Karen Kamenetsky

I wrote my first cozy mystery in about a year. It added up to seventy-eight thousand three hundred words, two hundred seventy-nine pages, twenty-three chapters and five original songs. It was fun but also hard work, and I was rather…

How do I choose a name for the main character in my first book?

That's the question I wrestled with as the ideas that eventually coalesced into a cozy mystery rattled around in my head.

Stephanie Plum, Claire Malloy…

I wanted each book in my series of cozy mysteries to be steeped in music, infused with the sounds and experience of music making. So, what better location for the first murder than a music festival?

In creating the Oak…

Just about the time I finished the second chapter of my cozy mystery, the opportunity arose to join a writer's group facilitated by Pauline Hahn, an amazing writer, actress and teacher. Members of the group included a poet, a…

I told my mother I was writing a book.

"What's it about?" she asked.

I said it was a murder mystery.

"Oh," she said, unable to hide her disappointment, "why would you want to write about murder?"

Why indeed.

The…

Pesach Musings 

I am not playing much music lately. There are plenty of musicians who are. I can’t bring myself to pick up the guitar most days. So I am posting some thoughts here instead. 

Passover is one of the…

It's been a while since I've made music for anyone but myself; 2017 has been a very tough year. 

I've been living with Rheumatoid Arthritis since 2000, and I had a few good years of playing my guitar every…