Next weekend is Malice Domestic. If you’ve followed me for long, you know how much I enjoy attending this event. If you’re going this year, please look for me. I’d love to connect with you.
As I prepare for this conference, I’ll be busy. It’s during times like this that I look for easy recipes, and Frito Pie is one of my favorites.
Hygge was the word of the day last Monday. It is a Danish word that came about in the 1960s, and it makes me smile. Have you ever used this word, or have you heard somebody else use it?
Merriem-Webster’s definition of hygge is, “a cozy quality that makes a person feel content and comfortable
During the long, dark winters when Danes retreat inside their homes, hygge is what brings them a great sense of comfort and joy.—Mary Holland”
According to Worddaily.com, “Elements of hygge include sweaters, couches piled with blankets, candlelight, a warm pastry — basically anything involved with a cozy winter day. This holiday season, light a fire, grab a cup of cocoa, and settle in for a night of hygge. Hygge started out as a Scandinavian way of life, embracing comfort and small pleasures. The word “hygge” then entered English through Danish.”
It’s springtime, and I bet most of us are not thinking about snuggling in blankets on a comfy couch in front of a roaring fire. But there are ways to create hygge in our lives this season.
For starters, I’d like to suggest flowers. Cut flowers from your garden and make big or small arrangements. If you don’t have a garden, buy a small bouquet.
Go for a walk and observe your surroundings. I don’t live in a big city, and it’s easy to connect with nature. That gives me a feeling of coziness.
What about puppies? Do they fit the definition of hygge?
As a cozy mystery author, I’ve got to mention books. What about the term hygge mystery?
Hygge mystery probably won’t catch on, but it’s fun to think about. I hope you all have a warm and hygge spring day, and I hope you find time to read a fun hygge mystery.
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.
Emma Justice is a Texas flower farmer and the main character in Weeding Out Lies and the upcoming release, Clover Covered Corpse. Emma suffers from allergies and often drinks tea sweetened with local honey.
Do you enjoy tea? In the South, sweet iced tea is the thing.
So far, all of my books have been set in the South, and you’ll probably see characters drinking tea. I enjoy tea, but I also love coffee, so you’ll see the coffee drinkers too.
Emma prepares tea and often carries it in an insulated travel mug, but some people drink it out of a china cup and saucer.
Have you ever prepared an afternoon tea? Or do you stick with coffee? What about soft drinks? I’d love to hear about your favorite drinks.
Clover Covered Corpse is the second book of A Texas Flower Farmer Cozy Mystery Series. It will be released on May 28, and today I want to share my beautiful cover with you.
Thanks to Shawn Simmons and Level Best Books for this amazing cover!
We’re returning to Lutz, Texas. Emma Justice is back at the local farmers market, selling flowers. All is good until a body is found in a field of clover.
In Clover Covered Corpse, you’ll find small town life, a murder, suspects, barbecue, friendships, love, and an amateur sleuth doing her best to solve her second murder.
If I was Dr. Seuss, I’d write a poem about this past weekend at the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival. I saw old friends, and I made new friends. I met a elementary school boy who has written four books! I know he’s going places. But, I’m nor Dr. Seuss, so I’ll share a few pictures.
I did not get enough pictures, but here are a few.
Heather Weidner, Rosalie Spielman, Eleanor Kuhns, and Amy M. Reade were some of the authors featured.
Victoria Gilbert, Kristin Kisska, and Renee from The Book Adventurer were a few I had my picture taken with. There were so many more wonderful people I had the pleasure to meet, and next time I hope to do better taking pictures.
On another note, a friend recently asked about my audio books. They are available on EverAnd. You can sign up for a 30 day trial membership. https://www.everand.com/
To listen to Bite the Dust, you can follow this link.
I first met Annie McEwen at Malice 2023. She was always smiling, and she’s as nice a person as you’ll ever want to meet.
Annie’s book, Resort to Murder, will release March 26, and she took time to answer some questions. Welcome, Annie.
You and I are both authors featuring small towns. Do you live, or have you ever lived in a small town? Like do you have an IGA? Do you know how many stop lights you have?
Thank you so much for having me, Jackie! Yes! Most of my childhood was spent on a small farm in rural central Indiana. Our closest town had one stoplight, an IGA, the best library, a liquor store with a giant pink elephant in front of it, and about twenty churches. LOL. My husband and I lived in Colorado Springs for the first two years of our marriage while he served in the USAF. He’s been on the Indianapolis Metro Police Department for twenty-five years, so we lived in the ‘burbs until our kids graduated. Now, we live outside of a tiny town with no stoplights…but we have a post office, volunteer fire department, a new pizza and ice cream place, and a Dollar General. We’re living large now! Honestly, if we could, we’d live even farther out in the boonies!
Share with us about your earliest days writing. Have you always wanted to write, or did you get derailed in your desire to become a published author?
I was obsessed with Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books from around age four, so I used to write stories about pioneers all the time. My parents have bunches of stories I wrote as a kid and half-written historical romances/inspirational romances I typed out as a teenager. (And I do mean typed!) Of course, I’ve always loved mysteries, especially cozies, but I was too afraid to write them. I didn’t have the confidence. Fast-forward several years through life with family, having an interior decorating business for a little bit, going back to college to be a radiological technologist, working in that field for ten years now…I pushed my writing dreams to the side.
How did you get back to writing?
I’ve been a huge Ellie Alexander fan for years. She so engaging with her fans and we’d actually DM’d several times. I told my husband if I ever got the nerve to actually attempt my dream of writing, I’d love to be a cozy mystery writer like Ellie. Lo and behold, Ellie started a Masterclass for mystery writing. Well, my hubby, Brian, and our kids put together a big Christmas gift for me. My son, Caleb, does amazing woodworking and built me a desk that I designed. My daughter, Maddy, had been in contact with Ellie for months putting together this big box of Ellie’s items and arranged a Zoom with her to discuss my writing goals! And Brian got the Masterclass for me! Do I have the best family, or what? So, I took the amazing course, and every doubt I had just disappeared. Ellie is a fabulous mentor, and I met my writing bestie, Paula Charles/Janna Rollins, as well as so many other wonderful people. The rest is history!
Does your main character, Emmy Cooper, share any of your characteristics? Would you be friends in real life?
Oh my goodness, yes! We both love interior design and trash-to-treasure projects. Thrift stores and Emmy and I are old souls; put on an old Doris Day or Hayley Mills movie, and we’re happy. We’re also clumsy, a bit sarcastic with our friends, and sometimes we forget to act our ages (Emmy’s 26, and I’m so not 26.). Even though we have a hard time standing up for ourselves, we’ll do whatever we have to do for our loved ones! A lot of Emmy’s quirks and insecurities are drawn from my own. Writing is great therapy! We’d definitely be friends.
What inspired Resort to Murder? Tell us a little about your story.
My family’s vacations were spent on Lake Namekagon in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. We camped in a three-room tent at the Chequamegon National Forest Campgrounds. There were four of us kids, Mom, Dad, and our collie. Mogasheen Resort, a cute cabin resort, was next to the campgrounds. We became great friends with the family, and year after year, the friendship grew. Our families are still very close. I based my Cooper’s Cove Resort on Mogasheen’s, and they’ve shared their knowledge as part of my research.
Even though my Lake Covington and the town of Covington are fictional, they’re inspired by Lake Namekagon and some of my favorite quaint small towns. My characters do visit several real-life places in the area my book is set in, Bayfield County. In fact, my sister and her family live about five minutes from Lake Superior! She and her husband met as little kids when we visited a little church while we were on vacation all those years ago. That’s a story I need to write!
I don’t want to give too much away, but Emmy’s story is inspired by something I went through several years ago. It was soul-crushing and unjustified. I went into a depression and lost trust in people. But, it turned out to be a gigantic blessing in disguise that eventually led to opening the door for me to pursue my writing dream.
So in Resort to Murder, Emmy Cooper’s life in Chicago is turned upside down, so the young interior designer retreats to her family’s lake cottage resort in the beautiful Wisconsin Northwoods for a much-needed break. Hoping to clear her mind and gain a fresh perspective, she looks forward to enjoying a slower pace and the crisp, clean pine air at her beloved Cooper’s Cove Resort with her family, dogs, and her best friend, Whitney.
Unfortunately, Emmy finds out a ruthless development company is relentlessly pressuring Lake Covington property owners, including her family, to sell their land so they can build an extravagant, modern resort that would ruin the quaint esthetic of the area. Things only get worse when Emmy finds the dead body of one of the developers floating in the lake—murdered!
Since Emmy’s father was leading the fight to stop the shady development from getting approval, he’s quickly painted as the prime suspect. Now it’s up to Emmy to prove her father’s innocence, save the reputation of Cooper’s Cove, and find out who would resort to murder.
I read an Advanced Readers Copy of Hammers and Homicide this fall and loved it. Paula’s book is out in the world now, she graciously stopped by to chat.
Welcome, Paula!
Hi Jackie!
I’m so glad you liked Hammers and Homicide! It’s such a relief to hear people are enjoying it and it’s not just rubbish!
Thank you for having me on your blog. Here’s my answers to your questions.
You and I both write mysteries set in small towns. Most of my life, I’ve lived in small towns. What about you? Do you live in a small town?
I’m definitely happiest in a small town! I grew up in a town with a population of right around twelve hundred people. In fact, it’s the town Pine Bluff is based off of in Hammers and Homicide. Not only was the town small but the area is fairly remote. The closest “big town” nearby was only about ten thousand people. Since then, I’ve mostly lived in towns of about ten-thousand, still small town, though I lived in Redding, California for a handful of years. Our current little town doesn’t even have a stoplight, though it’s growing really fast around here and I’m not sure that’s going to last much longer.
Tell us some of your favorite parts of living in a small town.
While small towns can be a hotbed of gossip, they’re normally quieter and a slower pace of life than the city. You can hear yourself think. People look out for each other. One of my favorite things about our little town is the concerts in the park series in the summer. We have a gorgeous little park with a gazebo and coliseum seating. Half the town turns out to sit on the grass, chat with their neighbors, and have picnics during the concerts. Kids run around and play and it’s just a good time. There’s a similar scene in Hammers and Homicide. I couldn’t resist adding it!
Do you have a favorite store? Would it be fair to guess a hardware store?
That’s another thing to love about small towns. Usually, there’s fun and unique shops. Bookstores are always my favorite, and a nearby town has a whole row of vintage shops with tons of refurbished furniture and decor. I like to take a day every few months and wander through those shops! So, no, none of those are hardware stores. The hardware store in my book is based on the hardware store my grandparents owned in my hometown. It was fabulous but no longer exists. When I see an old-fashioned hardware store, I do always pop in and wander around!
Are you handy with a hammer?
Somewhat! I can build small things, like a birdhouse, and pound nails into a fence or help put up walls on the chicken coop. Anything bigger would probably not stand up for very long!
I think that’s impressive. What are some of your hobbies?
I’m a voracious reader, but aren’t all writers? A few years ago I was doing quite a bit of furniture restoration and repurposing, though it’s been a while since I tackled anything. All my tools and paints are waiting for the next project! I like to knit in the evenings while watching television with my husband, but even that has slowed down a lot. My hands tend to be tired after a day of tapping away at the keyboard. In the spring and summer, we grow a veggie garden and I have scads of flower beds. It’s restorative to dig your hands in the dirt!
Yes, I’m love to garden too.
How did you decide to make Dawna Carpenter a sexagenarian? Tell us a little about what inspired you to write Hammers and Homicide.
I’m combining these two questions because they go hand-in-hand. I had taken a workshop about writing family stories not long before I sat down to write Hammers and Homicide. Because I was in the family story telling mode, my thoughts went right to my grandmother when I started thinking about my protagonist. My grandfather was a contractor and my grandmother ran the hardware store they owned in our hometown. I began to wonder how Grandma would have done if she was Jessica Fletcher, and Dawna bloomed out of those initial thoughts. I didn’t give any specific thought to Dawna’s age other than basing her off of my grandmother when I was a young teenager. I drew on my own childhood memories a lot as the setting for the book, the hardware store, and Dawna’s house developed on the page.
Thanks so much for having me on your blog, Jackie! It was a lot of fun to be here!
It’s been fun, Paula. I discovered we have a lot in common. My grandmothers and my mom all loved gardening, and I have have some iris bulbs I’ve moved from home to home from over twenty years. Not all survived, but some did.
I’m so excited to announce it’s the official release day for A Suspicious Breed.
Low Country dog walker Andi Grace Scott is about to get married, but she’ll have to get a killer to say “I did it” before she can say “I do” . . .
With her wedding fast approaching and her plans to open a dog shelter underway, Andi Grace can barely find a free moment. Then she learns that her favorite local vet may have been roped into a crooked fundraising scheme meant to help animals, and worse still, her wedding photographer—a good friend who may have had firsthand knowledge of the scheme—is murdered. Determined to find justice for the victim and root out whoever is behind the scam, Andi Grace puts her nose to the ground to sniff out the clues.
No sooner does she begin compiling a list of suspects than she uncovers an unscrupulous music producer pressuring a friend’s talented daughter, and a haphazard dog breeding operation that may be endangering animals. With so many unsavory characters cropping up at every turn, Andi Grace enlists the help of some equally clever friends to ensnare them. But just as she finds the evidence that ties everything together, the culprit finds it’s time to kill her before she can tie the knot . . .
A Suspicious Breed is available today wherever you like to shop for books.
Over the weekend, My Sister’s Books held a pre-launch party. It was so fun. We had a fabulous cake designed to look like my book. We also had food and prizes. I saw friends and made new friends. There was a lot of laughter, and it was a fun party.
Here are some of the pictures.
Thanks for allowing me to share the fun. I hope you have a fabulous week.
I’m excited to welcome my friend Ruth Hartman back to the blog.
Hi Ruth, thanks for joining us.
Thank you, Jackie, for hosting me on your blog today!
My newest book, Murder She Meowed, is book #2 in my Bookshop Kitties Mysteries, and will release on February 6th. The title, Murder She Meowed, is a play on words from the old TV show, Murder She Wrote, while Book 1, Dial M for Meow, is a takeoff on the 1950’s movie, Dial M for Murder.
Green Meadow, Indiana, the fictional town in the book, isn’t a real place, but since I live in rural Indiana, it has the small town flavor and types of down-to-earth people I’m used to sharing a town with. I love to write about characters who are funny and quirky. One of the highest compliments I receive from readers is that my books make them laugh!
On the two book covers of the Bookshop Kitties Mysteries, the cats—one, all white, the other a black-and-white tuxedo—perfectly capture the cat characters in the stories. And, like a picture within a picture, in my books, the two cats, Milton and Pearl, appear in my protagonist’s children’s mysteries that she writes and sells in her aunt’s bookstore, Words to Read By.
Mostly, I write cozy mysteries, but several years ago, I wrote my own children’s book, Murphy in thePaw-Paw Patch. In the book the cat Murphy is born without paws on his pads and makes a journey to find some, meeting a new friend along the way. I wrote the words and did the drawings. It was so much fun to do!
In Murder She Meowed, my main character’s (Christy Bailey) children’s stories are fun mysteries, where her cats actually find clues and solve murders. Come along on their journey as they prowl for clues and pounce on the killers!
This cover is so cute. Here’s the blurb:
From author Ruth J. Hartman comes the next purrrrfectly fun Bookshop Kitties Mystery…
Children’s book author Christy Bailey is thrilled that her aunt Betty is finally marrying the man of her dreams! The small wedding is a family event, right down to Christy’s cats and subjects of her books, Milton and Pearl, who are dressed in wedding attire and pulled down the aisle in a wagon. After the reception, Christy and her boyfriend-hopeful, Micah, agree to help her friend and wedding caterer, Janie, clean up at her pastry shop. But when they arrive at the shop, they’re not greeted by Janie but Janie’s ex-husband—who’s dead on the floor, cold as a frozen muffin!
Suddenly the murder is all anyone is talking about in the small town of Green Meadow, Indiana, and it’s clear the local police detectives have Janie squarely in their sights. But Christy believes in her friend’s innocence and with Milton and Pearl pawing for answers, Christy will stop at nothing to give Janie a happy ending.
“Meow-velous! Ruth Hartman has penned an engaging mystery. Compelling & Clever!”
~ Kings River Life Magazine
“Readers will wish Green Meadow and the people and animals were real so that you could visit!”
~ Cozy Mystery Book Reviews
Ruth J. Hartman spends her days herding cats and her nights spinning mysterious tales. She, her husband, and their cats love to spend time curled up in their recliners watching old Cary Grant movies. Well, the cats sit in the people’s recliners. Not that the cats couldn’t get their own furniture. They just choose to shed on someone else’s.
Ruth, a left-handed, cat-herding, farmhouse-dwelling writer uses her sense of humor as she writes tales of lovable, klutzy women who seem to find trouble without even trying.
Ruth’s husband and best friend, Garry, reads her manuscripts, rolls his eyes at her weird story ideas, and loves her despite her insistence all of her books have at least one cat in them. See updates about her cozy mysteries at Ruthjhartman.com.
Jackie Layton 