
Writing Podcast Episode 712: Penny Tangey asks the cosy-crime question, 'What Rhymes with Murder?'
From So You Want to be a Writer by Australian Writers' Centre
April 13, 2026 · 39 min
About this episode
Penny Tangey discusses her transition from writing YA to adult cosy crime fiction, inspired by her experiences as a new mother.
Two questions: Where do new mothers meet new people? And ‘What Rhymes with Murder?’ – the latter being the title of author Penny Tangey’s cosy crime novel, inspired by her own experiences as a new mother at her local library’s story time! In this episode, Penny shares insights on making the switch from YA to adult stories, her writing routine and whether you need to know who did it before writing the end of the book! 00:00 Welcome 04:26 Writing tip: Listen to your characters 08:00 WIN!: The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke 10:37 Word of the week: ‘Weltschmerz’ 11:30 Writer in residence: Penny Tangey 12:07 Penny describes the book What Rhymes with Murder? 12:52 Real-life inspirations for the book 14:39 The quirky title 15:32 The decision to write her first adult book 17:36 The writing process and plotting 18:38 Librarian life in the novel 20:31 Building a cosy cast 21:07 The timeline of writing the book 21:50 Penny’s writing routine 22:30 The biggest challenge 23:41 Having for researching the book 24:16 Finding an agent and new publisher 27:58 Editing and sprinkling clues 29:39 The overall themes of the book 31:29 Next projects…
People in this episode
Host: Valerie
Guest: Penny Tangey
Topics covered
- cosy crime
- writing process
- author transition
- new motherhood
- literary inspiration
Keywords
- What Rhymes with Murder?
- writing routine
- plotting
- real-life inspirations
- cosy cast
- genre switching
- editing
- themes
Mentioned in this episode
Products: The Ending Writes Itself
Books & works: Writing Podcast, What Rhymes with Murder, The Ending Writes Itself
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