by Janna Rollins
Friends, I’m excited about An Escape Goat by Janna Rollins, and she’s taking time to visit with us today. Welcome, Janna.
My husband grew up in New England, and I am a west coast girl. He always jokingly said, “I can’t take you to New England, because you’re going to love it and want to stay.” He wasn’t’ wrong. Five years ago, we finally made that trip and I fell madly in love with the adorable small towns, the covered bridges and old stone walls, the amazing number of hardwoods in the forests, and the incredible history.
Even though we still live in the western United States, it had taken us so long to get to New England that I decided if I set a book in New Hampshire, I would have a very valid reason to return. Thus, the Zen Goat Mystery series was born. And my logic has worked in my favor. We’ve already returned once to explore the area where I’ve set my fictional town of Bobwhite Hollow. (Okay, so my brother who lives just north in Ottawa might say it was to visit him, but nobody said you can’t mix research trips with family get-togethers!)
When I started penciling out my ideas for An Escape Goat, I wanted readers to feel as if they were transported to an iconic New England farm resplendent with a big red barn attached to a gorgeous farmhouse via a breezeway, stone walls lining the long driveway, and pine and maple trees dotting the property. The town of Bobwhite Hollow sits in northern New Hampshire in the White Mountains with Mt. Washington looming in the distance and the Connecticut River rushing past. Bobwhite Hollow needed a gazebo in the village green, a historic inn where locals gather to eat and catch up on gossip, and clapboard buildings lining Main Street. I wanted to create a place that would make readers want to visit and stay awhile.
While my husband and I were on the research expedition, we arrived in the town I thought initially was going to be my setting, but when we got there, it didn’t feel exactly right. Don’t get me wrong, I could have worked with it easily, but we drove around for a few days and lo and behold, stumbled upon the town that felt like it came directly out of my book. There was the covered bridge Callie loves so much. There was the gazebo in the village green with the town library perched on the edge of the green. The diner down the street, the county fairgrounds exactly where I’d imagined them, the police and fire station. And the crowning jewel? The Haybeck’s farm just a few miles out of town.
It was such a surreal experience. I even turned to my husband at one point and questioned him. “How can this be so perfect? Which came first, do you think? This town, or Bobwhite Hollow? When I created Bobwhite Hollow, did it make this town appear?” I was only half joking. And guess what? I wanted to stay.
An Escape Goat is the first in the new Zen Goat Mystery series. Callie Haybeck has come to New Hampshire after finding long-lost family through a DNA test kit. She’s fallen in love with her new family and decided to stay. Callie has opened a goat yoga studio on her great-uncle’s farm and is hosting her first retreat. When retreat guest Angilene Claudson turns up dead with a wine glass shattered at her side and Callie’s favorite goat lapping up the spill, the death is written off as an accidental overdose. But when the goat gets sick, Callie’s gut tells her it wasn’t an accident at all. With her new business on the line and a possible murderer staying in the guesthouse, Callie sets to work to uncover the truth and keep her family safe.
Janna also writes cozy mysteries as Paula Charles. You can find her and links to her books on her website: www.paulacharles.com
It’s easy to see why Jenna fell in love with this area. I want to go visit it too.
It’s also available at Bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/p/books/an-escape-goat-a-zen-goat-mystery-janna-rollins/21319982?ean=9781685126056
Jenna (Paula), thanks so much for sharing how you created the setting for An Escape Goat.
Jackie Layton 
An Escape Goat sounds adorable! I smiled all the way through this post!
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Priscilla, I smiled a lot too. Thank you for stopping by.
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