My Bloody Valentine

My valentine story is a murder mystery. That was decided within a minute of deciding to write it. Then in an hour I had most of the crime, most of the characters, and the settings.

It's taken me three days to work out the clues that lead the detective to the killer. Or rather, it's taken me three days of trying out permutations of the killer's method, the movements of witnesses, hiding place of the weapon, and clues left behind to come up with a pattern that:

(a) the detective can actually follow
(b) lead to the killer, and
(c) couldn't plausibly lead to any of the wrong suspects.

Is that the way proper mystery writers operate? Detailing the crime and characters, then making up clues to shoehorn into the margins of the plot?

Anyway, this is just a note to say: I'm still here, I'm trying to write, and I haven't reinstalled Windows or had sex since the last post.