1–What is the title of your latest release?
MURDER ON AN IRISH FARM (February 22, 2022) How is that for a lucky number?!
2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
What could be more exciting than a wedding, a skeleton in a slurry pit, and a fresh body on top?
3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
That’s an easy one, all my mysteries are set in Ireland. It all started eight years ago with a call from my editor. He asked if I would be willing to write a mystery series set in England. I told him I didn’t know England well enough to do that. I paused, then said: “But I could set it in Ireland.” I was standing in a parking lot of a grocery store. One of those moments where you remember every detail. It was the start of The Irish Village Mysteries, Home to Ireland series, and the upcoming County Kerry Mysteries.
4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Absolutely! Oddly, the thing I worry most about is– would Siobhan O’Sullivan like me? I think she would even though she’s twenty-some years younger. She’s an old soul.
5–What are three words that describe your hero?
Determined, empathetic, feisty.
6–What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned about falconry. And a little bit about the difference between a falcon and a hawk. Oh– and way more than I wanted about slurry pits.
7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I do both. I also teach writing and encourage students to just get the rough drafts down before rewriting. You can’t fix something until you know the entire story. However, this many years in, I will admit I often progress, then go back, then progress. But I believe strongly in just getting it down. You may end up editing a section that doesn’t or shouldn’t even make it into the book.
8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
This is going to sound so basic but nothing beats a good pizza. And to be even more basic I prefer it plain, or with olives and bacon. I know!
9–Describe your writing space/office!
I have an issue sitting still or writing from the same place. I did buy a proper desk during quarantine, but I don’t always plant myself there to write. Sometimes I write on my sofa. And believe it or not, sometimes I write with a virtual reality headset. But not often. Mostly the sofa. When I started writing I worked a freelance job and learned to write in brief stints everywhere– trains, cars, waiting room chairs. I used to love writing in coffee shops– now I’m like Goldilocks– too cold, chair too hard, what do I do with my laptop when I go to the bathroom…. I do get jealous when I see authors with this fabulous office– and once I rented an office in We Work– in order to write ‘Murder in Galway’. It was the size of an old-fashioned phonebook, but I was able to get a lot of work done. Wow, did you think this would such a complicated answer?
10–Who is an author you admire?
What? One? Impossible! I read all the time. I’m obsessed with psychological thrillers, and it seems like female British authors like Louise Candlish, Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, are killing it in that genre. I also love Irish writers– Emma Donoghue, Colm McCann, Miriam Keyes, Jane Casey, Catherine Ryan Howard, Paul Murray. I loved Tony Hillerman and Mary Higgins Clark, and Sue Grafton. I have writer friends now– Tracy Clark, and Mollie Cox Bryan, and Lori Rader-Day. I loved Olivia Kincaid, Lois Duncan, Toni Morrison. Herman Hesse. I read all of Riley Sager’s releases. Margaret Grimes. Barbara Kingsolver. Currently reading Alice Feeney. Ruth Rendell. M.C. Beaton. Stephen King, Amy Tan, Dean Koontz. Margaret Atwood of course. I’m probably missing so many! I could go on and on and on!
11–Is there a book that changed your life?
All of them. My grandmother was a librarian. Her daughter, my mother, read everything. When my parents were still together, and people would ask my father– ‘What does your wife do?’ He would answer: ‘You put her under a lamp and she reads’. Growing up the first book I remember being impacted by on a deep level was actually ‘The Diary of Ann Frank’. But my pre-teen and teenage years were also impacted by Beverly Cleary, Lois Duncan, Judy Blume– I had a real moment of connecting with ‘The Fountainhead’ by Ayn Rand but then learned more about her personal beliefs and it subsequently altered how I saw the book. That is probably a fascinating subject on its own. A “kid book” that I loved (among many) was ‘The Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles’. And of course The Chronicles of Narnia. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the first book to really really change my life was ‘She’ll Take It’ by Mary Carter. That’s also me. Carlene O’Connor is a pen name. ‘She’ll Take It’ was my first novel, the one that started me on this amazing career.
12–Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)
Are you psychic? I was just thinking about that as I typed the last sentence above. This is a good one. I lived on a houseboat in Seattle at the time. The same dock– just much further down– where they filmed ‘Sleepless in Seattle’. I had just walked to a shop along that strip– a bookstore– where an author there told me I had some kind of great aura around me, and he thought good things were going to happen for me (no joke!) and I knew I was waiting to hear about the book and wondered if that was why. Minutes later I am walking back to my houseboat and my cell phone rang. It was my agent and he said ‘Congratulations, John at Kensington Publishing made an offer on your book.’ It had been a long ride because Random House had been nibbling on it. The minute I hung up I looked to my left and saw a double rainbow over Lake Union. It’s a good one, right?!
13–What’s your favorite genre to read?
For the past few years I’ve been obsessed with psychological fiction. But I read literary fiction, mysteries, cozies, I am such an eclectic reader and always have been. Dystopian is fun too. There are some kick-ass YA books as well. See? Love that we’re not forced to choose!
14–What’s your favorite movie?
I would say ‘As Good as It Gets’ and ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ but like books, there are so many good ones out there. Some brilliant television series too. I was a big Walking Dead fan, especially in the beginning.
15–What is your favorite season?
Hmmm. I love having seasons. I guess if I was forced to choose– Fall. The leaves, the crisp air, the smell of a crackling fire and cozy sweaters.
16–How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
The older I get the less I really care about celebrating a birthday. That said, there’s always cake and champagne involved.
17–What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Since I’m on an Irish theme here and mystery theme here– people love podcasts, you might like ‘West Cork’ about the true-life murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, it is riveting.
18–What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Probably Mexican with Italian being close and also Thai. I am starting to realize I am one of these people who dislike the ‘favorite’ question because variety is the spice of life!
19–What do you do when you have free time?
Lately I’m a geek. I like my Oculus Quest 2. I am now in app called Spatial where you get virtual galleries you can fill with whatever you want. I filled one with my book covers, and another with everything and anything and a third with photographs from the internet of things I love, places I’ve been– and you can also add 3D objects– I’m adding in chandeliers and tables– I know — a lot of people I know have no interest in virtual reality, but I’m fascinated by it. I even have an office with a view of a lake and a white board where I can actually write. Although an hour is all I can take before I feel the headset on me and have to stop.
20–What can readers expect from you next?
I am very excited about this year, and next. For this year, my biggest thrill is the release of the first in my new County Kerry mystery series which is a darker series than The Irish Village Mysteries. Titled, NO STRANGERS HERE with a gorgeous cover, I get to introduce readers to veterinarian Doctor Dimpna Wilde. It takes place in Dingle, County Kerry. It’s my best work to date. And I’m currently writing, ‘Murder in an Irish Bakery’ that also has a gorgeous cover, and although I’m early into it, this one is not only fun and filled with savory desserts, it’s going to be a twisty one!
MURDER ON AN IRISH FARM by Carlene O’Connor
A Charming Irish Cozy Mystery
If only her mother could be here! The entire O’Sullivan brood—not to mention the regulars from Naomi’s Bistro—have gathered at St. Mary’s Church for the wedding of Siobhán and Macdara. It’s not every day you see two garda marrying each other. Only Siobhán’s brother James is missing. They can’t start without him.
But when James finally comes racing in, he’s covered in dirt and babbling he’s found a human skeleton in the old slurry pit at the farmhouse. What farmhouse? Macdara sheepishly admits he was saving it as a wedding surprise: he purchased an abandoned dairy farm. Duty calls, so the engaged garda decide to put the wedding on hold to investigate.
James leads them to a skeleton clothed in rags that resemble a tattered tuxedo. As an elderly neighbor approaches, she cries out that these must be the remains of her one true love who never showed up on their wedding day, fifty years ago. The garda have a cold case on their hands, which heats up the following day when a fresh corpse appears on top of the bridegroom’s bones. With a killer at large, they need to watch their backs—or the nearly wedded couple may be parted by death before they’ve even taken their vows. . .
Mystery Cozy | Mystery Woman Sleuth [Kensington, On Sale: February 22, 2022, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781496730800 / eISBN: 9781496730862]
Buy MURDER ON AN IRISH FARM: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Powell’s Books | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Ripped Bodice | Love’s Sweet Arrow | Walmart.com | Book Depository | Target.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Carlene O’Connor
Carlene O’Connor comes from a long line of Irish storytellers. Her great-grandmother emigrated from Ireland to America during the Troubles, and the stories have been flowing ever since. Of all the places across the pond she’s wandered, she fell most in love with a walled town in County Limerick and was inspired to create the town of Kilbane, County Cork. Carlene currently divides her time between New York and the Emerald Isle.
No Comments
Comments are closed.