New series are always a delight to find. When it’s written by a tried and true mystery author, it’s like finding unexpected money in the laundry. Not a one-dollar bill or even a five, but a twenty—crisp and clean—the perfect, unexpected treasure that you want to tell everyone about, yet keep it for yourself. After all, you never know what kind of castle doors that treasure could open;) Even better when it’s the gateway to Castle Dark:) I was lucky enough to chat about those wonderous doorways and the new Dinner and a Murder Mystery series with ever-talented, Julia Buckley writing under the pseudonymVeronica Bond. Kym: Hi Veronica, thank you for joining us at the Cozy Corner on Fresh Fiction! Veronica: Thank you for inviting me!  When I read the premise of your new series, Dinner and a Murder Mystery, I was hooked. I’ve only gone to one of our local murder mystery dinner theater, but thoroughly loved the experience. How were you inspired? Did you visit a local theater in Chicago, or go on a weekend trip to an enchanting Castle Dark? I used to go to a wonderful dinner theater called the Candlelight Dinner theater (alas, now closed), but…

COLD FEET – The feeling of uncertainty about moving forward with your wedding In CHAOS AND COLD FEET, Sunny Meadows begins to have cold feet about her wedding. She knows she loves Detective Mitch Stone, but everything that can go wrong does go wrong in planning their wedding. It took forever to pick a wedding date in HAZARD IN THE HOROSCOPE, and Sunny’s horoscope revealed the best time for her and Mitch to get married. When people mention maybe changing their date, Sunny is horrified. She can’t possibly change her date. She starts to panic and begins to look at everything that’s going wrong as signs that maybe she and Mitch weren’t meant to get married. This time around, it’s Mitch convincing Sunny that these mishaps aren’t bad signs. They’re sabotage. Someone is trying to sabotage their wedding, and he won’t stop until he finds out who and why. Saying “I Do” is the easy part. Planning a wedding can be a very stressful time. I have been with my husband since I was eighteen years old and we’ve been married now for thirty-two years. That’s not to say everything was or is perfect, but we’re happy and that’s what…

A new school year is starting, and thoughts typically would be on the fun new school clothes, the location of one’s locker, the squeak of tennis shoes on the gym floor, or if a best friend or favorite teacher is in one’s classroom. Instead, we find ourselves stuck with another wave of Covid and so many uncertainties about what to do and how to stay safe. I work in the school system and the fear and uncertainty are real, especially for someone like me with an underlying health condition that already impacts my breathing. Rather than focusing on the negative, and all of the things that are out of my immediate control, I’ve instead indulged myself in reading and enjoying books centering around the school system. Any time favorite books featuring a school theme are mentioned, Denise Swanson is the first author who comes to my mind! Denise Swanson was a school psychologist before she became an author, and her wealth of knowledge and empathy for students and teachers shows in each one of her books (with the exception of that horrid social worker in MURDER OF A ROYAL PAIN lol). BODY OVER TROUBLED WATERS features school psychologist Skye Denison-Boyd…

People change.  It’s one of the oldest adages in the book.  And yet, there’s a deeper truth: people RESIST change, even change they ought to embrace (because often change equals opportunity). For example, we moved in December 2020, because the company my husband works for relocated to a different part of North Texas.  I did not want to move, and the re-location was close enough that – in theory – we could have stayed where we were, and Jake would have just had a longer commute.  Much longer, but still doable, especially since he was partly working from home.  So much had already changed during the pandemic.  I had started teaching my continuing education writing classes from home.  I’d even had to have a virtual book launch party. But by wholesale saying no more change, I was missing out on an opportunity.  Jake and I were living in a one-bedroom apartment, which had worked until suddenly we were both working from home – with different work styles.  I have to have noise on in the background.  Jake needs quiet to focus.  We needed a change – just to function.  Once we committed to the move, we found a place that…

Ah, romance, there’s nothing better than when that sense of rightness in the world washes over you while cuddling up with a loved one. To learn about your partner’s life and the people who’ve come and gone, their secrets, successes, and failures. Add a little tension and a few heart palpitations and you know you’ve chosen a good one…at least for the few hours it takes to get to the end of their story. Yes, I’m talking about not one, but multiple summer flings with great cozy mysteries. Take advantage of the dog days, and delve into as many as you can, I know I am! If you want to hide in your closet with a little moonshine, chocolate, and a great book from the library, here are some mysteries right up your alley! *** The Moonshine Shack Murder A Southern Homebrew Mystery by Diane Kelly 7/6/2021 In this intoxicating new cozy mystery series, the future for modern-day moonshiner Hattie Hayes looks bright–until death darkens the doorstep of her Moonshine Shack. The Hayes family has made moonshine in Chattanooga since the days of Prohibition, and Hattie is happy to continue the tradition, serving up fun, fruity flavors in mason jars…

“Life is like an ice-cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time.”-Charles M. Schulz We all scream for it, don’t we? Yep! Ice cream is that universal crowd-pleaser that makes us think of celebrations and summer days. So what better way to indulge in that sweetness than a mystery series centered around an ice cream shop in the wacky little town of Upper Sprocket? To whip up a sweet mystery series, we’ll have to have an interesting protagonist. How about, Trinidad Jones, a woman who lands in the same hometown as her two ex-sisters-in-law and finds out the police chief is her felonious ex-hubby’s sister? How is she going to keep her Shimmy and Shake Shop going when there’s a murderer on the loose? And any worthy cozy will need an animal sidekick, of course. Trinidad’s faithful friend is Noodles, the aged labrador, who flunked out of service-dog school due to his myriad of quirky behaviors. He’s been known to hoard the mail and activate the car’s turn signal upon occasion. Okay! We’ve got the protagonist, the fuzzy sidekick, and the town. On to the good stuff! Writing a series of this kind necessitates LOTS of…

My husband and I have had plenty of ups and down, and we always try to put the pain, joy, and absurd humor of our daily lives into our novels. It’s one of the reasons readers tell us they’ve formed deep connections with our characters, especially our amateur sleuth, single mom and coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi, whose quirky adventures and complicated love life have helped us sell more than one million books in our Coffeehouse Mystery series. With Clare now on a path to be married to her longtime boyfriend, NYPD Detective Mike Quinn, my husband and I began our Brewed Awakening story development with a conversation over (no surprise) coffee. After everything Marc and I have gone through as a couple, we wondered: What if our years together were suddenly wiped from our memories? Would we be drawn to each other again? If so, how exactly does “like” deepen into something more? When does love begin? To tell this story, we agreed that Clare would have to suffer from a traumatic memory loss. Her damaged memory ends up wiping away years of experiences, including every single memory of Detective Mike Quinn, the man she’s grown to love over our…

One of the best things about cozy mysteries is the introduction to a hobby the author is either passionate about or just picked up because they always wanted to try it. Throughout the mystery, the reader can either enjoy something they love, or learn a few fascinating tricks of a trade they can appreciate. Cozy readers after all, are intelligent and open to new and exciting new artistic outlets, that’s what makes us unique in the reading world—author can sell us their books and a new hobby. Fair warning dear readers, Allie Pleiter is one of those gifted artist/authors who will allow you to escape into her world, and make you want to empty the aisles at your local craft store of every knitting supply possible! But isn’t that what makes reading a great new cozy mystery all that more special? Kym: Welcome to the Cozy Corner, Allie! Allie: Thank you so much! I’m delighted to be here. Kym: You’ve recently expanded your amazing career as a romance author, non-fiction author, speaker and career coach to a mystery author. What made you broaden your personal writing into a new genre? Allie: The chance to do a knitting-themed mystery was just too good to pass…

My name is Sunshine Meadows, but everyone calls me Sunny. I’m the heroine of Kari Lee Townsend’s Sunny Meadows Mystery series. I used to live in the Big Apple with my well-meaning parents who just don’t get me. So, I moved to the small town of Divinity, NY to start over. Something about the town spoke to my soul. You see, I’m psychic. I have visions, but they’re not always clear, so I use fortune-telling tools to help me figure out what my visions mean. I bought an ancient Victorian house I call Vicky, and a large white cat appeared on day one. He came with the house and decided to let me live with him. I never see him eat or sleep, and he moves at lightning speed, appearing from out of nowhere in random places. I’m thinking he’s immortal, so I named him Morty. After I settled in, I opened my own business and started giving readings in a special room I call my sanctuary. When a person comes to me for help, I get a vibe on what fortune-telling tool to use for that particular person, and then everything becomes clear. In TEMPEST IN THE TEA LEAVES,…

Not many authors develop their stories like a patchwork quilt. Most of the time you hear the debate between plotters and pantsters, the art of outlining vs the skill of letting the story flow from a writer’s fingertips. Quilters, however, are a rare breed in the writing world. To interview a writer who utilizes this technique not just here and there, but throughout an entire book is like discovering another piece to the puzzle of what makes a classically great author. Ashley Weaver is one of those author’s you won’t soon forget in the literary world. Kym: Welcome to the Cozy Corner, Ashley! Ashley: Thank you for having me! I’m excited to be here!  First of all, congratulations on a fabulous new release with your Electra McDonnell novel, A Peculiar Combination, set in England during WWII. After covering the Golden Age with your Armory Ames Mysteries, what made you delve into such a dark period in history for this series? Thank you! Over the past few years, I’ve developed a fascination with World War II and have read a lot of nonfiction books on several different aspects of the topic. One of my favorite authors, Ben Macintyre, wrote a book called Agent Zigzag, which…