In this interview, I talk to author Eloise Corvo about her debut novel OFF THE BEATEN PATH. Eloise reveals her practical three-part framework for crafting effective red herrings, which is a vital skill for any thriller, mystery, suspense, or crime fiction writer.

You’ll discover essential writing tips for balancing misdirection with reader satisfaction and gain insider insights into publishing options beyond traditional routes.

Whether you’re drafting your first mystery or refining your tenth thriller, Eloise’s practical advice on how to write compelling suspense will transform your approach to planting clues and creating satisfying twists.

This episode packed with actionable writing techniques is perfect for mystery authors looking to elevate their craft and engage readers from page one to the final reveal.

🗓 Previously…

🎙 Interview

🎧 CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE!

• The Three-Element Formula for Red Herrings
• Mystery Structure and Pacing
• Publishing Journey Insights

📇 Biography

📜 Transcript

Eloise Corvo
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Eloise Corvo: [00:00:00] So to any mystery, you really need three things. You need the motive, the means, like how they did it, and the opportunity.

David Gwyn: Welcome to the Thriller 1 0 1 Podcast. Today I’m really excited to bring you a conversation with Eloise Corvo, whose debut mystery novel off the Beaten Path is out now.

I’m David Gwyn, a writer navigating the world of traditional publishing during the season of the Thriller 1 0 1 podcast. We’re gonna continue our focus on building the skills necessary to write the kinds of thrillers that land you and agent and readers. During this season, I’ll be sharing some of my own insights while also talking to agents, authors, and other publishing professionals about the best way to write a novel.

If you want the Expert Secrets, thriller 1 0 1 is where you’re gonna find them. Last time on the podcast, I talked to Steven Spotswood. He talked about a really cool editing mindset and process.

Stephen Spotswood: from a pure nuts and bolts craft perspective the first draft, I try and get the plot working. The general bones of things are, are elegantly shaped.

Or at least have the, the potential for elegance.

David Gwyn: If you wanna listen to that [00:01:00] episode, it’s linked in the description. Also, Eloise mentions a previous episode where literary agent cl Geisler, reviewed the opening pages of the story that eventually got published here as Off the Beaten Path,

for a series we were doing on Thriller 1 0 1, I’ve linked that in the description as well. So if you wanna check that out, you can find that easily down in the description. If you’ve ever struggled with creating compelling red herrings in your story, those false leads that keep readers guessing without making them feel cheated, then this episode is absolutely essential.

Eloise breaks down exactly how she crafts her red herrings that mislead without frustrating readers she shares a really practical three element framework that you can implement immediately in your own writing. You’ll also learn about why some red herrings fall flat while others keep readers turning pages.

And you’ll get an insider’s perspective on navigating publishing options. This episode contains a ton of actual advice that could really, really benefit you and how you plot and [00:02:00] write your next story.

So grab a notebook and let’s get to it.

Eloise, thanks so much for being on the Thriller 101 podcast.

Eloise Corvo: Yeah, thanks for having me, David.

So see you. Yep.

David Gwyn: been kind of been in each other’s orbit for a while now. You wrote, wrote some articles for Thriller 101. We chatted a bunch via email. So it’s really cool when this kind of happens where now you’ve got a book coming out and we get to chat about it,

so I’m so glad we were able to set this up and you’re able to be here.

Eloise Corvo: Absolutely, yeah. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to talk about it.

David Gwyn: Yeah, good. So let’s, let’s get right to it. So tell us a little bit about Off the Beaten Path. Yeah.

Eloise Corvo: Yeah, well, this actually might not be the first time your listeners have heard of it about Off the Beaten Path. It was featured in an episode, gosh, a year and a half ago now with Carlene

Geisler, agent. You read , my first couple pages and critiqued it, which is really helpful. So, since then we’ve gotten in three book deal with an indie publisher, which is really exciting.

And Yeah, it’s set to come out March 4th. [00:03:00] Cozy Mystery,

set up here where I live in northern Michigan.

David Gwyn: It is really interesting. I wonder if, if people remember, but also like. It’s so, I think the timeline’s so important here, right? Like, I feel like writers, especially newer writers, they often get into this like, okay, I’ll write a book, and then like, it’ll be published next year, and it’s like, no. It’s just,

it’s never gonna happen. Like, here you were with like a really solid manuscript that got, that got picked by an agent because she really liked it. And that was a year and a half ago. And here we are sitting and you’re still what a month and a half, you know, as, as we’re recording this, you know, people, when they’re listening to this, the book will be out, but you’re still a month and a half away from publication.

So it’s just, it publishing is such a long process. It really is something that just takes so long. But now here you are three book deal on the other end. What did it feel like to get that phone call and sign that deal?

Eloise Corvo: oh my gosh, so great. I was in a fantastic position of having a handful of publishers interested, of indie publishers. I queried for a while. Just, I know you have a lot of querying

writers in your [00:04:00] audience. So I queried for about six months, which I know is not long in the querying timeline but just sort of got a little beat up from it, which I think we all do, and I had a lot of success.

I got really close with Carlene. She actually requested the full twice and just couldn’t see a vision for like final edits so I kind of took a step back and was like, well, I’ll do it. Where do people actually buy Cozy Mysteries? Where are they selling? And thought the indie world actually might be a really good fit for this.

So I’m actually going to jump into querying again with my next manuscript

David Gwyn: Wow. Yeah, it’s it is, I think too nowadays there’s so many ways to publish and there’s so many like, quality ways to publish where you have people backing you and that, that feeling, I think a lot of people feel like there’s that one traditional route. But there really are a, a variety of ways to get, get a book published. And so I think that was smart. I think that’s a good way, and I’m glad people are listening to this and listening to you talk about how. you know, deciding what was right for this book. And now you can make a different [00:05:00] decision. Like it’s not a lifetime career choice. Like if

you want, and then you want to go back and do something different, you can, which I think is great.

Eloise Corvo: Yeah, absolutely.

David Gwyn: Cool. So tell us a little bit about off the beaten path. So people who are listening, get a sense of what the story is about.

Eloise Corvo: Yeah, so I would say it’s like Clue meets Parks and Recreation, the TV show, right? So it’s Cozy Mystery. It’s kind of lighthearted and silly. You know, it’s not gonna change the world, but hopefully offer a little bit of escapism for those that are looking for it. Set in the wilds of a huge park up here in northern Michigan.

That’s along the Lake Michigan coastline. We’re talking like 40 square miles. Like, big park. The park ranger is our main character. Her name is Maudie Lorso. She’s getting off of a hard breakup with her long term boyfriend. Kind of moved up here from the suburbs of Detroit. So, like, new rural lifestyle.

loving it but is having some job security [00:06:00] issues with like funding cuts, budget cuts, which is facing our country in real life. She finds the body of a dead tourist in her park right in a very precarious moment for her in terms of her job. And so she’s really forced to figure out what happened in order to kind of keep this little lifestyle that she’s really consciously built for herself.

So follows that little mystery.

David Gwyn: Yeah, it is. It’s such a, I feel like cozy mysteries are having a great moment. They’re finding a lot of readers and a lot of readers are gravitating towards. Cozy Mysteries, and I, I think it is such a fun read and, and was such a, such a really enjoyable story. And so, now this is a three book deal, is this, is this, are all three books the same main character, or is it, how is that, is it going to be a series?

Eloise Corvo: It is a series, yes, we follow Maudie through the trilogy and they are connected, so a lot of cozies are just, you know, separate stories, same character, maybe with some minimal [00:07:00] overlap. I would say this is a little abnormal in that cozy world in that there are individual murders, which is expected, right?

Very trope y required almost of the genre, but there is a much larger overarching plot that does continue through the three. So, yeah, I’m really excited.

David Gwyn: Nice. And where are you on those projects? Are those also, they’re done and ready to go, or where, are

you

Eloise Corvo: my gosh, I wish. No, the second is drafted. I’m editing it right now, still in like developmental edit stages. And I plan to draft the third this summer.

So, trying to stay like roughly a year ahead of time. Because you’re right, it takes a while, right, to get a really polished, published book. Yeah.

David Gwyn: true. All right, cool. So I really want to dig in here on one thing that I thought, I thought you did a lot well with this book, but one of the things that I think it’s true of the, of the the genre, which is the, the trope of the red herring. And I think you did such a nice job here of kind of balancing. Red herrings in a [00:08:00] way that made it feel like you know, as a reader, I was like misled, but not cheated. I wasn’t tricked. Like it was an enjoyable, like, Ooh, who is it? Kind of feel. And so I’d love to hear a little bit about how you think about red herrings and how you develop them. So do you plan them out from the start or is this something that kind of pops up organically as you’re writing?

Eloise Corvo: You know, it’s been different book to book, which I find interesting, but I do put conscious thought into them because I think it’s really easy to kind of get cheap, either not satisfying or like tricks that are not fun to read, right? Like the