Amateur sleuth and full time organizer? It only looks easy

Charlotte’s tip of the month: Never bring anything into your home unless you have chosen a place to put it. This absolutely does not apply to books. Or dogs. They’ll find the right spot.

Let me introduce myself. I am Charlotte Adams, a professional organizer and the lead investigator — amateur, but never mind — in the Charlotte Adams mysteries. I run Organized for Success, in historic Woodbridge, a lovely and thinly disguised town on the Hudson. Woodbridge has fallen on hard times, but things are getting better with the influx of tech types, entrepreneurs and artists. It may not be The City but for my miniature dachshunds, Truffle and Sweet Marie, my wonderful ‘misfit’ friends and me, it’s a great place to live.

My organizing business helps people reclaim their homes, their offices and their lives from clutter and disorder. I am proud of my work, even the unofficial sleuthing that seems to grow out of it. Let’s face it. Murder is never tidy.

That reminds me: the fourth Charlotte Adams book will hit the stands on July 6^th and I’m excited because it’s called Closet Confidential and no one loves a closet more than I do. In Closet Confidential I am able to offer more than twenty excellent tips to readers on how to organize and improve their closets and, ahem, solve a few crimes on the way.

What? Oh, darn. My author, Mary Jane Maffini, is whispering that you are free to ignore those tips if you want to and that I should tell you not to be intimidated. Guess who cracks the whip around here? Never mind, being that close to people and their clutter problems has allowed me to learn a lot about human nature. I think it makes me an ideal amateur sleuth. Some people might hint that I’m obsessive or even bossy. I say kind and committed. You be the judge.

I am excited about being part of Killer Characters. It’s a huge relief to get out of that chaotic Maffini household and into a great blog where all these amazing characters seem so orderly, showing up for their sessions same date each month and generally talking sense. I haven’t heard a single character yell, “I want that red wine and I want it NOW.” I am very impressed. I think I’m going to feel at home here, probably because the contributors are not writers. I’m just saying. We all know what we go through with our authors. Oh, I could tell you horror stories.

Are the rest of you treated as badly as I am? Now that we are together, I hope to organize us into some sort of union or perhaps a professional guild. The Guild of Cozy Characters? The League of Formerly Subjugated Sleuths? I’m working on it and I foresee a manifesto in our future. Seriously. The working conditions are unbelievable in this cozy business. For instance, was it really necessary to have quite so many people ogle that WINY TV clip of me in my frog pajamas and pink fluffy slippers as I was marched off to the cop shop? It’s bad enough I get sent out to vacant lots to confront murderers in the middle of the night, but do my shoes always have to get ruined? That’s so not fair. Those red leather stiletto boots? I will never forgive Mary Jane for what happened to them in Organize Your Corpses, the first Charlotte Adams book. Nothing had better go wrong with this new pair.

Then there are the hours! Writers don’t seen to be able to tell weekdays from weekends, but is that any reason why I can never have a day off? Ever? Plus there’s the small matter of my love life or lack of same. First she saddles me with a lying hound of an ex-fiancé; later she ruins the few dates I have with anyone new. Just when I have realized that my heart belongs to Jack Reilly, my friend and landlord, she’s messing with that too.

If I’m not careful she’ll have me die single and alone in some foggy graveyard at midnight, having lost my cell phone and failing to inform anyone that I planned to meet the ‘real’ killer there. I need a plan!

If you want to know more about the Charlotte Adams books or even my author (sigh), drop by www.maryjanemaffini.com and check us out. You can sign up for the free newsletter with contests, recipes and fun stuff. I make sure that works well.

Don’t forget, you can preorder Closet Confidential at www.barnesandnoble.com www.indiebound.org www.chapters.indigo.ca www.amazon.com and www.amazon.ca as well as your favorite indie.