Arlene Sachitano had always planned to follow in the footsteps of her literary idol, Agatha Christie, and write mystery novels. But she spent 30 years working in the electronics industry and raising a family before she published her first book, “Chip and Die,” in 2003.

Since then, Sachitano has made up for lost time, releasing 12 more cozy mysteries. Her latest novel, “Quilts Make a Family,” is the 11th installment in the Harriet Truman/Loose Threads series. Sachitano will discuss the book at an event in Sunriver on Saturday.

“I’d always been interested and always knew I was going to write,” Sachitano said. “Even in my high-tech work, I was given a lot of writing tasks because I could write so much better than many of the people around me.”

Career transition

As her children reached high school age, Sachitano began taking writing classes at Portland Community College. This led to her participation in a project where she and several classmates wrote a mystery that was serialized and published over nine months in a community newspaper. She also joined Portland’s Harriet Vane chapter of the Sisters in Crime mystery writers organization.

It was through that group that Sachitano spotted a posting about a small science fiction publisher looking to add some mystery authors to its catalog. She had written the manuscript for “Chip and Die” during an advanced mystery writing class and since it was set in the high-tech world, thought it might fit the bill. That publisher, Zumaya Publications, liked Sachitano’s story and agreed to publish it.

Sachitano is also a keen knitter, sewer and quilter. While she was waiting for “Chip and Die” to be released, a story book quilt group asked her to write a story for them to theme their next quilt around. Quilters in the group received a chapter of the story each month, along with a pattern and fabric for a block in the themed quilt that provided clues to solve the mystery.

Based on the success of that novella, “Seams Like Murder,” Sachitano and her editor at Zumaya decided she should write a series of quilting mysteries. This kicked off the successful Loose Threads series about Harriet Truman, who returns to the fictional Washington state town of Foggy Point after inheriting her aunt’s long-arm machine quilting business.

Getting cozy

Sachitano’s stories are categorized as cozy mysteries — a crime fiction subgenre where sex and violence are downplayed and the story takes place in a small community or group.

“I always intended to write cozies,” Sachitano said. “I’m not going to write something where people are scratching and swearing — that’s just not me. There’s no graphic sex or violence, just well-plotted, well-written mysteries.”

Sachitano puts a unique stamp on her novels by incorporating contemporary social issues into many of the story lines. Domestic violence, homelessness, human trafficking and adoption fraud have all appeared as key themes and plot points. In “Quilts Make a Family,” problems in the foster care system are central to the story.

“I first became aware of the concept of people aging out of foster care when my knitting group was asked to knit scarves for a charity that supports them,” Sachitano said. “I started researching and I was really shocked about how many different ways people abuse the foster care system and the kids are always the ones who suffer.”

High-tech writing process

In addition to researching the issues and subject matter of her story and mapping out the plot, the author uses Dramatica Pro software which her husband initially bought for her early in her writing career.

“It really helps with planning your story and makes you think about the relationships between the various characters and how that drives or hinders the plot,” Sachitano said.

“It certainly doesn’t write the story for you, but it makes you think about things like whether a certain character is a ‘be-er’ or a ‘do-er,’ who is the wisdom character and who is the emotion character in your story.”

To promote her books, Sachitano attends several large and midsize quilt shows around the U.S. each year. She also makes the quilt featured in each of her quilting novels. It is then photographed and used in the book’s cover art.

Sachitano is busy trying to make the quilt that will be pictured on the cover of next Harriet Truman/Loose Threads novel, “12 Quilts of Christmas,” due to be published in March 2019. She has also begun writing a knitting mystery with a whole new cast of characters.