Guest Post | Raemi A. Ray talks about her writing process and her latest mystery, Final Exit #guestpost #mystery #writing #writingcommunity #nnlbh
- N. N. Light
- Jun 11
- 7 min read
Hi, and thank you for letting me crash Book Heaven today.
I’m Raemi (pronounced like Amy with an “R”), the author of the Martha’s Vineyard Murders series, a whodunnit-style mystery series based on…. Nantucket. No, just kidding, they take place on Martha’s Vineyard. Actually, that’s why I’m here. As part of my little promotional tour for Book 4, Final Exit which came out May 28, I get to write a guest post on the NN Light’s Book Heaven. So here I am.
When I accepted the spot, I asked what I should write about and was told, and I quote, a “topic of your choice.” So immediately, I spiraled, because you can’t give me that many options. I’m a Libra. I live in a constant state of decision paralysis. But after probably too many hours of thinking about my topic, I came up with one. I hope you like it.
People often ask me about my writing process, and I tell people I write my books backwards. This seems to confound them. I thought this would be a good opportunity to explain what I mean.
Way back in 2021, when I was hopeful and naïve, I decided to write a book. I researched many genres, and decided I’d throw my hand at writing mysteries. I like the concepts of puzzles and inner demons reflected in external opposition. I loved how that was encapsulated by shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I wanted to create something similar, something that used crime as a conduit for commentary, but I have a love hate relationship with many mystery series.
I sat down and really parsed out what I liked about classic and contemporary mysteries and what I didn’t. What often drove me nuts about classic mysteries, in particular, is when the reader didn’t have the same information as the “detective.” For example, when the detective enters a room and notices a clue, but the clue, seeing it and connecting it, isn’t mentioned until the big reveal at the end. Or when the crime solving work happens off page and is revealed in Scooby-Doo style exposition. I didn’t like being left out as a reader. In my job-that-pays-me world, I tell my clients to set your people up for success and I think that applies to mystery readers. The audience should be able to solve the mystery beside the detective. The killer can be a surprise but looking back I want my readers to think, “oh yeah,” or even “I figured it out chapters ago.” Anything is better than, “What?”
In order to achieve a solvable murder, I start at the end. This is what I mean when I say I write backwards. I conceptualize the story from the big reveal backward. I know who the killer is and how they’re caught, first. I scope out their motivations, the challenges they face and near misses with the law and in the operations of the caper. The villain’s entire story is created first, in detail and then I slot in solving the crime.
It helps that I’m a slave to outlining. In the writer community, I’m considered a “plotter” someone who creates the story entirely before drafting it, vs a “pantser.” A pantser is someone with the insane talent to just sit and write, spinning the tale as they go. I’m much too anxious to do that.
I spend nearly as much time outlining as I do drafting. My outlines are dozens of pages long. Every clue is conceived, where it’s found, when it’s seen, if the detective even knows what she’s seeing when she encounters it. I add in the red herrings, and whether those send the detective in the wrong direction, or if they’re just for the reader.
You’d think that all this detail would make the drafting portion of the process easier and quick. It doesn’t. Filling in the space is, at least for me, very challenging. It’s the hardest (and least fun) part of writing. Sometimes, as was the case with Book 5 (2026), the outline failed me. I could not get my characters to realistically or believably do what they needed to do. The mystery kept falling apart. I had to scrap about 40,000 words and start over. New outline, new plot, new caper.
It happens. In this case my villain had to be recast, and the story remolded. I’m a little bummed about it. I now know an absurd amount about India’s military history during the Middle Ages. I don’t know when that will be useful. On the other hand, it was nice to deep dive into research that for once is not getting me on an FBI or Homeland Security watchlist.
That kind of sums it up. Perhaps I shouldn’t say I “write” backwards, but that I conceptualize backwards. I guess it depends what part of the process one considers “writing” – the story creation, or the act of penning it. What do you think? Do you have a unique way of approaching tasks?
It’s been so nice to hang out with you all and I hope you found this little insight into my world interesting. If you’d like to connect and stay in touch, you can follow me on socials or sign up for my newsletter. And/or just email me. I love chatting with readers, about my books, other books, books we love and loathe. Please, don’t be strangers.
Until the next ferry over ~ R
Title: Final Exit, Martha’s Vineyard Murders, Book Four
Author: Raemi A. Ray
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Book Blurb:
Careful what you wish for…
Winter has settled over the island of Martha’s Vineyard, and newspaper columnist Kyra Gibson is relieved when her partner, forensic profiler Tarek Collins, returns home. As a birthday surprise, she arranges a meet and greet with the hosts of his favorite true-crime podcast while they’re on island to investigate a notorious cold case.
Forty years ago, a beautiful young actress was brutally murdered and her enigmatic bunkmate disappeared from the prestigious Oak Bluffs summer theater camp. Nothing about the podcasters’ attitude, their lack of preparation, or disdain for the island makes sense. When they disappear, leaving behind a bloody mess, Kyra and Tarek are ensnared in a decades-long web of intrigue. To find the podcasters, they must untangle the historic crime, but someone wants to keep the case cold. Someone willing to kill.
Every islander holds tight to their secrets, and each question leads down a dark and twisted path. When a lead draws Tarek off the island, Kyra embarks on a perilous rescue before the final curtain claims them both.
Excerpt:
It wasn’t as dark upstairs. Many of the rooms’ doors were open or missing, letting in the early afternoon light. They crept down the hallway, pausing at each door, so Marjorie and Kelsey could take a peek inside. Alvin and Kent stood aside as the podcasters stuck their heads in, made an idle comment, and motioned for them to proceed.
By the third room, it became clear to Kyra that Marjorie and Kelsey weren’t interested in seeing or searching the dorm rooms.
When Marjorie caught Kyra watching her, she shrugged. “What? They’re all the same.”
It wasn’t quite true. The rooms were identical but for their state of ruin. Some still contained furniture, beds, or dressers turned on their sides. Others were empty. Some had walls, and in others the plaster had collapsed or rotted away. But collectively, Kyra got a decent picture of what the double occupancy rooms would have been like.
They stopped at the doorway of one of the middle rooms, but when Marjorie and Kelsey moved to the next, Kyra stepped inside for a better view. It had been cleaned out and was empty, or as clean and empty as a room that’d been abandoned for decades with a blown-out window could be.
The carpet had rotted away in places and the subfloor below was dipped and bowed with rot. With each step she took farther into the room, the floor groaned.
“Termites, I’d wager,” Alvin said with a grating cheerfulness. “The Martha’s Vineyard Community Council and the local historical society wanted us to salvage as much of the old timber as we could.” He kicked the wall, and the plaster fell away, leaving a hole. “Lucky for us it was so cheaply built and in such bad condition it’s not worth saving. Reclaiming costs a fortune.”
Kyra walked the perimeter. The occupants would have had to push their beds against opposite walls, with the small window between them. It could have held two small dressers, but it’d have been tight. There was no closet and no overhead light fixtures.
She peered out of the window and down to the courtyard below. She counted the windows on the boys’ dorm, one floor stacked above the other, all with views of the same would-be green space. Kyra spun in place, taking in the four walls, the low ceilings. She exited the room and checked the one to the left.
The window in this room was in better shape. Some creature had taken advantage of the modicum of shelter. Recently, Kyra discerned from the condition of the nest in the corner, and the smell.
“Are all the buildings this bad?” Marjorie’s voice carried from down the hall.
“Couldn’t say. I haven’t been inside many of them.” Kent. “This is the first time I’m in here, actually.”
“How long will the renovation take?” Kelsey this time.
Kyra tapped her finger against the rotting windowsill.
“Tar?” she called without raising her voice. She heard his footsteps in the room next door, in the hall. She turned around as he appeared in the doorway. His eyes gleamed when they met hers and his mouth hitched into a wry half smile. He’d already come to the same conclusion. Kyra beamed. The police’s story was wrong.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
Amazon: https://a.co/d/8BOmxEK
Google Play: https://tinyurl.com/3apd7uus
Apple: https://tinyurl.com/33b4jx72
Giveaway -
Enter to win a print copy of Final Exit by Raemi A. Ray plus a $20 Amazon gift card.
Open to US residents only
Runs May 21 - June 30.
Winner will be drawn on July 1.
Author Biography:
Raemi A. Ray is the author of the Martha’s Vineyard Murders series. Her travels to the island and around the world inspire her stories. She lives with her family in Boston.
Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RaemiRay/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miss_raemi/
BlueSky: @missraemi.bsky.social
