Guest Post

Guest Chick: Rosalie Spielman

Today the Chicks are happy to host the marvelous Rosalie Spielman, who has TWO new releases this fall: Hallo-waiian Murder Mystery (Oct. 3) and Murder Comes Home (Nov. 7). Not only that, but she’s been packing up her daughter for college–both figuratively and literally–and has a terrific take on the experience for us today. Take it away, Rosalie!

CAR TETRIS

I packed up my second kid for college last week. It was hard. I mean, fitting all that stuff in the car…

Collegiate Car Tetris 2023, TJU edition

Okay, I’m joking to hide the pain. Is someone chopping onions around here?!


This isn’t my first go round with college kid Car Tetris—defined (by me) as packing as much as possible into a car in the most efficient and often creative way. My daughter is going to school two hours away, so it was a pretty straightforward case of “this, not that.”


Collegiate Car Tetris circa 2021, U of I edition

My son left for school a couple years ago….2500 miles away. We packed a few suitcases of essentials to fly him there but made a big trip to Wallyworld before move in day. So when the time came, that packed car looked eerily similar to last week’s. Right down to the same suitcase. (Which didn’t occur to me until just now!)


We did fine though. We Spielmans are good packers. It’s a requirement for a military family. You can’t move seven times since preschool (seven schools for my son and six for my daughter) and not be good at packing. I once drove from Kansas to Maryland in our Volvo, my car holding one human child, one dog child (approximately the same size as the human child), three suitcases, two backpacks, two boxes, and four houseplants. Friends, I know how to do Car Tetris.


It’s all about organization through anticipation. You pack what you don’t need and do need separately and put them in the vehicle accordingly. Think ahead of time, anticipate what you’ll need when. (Scissors and student ID easily accessible, for example.)


After we returned home sans adult-child, it occurred to me, as I stared at my current work in progress, that the challenge of packing and moving is not unlike writing a mystery.

What do I pack, and how badly does it need to be there? Do I need these fifteen pairs of sweatpants, or this extra, hilarious suspect? What will fit in the car/story?


Or more importantly, what do I leave (out). Sorry, fifteenth pair of sweats, I can ship you later. And hilarious suspect, you can be in a different book.

Will everything have a place and purpose in the new dorm room/story that I’ve never seen/haven’t written yet? (I’m talking to you, random pithy dialogue scene. And you, box of cute drawer organizers that didn’t fit in the dorm drawers.)


And most relevant to me at this moment—what order do I pack stuff?


A few days before, I realized the book I was struggling with was out of order. I had literally written the second half of the story first—which if you’re doing on purpose and are aware you’re doing it, is perfectly fine. But to not realize you are doing so… a problem.

I’m a pantser. I’ve tried—oh, how I’ve tried—to be a plotter. Case in point: this book was plotted out. Admittedly, not well, since it was all sorts of messed up. So I unpacked the bags and got organized, then packed the car all over again. In the case of this book, I literally printed out the story, cut it up into scenes, and Frankensteined that %^&$ back together in an order that made sense and didn’t have the story ending at 30K. Tetris with a wordcount!


Witness the Franken-book being coaxed to life…

I’m not worried though. Just like college drop off, it will all work out in the end. It always does. In some weird way, I manage to make everything copacetic. Just as this newly abandoned nest-mother will be okay, so will the WIP.


Readers: Have you ever had a WIP not “packed” in the right order? How do you go about fixing it if and when that happens?

Rosalie has two releases this fall:

3 October 2023: #20 in the Aloha Lagoon mystery series, Hallo-waiian Murder Mystery
Preorder: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C97PSPBP

Aloha Lagoon’s own dive tour leader Kiki Hepburn investigates the untimely death of one of her landlady Auntie Akamai’s oldest friends in between diving, attending a zombie wedding, and being stalked by a “monster”!

7 November 2023: #3 in the Hometown Mysteries, Murder Comes Home
Preorder: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9S126XG
US Army retiree Tessa Treslow and her Aunt Edna put their auto restoration gig on hold to host an “American Pickers”-style TV show, hoping their trash might be treasure to fun their new business. But not only do the pickers come with cameras and likeable stars, but a murderer…
**Gemma Halliday Publishing is donating a portion of the presales to a veterans’ charity, Quilts of Honor.

Rosalie Spielman is a mother, veteran, and retired military spouse. She was thrilled to discover that she could make other people laugh with her writing and finds joy in giving people a humorous escape from the real world. She writes for the multi-author Aloha Lagoon mystery series and her own Hometown Mystery series.

She currently lives in Maryland with her husband in a rapidly emptying nest. For more information on her books or to subscribe to her newsletter, go to http://www.rosalie-spielman-author.com, follow her Facebook page (Rosalie Spielman author) or Instagram (Rosalie.Spielman). Rosalie strives to provide you a cozy escape…one page at a time.

34 thoughts on “Guest Chick: Rosalie Spielman”

  1. I am glad to hear about new books. I just discovered this author and left my five star review of Welcome Home to Murder on Goodreads today!!

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  2. Rosalie,
    Being prior military, I totally get it. My father is a Marine, and my first husband and I met when we were both stationed in Alaska. I know how to pack a week’s worth of clothes in an overnight bag.
    My house is a different story, because the current hubbs is a hoarder. I definitely use an eagle eye to decide what I can get rid of.
    As far was writing? I am definitely a plotter, a huge one. I try to order my scenes, but they don’t always work out that way. That’s why I love scrivener, because it’s easy to move things around.which I do quite often. Although I think the hardest part is when I know a scene has to be added, but I can’t figure out where it goes!
    And I appreciate the picture of the manual editing process you do. I couldn’t edit on the computer screen if my life depended on it! I am a hands down planner and editing person. Only my stories I do directly into the computer.

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  3. I love this analogy so much, Rosalie! And yes, I too once printed out several pages of plot points, cut them into strips, and then spend a few days moving them around on a table until they seemed to be in the right order, then taped them back together–the original cut-and-paste job!

    Thanks so much for visiting the Chicks today, and congrats on the two new releases–huzzah!

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  4. I enjoy writing a scene when the muse strikes. That requires finding its rightful place among the other scenes.

    That’s why I love Scrivener writing software. Based on the Story Beat structure, I name each scene based on content. Then, it’s as simple as moving the scene within the app’s binder.

    For those unfamiliar with that concept, picture picking up the scene’s pages off the table and placing them where they best fit. With some practice, it’s easy and fast.

    By the way: the app is especially useful if you’re working with a client writing a memoir and the person brings you the equivalent of a shoebox full of life’s notes!

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      1. Apple Pages and Microsoft Word offer many features, but for structuring a story, Scrivener excels. Don’t let the reputed learning curve stop you from picking it up. Scrivener is no harder to learn than the Word app, just different.

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  5. I’m a pantser too, Rosalie. I so want to be a plotter. It seems cleaner, somehow. But it just doesn’t work for me. If I’m presented with a list, my mind goes blank.
    I discover my story in the act of writing it. To follow your packing analogy. it’s like walking thru the house, seeing an item, picking it up and putting it in the car. Does that mean I’ll leave things out? Youbetcha. But I’ll just have to go back and fill in when I discover what’s missing.
    Remember, it’s always easier to edit than to write.

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    2. Ohmygosh, Tom! It’s just the opposite for me. It’s so much easier for me to write the first draft than to have to revise something. Ugh. Once I had to move a scene, which seems pretty straightforward, but it left me rocking in the corner, softly whimpering.

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  6. Hi Rosalie! Thanks for stopping by to visit us today! I, too, am an excellent packer, but I didn’t learn it in the military. I’m just lazy and only want to haul a carry-on. I did a three week trip to Iceland (cold) then Italy (hot) with just a small bag. So much easier than schlepping everything. Besides, I have a credit card! I am a total plotter, though. I don’t even pants a grocery trip! Well, I mean, I *wear* pants, but I take a list.

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    1. Hi Becky!
      Pants are overrated.
      I can very much appreciate the small bag for two countries – you’re a pro! And the “I’ve got a credit card” – yes! I always tell my kids, you have your phone and your credit card, you’re good to go.
      Thanks for having me!
      Rosalie

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  7. Happy upcoming double release, Rosalie! In my current WIP, I had to cut a scene that I really loved. It was quite action-packed…but didn’t fit the mystery. It’s currently saved in an online folder, and maybe I’ll put it in a different story one day. P.S. I love your amazing Tetris packing skills!

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      1. The Tetris thing made me laugh because I was helping my son and DIL organize a bunch of stuff last week and I kept talking about Jenga. “Um, Mom? Please don’t try to pull out the middle bin!”

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  8. Hi Rosalie! I can do relate to this post. Our daughter went to school 2k miles away, so it was a bring two suitcases and we’ll get the rest there. Getting it all home? That’s another story.

    Im an outliner and live by it. They’re really my first drafts.

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    1. Hi Ellen,
      Thanks for having me!
      You’d think I’d be a better plotter, military background and all, but I’m just not. My best type of working outline is like those map quest directions before gps. “Start here, turn here, end here.”
      I do envy plotters when I hit the middle slump though. For sure.
      🙂
      Rosalie

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  10. Rosalie, love this post! I am a terrible, terrible packer. (I wasn’t that good at regular Tetris, either.) I have no spacial relations, ha. But wow, congrats on the TWO books coming out this fall–can’t wait to read them! And good luck to your kids at school this year (and you!)

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  11. I hope the empty nest feeling is getting easier and not harder as the weeks pass. With kids off to college, you did rock that book, at least!!

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    1. Hi Korina! Thanks for popping in!
      Yes, I got it knocked out, more so because EVERYONE was gone and I didn’t have to cook all week! And no panicked phone calls…yet. 😉

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  12. Welcome, Rosalie, and congrats x2!!

    OH how I can relate to this on so many levels! I just packed my eldest off to college, and was convinced we wouldn’t be able to get his hatchback to close around his massive quantities of Things. He made it (I imagine assisted by chewing gum and a paperclip, MacGyver-style), but that hasn’t cured me of trying to cram too much elsewhere–like my writing.

    I used to keep a separate doc just for those hilarious characters I hoped to meet again and on-point dialogue that really had no point in that scene–or book. Have I revisited those forlorn words? Well, no. But they’re there when I need them!

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    1. Hi Kathleen!
      My son would have MacGyvered as well – he FaceTimed me after putting a couch in the back of his truck, assuring me that his roommate is an Eagle Scout and “ties good knots.” Since the couch was hanging a foot off his lowered tailgate, I sure hope so! At least he didn’t have far to go, and I think the couch made the trip. lol
      I have a file just like that, lingering in the cloud, probably.
      I’m starting a proposal for a new series and apparently, saved several different starts for the same hook in that “bits and pieces” file – all with different names for the MC.
      Thanks for stopping by!

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  13. For some reason, I am a good packer. I say some reason because I grew up and lived in the family home built in 1941 until 1976 though I did go off to the University of Texas which was 6 hours away. We never went on family vacations until I came home from college because my father managed theatres in our hometown and that is a 24/7 job. But I can pack. We used to go to the Florida Keys for two months over a period of 13 years plus, so we kept some things boxed and ready to go that we had for the rental house and did not need at our house. Then we would just get that all packed in the car and last we put what we needed each night along the way to getting there at the back within easy access for us and for the pup. We took a large igloo cooler for the boat and packed clothes and whatever else inside it instead of using suitcases.

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      1. Apologize for spelling your name wrong! I know how annoying it is, with a name like mine!
        Thank you, Madeleine!

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