I can’t control my characters. There, I’ve said it. I feel much better now. I have no idea how this happened. Maybe it was when they began to seem more real to me than some members of my own family? Or perhaps when I began to wonder what they were doing when I put the book aside to do other things?

I write a cozy mystery series about a woman named Melanie Travis. I began the books with a small cast of continuing characters: Melanie, her young son, Davey, and her formidable Aunt Peg, the dog show doyenne whose missing champion stud dog was the focus of the first title. Nearly thirty books later, I sometimes wonder if I’m still the person in charge. Especially since one of the books’ main characters has now spun herself off in her own series. Of course that would be Aunt Peg. How could there be any doubt? That woman runs everything.

In my new book, PEG AND ROSE SOLVE A MURDER, Peg gets together with another longtime series character, Rose Donovan. Sisters-in-law, they’ve hated each other for years. Now that’s about to change. Whose idea was that? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t mine—and this isn’t the first time that’s happened. In other books, characters have gotten pregnant, quit jobs, and broken up relationships, all without my prior permission. And don’t even get me started on their penchant for road trips! These are all life—and series—changing events. So how is it that I never see them coming? And why can’t I do anything to rein those people in?

I’m well aware that a writer should start with a plan. An outline or synopsis would be great, but even the most disorganized among us can come up with a general idea of where the plot might reasonably be expected to go. And yet somehow, I’m always finding myself taking unanticipated detours. I’ve been writing these characters for years and the longer I know them, the less they feel inclined to listen to me.

Sometimes I find my lack of control a bit alarming. Especially on those occasions when my characters reveal unexpected tidbits of information that send the plot spinning in a whole different direction. How do they do that? How do they know what to say? I’d like to believe that it’s my subconscious mind at work but, sadly, I’m afraid that’s not the case.

My characters are beginning to think for themselves.

Pretty soon they’ll hardly need me at all. I’ll simply be their scribe, the only person in the room who has fingers to hit the keys. Thank God I have the opposable thumbs. Otherwise it might just be chaos around here.