Every student receives the Build Your Book Cozy Mystery Workbook, a guided downloadable planning workbook created specifically for this class. Each week's lessons and exercises build directly into the workbook, so instead of collecting pages of notes, you'll be creating a personalized planning guide for your own cozy mystery. It's designed to become a resource you'll continue using long after the course ends.
Week 1: The Cozy Mystery Reader
Week 2: Building Your Series Foundation
Week 3: Building a World Readers Want to Revisit
Week 4: Constructing the Crime
Week 5: Clues, Red Herrings, and the Reveal
Week 6: Bringing It All Together
Week 7: Preparing to Write Your First Draft
Week 8: Live Build Your Book Cozy Mystery Workshop
Course Features
By the End of This Course, You'll Have:
Recommended Reading
Who should attend?
Meet the instructor
Melissa Bourbon
Melissa Bourbon is the national bestselling author of more than thirty-five novels, including the long-running Magical Dressmaking Mysteries, Bread Shop Mysteries, and Book Magic series. She also writes magical realism and women's fiction as Ivy Cassidy. Her books have been published by four major traditional publishers, and she has experience with both traditional and independent publishing.
A teacher at heart, Melissa has spent years helping writers develop their novels through developmental editing, coaching, workshops, and online courses. In addition to writing novels, she has taught through Southern Methodist University's SMU CAPE, North Carolina State University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), Pocket MFA, Writers' Digest University, and her own WriterSpark Academy. She also hosts the Bourbon & Books YouTube channel, where she teaches practical writing craft and storytelling, and shares publishing insights with fiction writers.
Whether she's teaching a class, speaking at a conference, or working one-on-one with writers, her goal is always the same: to make the writing process feel less overwhelming and more achievable. She believes the best writing advice is practical, encouraging, and easy to put into practice. Students should leave with more than inspiration—they should leave knowing exactly what to do next.
