Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Tess Wegert | 20 Questions: DEAD WIND
Author Guest / March 7, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? DEAD WIND 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? DEAD WIND is book three of the Shana Merchant series, about a female investigator with the New York State Police who now lives in upstate New York’s Thousand islands. When a body is found at the base of a wind turbine on a small Canadian island, and the victim has ties to Shana’s new town, she must dredge up dark secrets and old grudges while also hunting the man who’s been terrorizing her for years. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Like all of the Shana Merchant novels, DEAD WIND is mainly set in the Thousand Islands of Upstate New York, but some of the most important action occurs on Wolfe Island across the border in Ontario, Canada. I visited Wolfe Island a few years ago and was floored by the landscape: it’s a very flat island, but it’s home to a wind farm, and those massive turbines felt otherworldly to me. I hadn’t even started writing the series at that point, but I knew that a turbine on the island would make an eerie crime…

Devon Delaney Interview – Culinary Cozy Mystery Fun
Author Guest , Interviews / March 7, 2022

In your latest book, A HALF-BAKED ALIBI, Sherry gets involved in a murder investigation because she wants to clear her friend from being thought of as a suspect. With cozies, there are all kinds of amateur sleuths who have all kinds of reasons for getting involved in an official investigation. I think this is one of the better ones – to help a friend or family member in trouble, as well as when they have to clear themselves from being a suspect. Do you ever find it difficult coming up for reasons for Sherry to be involved in a murder investigation? After six books, and the seventh on the way, thank goodness I haven’t had any trouble getting Sherry involved in murder investigations. Introducing more characters slowly as needed is one way to broaden her reasons for involvement. Another is the fact that she’s becoming known for her amateur sleuthing successes and people are beginning to seek out her skills. She has to want to become involved and that, too, is part of the story. What draws her in isn’t always cut and dry. To repeatedly make the reason be the suspicion of a relative or friend gets old to…

Diane Kelly | 20 Questions: BATTEN DOWN THE BELFREY
Author Guest / March 7, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? BATTEN DOWN THE BELFRY 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When carpenter Whitney Whitaker finds a man dead in the belfry of the country church she’s remodeling into a playhouse, she determines to find out who rang the man’s bell and why. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I lived in Nashville a few years ago and loved it there. It’s a booming city and there’s lots of home rehabbing going on. It was the perfect authentic setting for a house flipper series. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Heck, yeah! She’s smart, brave, and creative. I’d love to talk to her about her design ideas. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Discerning. Determined. Dashing – both figuratively and literally. Detective Collin Flynn is handsome and he’s a runner. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I never knew that such a thing as a “fish bat” existed until I was looking for a small, hard weapon. The bats are used to hit fish over the head after they’re caught. Yikes! 7–Do you edit as you draft…