A Note from Nancy Northcott WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | FACEBOOK Today I’m celebrating the release of a new book. It’s a new series with new characters, and that’s always exciting for me. The idea for The Deathbrew Affair came to me in a way I’d never experienced with a book concept. Usually, I get a flash of a scene, of people doing something important. Then I have to figure out who they are, why this is important, and what they ultimately want. In contrast, Casey Billings, the heroine of The Deathbrew Affair and the series it launches, popped into my head and started talking to me. Kind of like Athena bursting from the head of Zeus, but, luckily for me, not breaking my skull open. We were on a plane over the Smoky Mountains, heading west to visit family in Colorado, when she started talking in my head. She told me her name, where she was from, and what she liked. Then she clammed up and vanished. I had an AlphaSmart (remember those?) with me, so I pulled it out and wrote down everything she’d said—a long paragraph—and the snarky way she’d said it. I had a chance to print…

I’m not entirely certain where my fascination with old houses – mansions, really – began. The house I grew up in was built for my parents and me, and I was about eighteen months old when we moved into it. Our house was small: two bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen, den, and living room with an attached carport. Nothing antebellum or mansion-like about it, but I loved growing up there. Most likely, the fascination started with Nancy Drew – the same way my love of mysteries did. Nancy’s adventures thrilled me, and several of them take place in old houses, some of them antebellum mansions. The Hidden Staircase, The Sign of the Twisted Candles, and The Secret in the Old Attic feature settings that fit the bill. (Three of my favorite books in the series, by the way!) Every old dwelling has secrets to tell, and Nancy always managed to winkle them out. I imagined what it would be like to live in a house that had multiple stories, features like turrets or secret rooms or hidden passages, and a long connection to the past. (I have always wanted a turret of my own but sadly I don’t think I’ll ever…