With stiff competition for indies to get a place in the program of one of the big commercial literature festivals, it’s worth thinking laterally and going about it another way: by starting your own. Whereas the high-profile lit fests depend on famous-name, trade-published authors to sell the tickets that fund their year-round operation, there’s plenty of public appetite for small, friendly indie lit fests offering a different menu of speakers and the chance to meet their next favorite author that they’ve never heard of!

Cozy mystery (or cosy mystery, in British English) is the gentlest subset of the broad genre of crime writing. As its name suggests, it’s a comfort read that leaves you satisfied and at one with the world, rather than scared to sleep alone with the lights out.