A little off topic

I've been away for a few weeks, and i apologize for that. As most of you know, I'm expecting my first baby in February, and having a hard time of it. What most of you didn't know is that a few weeks ago my mother in law Linda passed away from a 2 year long battle with breast cancer. She was a wonderful woman, and I couldn't have loved her more if she was my own mom. Her passing was not unexpected, but still shocking, and my family and i have been mourning privately and sometimes publicly. I say this not to garner sympathy or get an outpouring of "poor Heather's" but to let you know why I've been away.

But it's gotten me thinking.

We write mysteries. Nine times out of ten the mystery is figuring out why someone died. So how do we deal with the very real and raw emotions of the friends and family of the victim? Grief shows itself in so many different ways for each person, how do we make it real for the reader, some of which can seem almost shocking? I have no idea. Honestly, I haven't gotten to that point in my own story yet. And I think that I'm still a little too close to our own tragedy to be able to use the experience in my writing.

But it's something for each of us to think about as we write. These characters are supposed to be "real" people. Someone loved them, and someone will cry because they are gone.