by Crystal Caudill | Apr 1, 2025 | Crystal's Books, History Facts, Writer's Life
It’s always fun to take a peek at the behind-the-scenes creation of a book and a peek at the research too!
Story Inspiration
The story spark for this story came from a variety of places. The political/judicial corruption and city rioting came from an event in 1884 that I discovered while researching Counterfeit Love. Two men were responsible for the violent death of their employer, William Berner and Joe Palmer. William Berner had connections, while Joe was a black man. Berner received a conviction of manslaughter with a maximum 20-year sentence, while his partner received a murder conviction and death sentence. The city felt someone had bought the jury in Berner’s favor and rioted. In the end, fifty-four men died, an estimated two hundred were wounded, and Berner escaped safely to the State Penitentiary to serve eleven years of his twenty-year sentence before being released for good behavior.
A Bit About Dime Novels
Dime novels were the first novel type to make books and reading available to the common man. On a wage of $5 to $8 a week, traditional books that cost $2 to $3 were cost-prohibitive to anyone below the middle class. Dime novels were cheaply printed, much smaller in length and size, and cost only a nickel to twenty-five cents.
In addition to being cheap, dime novels were the precursor to genre fiction. Searching for crime, suspense, mystery, romance, thrillers, westerns, etc? Thank Dime Novels. These stories became wildly popular and spurred other variations and genres. Are you a fan of subscription fiction services like Love Inspired or Guidepost? Yep, dime novels were their start.
Personal Behind-the-Scenes Facts
I wrote this story during one of my life’s most challenging caregiving seasons. Generally, a novel takes me about 6 months to draft, with another month or two for self-editing. However, due to lots of stops and starts as I dealt with multiple significant health crises for my mother-in-law (including a broken neck), this book took 14 months to draft, and I had to squeeze edits down to two weeks. This book was such a disjointed mess that I never thought it would come together, but by God’s grace and mercy (and a fantastic editing team), it is the book you read now.
Writing a “spin-off” series from Counterfeit Love brought challenges I hadn’t expected. In the first draft, the characters didn’t closely enough resemble their portrayal in Counterfeit Love, so I had to do some serious reworking of characters–especially Abraham Hall and Dr. Pelton. Although I swore I would never reread one of my books once published, I did indeed have to reread Counterfeit Love. I created a detailed document of information from Counterfeit Love that had to be kept the same in Written in Secret. Even more challenging, the characters had to stay similar to what they were in Counterfeit Love while being different enough to show how they grew between 1880 and 1884.
Each “Guardian” has flavors of my core group of girls and critique partners, The Mayhemmers. I am the one most like Theresa, Liz the one most like Lydia, Angela the most like Nora, and Voni the most like Flossie. However, each character is still their own person and not directly based on a Mayhemmer.
Written in Secret by Crystal Caudill
In the heart of nineteenth-century Cincinnati one woman holds the power to rewrite history.
What happens when fiction becomes reality? In the corruption-infested Queen City, danger lurks in every shadow, but Lydia Pelton refuses to stay silent. She writes under a pseudonym, E. A. Dupin, crafting crime novels to exact justice and right the wrongs she sees in society. When a serial killer decides to be the sword to her pen, Lydia is confronted with the consequences of her words. Four men are dead, and the city blames her.
With murders on the rise, Officer Abraham Hall’s only lead is Lydia’s fiction, and he is thrust into an investigation with the “Killer Queen of Romance.” Despite his misgivings about the woman, he realizes that even with his reputation for catching elusive criminals, he needs her help. But his unexpected attraction to Lydia proves as difficult to manage as the woman herself.
As the mystery unfolds, Abraham and Lydia race to rewrite the ending, not only for Cincinnati’s citizens, but for their own hearts too.
Purchase Links: Amazon | Apple Books | Baker Book House | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Christianbook | IndieBound | Kobo | Kregel Parable Christian Book Store
Month-Long Blog Giveaway #1
Help me celebrate the release of Written in Secret and get the word out about the new series. From March 4 to April 1, this giveaway will be open to those legally allowed to enter both domestically and internationally. International winners will be given a prize of equal value as shipping costs are prohibitive. See my giveaway policies for more details.
Prize: homemade book cozy, fuzzy socks, journal, reader mug mat, bookmarks, stickers, tea, and chapstick.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Month-Long Giveaway #2
Already have the book?? This giveaway is for you. Somewhere in the first fifty pages of Written in Secret is the answer to “What attacked Lydia and Abraham inside the circus tent?” Fill out the below Google Form to be entered for your chance to win a $25 gift card to Amazon or Baker Book House. The giveaway runs until April 11, 2024. The winner will be selected the week of April 12 and notified by email.
Enter Here
What is something you’d like to know about my research or behind the scenes that maybe I didn’t answer?
by Crystal Caudill | Mar 18, 2025 | Character Interview, Crystal's Books
It’s release month for Written in Secret, so I thought it would be fun to get to meet some of the characters from the book. Today, it’s my honor to introduce you to Lydia Pelton, the heroine and a fellow author. Before we dive into the interview, here’s a bit about Written in Secret. AND I’m hosting TWO special giveaways this month on my all my blog posts related to Written in Secret. At the end of the month, I’ll draw a winner. Check out the details in the end! Oh! and if you’ve already read Written in Secret, I’ve created a Facebook Discussion group where you can talk all about it with others who have read it too! I hope to see you there!
If you haven’t gotten the chance to meet Abraham Hall and Billy Poe, here’s your chance!
Written in Secret by Crystal Caudill
In the heart of nineteenth-century Cincinnati one woman holds the power to rewrite history.
What happens when fiction becomes reality? In the corruption-infested Queen City, danger lurks in every shadow, but Lydia Pelton refuses to stay silent. She writes under a pseudonym, E. A. Dupin, crafting crime novels to exact justice and right the wrongs she sees in society. When a serial killer decides to be the sword to her pen, Lydia is confronted with the consequences of her words. Four men are dead, and the city blames her.
With murders on the rise, Officer Abraham Hall’s only lead is Lydia’s fiction, and he is thrust into an investigation with the “Killer Queen of Romance.” Despite his misgivings about the woman, he realizes that even with his reputation for catching elusive criminals, he needs her help. But his unexpected attraction to Lydia proves as difficult to manage as the woman herself.
As the mystery unfolds, Abraham and Lydia race to rewrite the ending, not only for Cincinnati’s citizens, but for their own hearts too.
Purchase Links: Amazon | Apple Books | Baker Book House | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Christianbook | IndieBound | Kobo | Kregel Parable Christian Book Store
Now for our interview with Lydia.
CC: It’s always fun to interview another author, especially when said author is the heroine of Written in Secret. Tell our readers a little bit about yourself.
LP: Do you want the socially acceptable introduction or the real me? Never mind, I’ll give you both. I am Lydia Pelton, the daughter of Dr. Pelton, a respected and well-loved coroner for the Cincinnati Police Department. I attend church services every week, no matter what–thank you, Momma–and am a single, good Christian woman. There. That should make any parent proud.
Now for the part my parents really wish I wouldn’t band about: I am also the author of romance dime novels–no, not the scintillating kind, but you wouldn’t know that by how many people decry romance authors, especially of the female variety. I also write other stories, but not even my parents know that. Only my dearest and closest friends, the Guardians.
CC: You and your friends call yourselves the Guardians? Why? There has to be a story behind that.
LP: When we were in school together, there was this brute of a boy who used to corner girls and force them to kiss him. If they refused, he spread rumors that ruined their reputations. Because he was the schoolmaster’s son, nothing was done about it. Flossie was new to the school, and Nora overheard him bragging to his friends that he would corner her. So Theresa, Nora, Flossie, and I taught him a lesson. While he was swimming in his birthday clothes with his friends, we stole them and lined them with poison ivy. When he returned to school after recovering at home for a few days, he found a note from the Guardians warning him to be a gentleman, or he might find other uncomfortable consequences awaiting him. Since then, we have come together to help protect the defenseless and have a good time together. These women are my sisters at heart, and I don’t know where I would be without them.
CC: Having such a close-knit group of friends is a wonderful blessing. It sounds like me and my Masters of Mayhem group. We probably get in just as much trouble as you, at least in our fictional minds. Speaking of fiction, you said your parents wish you wouldn’t band about being a romance novelist. Why?
LP: Dime novels are a highly controversial topic. There are a great many people who vehemently oppose them and try to get them banned. They argue that they are soul-corrupting and lead to the degradation of a person’s character. It doesn’t matter that these little books–usually 100 pages each and affordable to the general public at ten to twenty-five cents–allow everyday people access to reading. They aren’t the classics and thus have no place in our society. *eye roll* It’s ridiculous really. And heaven forbid if a woman writes romance or, worse, a mystery novel.
CC: Are there many female mystery authors?
LP: There are a few, but probably far more than you would guess by looking on your shelf. E.A. Dupin is generally thought to be a man; however, I know for a fact that he is not a he at all but a she.
CC: And how do you know this?
LP: I suppose I can trust you, but your readers must be sworn to absolute secrecy. It’s dangerous for E.A. Dupin right now. The city is in an uproar because someone is taking his stories, claiming to be the hero, and then murdering the criminals that each story was based upon.
CC: I can assure you, and speak on behalf of my readers, that you can trust us. Who is E.A. Dupin?
LP: Me.
Growing up around police officers and stories of crime all my life, I wanted nothing more than to provide justice for those whom justice has been denied. Cincinnati has a reputation for a corrupt justice system. If a criminal has the right connections and funds, he can walk away a free man or with a lesser punishment, no matter how egregious the crime or how much evidence proves their guilt. But women aren’t allowed to write crime novels. It’s bad enough that they write romantic ones. My publisher accepted my first mystery novel until he realized I was a woman. He had no problem accepting my romance novels, so that is what I wrote for him first. Once I felt secure in my standing with him, I submitted a mystery novel under the pseudonym E.A. Dupin, requiring that Dupin’s identity remain a secret, even from him. It worked splendidly until recently.
CC: And you say that someone is killing people in the name of your fictional hero?
LP: Yes. All of my novels are based on real crimes and criminals who walked away from their deserved sentencing because of corruption in the justice system. I wrote new endings to those stories to bring those poor victims justice. Just ones. Detective Billy Poe was the man who collected all the evidence and proved the criminals guilty, but before they could be arrested, they always died in a manner befitting their crime. Only someone is pretending to be Billy Poe and is murdering the real criminals just the way they died in my books. It’s a horrible situation, and the police suspect E.A. Dupin of the murders.
CC: Then why don’t you come forward and tell them you are E.A. Dupin and couldn’t possibly have committed those murders so they can start looking for the right man?
LP: It’s complicated. Even more so now that I’ve met Detective Abraham Hall. *sigh* This whole situation is a mess, and I just don’t know what to do. Somehow, no matter what happens, I will be viewed as the villain.
CC: Detective Abraham Hall? Why would that matter? Actually, don’t answer that. As much as I’d like to continue this interview, we’ve run out of time and space. If you’d like to learn more about Lydia’s dilemma, her choices, and who this Detective Abraham Hall is, check out Written in Secret.
Month-Long Blog Giveaway #1
Help me celebrate the release of Written in Secret and get the word out about the new series. From March 4 to April 1, this giveaway will be open to those legally allowed to enter both domestically and internationally. International winners will be given a prize of equal value as shipping costs are prohibitive. See my giveaway policies for more details.
Prize: homemade book cozy, fuzzy socks, journal, reader mug mat, bookmarks, stickers, tea, and chapstick.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Month-Long Giveaway #2
Already have the book?? This giveaway is for you. Somewhere in the first fifty pages of Written in Secret is the answer to “What attacked Lydia and Abraham inside the circus tent?” Fill out the below Google Form to be entered for your chance to win a $25 gift card to Amazon or Baker Book House. The giveaway runs until April 11, 2024. The winner will be selected the week of April 12 and notified by email.
Enter Here
Readers, comment with:
What would your pen name be if you were a dime novelist?
by Crystal Caudill | Feb 22, 2025 | Bonus Content, Crystal's Books
Hi all! I wanted to invite you to join a Facebook group I created JUST for Written in Secret discussion! I know how exciting it can be to read a book and then disappointing to have no one to talk about it with. That’s why I created the Written in Secret Book Club group. Who knows, if it goes well, I might do it for every book!
I’ve already listed all the discussion questions from the back of the book (plus a couple extra) into individual discussion posts and an ask-the-author post. If we get enough people discussing the book, I’ll probably pull together a Facebook live or Zoom, along with some special giveaways.
I’m also hosting a giveaway for EVERYONE, regardless of whether you are on Facebook or not, called The First 50 Pages giveaway. All it requires is for you to find the answer to the question found in the first 50 pages of the book Written in Secret and fill out this Google Form. From there, you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $25 Amazon or Baker Book House gift card.
I hope to see you at the discussion group!!
In the heart of nineteenth-century Cincinnati one woman holds the power to rewrite history.
What happens when fiction becomes reality? In the corruption-infested Queen City, danger lurks in every shadow, but Lydia Pelton refuses to stay silent. She writes under a pseudonym, E. A. Dupin, crafting crime novels to exact justice and right the wrongs she sees in society. When a serial killer decides to be the sword to her pen, Lydia is confronted with the consequences of her words. Four men are dead, and the city blames her.
With murders on the rise, Officer Abraham Hall’s only lead is Lydia’s fiction, and he is thrust into an investigation with the “Killer Queen of Romance.” Despite his misgivings about the woman, he realizes that even with his reputation for catching elusive criminals, he needs her help. But his unexpected attraction to Lydia proves as difficult to manage as the woman herself.
As the mystery unfolds, Abraham and Lydia race to rewrite the ending, not only for Cincinnati’s citizens, but for their own hearts too.
Print Links:
Amazon | Baker Book House | Barnes and Noble | Books-A-Million | Bookshop.org | Christianbook.com | Kregel Parable Christian Bookstore
Ebook Links:
Amazon | AppleBooks | Barnes and Noble | GooglePlay | KOBO |
If requesting from your library, this information may be helpful:
Title: Written In Secret
Author: Crystal Caudill
Publisher: Kregel Publishing
ISBN: 9780825449079
Release Date: March 11, 2025
FIRST FIFTY PAGES Giveaway
