Guest Post & Giveaway – Mummy’s Locket by Nan S. Russell
Mummy’s Locket (Mallory Grayson Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – New York State
Publisher : Next Chapter
Publication date : May 25, 2026
Print length : 308 pages
Synopsis
The truth doesn’t stay buried forever.
After losing everything, Mallory Grayson retreats to a quiet town, hoping a vintage shop and a fresh start will help her rebuild her life. But when the mummified body of her long-missing great-grandmother is discovered, Mallory is pulled into a mystery.
Clues hidden in heirlooms, a secret room, and a past lover’s return offer answers … if she’s willing to risk everything to uncover them. In a story steeped in secrets and history, her courage may be the only thing that can break the curse.
The past and present collide in MUMMY’S LOCKET, the first book in the Mallory Grayson Mysteries series by Nan S. Russell.
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Guest Post
Why I Write Mysteries
by Nan S. Russell
Two decades ago, I left a successful career on the East Coast to fulfill a dream to launch a second-stage career as a writer. Despite extensive research into how to be a successful writer, I found the actual-doing different from my imagining-of-doing. Like many things, what we think something is like and what it is, are often not aligned. And so, it was with becoming a writer.
First, I spent a decade becoming a non-fiction writer, acquiring an agent and authoring five leadership, career, and self-development books, then consulting and speaking on the topics. For me, it was a great place to start since I had practical real-world career experience and a platform.
At the time, I believed it was harder to write non-fiction than fiction, and the right place to launch my writer career. And it was, but not for that reason. My assumption that it would be relatively easy to move to mystery writing was wrong. I now believe fiction is harder to write, at least for me.
I never finished my first mystery attempt or my second. I wrote myself into a corner. I didn’t understand story structure, didn’t understand character development or arcs, and didn’t understand the difference between plot and story, and a whole lot more.
I love reading and enjoy a variety of genres including historical, romance, women’s fiction, and thrillers to name a few. But mystery is my favorite. Especially traditional and cozy ones. It has been my go-to genre since my aunt gave me a Nancy Drew mystery when I was in fourth grade.
Fast forward to today. My first mystery, Mummy’s Locket, the beginning book in the Mallory Grayson Mysteries, just came out. I was fortunate to sign a three-book contract. Book two, One Deadly Postcard, will be out in 2027.
All that happened because I came to understand that in order to write a good mystery, I had to become a mystery writer. I had to study the craft and learn the nuances and parameters in the traditional/cozy mystery realm. Plus, I had to keep improving my skills and practicing them. I joined writing organizations like Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, I attended conferences, enrolled in an eight-week Mystery Mastermind class, dissected bestselling mysteries, and read several writing craft books.
I did all that because I believe life is about becoming who we are capable of becoming. For me, that means I’ll never be a “finished” mystery writer. I’ll always be someone striving to improve my skills, enhance my thinking, increase my discipline, and figure out how to continuously contribute good information and page-turning stories to people who enjoy reading them. Which I hope is you.
The problem with my early attempts at mystery writing was the difference between being and becoming. I wanted to be a mystery writer. Eventually, I realized that first I have to become one. That took several years since becoming a mystery writer involved more than I originally thought.
Along the journey to writing mysteries, I came to understand this: If you really want something, then Yoda is right, “There is no try.” It’s all about doing. Doing brings failures, setbacks, rejections, and disappointment. It expects persistence, passion, and determination. Sometimes it yields success; sometimes not. Throughout my years of becoming a mystery writer, I’ve had both.
Of course, not everything we want to experience and learn should be taken with a Yoda philosophy. Or everything we explore or attempt viewed as a commitment or a path of no return. Sometimes we should move on, change course, or give up. Sometimes, just the trying is the endeavor. Sometimes, it’s not.
So, how did this writer know if she really wanted to go for it, or even if she could? Trying isn’t the same as committing. So, I committed on the day I left my corporate career to follow my writing dream. It’s only when we become vulnerable enough to step forward, to commit to our dreams and aspirations, does trying stop and doing begin. Only then, do dreams have a chance.
I love to write. I always have. When young, I received encouraging words from teachers along the way. Later, nourishment came when my work appeared in several anthologies. So, I continued to focus on the process of becoming a writer, which enabled me to explore my talents and passions, and determine if all the work, vulnerability, and rejections were worth it. Short answer. They were, albeit hard to keep going sometimes.
After all this, you may be wondering what my writing backstory has to do with the title of this post: Why I write mysteries? The answer: Most everything.
I write mysteries because it’s:
- My favorite genre
- A challenge
- Fun and immersive
- A puzzle to create
- Clues to develop and plant
- Characters to meet
- Research and ideas to follow
- Creative and thought provoking
- Progress over time
- A chance to keep learning
- A genre full of devoted readers
- Something I finally know how to do!
Along my journey to becoming a mystery writer, I learned this: While wishing and hoping makes you a dreamer; acting and doing makes you someone who can turn dreams into reality. When it comes to life-dreams and aspirations, I think 20th-century operatic star, Beverly Sills was right when she said, “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.”
About the Author
With both a bachelor’s and master’s in psychology, Nan S. Russell was fired from her first professional job. Taking a minimum wage position to pay the rent, sixteen promotions later, she decided to end a successful corporate career as a Vice President of a multibillion-dollar East Coast company, to pursue a life dream to live and write from the Rocky Mountains, first in northwestern Montana and now along the Front Range of Colorado. With a desire to help others live their dreams, too, she turned her real-world experience into writing award winning non-fiction career and business books and articles, and became a speaker and consultant on leadership, trust, and culture development. But she always knew she wanted to write fiction, too. That point arrived during the pandemic pause which provided the catalyst for rethinking her writing and its purpose, sparking the decision to move towards fiction with more time to study the craft, take online classes, hone skills and work on her first novel. Now, she is living her second dream: Writing mysteries. Mummy’s Locket is her debut novel and the first in her Mallory Grayson series.
