A Happy Accident by Jenny Adams

I sometimes call myself an “accidental” mystery writer. I’m not an accidental writer, by any means; I’ve been telling stories since I could speak, and began writing them down shortly after. I have notebooks upon notebooks filled up with stories from my elementary and middle and high school days - stories written during class, when I should have been paying attention to things like math or chemistry. When I graduated from college, I started writing seriously. I was a big fantasy reader, and, since it was 2010, a voracious YA reader. My first manuscript was a YA fantasy.

So was my second. 

By the time I signed with my agent, in 2021, I was on my sixth YA fantasy manuscript. I worked so hard at knowing my age category and genre; I threw myself into world-building and magic systems and learning romance beats and making friends with other YA fantasy writers. I was convinced, beyond a doubt, that when I was (finally) published, I’d be published as a YA Fantasy author. 

I was wrong. 

I should back up a bit. I’ve always read widely. Even as a child, I gravitated towards stories with strong female main characters and knuckle-biting action.. My great-grandmother, who lived with us, would take me to the library every week and fill up her bag with Mary Higgins Clark and Sue Grafton and Elizabeth George and Janet Evanovich, and I’d read them right after her, as soon as I finished up my own stack of Nancy Drew or the Boxcar Children. In college, I read so many thrillers and romantic suspense novels that I wasn’t able to sleep if I was home alone. Mysteries and thrillers always kept me company, and I loved books that blended fantasy and mystery, like Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. So, when my agent (gently) prodded me and said that maybe I should try writing in another age category, I pivoted to adult and wrote the first draft of the book that would become A Deadly Endeavor. It was still fantasy–in it, Edie saw ghosts and Gilbert was an accidental necromancer–but it was just as equally a mystery. I had so much fun plotting the whodunnit and leaning into the beats that when it went on submission, my-now-editor called and asked my agent if I’d be open to rewriting it as a historical mystery, and leaving out the magic all together. 

I hesitated. I had never pictured myself as a mystery writer! I didn’t know anyone writing mysteries! I was a fan, not a peer! I worried that other mystery authors would know I was a total fraud. That I didn’t belong. That I never meant to be among them. I almost said no, out of nothing more than imposter syndrome.

But then, by chance, I came across a box of childhood belongings my mom had packed up for me. In it was a slim, hardback, handwritten book. I remembered it instantly; I’d written it for a school project in third grade. It was a Nancy Drew-inspired mystery, complete with illustrations. I’d even given it a copyright page, and the bio read, “Jenny Adams is the author of mystery books. This is her first novel.” 

I told my agent I’d do the revise & resubmit. I rewrote the manuscript again–this time, putting my world-building skills to work making the 1920s Philadelphia setting come alive. None of the skills I’d honed in YA fantasy went to waste; I was a stronger writer for those six manuscripts. I wrote and rewrote, and two weeks after sending the R&R back to that editor, my agent called, and my life changed forever. 

Now, A Deadly Endeavor and the sequel, A Poisonous Silence, sit beside that third-grade project on my shelf. Jenny Adams is an author of mysteries. Every word I wrote, every book I read, every dream I chased led me here. So don’t be afraid to say yes, to pivot, or to try something new. It might just be the happiest accident you’ll ever make. 

Bio

Jenny Adams has always had an overactive imagination. She turned her love of books and stories into a career as a librarian and Agatha Award-nominated novelist. She holds degrees in Medieval Studies and Library Science from The Ohio State University and Drexel University, and currently lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her family.

Links:

Website: http://jenny-adams.com 

A Deadly Endeavor: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741924/a-deadly-endeavor-by-jenny-adams/ 

A Poisonous Silence: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/770231/a-poisonous-silence-by-jenny-adams/