Behind the story of Deep Green Envy by Joy Ann Ribar

Joy Ann Ribar writes the Deep Lakes Mystery Series featuring baker/vintner and all-around spitfire, Frankie Champagne. Joy’s writing is inspired by Wisconsin’s four distinct seasons and local flavors. Deep Green Envy is the fourth book in the Deep Lakes Mystery Series.

Human emotions run deep

The main issue Joy wanted to address in Deep Green Envy is how parents learn to navigate relationships with their adult children. This comes out when Frankie welcomes her 21-year-old daughter, Violet, home for summer break. Frankie agrees to hire Violet as a summer intern in the winery to work on the science of wine production. When the local police warn Frankie that Violet is dating a person of interest in a shooting, Frankie refuses to stay out of her daughter’s business and investigates on the sly.

A different character gets her turn

“This is the fourth book of the series and I wanted Frankie’s business partner, Carmen, to have a larger role. My readers like Carmen. So it was time to reveal more about her. Since Carmen and her husband Ryan team up to run the O’Connor family sheep farm, I explored ways the sheep farm could be the central setting for the plot. I live in a farming area in Wisconsin, so I know that farmers rarely take a day off simply because they can’t. For the book, I spent time researching sheep farming with a local couple, who helped me develop means of murder on the farm.”

A lifelong writer and a dream come together

“I’ve been writing most of my life. My career began as a newspaper reporter. From there, I became an assistant editor for a weekly and stringer for a daily paper. But my love for literature and creative writing propelled me back to college where I earned an English Education degree while raising three daughters alone. After teaching literature and various writing classes for twenty years, I decided it was time for me to write something more substantial. My series was born in the brutal Wisconsin winter of 2018 when the town of Deep Lakes planted itself in a dream, demanding to be inhabited. Because I’ve been gobbling up mysteries since I was 7 or 8 years old, it seemed the right choice as a genre for my venture.” 

Getting down the down under slang

“Deep Green Envy features a few Australian hired hands and sheep shearers. In order to sound authentic, I began following a couple of Australian bloggers so I could learn the slang and everyday conversation. Many of the terms I learned were ‘naughty,’ which was a hoot, but not usable in my cozy genre. My favorite Australian sheep terms are jumbuck, which is a nickname for sheep, and snagger, which is a sheep shearer.”

A taste for the grape and the life

“I enjoy wine and sharing it with friends, but I didn’t really know anything about vinification or grape cultivation. When I decided my main character would run a bakery by day, wine lounge by night and a vineyard, I decided it was high time I expanded my knowledge of wines. Luckily, Wisconsin provided fun and fabulous research, with almost 100 small wineries scattered throughout the state to visit. I love talking to vintners and expert tasters (yes, some have the title of sommelier attached to their names), which is how I learned about raising cold climate grapes from vine to bottle. My husband and I, along with two other couples, began a traveling winery,  sharing wine production as we take turns batching wine in our homes and gathering together for the bottling phase where we all share in the fruits of our labor.”

Learn more about the Joy Ann Ribar at joyribar.com/. Did you like this interview? If so, click here to read more Behind the Story interviews from your favorite authors.