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…

1–What is the title of your latest release? It’s called the PINT OF NO RETURN. Cutest title ever, right? I take no credit. It was my editor’s idea. 2–What is it about? Here’s the blurb. Trinidad Jones is a woman trying to find her way again after a betrayal. The Shimmy and Shake Shop, home of the fantastic freakshake, is supposed to be her magnum opus in the idyllic town of Upper Sprocket…until the dead body turns up. It’s going to take a super-sized scoop of courage to flush out the killer! 3–What do you love about the setting of your book? I simply adore Upper Sprocket because it’s the kind of town I would like to visit. It’s set in Eastern Oregon, “the Swiss Alps of Oregon”, so the postcards say. It’s the kind of place where folks can stroll the main street, visit Three Egg Lake, and pick their own apples. It’s small-town America, where everyone knows everything about everyone, at least they think they do! 4–How did your main character(s) surprise you? Trinidad has way more courage than I first imagined. Not just the kind needed to be a sleuth, but the courage required to find your…

1–What is the title of your latest release? DEATH IN BLOOM (Book 1 in the Flower House Mystery series) 2–What is it about? It’s about flowers, dreams, mishaps, and mystery… Or, as the back cover says: Sierra Ravenswood is the new part-time employee of the Flower House, a flower shop in Aerieville, Tennessee. It’s true she didn’t expect to be back in her hometown at twenty-eight years old, but after her dream of making it as a singer in Nashville crashed and burned, she’s just grateful to have found a soft place to land. Because, after all, Sierra firmly believes in being optimistic and positive about life, so she’s sure she won’t have to work at the Flower House forever. But things take a decidedly negative turn when a customer drops dead in the middle of her new bouquet-arranging workshop at the store. When it’s discovered he was poisoned by a snack at the event, everyone at the workshop, including Sierra, is on the suspect list. To make matters worse, her boss has gone AWOL and left the store to her for the cost of one dollar, leaving Sierra in charge of both his store and his high-energy Corgi puppy,…

Excerpt from Eve Calder’s latest Cookie House mystery, “A Tale of Two Cookies,” exclusively for Fresh Fiction! Pastry chef and recent Manhattan transplant Kate McGuire is loving her new life on the laid-back island of Coral Cay, Florida. Now a junior partner in the Cookie House bakery, she’s thrilled when old pal Desiree announces a visit — and an impromptu beach wedding. When the marine biologist groom disappears on the eve of the wedding — after spotting criminals in a protected cove — Kate resolves to help her friend find out what really happened. Was it a case of cold feet or something much more sinister? *** Kate wheeled up to the Cookie House just as Andy Levy’s yellow van was pulling up to the curb. He hopped out with two brown-paper carry-out bags. “Don’t tell me you’re making deliveries now?” Kate asked the pub owner. “Hey, from what Sam said on the phone, it was a spaghetti-and-meatball  emergency,”  the pub owner returned,  his face lighting up. “So two specials coming up. And you might recognize the garlic bread—we used Sam’s baguettes.” “That smells wonderful,” Kate said. “But I’d have been happy to pick it up.” “Nah, we need a…

As I write this blog my flower beds are in bloom. My irises are gorgeous, my daisies are abundant, and my carnations are fragrant. It’s too bad something dark and sinister is creeping into the shadows. That’s right, a murderer is on the loose in my garden and an APB won’t do my beauties any good. Because tonight they will face one of the worst killers known to their kind—Jack Frost. Their death by his hand (or heroic saving by mine) might lead to some nail-biting moments on my part, but I have a feeling I’m the only one who’s truly invested or interested in their next chapter. I mean it’s not like the New York Times will write about their premature death or my valiant attempt to save their lives. But I have dug up some truly newsworthy mysteries Jack Frost can’t touch. The covers caught my eye like the blossoms in my yard, the plots are much better formed than my best buds and the characters charmed me with their style and wit. Yes, the mysteries are in bloom, and all we have to do to catch the culprits is keep turning the page. Wicked Honeymoon  An Ivy…

How can I describe the chaos that is a dim sum restaurant in the heart of San Gabriel Valley at 11 a.m.? The place is filled with close to a hundred round tables, each one occupied by a different family, many of them with three to four generations of people present—there are gray-haired, prune-faced Ah Mas holding chubby babies on their laps. Steaming carts are pushed by the waitresses, though if you called them “Waitress” they’d never stop for you. You must call them Ah Yi—Auntie—and wave frantically as they walk by to get them to stop. And once they do, customers descend like vultures and fight over the bamboo steamers inside the cart. People shout, asking if they’ve got siu mai, or har gow, or lo mai gai, and the Ah Yis locate the right dishes somewhere in the depths of their carts. My Mandarin is awful, and my Cantonese nonexistent. Ma and the aunts often try to help me improve by speaking to me in either Mandarin or Indonesian, but then give up and switch to English because I only get about 50 percent of what they’re saying. Their grasp of the English language is a bit wobbly,…

Everyone needs a break, including authors. I’ve been on a personal hiatus for several months from everything but family, and I have to say it was nice. Like all good things, however, my recess had an end date. Now I’m back with fresh a perspective, and a whole bunch of books to talk about! (No reader actually takes a break from cracking open a new book, do they?) While away I found several new authors that made me wonder what rock I’ve been under the past few years. (No, it wasn’t Dwayne.) I mean seriously, these are good books, how did I miss them? One series in particular just rocked my world, the Veronica Speedwell Mystery series by Deanna Rayburn.  And this series has the added bonus of audiobooks performed brilliantly by Angele Masters. I was hooked with the first book A Curious Beginning and lucky for me, book six, An Unexpected Peril, was released March 10, 2021—Yay! So yes, since December I have listened to books 1-5 and have thoroughly loved the characters and the mysteries and I’m totally thrilled to have this latest release in cue for this weekend! An Unexpected Peril  A Veronica Speedwell Mystery by Deanna Rayburn 3/10/2021 A…

1–What is the title of your latest release? A Game of Cones 2–What is it about? It’s about family, friends, community, and of course murder! A Game of Cones is a cozy mystery and second in my An Ice Cream Parlor Mystery series. In it, Bronwyn’s (Win for short) former colleague from New York, Rory Hunter, and her Aunt Jack, the former manager of Crewse Creamer both arrive just as Zeke Reynolds is found shot to death. Zeke, a visitor from a Texas company set on gentrifying Win’s beloved Chagrin Falls, puts the entire village in a head spin. But be sure, there is enough ice cream to go around. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  The small town filled with “neighbors.”  4–How did your main character(s) surprise you?  Win Crewse is a go-getter, well-educated and family-oriented twenty-something. She’s also single. So, I put a handsome, helpful, smart guy right at her reach but she just does not seem interested. HIs name is O. A law professor and invaluable with it comes to all things illegal, like murder. It isn’t that Win hasn’t noticed those things about him, she’s mentioned them a time or two and even…

You’ve probably heard the writing advice “write what you know.” When I sat down to create my new cozy mystery series, which kicked off with FURBIDDEN FATALITY this week, I tried to do just that. Not that I have ever run a pet rescue (although I have volunteered at one). Or won the lottery, alas. But I do know a little something about rescue animals because I am the proverbial crazy cat lady, and all four of my current feline overlords came from one kind of shelter or another. In fact, most of the cats I’ve had over my lifetime have been rescues. My beloved Magic the Cat, Queen of the universe (who inspired the little black kitten named Queenie in the series), came from a shelter. I went in for one kitten to keep my last remaining elderly cat company and came home with ten-week-old black Magic, her large gray brother Mystic, and their mother Minerva, who was so terrified and sickly, the shelter folks begged me to take her as a “bonus” cat, without paying any fees. It took two years for me to convince Minerva to sit on my lap, but after that, she never wanted to…