There’s something about a crime-fighting duo that draws me in. Batman and Robin, Holmes and Watson, Scully and Mulder—they just make the story that much richer as a team. The same can be said about a couple of witty authors who put their heads together to write a fabulous mystery. Double the criminal masterminds at work! I’ve interviewed Lorraine Bartlett here on Fresh Fiction, and now I have the honor of interviewing her new partner in crime, Gayle Leeson! What a rocking duo these two make! *** Kym:  Welcome to the Cozy Corner Gayle! Gayle:  Hi, Kym! Thank you for having me! You’ve started writing A Victoria Square Mystery series with Lorraine Bartlett, how did that come to be? Lorraine was swamped with her existing series and needed some help meeting deadlines. She liked my writing style and thought our voices would mesh well together, and now here we are.   I love when two authors collaborate for a great book and I’m always amazed at how many different methods authors use to write as a team. In this series, however, it’s even more complicated since you came in on book five of the series. Can you tell us how you and Lorraine wrote Yule…

It sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Yet look at our literary history, we’ve always embraced the ghouls of Christmas past. Our fairy tales are as grim as they can be. And musically, we laughed when Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. A little humor or feel good emotions surrounded by the darkness of reality make us feel better—especially when the bad guys get what they deserve. It reminds us of our humanity and our sense of right and wrong. The knowledge that justice will prevail, even if the road is a bit bumpy along the way, keeps us going. Hope. A sense of community. Justice. Love. Laughter. All wrapped up in a colorful cover to entertain you for hours. That’s what you get from cozy mysteries. Like the works of the past, today’s featured novels will make you appreciate what we have today. Turn off the television and embrace a dose of holiday cheer with a good book. MURDER IN HER STOCKING by G. A. McKevett Granny Reid #1 As the Moonlight Magnolia Agency revisits old memories on Christmas Eve, Granny Reid takes the reins back thirty years to the 1980s—back when she went by Stella, everyone’s hair was bigger,…

Do you love subscription boxes? I do. I think it stems in part from the joy and excitement of receiving mail when I was growing up. You know how it is—when you’re a child, all mail is addressed to your parents. And then the day comes when you—yes, you—get a card addressed to you. Or maybe it’s a magazine or a letter. Whatever it was, it was good. You weren’t old enough to get scary mail—bills, IRS letters, family reunion invitations—yet. [Although I did get unhappy mail from the Humane Society once. My friend Buffy and I lamented the fact that we had no money to send and no way—other than prayer—to help that poor monkey with the hand over her eye. I’ve never forgotten that monkey. Where were you, Sarah McLachlan, when that monkey needed you? Sorry for the digression…] Fast forward to adulthood when mail becomes mundane. Now when you get something “good” in the mail, it’s usually something you’ve ordered. It’s seldom a surprise…unless, like me, an item sometimes takes so long to arrive, you forget you ordered it. That’s where subscription boxes come in. I get the quarterly box Fab Fit Fun, the monthly Sephora Play,…

Eccentricities. We all have them. And as long as we aren’t too eccentric, we and the people around us think we’re “normal” or “okay.” If you’ve read my books, then you know that I love writing eccentric characters. The Down South Café series has an abundance of them. Aunt Bess is an octogenarian who has discovered the Internet. She has Pinterest boards such as People I’ve Outlived and Lord, Have Mercy. Aunt Bess has also been known to use dating sites during their free trial periods. Still mentally sharp as a whip, Aunt Bess has an opinion on everything. Dilly Boyd, an older woman who comes to the Down South Café for breakfast every morning, feeds a raccoon a biscuit every evening. I have to admit that I didn’t come up with that scenario on my own. A few years ago, my family stopped at a house near my mother-in-law’s home to see some puppies. As we talked with the dogs’ owner, she mentioned that a raccoon came out of the woods and down to her back porch every evening at dusk. She said, “I give him a biscuit, and he goes on his way.” “You have to give him…