Maggie Sefton | Writing Teenagers

If you’ve been reading the Kelly Flynn Knitting Mysteries, then you’ve discovered that I’ve introduced several teenaged characters in the books on different occasions. Most recently, in CLOSE KNIT KILLER, I introduced a young twelve year old, about-to-be teenager, Cassie Wainwright, café-owner Pete’s niece, who joined the cast. Cassie has gone on to become a cast regular in YARN OVER MURDER. Curt Stackhouse’s grandson, Eric, also joined the cast in that book. Cassie and Eric---both now fourteen years old---will be in this year’s June 1015 release, PURL UP AND DIE.

Like all my characters, Cassie simply “walked onstage” one day, and I knew she was meant to be in the Kelly Flynn books. That’s the way it works with my characters. They don’t ask, they simply show up and demand to be on the page. Actually, I had a hint of Cassie a couple of years before she showed up. She didn’t have a name or any description then, but she was simply “out there” in the sky, circling. All I knew was she’s a teenaged girl. I was delighted when the character Cassie finally showed up and turned out to be a delight.

Here’s an excerpt from this June’s release, PURL UP AND DIE—

Read an Excerpt

Young Eric is also an enjoyable character. And it’s fun to write about young teenaged boys slowly moving into manhood, just as it’s equally enjoyable to write about teenaged girls making their way carefully as they blossom into young women. In the upcoming Kelly Flynn release, PURL UP AND DIE, both Cassie and Eric are fourteen and it’s great fun to show their moments of maturity and their sudden lapses into “younger kids.”

Here’s another excerpt from PURL UP AND DIE—

Read an Excerpt

Since I have been blessed with four wonderful grandchildren (two grandsons and two granddaughters), I have had ample experience watching these young ones blossom. The teenaged boy O’Leary appears in the upcoming PURL UP AND DIE. But he first appeared as a full-of-himself thirteen year old with a cheesy grin in FLEECE NAVIDAD. Kelly and Jennifer wanted to help out over-worked Hilda and Lizzie who were handling the local Catholic Church’s Christmas pageant. Before they knew it, both Kelly and Jennifer (the two lapsed Catholics in the Lambspun group) found themselves in charge of a group of 13 year olds who were staging the pageant. And my then-13 year old grandson Matthew unknowingly provided a great deal of “inspiration” for O’Leary. Oh, my. . .was that fun to write.

An example from FLEECE NAVIDAD—

Read an Excerpt

About Maggie Sefton

Maggie Sefton is the author of the Knitting mysteries. She will have another mystery series set in Washington, DC, featuring political types, dead bodies, and intrigue---all fictional, of course. :-) First book in the series will be released in late summer 2012 from Midnight Ink.

An avid knitter herself, she lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.

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About PURL UP AND DIE

In the latest novel from the New York Times bestselling author of YARN OVER MURDER, Kelly Flynn and the Lambspun Knitters must unravel the truth from the lies to clear a friend's son suspected of murder...

Kelly Flynn's summer in Fort Connor, Colorado, is off to a great start with romantic celebrations with her boyfriend, Steve, and enjoyable—albeit challenging—knitting classes taught by her friend Barb at the House of Lambspun. But while Barb's advanced stitches are giving Kelly the slip, a more deadly problem soon has her friend coming apart at the seams.

A young woman has accused Barb's son, Tommy—a young doctor doing his residency—of assaulting her. The yarns spun by the local rumor mill are bad enough, but when the young woman is found dead in her ransacked apartment, Tommy becomes the number one suspect.

The police are ready to close the case, but Kelly is convinced that there are a few more likely suspects. Now she has to knit together the clues herself to uncover a killer who doesn't seem to drop a stitch...