Death 101: Extra Credit (or How I Learned to Stop Stewing and Finish My Fourth Novel)

You might think that Death 101 was an easy A for me.

After all, it’s my tenth book and fourth novel – piece of cake, right? Nothing could be further from the truth, and now I’m finally ready to heave a sigh of relief.

It’s been two years since the last Cassandra Sato Mystery came out, and let me tell you, that wait was no joke! My friends were losing hope that I’d ever finish this book, and some readers had accepted they’d never know what happens next in Cassandra’s life. Let’s be honest, there were plenty of dark pandemic days when I was right there with them, wondering if I’d ever navigate the murky middle or wrestle all the clues, red herrings, and subplots into a finished novel.

Now that we can look back on those dark days with a bit of grace, I see that my trajectory from first ideas to finished book looked a lot more like one of my grandkid’s scribbles than a straight vector.

And for any aspiring writers who happen to be reading, here’s the lesson I’ve learned from this meandering experience. Every book is different. Every writing experience is unique, partially because our skills and experience mirrors the creative process. The book took SO LONG to write mostly because I wasn’t ready to finish it. Not in the primadonna, I-can-only-write-when-the-muse-hits kind of ready. I mean mentally it took that long for me to process everything and improve my skills enough to make it work.

One of my favorite author coaches, Becca Syme, calls my approach a bread machine style and I love that image. It perfectly describes how it feels to throw a cup of fencing, a cup of college course syllabus, a tablespoon each of Deaf, Hawaiian, and Midwestern Cultures, along with healthy dollops of secrets, lies, and mysteries into a bread machine and stir the mixture around for awhile to see what turns out of the pan.

I’m so excited to share this story with readers. I can’t wait for you to see the ways Cassandra grows. As I’ve learned the past few years, growth isn’t easy, but it’s worth the price. Perseverance pays off. Even when you doubt yourself, success can still happen if you keep going.

Let me tell you a bit about the ideas that became Death 101: Extra Credit.

It all started with a sharp jab in the ribs with a foil. And an undergraduate course in Death and Dying.

First, the fencing.

Kristian Anderson is a modern day Renaissance man who runs a digital marketing company, teaches as faculty at the University of Nebraska, and fences at a highly competitive level. He gave my son and me a quick fencing lesson where my main takeaway was that it’s not nearly as easy as they make it look on TV! Later, I saw a student production of The Three Musketeers and of course my murder-y brain started wondering how I could include all of this in a book some day. Kristian shared his fencing expertise by advising me on the behind-the-scenes parts of the Three Musketeers play and ways to include sword fighting in my story.

Secondly, Death and Dying was one of my all-time favorite courses during the 25+ years I’ve worked as a college interpreter. Undergraduates learned everything scientific and statistical there is to know about death and dying, visited a mortuary, and even planned out their own funerals! We read inspirational books like Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Album, Night, and Open Heart, both by Elie Weisel. The class is an enlightening experience about life and living rather than a morbid dirge, and it definitely gave me plenty of interesting ideas for my book.

In my research, I came across the idea of writing a goodbye letter to someone who has passed away. I often wondered what Cassandra’s letter to her former fiance Paul would look like. I’m not a sobby, emotional person, but I bawled while I wrote that scene. Death 101: Extra Credit has many moments of growth for several of the characters, along with a complex mystery full of secrets and twisty turns.

So without further delay, I hope you’re a fraction as excited to read Cassandra’s story as I am to share it with you! Escape with me to Carson, Nebraska and learn a few things along the way, friends!