Author Interviews

Lesley Diehl grew up on a farm, eventually became a college professor and university administrator, then returned to the world of books. She is the author six previous Eve Appel Mysteries. Nearly Departed is the seventh book in the series.

The ties that bind

Lesley said she comes from an odd family. She was an only child, raised on a farm and had few playmates until she entered school. “I had to rely on my imagination to create stories and games for entertainment. Because my mother was ill most of my childhood, I spent much of my time outside in the haylofts, barns and fields creating fantasy worlds in my mind. I also loved being in the dairy barn with my father when he milked the cows morning and night. My two grandmothers, one a strict German woman, the other a sweet Swedish lady were important in my life. The German one encouraged my interest in dancing by sewing costumes for me. She made the best fried chicken every Sunday. She was never affectionate, but somehow, I knew she liked me. My other grandmother was loving and affectionate. My father’s sister was a bartender. When my mother was sick, my aunt would take me with her to work. I would sit at the bar and drink Shirley Temples, feeling very grown up.”

Because her family life felt so disconnected, Lesley wanted to write stories in which family is important, but where the characters struggle with the idea of family. “I grabbed bits and pieces from my own life to insert into the Eve Appel character. For example, her last name is my paternal grandmother’s maiden name. Eve’s interest in owning a consignment shop also arises from this grandmother’s passion for recycling used clothing and household items. Losing her parents at an early age, Eve is raised by her maternal grandmother. Although Eve has not had a conventional family, her grandmother has loved her and taught her self-reliance, qualities Eve embraces in her own attempt to develop family.”

Making the case personal

“I decided to give Eve, who has become a private detective, a more personal reason for working on a case,” Lesley said. “Her business partner and best friend, Madeleine is expecting her uncle to visit from Scotland. Madeline is excited to see him because she, like Eve, has few relatives living. Her uncle is special to her, but his arrival at Madeleine’s house is followed by several attempts on his life. She asks Eve to find out who is behind trying to kill him. This is a particularly difficult case not only because the killer is clever, but Eve understands how important Madeleine’s uncle is to her. If Eve fails to stop the killer, how can she face her friend?”

Character and plot equally important

Though she recognizes the importance of a good plot, Lesley also believes it’s important to have characters that are relatable, interesting and work well together. “I wanted a protagonist who is bold, but likeable, and one who can grow and develop in unpredictable but exciting ways. I like to weave into the story the importance of the setting, and rural Florida is exotic in ways few readers have encountered. Social, personal, environmental and family issues are all part of my characters’ lives, so these play a significant role in how I develop the plot and the characters’ roles in the mystery. For example, Eve is struck again and again with how construction and the development of housing as well as recreational and commercial interests have changed the rural landscape especially as these affect water resources and animal habitat.”

From brews to an air boat cruise

“I like to do hands on research,” Lesley said. “For an earlier series featuring murder in a small brewery, I visited several breweries. In one of them, the guide showed us a fermenting room containing an open fermenting tank. He said we were not allowed in the room during fermentation because of the carbon dioxide coming out of the tank. Of course, my question which shocked others on the tour was, ‘Could you kill someone if you locked them in there?’ I quickly explained I wanted to know because I was writing a mystery. I’m not sure that explanation was of any comfort to others.”

And then there’s shopping for clothes. “Because Eve owns a consignment shop and sells used merchandise, I spend most of my weekends in the summer attending community yard sales searching for interesting merchandise. It’s a passion my grandmother passed on to me because she rarely bought anything new. I browse local consignment stores frequently and have been warned by my husband that we do not have room for anything else in our small cottage. The rule now is that I must remove one item for each one I bring into the house from these expeditions.”

There are also some lessons you can only learn from personal experience, such as the one Lesley learned during an air boat ride for her second Eve Apple Mystery, Dead in the Water. In that book, Lesley wrote a scene in which dirt from the canal blows ups into the face of Eve’s friend Madeleine and Eve picks it off. “I wouldn’t have thought of this scene if the same hadn’t happened to me on an airboat ride. I picked junk off my face and was careful to keep my mouth closed so I didn’t swallow what the wind from the ride churned up.”

Learn more about Lesley Diehl at lesleyadiehl.com.

Kelly Brady Channick is a former teacher who has taught first, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades. She says she’s always loved making up stories, which is one reason she always managed to talk herself out of trouble. Asbury High and the Thief’s Gamble is the first book in her young adult cozy mystery series.

Keeping it fun

Kelly said she wrote this book when she was eighteen. “At the time, there was an influx of supernatural and dystopian-future types of YA books on the market. Don’t get me wrong, I love those types of books too. But I’ve always loved writing and realized I was missing some good, old-fashioned amateur sleuthing type of books. I’m hoping this book will give people a break from the real world, and provide some laughs and entertainment and they jump into Asbury and try to solve a mystery.”

Many writers find writing to be a way to cope with stress. Perhaps that’s why Kelly started this book when she did. She was eighteen and her parents were divorcing. “I’ve always been a sucker for mysteries,” she said. “I felt bad leaving my dad at home alone, so I would stay in with him and ended up writing out the ideas that were stuck in my head for a while. I liked the idea of having a group of four friends, consisting of two boys and two girls. I was always friends with more boys than girls growing up, so writing from a boy’s perspective wasn’t too hard or too much of a stretch for me.”

People, progression, and pancakes

“I grew up in a shore town (Ocean City, NJ), so I feel my descriptions of life on the coast are pretty accurate. Also, I love talking, a lot. I guess I was my graduating class’ Class Clown, and Most Athletic, for a reason. So, I really love it when I get reader feedback or just general questions directed to me. I’ll converse with anyone—ask my husband!”

During college, Kelly played basketball, which pulled her away from writing. And after college, she became a teacher—another break. Now that she’s writing full time, she’s decided to fulfill her dream of publishing this series. “I can honestly say the book series gets better as it goes on. I’m sure all writers like to think that, but because my characters grow and age, and the mysteries/crimes become more intense, I feel like the readers get drawn deeper into the world of Asbury. I mean, the kids go from being 14 to 18 by the final book—so you know they face many more challenges, other than just solving the cases that come their way.”

In the Asbury High series, the town’s favorite and most famous restaurant serves a popular dish called the Taco Pancake. Taco Pancakes? Are those for real? Actually, yes. Kelly said, “At the time I wrote that, I was a very picky eater and really only loved tacos and pancakes— (and cookies, but who doesn’t love cookies?), thus, I tested out the recipe and found out it’s quite delicious to be honest.”

Learn more about Kelly Brady Channick at kbchannick.com.

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Southern author Maggie Toussaint writes cozy and paranormal mysteries, romantic suspense, and dystopian fiction. She has twenty published novels and is a three-time finalist for Georgia Author of the Year. She’s won three Silver Falchions, the Readers’ Choice, and the EPIC Awards. She lives in coastal Georgia, where secrets, heritage, and ancient oaks cast long shadows. 

Moving on

“I’m sure others have had this experience: you’re suddenly surprised by a friend’s words or deeds. I’ve found that you can know someone all your life but never truly know who they are. Further, it has held true that most people have a public persona and a private one.”

In Seas the Day, those dual personas are precisely the challenge for caterer River Holloway. Driven to find a missing friend, a boat captain, River discovers baffling secrets when she digs into her friend’s past.

Maggie said that the Seafood Caper Mystery series originated because she wanted to write a lighter cozy series after having written a cozy paranormal series of seven books. “That series was inspired by my longing to talk to my sister, who had passed away. After nearly seven years of dwelling in that story world, I needed a change. I wanted to write about a wholesome young woman struggling with everyday issues – elder care, a brother who took a long time to grow up, a boyfriend who moved away, and yet she was/is entirely rooted in her community on Shell Island. To add to the nourishing aspect of this new series, I created a catering sleuth so that she could bring sustenance to all who cross paths with her.”

Maggie said she knows the setting for Seas the Day well. “I have lived on an island in a small community. My family has always lived by the sea, been fisher folk, and enjoyed cooking. The same things that sustain my sleuth—the blended scents of the forest and ocean, the certainty of the tides, the tug of family heritage—sustain me. But she’s the cook, not me. All my life I’ve dreamed of being a person like River, and now I have the privilege of living vicariously through her.”

From Trouble came a nudge

A few years ago, Maggie was invited to participate in a short story collection featuring author Carolyn Haines’ character, Trouble, the black cat. Maggie said the story call wanted a romance, a mystery, and Trouble in each short story. “My story, ‘Trouble with Horses’, was accepted into the Trouble with Cupid anthology which benefits animal rescue charities. The couple I wrote about, River Holloway and Pete Merrick, kept nudging me to give them a book, so I began writing Seas the Day. Since then I’ve decided to issue at least two more full length novels in this series.

“River’s name came to me because she’s very grounded like a river or a stream and yet she’s always on the go, always reaching out and expanding her limits. She’s fluid and yet strong. She knows what she wants and she goes for it. She’s guided by her drive to help others in any way she can. She’s the ultimate neighbor you always count on.

“Her childhood sweetheart, Pete, wants to make his mark on the world and be able to keep River in grand style. He’s a brilliant corporate turn-around expert, but in this story he’s in over his head. His journey is to realize there’s no place like home, and for him, home is now and has always been, River.”

Paying things forward

“The good guys always win, you always get a happy ending in a Maggie Toussaint story, and my story characters act in character throughout the book. I hope readers find my books easy to read, page-turning, and entertaining because that’s my goal.
My sleuths are very invested in family and grounded in their communities and values that I share. I have had many helping hands along the way to this point in my life and I’ve done my best to keep paying that forward. Reader and writer alike, we are all on a journey together through this life.”

And keeping a sense of humor

“The contract for Seas the Day came about as an agented three-book deal. This was the first time I’d sold without having everything finished. Despite many personal challenges in 2019, I kept up with the production schedule for all three books. It was exhilarating and maddening and stressful. And yet, somehow it got done in the lighthearted, entertaining style I like to write. For me, the secret was to focus on what I could do each day instead of worrying about how much needed to be done.”

Of course, part of that work was research. Fortunately, there was nothing too crazy in the research for Seas the Day. At least, nothing like what happened when she wrote Murder in the Buff. Maggie was exhibiting books at a festival when she was confronted by the owner of a nearby clothing-optional site. “He thought I shouldn’t have written about this kind of place without visiting one. That was never going to happen, but I was happy to share that I’d interviewed someone who had visited there. My friend went to dinner there with another teacher and said she kept telling herself ‘don’t look down, don’t look down,’ the whole time. Of course, I used that mantra in the book!”

Visit Maggie Toussaint at maggietoussaint.com.

Judith Gonda is a mystery writer and Ph.D. psychologist with a penchant for Pomeranians and puns, so it’s not surprising that psychology, Poms, and puns pop up in her amateur sleuth mysteries featuring California landscape architect Tory Benning. Murder in the Secret Maze is Judith’s first book in the Tory Benning Mystery series.

The beginnings of Murder in the Secret Maze

Judith said she likes to write with three ideas in mind. Her main desire is to entertain readers, but she also wants to show good can triumph over evil and that justice can prevail. “I like to believe that good people outnumber the bad ones. I’m a big advocate of hope, love, and kindness, and my stories reflect this.”

With a daughter who is a landscape architect, it’s no surprise the Judith chose the profession for her protagonist. “I like writing about it because plants and nature are beautiful and calming and the design aspects are fun. I also like the idea of a family business. I’ve co-owned a litigation consulting business in the past and my husband still is involved in his family’s business. The dynamics of family and business are interesting and offer a lot of opportunities from a writing standpoint for conflict and drama.”

Judith has some fond memories of her life in London as a child. “I adored the Hampton Court maze beyond belief. It was the neatest thing and lends itself to twists and turns literally, a nice metaphor for a mystery. I also liked the idea of a missing person because I am drawn to real missing person stories in the news. I become obsessed with the mystery of finding out what happened to them and wanted to create that same interest and curiosity in my story. I feel so much compassion for the families of missing persons.”

For research, Judith read a lot of missing person news stories and tried to model what she saw the real families do in Murder in the Secret Maze. In real life, she said that families often blanket social media with missing person posts. “They need to do this because the authorities sometimes take a while to get on board,” Judith said. “The families have to take on the search themselves. They become obsessed with the quest for truth. Some of them blame themselves for not answering a phone call before the person disappeared or not knowing whether someone voluntarily disappeared to shirk responsibility. They also wonder if they were foolish in spending time worrying and looking for them because some people disappear on purpose. What if they met with foul play because the family member did something? They know time is of the essence and wonder if they should step up their investigation. They suffer so much uncertainty and are weighed down by the psychological toll of not knowing. I tried to capture that uncertainty by showing Tory’s turmoil, and showing that she has to take it day by day.”

The benefits of being a research psychologist

“My training and experience as a research psychologist informs my interest in studying cause and effect. What I’ve learned is there are often many variables working together to bring about a certain outcome. I am fascinated with why people commit crimes and what their motives are for murder, so that fascination is reflected in my books. What drives people to murder? Obviously, there are many different motives for different people in different situations. Because of this, my plots are complicated by a lot of twists and turns. That’s the mystery, finding out the why as well as the who.”

An emotional rollercoaster

“A few years before I started writing this book my older daughter got married and my mother died a week later. Then the same daughter got divorced only a short time after that. All these events colored my story, particularly the collective impact and the roller coaster of emotions when stressful events hit together. That quick succession of loss is in my book. Like me, Tory’s coping method of choice is denial. I feel personally overwhelmed when stressful events hit all at once so, out of the necessity to not lose my mind, I only let the horror seep in a little at a time, as I adjust to the new reality. Not ideal, but real. Tory does the same thing, flipping in and out of depression and anxiety and her desire for normalcy, illustrated by her suddenly becoming addicted to exercise, seeking therapy, suspecting everyone, and even flirting a little with a handsome character. Life is messy and imperfect. I try to reflect that in my stories so the characters seem real. Also, I think humor is a great tension reliever and occasionally Tory and her BFF Ashley find a little humor in the midst of very dark circumstances.”

Cops and robbers make for good research

“One night when my husband had just left on a business trip, I was home alone and in bed reading into the wee hours. What I first thought was the bass of a car radio became an increasingly louder thumping sound that went on for several minutes. When I peeked through the blinds a guy was trying to break into my neighbor’s car. He was bashing the windows with a rock. To see someone so focused on destruction, methodically, violently, swing after swing, pounding the daylights out of a window with what seemed like superhuman strength was frightening.”

Judith later learned the man was drunk and barely able to stand up. She called their security company, but the man got into the car, stole something, and ran before help arrived. The security officers found the attacker and detained him until the police arrived. Eventually, the case went to trial, but before that, Judith was pulled back in as a witness.

“Even though he was caught red-handed with my neighbor’s possessions, the rookie cop let the guy go. Long story short, they eventually arrested him, with my help I’m proud to say, since a police detective brought a photo lineup to my house for me to ID the suspect. This incident really hit home for two reasons. First, like a fender bender, being a victim of even a minor crime shakes you up; and second, I was surprised at my own reaction in wanting to help catch the perpetrator despite my own anxiety. The approach/avoidance struggle was real. Both of these feelings really informed my story regarding the mixed emotions of a crime victim and helped me write some scenes particularly vividly. Also, the incident showed me that crime results for many reasons. Some is calculated but some is unplanned and a result of a lack of impulse control when under the influence. Obvious, perhaps, but the violence coming from even an unplanned criminal act was disturbing.

“After I viewed a photo lineup of six mug shots and I picked out the guy I saw, the detective interviewed me. I told him all the details I was sure of, and some that I qualified by saying I wasn’t as certain about. When the interview was over the detective told me, ‘you’re the best type of witness,’ even better than some of his rookie cops. If I’d ever had any doubts before this incident, his comments made me feel that writing books where amateur sleuths solve mysteries was really my calling.”

Learn more about Judith Gonda at judithgonda.com.

Elena Taylor is a former playwright and director, and the author of the Eddie Shoes mysteries under the name Elena Hartwell. All We Buried is the first book in the Sheriff Bet Rivers Mystery series.

Facing challenges

“The things that matter most to me are primarily about the natural world,” Elena said. “I love animals and the beauty of our environment. Nature doesn’t have a moral compass. It has what survives and what doesn’t survive. I’m also fascinated by human behavior. The things that make us tick and why we do the things we do. My writing, especially in this book, is a lot about characters faced with challenges and how they overcome them, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. I like to think that people have more in common with each other than not.”

Elena also said that All We Buried is about exploring the human condition. “My protagonist, Elizabeth ‘Bet’ Rivers, has a vision for her future, that’s interrupted by life events. The book, in part, explores how she faces this disruption in her plans. I think we all have experienced major setbacks and unexpected pitfalls in our lives, so watching how another person faces, struggles with, and ultimately comes out on the other side of a big challenge with more self-knowledge, is something we can all relate to.”

While Elena was editing All We Buried, her life suddenly changed. “I had written this book about a daughter dealing with her father’s death, when my own father died. There have been numerous times in my writing life, when the real world has collided with a project I’m working on, but this was the most personal of those experiences. I like to think that while not every character will resonate with every reader, there are enough stories here that are universal for everyone to be represented. It’s a reminder that writers merely tap into the collective unconscious.”

Lakes, rumors, and sunken trains

“I used to live in a neighborhood called Newcastle, just south of Bellevue, Washington. There’s a lake there that I heard rumors had a train engine sitting on the bottom. I started to think about all the things that could be hidden in the depths of dark lakes. The Pacific Northwest is riddled with holes dug in the ground by miners digging for coal. Those two images, the train engine rusting on the bottom of a deep lake and the holes in the earth got me thinking about how we bury things, such as secrets . . . and dead bodies!”

Elena couldn’t exactly start checking all of the Washington lakes for sunken trains, but she has done her fair share of research. She loves interviewing people and said she likes to learn from experts about the minutiae of their vocations and avocations. Interviews, however, don’t measure up to some other experiences.

“I would probably say riding in a fire truck with a group of really good-looking fire fighters on the way to a call was my favorite bit of research. I even got to wear my own headset and was able to observe the complete event. The other event that comes to mind was a recent visit to the shooting range with Adventure Protection, a group in Western Washington, that teaches women gun safety and shooting skills. I learned more about guns, gun safety, and my own ability to hit a bulls-eye than I have gained in years of reading about weapons. Plus, they are now my go-to for random questions about guns.”

Learn more about Elena Taylor at elenataylorauthor.com.

Shelly Frome is professor of dramatic arts emeritus at the University of Connecticut, a former professional actor, and a writer. Miranda and the D-Day Caper is an unusual entry in the cozy mystery genre because it’s intended to be a standalone novel.

The rise of the tribe

Shelly said that Miranda and the D-Day Caper grew from a frustration with the current divisions within our society that have been driven by political factions. “We’ve gotten to the point where everything seems to be tribal nowadays. You’re either for the leader of the party, especially is he’s the president, or not. If you’re a member of congress, you go along out of fear you’ll be ostracized and lose your seat. Everything can be justified no matter how outlandish. If not justified, then deflected. There’s even a lady counselor to the current commander in chief who came up with the ultimate deflection she calls ‘alternative facts.’”

A creative writing instructor once told Shelly that the best way to write a novel was to try not to write. He said, “When you wake up in the middle of the night screaming, ‘Okay, I give, I can’t take it anymore!’ that’s when you’re ready to begin. And that’s exactly what happened to me at a certain point listening to the news about the current administration.”

So, with tribalism dominating the headlines each day, Shelly felt a nostalgic pull. “I missed the days gone by especially in the Heartland when notions like fairness, truth and decency were watchwords across the land. I began having daydreams about two cousins in a small town in Indiana-a young tomboy and her whimsical, older male cousin who used to play games, engaging in pretend reconnaissance maneuvers from WW II, sneaking up on a big Halloween do on the mansion on the hill. The dynamic of these cousins today began to intrigue me, unwittingly going up against some dire right-wing conspiracy involving congress, the odds completely against them.”

A love of storytelling

“I’m an incurable storyteller, a professor emeritus of dramatic arts, a former starving actor in New York, and I used to listen to Jean Shepherd’s anecdotes out of WOR radio from New York about his ventures. Especially the ones as a kid in his little home town in Indiana, like the tale about a Red Ryder B-B gun that was made into a beloved movie that’s shown on TV every Christmas.”

Storytellers draw on many different events in their lives. Often, they don’t even realize this is happening. For instance, one summer, Shelly was, as he put it, “traipsing through the prickers and brambles at the end of Tubby Bottom Road in northern Mississippi.” He said, “I came across broken limbs like piercing pitch folks blocking my way. I was later told I had stumbled onto Wolf Creek, close to the sight of a Civil War skirmish where a parcel of Yankee soldiers had also lost their way and were ambushed by a squad of rebel soldiers. I didn’t know it at the time, but that incident was one of the catalysts for Twilight of the Drifter.”

Learn more about Shelly Frome on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorShellyFrome.

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