1–What is the title of your latest release? NOSY NEIGHBORS 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Nosy Neighbors is about two neighbors at war, 77-year-old Dorothy Darling and 25-year-old Kat Bennett, who become unlikely allies when their building is threatened with demolition, and even more unlikely amateur sleuths when one of their neighbors is viciously attacked in his home. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? After much deliberation, I decided to set the story in Chalcot, a fictional village I’d written about in my first novel, THE LAST CHANCE LIBRARY. It was fun to include some little cameos from the characters featured in my first novel! 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I think it would be good fun to hang out with Dorothy and Kat, although they’d certainly keep me on my toes. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Dorothy is stubborn, cantankerous, and lonely. Kat is secretive, lost and kind-hearted. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I found this book the hardest of any of my books so far, but as a result I learned to trust my instincts and not give…
It was twelve o’clock and the start of the lunchtime lull. The only other people in the library were Stanley, snoozing behind a newspaper in his chair, and Mrs. Bransworth, skulking around the shelves muttering to herself. June sat down at the desk and took a few deep breaths, filling her nostrils with the comforting scent of the library. As a child, she used to believe that each book had its own smell, specific to its story, and the smell of a library was the combined scent of thousands of different tales. She once explained this theory to her mum, telling her that the Children’s Room smelled best because everyone knew that kids’ books had more exciting stories than grown-up ones. For months after that they’d played a game whenever they read a book together, deciding what particular aroma the story had. The Secret Garden, for example, smelled of mud and roses, while Charlie and the Chocolate Factory smelled of both sugar and cabbage soup. “Excuse me, can I take these out, please?” June looked up to see a tall pile of books in front of the desk, with a pair of eyes blinking at her over the top. “Of…