books or recognize where Saffi might be going in book three, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.