A Prompt, A Pivot, and a Brand-New Novel by Katie Tietjen

LUCY BURDETTE: I think you’ll remember my fellow Crooked Lane writer, Katie Tietjen, with her wonderful first novel, Death in the Details. I’m delighted to welcome her back to the reds to discuss the inspiration for her new book, Murder in Miniature. Welcome Katie!

KATIE TIETJEN:

“Walk slowly all the way around the outside.” 

After Erin read these words off one of her pomodoro writing prompt cards and we all turned off our Zoom cameras, I’m not sure what everyone else did, but I know what I did: I wrote the first scene that would become my second novel. 

It was 2022, and I was participating in a virtual reunion for anyone from the various cohorts of the (now, sadly, no longer active) 5th Semester program. Run by authors and teachers Ann Garvin and Erin Celello, it emphasized what they felt was missing from most traditional MFA programs: a fifth semester (get it???) in which creative writing students learned how to market and sell their writing. 

For me, the 5th Semester was life-changing. When I went to Chicago for the long weekend that kicked off my cohort in February of 2020, I was one of four aspiring writers participating. The first night, we sat around in the cozy living room of our rented house and told the rest of the group about our works-in-progress. When it was my turn, I explained that I had a complete draft of a young adult novel inspired by Frances Glessner Lee, the mother of forensic science (I previously blogged about her here). I told them how Lee used her dollhouse-crafting skills to make miniature re-creations of death scenes in order to train investigators. She called them her Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. Everyone oohed and ahhed about how interesting that sounded. 

In fairness, it’s not hard to make FGL sound interesting; she was awesome. 

But when I described my main character, the mood in the room shifted. I explained that she was a teenage girl who reluctantly became Frances Glessner Lee’s assistant, and then the two of them solved a crime together. I went on to say I had also completed a second manuscript in which another teenage girl was paired with FGL against her will. For each book, I explained, I had used a different one of FGL’s real nutshells as the impetus for the plot.

From her plush armchair across the room, Ann gave me one of those looks when someone’s about to give you bad news and they’re not sure how you’re going to take it—you know, like they’ve made up their mind to say the thing, but they figure there’s at least a 50/50 chance you’ll start crying or yell at them or something? 

Yeah. That look. 

She proceeded to tell me the concept of death dollhouses was a great hook, but that she felt my focus was misplaced. She said the Frances Glessner Lee character was the most interesting and deserved to be at center stage. She also pointed out that rotating narrators in a series could be problematic because readers like returning to the same character. 

Then she shrugged and said something I had never thought of before: “I don’t know where this book would go on the shelf.”

And there—right there, that very moment—is why the 5th Semester was so important for me. I had never considered how, as an author, part of my job was to make it easy for booksellers and librarians to promote and recommend my book to readers. By writing a novel that didn’t have a clear place on the shelf, I was inadvertently muddying the waters. 

I wasn’t crying or yelling, so Ann went on: “I think you should re-frame this as an adult historical cozy mystery series and put the spotlight on the Frances Glessner Lee character.”

And then, since I had just told everyone I already had not one, but two, complete novels already written using my YA concept, she winced—preparing, I presume, for my meltdown.

Instead, I felt like a bolt of (sensible) lightning had just hit me. I went on to write a completely new manuscript that eventually became my first published book, DEATH IN THE DETAILS, centered around a fictional protagonist inspired by Lee. Then, in that 2022 Zoom, Erin gave me the freewriting prompt that became the second book in the Maple Bishop series, MURDER IN MINIATURE. I immediately pictured my main character walking slowly around the perimeter of a dead man inside the remnants of a fire-ravaged house. I recognized my mental image as Frances Glessner Lee’s nutshell called “Burned Cabin.” I didn’t know yet who the dead guy was or really much else except that would be Maple’s case in book two, but I was really excited to write it so I could find out. 

Have you ever thought you were on the right path only to have to fall back and start all over again—and ended up all the better for it? 

Has a small, off-the-cuff comment (or a pomodoro-style freewriting prompt) inspired you to create something big and meaningful? Let me know in the comments! 

Katie Tietjen is an award-winning writer, teacher, and school librarian. A Frances Glessner Lee enthusiast, she’s traveled thousands of miles to visit her homes, see her nutshells, and even attend her birthday party. Katie lives in New England with her husband and two sons. The Mary Higgins Clark Award-nominated Death in the Details is her first novel; the second book in the Maple Bishop series, Murder in Miniature, hit the shelves in September. Katie is an unrepentant tea snob, but otherwise a very nice person. Find her on Instagram.

Inspired by the true story of Frances Glessner Lee, whose miniature replicas of crime scenes are still used to train forensic investigators today, this follow up novel to Death in the Details continues the adventures of intrepid amateur sleuth Maple Bishop. Maple Bishop has a thriving dollhouse business and a new career as a crime scene consultant for the local sheriff's office. On the surface, she seems to be doing well, but deep down Maple is still reeling from the death of her husband. When the body of an aspiring firefighter-who was close childhood friends with Kenny, the sheriff's deputy and Maple's confidante-is discovered in the charred remains of a burned cabin, Maple is called in to help determine whether the fire was an accident or a case of murder by arson. Realizing there's more to the crime than meets the eye, she sets out to unearth the discrepancies from the scene by re-creating the cabin in miniature. The investigation leads them to Maple's old Boston neighborhood, forcing her to confront the past she's desperately trying to forget. As Maple and Kenny sift through clues, they uncover dark secrets that hit close to home, unravelling in unexpected ways-and putting their lives in danger.