My friend Ruth J. Hartman has a new cozy mystery coming out this month. May 14, to be exact. You might have guessed, cats are involved in the story. I can’t imagine Ruth writing a story without a cat.
Here’s the blurb:
When mobile cat groomer, Molly Stewart, asks her friend Evan to photograph her new feline clients, they both get more than they bargained for when the body of Evan’s old art teacher is found bludgeoned to death in his photography studio darkroom. After one of Evan’s photos catches suspicious activity in the background, Molly is ready to call the authorities with the newest piece of information. However, an anonymous phone call which threatens not only her, but Evan and their pets, convinces Molly to clam up and find the murderer herself. Will the tenuous situation end up being picture perfect or a photo bomb?
I’m so excited about this podcast with Becki Lee and Literary Escapes. After you listen to the episode with me, featuring South Carolina, check out the other authors writing in different states. It’s the best bang for your buck if you want to visit all the states.
I’m participating in a fun book club in 2024 and wanted to make sure to invite you to join me. Join me and author Becki Lee and we Read Across the U.S. in 2024.
One of my favorite parts of reading is the escape it gives. I have been all around the world, several times, in my books. The Read Across the U.S. Book Club will take us to all 50 states in 2024. If you just did some math in your head you’ll understand that this is going to be fast & fun!
Every week Becki will introduce us to a new state and a new book. Over the year you’ll have the opportunity to meet 50 authors and “visit” all 50 states.
Come join me for this adventure and travel all across the U.S.
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.
Jackie Layton 