1–What is the title of your latest release? DRESSED TO DRILL 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Contractor Shannon Hammer and her crew have been hired to renovate Lighthouse Cove’s Gothic Victorian church into a world-class art museum, but work comes to a screeching halt when they discover the body of a young woman in one of the chapels. With the help of her boyfriend, thriller writer Mac Sullivan, and her closest friends, Shannon will follow the clues to stop the killer from striking again. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? All the Fixer-Upper Mysteries take place in Lighthouse Cove. If you haven’t read the books yet but that sounds familiar, you probably caught the movies on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. Lighthouse Cove is a quaint Victorian small town in northern California, with incredible ocean views and a few too many murders per capita. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Absolutely! Shannon is the kind of woman I admire—she’s smart, observant, and hard-working, and she’s also one of the most loyal friends you could ever have. In fact, she’s the kind of friend who, if you were suspected…
Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Korina Moss! Writes: Perhaps you’ve done a cheese and wine pairing? Well, I pair cheese with murder mysteries. I write the Agatha Award nominated Cheese Shop Mystery series, a cozy series with puntastic titles like Cheddar Off Dead, Gone For Gouda, and Curds of Prey. My protagonist, cheesemonger Willa Bauer, firmly believes most of life’s problems can be solved with cheese, but can she apply that to murder? In my latest book, CURDS OF PREY, Willa’s caught in the middle of two powerful Sonoma Valley families at odds. She must walk a tightrope between the two to discover which one might be hiding a killer. About: For the past several years, I’ve been on my own Eat, Pray, Love journey, which seems to have stalled at the Eat phase. Lucky for me, my profession requires me to research cheese. Following the prerequisite to being a cozy mystery author, I love cats, although I don’t have one at present. I’ll always choose travel…
As I sat perusing the choices of mysteries waiting to be opened in my library, my loyal little Shiloh by my side eating up every last bit of attention a treasured terrier could, I gravitated toward a certain storyline in the genre—pets—specifically dogs. The warmth of a good dog, her body radiated heat during a cold spell in North Texas can influence anyone, but I confess, it was the affection of Shiloh’s loving spirit that steered me toward my selections. The first book I chose was a little outside my norm—there are no dead bodies stirring up trouble, (no zombies either) or killers lurking around every corner, but rather, lovable dogs who belong on the couch, like my little girl, instead of being abandoned with the letter Z painted on its fur. (Again, thank my little heart-warming puppy-in-a-ditch rescue story for influencing my choices—Shiloh has never steered me wrong!) Kathleen Y’Barbo, along with her Gone to the Dogs Mysteries that she co-writes with author, Janice Thompson was new to me, but the title and the cover grabbed me, the blurb did the trick to pull me in—and I earned the reward of a great mystery. The two authors take turns…
One of my favorite things to hear from readers is that they wish my fictional towns were real. Creating a place where people want to live or visit (if the murder rate weren’t so high!) is one of my main goals when I set out to create a new cozy mystery series. As a reader, setting and characters are the main draws that keep me going back to a series again and again, and I think that’s the case for many cozy mystery readers. In my mind, a well-crafted setting is almost like another character. The idea for the town of Larch Haven, Vermont, the setting for my True Confections Mysteries, was born when I watched an episode of The Amazing Race several years ago. The racers travel to Giethoorn (a town I’d never heard of) in the Netherlands and had to navigate the canals by boat. I was instantly charmed by the cute homes on the banks of the picturesque canals. I knew right away that I one day wanted to write a cozy mystery series set in a town with canals instead of cars and with quaint, charming cottages. That idea stayed in my head for years, waiting…
1–What is the title of your latest release? MURDER, SHE WROTE DEATH ON THE EMERALD ISLE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? While out for a bicycle ride in Bushmills, Northern Ireland, Jessica Fletcher discovers the dead body of a man who is the cousin of her neighbor in Cabot Cove. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Jessica Fletcher visited various parts of the island of Ireland in episodes of the television series but hadn’t done so in any of the books. I decided it was time for her to visit Belfast, Bushmills and other captivating places in Northern Ireland 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Absolutely! Hanging out with Jessica has been a dream of mine since Season 1, Episode 1 of Murder, She Wrote aired in 1984 5–What are three words that describe your sleuth? Mature, Honest, Forthright 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I learned a lot about the Titanic and the tragedy of its maiden voyage. The Titanic was built in Belfast and in Murder, She Wrote Death on the Emerald Isle Jessica attends a reception in the Titanic Museum. 7–Do you…
1–What is the title of your latest release? DIAL M FOR MEOW 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When Christy reaches her aunt’s bookshop, instead of small-town hospitality she finds a dead body! Christy is determined to find the real killer and clear her aunt’s name… before her story ends in tragedy! 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I live in rural Indiana and love small town life, so I chose fictional Green Meadow, Indiana as the location. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Yes! Christy Bailey would be totally fun to hang out with, even though we’d probably get into some kind of trouble. 5–What are three words that describe your sleuth? Quirky, Funny, Caring 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? That even if you think the edits will go on forever, they’re eventually done 🙂 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I wait until I’m done with a few chapters, then do an initial edit. If I take time to edit as I write, I’m afraid I’ll lose my momentum and train of thought for my story….
Jennifer Vido: For readers new to the Campers & Criminals Cozy Mysteries, please share with us the premise behind this quirky and highly addictive series. Tonya Kappes: Thank you so much for having me! I’m excited to share all about Mae West and the Laundry Club Ladies with your readers. Mae West is a high society socialite from New York who loses everything after her husband is convicted of a Ponzi scheme. The only thing to her name is a run-down camper van and a run-down campground set in the middle of the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky. A far cry from her glitz and glamour social life. In her mind, she’s going to drive that awful camper van to Kentucky and sell the campground, but she realizes once she gets there, that’s not going to be the case. The campground is run down and in much need of renovations. Not to mention the nasty mucky lake where she was standing. Not too long after she shows up, the FBI rolls into the campground, accusing her of hiding her husband now that he’s broken out of jail. She informs them that they better find him before she does because…
Readers generally enjoy having animals included in their fiction, and cozy mystery readers are no exception, many almost requiring an animal in their books. For authors, adding a dog or a cat to their cast is fairly simple as well as enjoyable, since many of us have or have had pets. Writing about them therefore comes easily as we know how they behave, and we have plenty of fun memories to draw on. But how many authors have had fun times with an alpaca? Certainly not me when I began writing the Craft Fair Knitters Mysteries. So why did I choose adding an alpaca? It was a gradual but straight-lined decision. My main character, Lia, is a knitter, one who became proficient enough to sell her knitted items at a craft fair. Knitters tend to have favorite yarns, and Lia’s is the kind spun from alpaca fibers. I’ll let Lia tell you in the books about her many reasons for loving that yarn, but her favorite source for alpaca yarn wasn’t a yarn shop. It was an alpaca farm. Never having visited an alpaca farm myself, I needed to find one so that I could present it correctly to my…
1–What is the title of your latest release? DEATH BY SMOOTHIE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Freelance writer Jaine Austen gets a gig as a script doctor on an amateur theatrical production, where the only thing worse than the script is the diva leading lady. When the diva is bumped off with a deadly smoothie, Jaine sets out to find the killer—all the while dealing with her own personal diva—her cat, Prozac, who keeps breaking out of their apartment to wreak havoc on the neighbor’s petunias. More high jinks ensue when Jaine accidentally makes the winning bid in a Most Eligible Bachelor Auction. Don’t miss this stirring saga of murder, mayhem, and really bad acting. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Most of Jaine’s adventures take place in Los Angeles, and show biz stories are always fun for me, so I set this one in the wacky world of amateur theatrics. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Absolutely! In fact, I hang out with my sleuth 24/7. Jaine is a much younger, braver version of me. 5–What are three words that describe your…
I love mysteries with a quirky convention or fan festival as part of the story. In your new book BAKE OFFED, you have the “Maryland Mystery Fan Fest”. What was your inspiration? BAKE OFFED takes place at a fictional mystery fan fest. The book was inspired by the dozens of actual mystery fan conventions I’ve attended. I was at one of them, Left Coast Crime, in March of 2020 when Covid shut down the gathering on its first day. At that time, I was plotting my 8th Five-Ingredient Mystery. Realizing it might be a long time before I would once again meet mystery writers and fans in person, I created a fictional mystery festival. Like most such gatherings, the one in my book includes panels, book signings, and a charity auction for book lovers. But it also has a few features not usually seen at a real mystery convention–a Deadly Desserts bake-off and a murder, which the fest attendees are eager to solve. As is the case with many mysteries, the murder victim in BAKE OFFED seems to be disliked by many, and so there are multiple plausible suspects. Do you have the murderer determined before you write the book, or does the guilty party change as…