1–What is the title of your latest release? WINTER’S END 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Winter is over in Benedict, Alaska. It’s time to find the bodies. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? WINTER’S END is the fourth book in the Alaska Wild Series. I’d wanted to set a series in Alaska since my husband and I visited it twenty years ago and was lucky to begin this series with Thin Ice. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Yes, she’s kind of a mess, but she has a good heart. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Introverted, healing, conflicted. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I thought that by now my protagonist would fight being out in the middle of nowhere, but she’s relishing it instead. As I wrote this book, I sensed that I might also be able to adapt to a sort of primitiveness that I hadn’t thought I could before. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? Since I’m not good at outlining, I push hard through a first draft and then edit after…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE BURNING PAGES 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When bookseller Delaney Nichols is invited to a Burns Night dinner, little does she know that her and her coworker Hamlet’s lives are about to be turned upside down. The dinner leads to a real fire and a murder for which Hamlet becomes a suspect. Delaney will have to work hard to douse the flames of suspicion and help find the real killer. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Back when I started the series, I knew I wanted to write something that took place in Scotland. I wanted to go to Scotland (and I was lucky enough to go back then), and I wanted to “create” a bookshop. I didn’t know a thing about Edinburgh, but somehow, we booked our room right in Grassmarket. Once there, I knew I’d found the perfect spot for The Cracked Spine. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Absolutely! I kind of do. She’s in my head all the time. 5–What are three words that describe your sleuth? Curious, grateful, bookish. 6–What’s something you learned…

They were always there for you, books, like a small pet dog that doesn’t die. – Ian Sansom, THE CASE OF THE MISSING BOOKS Books are my life. In addition to spending time either reading or writing about books, I have worked in various libraries for years, and even met my husband while we were both working at our local library. Books about books – specifically stories about librarians, and people who collect books, or work in bookstores – are a favorite sub-genre of mine. Then there are books that take characters from classic works of literature and put them in the role of amateur sleuth. As I’m a huge fan of mysteries, I love combining these types of characters and themes with the quirkiness of a cozy mystery. The results can be delicious. He was sick of the excuses and the lies. He was tired of the evasions and the untruths, of people refusing to stand up and speak the truth and take responsibility for their own actions. It seemed to him like yet another symptom of the decline of Western civilization; of chaos; and climate change; and environmental disaster; and war; disease; famine; oppression; the eternal slow slide…