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Behind the story of A Sprinkling of Murder by Daryl Wood Gerber

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Daryl Wood Gerber is not only an Agatha Award-winning author, but also worked as an actress. She even had a role in Murder, She Wrote. Daryl writes the nationally bestselling Cookbook Nook Mysteries as well as the French Bistro Mysteries. Her new series, the Fairy Garden Mysteries, debuts with A Sprinkling of Murder.

It began at the Renaissance Faire

Daryl said the idea for the Fairy Garden Mysteries came to her after she went to a Renaissance Faire and saw a few fairy gardens. “I fell in love with the art. So I set about learning how to make them. I love to garden, but I no longer have the time to do huge gardening projects. Making a small fairy garden seemed the perfect answer to me. I visited a store in Tustin, CA, which was filled with whimsical creations and I felt a need to be creative, myself. As I was making my first one, I thought, wouldn’t this be a sweet theme for a mystery series?”
At first, Daryl wasn’t sure the idea would sell. The genre was a blend of fantasy and mystery and no one had written about a fairy sidekick. “The more I thought about it,” Darly said, “the more the world of fairies filled my mind. How would they talk? How would they act? When Fiona flitted into my mental sphere, I knew I had to write her story. Of course, the protagonist is Courtney, who lost the ability to see fairies when she was young, and now she needs to open her imagination to the possibility that they do exist.”

Believers vs. Non-believers

As an adult, we’re predisposed to stop believing in certain things. Daryl said, “Non-believers can be caustic. Why? Because something doesn’t fit into their mold of what life is supposed to be. In the story, there are fairies and the fairies speak and help with the mystery. Are there real fairies in life? One has to wonder. But the issue of so many in the town not believing and having a bias against Courtney, the protagonist, and her shop itself, poses a problem. People can be mean. Vindictive. One woman wants to close the place down for good. And yet another wants to see a fairy. Therefore, the push and pull of the community comes to bear, you know? What is real? What is fantasy? Who’s to say that one is right or wrong for believing?”

The long road to publication

“I love to entertain,” Daryl said. “It gives me purpose. It’s the main reason why I write. I want my readers to get lost in the world I create, if only for a day or two of reading. I think everyone needs a place to escape, and I like to provide that for my readers. Heck, I need that, too. It’s why I love to read. So if I can provide that moment of peace, relief, and wonder for readers, I’ve done my job on earth.”

The fact is, it took Daryl a long time before she could entertain readers with her work. She wrote for years before being published and said the rejection was heartbreaking. “Over and over, I received responses from agents like, ‘I love this, but I can’t sell it. Can you write another?’ As if writing another was as easy as making a pie. It’s not. But I did. I wrote another book. And another. I couldn’t pin down what I was doing ‘wrong,’ but my work wasn’t resonating. I was about to give up, but I persevered, because in high school I was given the ‘most persevering’ award – not sure why, then, but I sure know why now. LOL Along the way, an agent who did like my work (but couldn’t sell it) asked if I could write something ‘on spec.’ The publisher had come up with the idea for a cheese shop cozy mystery. I said I could, and I did, and they bought it, and I became a published writer. It took ten years to be an instant success. So to all those writers who have not yet been sold, don’t give up. Persevere. If you don’t know why you’re not selling, ask blunt questions of your critique group or agent. Be flexible. Be willing to change. Be willing to write to the market. But persevere.

You tasted how many cheeses?

“When I was writing the Cheese Shop Mysteries, I tasted over 1,000 cheeses. That was truly enjoyable. Now that I’m writing the Fairy Garden Mysteries, I’ve made over thirty fairy gardens. I have so much fun making them and tending to them. I go into my garden and I smile. My kids make fun of me. They think I’m slightly addicted. I probably am. But, hey, I have fairies in my garden. And butterflies. And hummingbirds. And whimsy. I adore whimsy.”

Learn more about Daryl Wood Gerber on her website at darylwoodgerber.com.

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Couples who solve mystery by Maggie Toussaint

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Couples who solve mystery
By Maggie Toussaint

DreamedIt Cov Official smallerThe Dreamwalker Mystery Series has a female protagonist, Baxley Powell. She uses her psychic talents to direct the deputies to real evidence to help solve crimes. She is a highly effective crime consultant.

Baxley is also a single mom and only 28 years old. Her Special Forces husband disappeared and then, after years of searching for him, his whereabouts became known, only he wasn’t alive in the traditional sense. Needless to say, he moved into the light, and Baxley became a widow.

The handsome Native American deputy she meets in the mountains while on vacation catches her eye, though she swears she wasn’t looking for a guy. Deputy Sam Mayes feels a soul-deep connection with Baxley as soon as he meets her and encourages her to think about him in a non-professional light.

Their tentative relationship is fraught with peril. For starters they live in opposite ends of the state and have strong ties to their communities. Mayes is being groomed for the sheriff’s spot in his home county, as his sheriff plans to run for governor, as well as tribal leadership. Baxley can’t leave Sinclair County because she’s the Dreamwalker. Ay-yi-yi.

Sam Mayes isn’t one to walk away from a challenge. Baxley is his dream woman in every sense of the word. He keeps the pressure up, visiting Baxley, solving crimes with her and her sheriff, fixing her when she depletes her energy, and generally immersing himself in her life.

Baxley tries to use logic to protect her heart, but it’s too late. They are a couple long before she realizes it. She’s also in love with Mayes.

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But does a relationship this serious belong in a mystery novel? My answer is why not? In addition to solving the puzzle of whodunnit, the push-pull of Baxley and Mayes’ relationship adds conflict and characterization opportunities.

Will Mayes win her hand? You’ll have to read DREAMED IT to find out.

What do you think about couples who solve crimes together? Yay or Nay?

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Behind the story of Gore in the Garden

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Gore 1Colleen J. Shogan is a political scientist by training. She’s also been reading mysteries most of her life. Her first book won the Next Generation Indie Prize for Best Mystery and other have been RONE and Killer Nashville finalists in the mystery category. 

The United States Botanic Garden looms as inspiration

“I’d always toyed with the idea of setting a book at the United States Botanic Garden but I wasn’t quite sure about the plot,” Colleen said. “One day, I visited during my lunch break. As I was walking along the path inside the main solarium, I saw the nameplate of a plant: Ficus Aurea. It’s also known as the ‘Strangler Fig.’ I knew I had to write my next book at the Botanic Garden; the plot had now almost written itself!”

Colleen also said that she’d visited the Botanic Garden on Capitol Hill for years. “That being said, I also always thought it was a slightly creepy place, with looming plants, eerie silence, and lots of inconspicuous nooks and crannies. I read a great deal about the famous, rare corpse flower and its bloom at the Botanic Garden. With a plant like the corpse flower, how couldn’t I set a mystery there?”

Trust in government

“The  Washington Whodunit series addresses the issue of trust in government,” Colleen said. “Public opinion approval ratings of Congress are quite low these days, with many Americans believing that Washington, D.C. is a place where politicians come to get rich and take advantage of the system. I provide a different perspective in my books. I don’t sugarcoat the reality of living and working inside our nation’s capital, but I also try to show there are well-intentioned, hardworking public servants on Capitol Hill. In other words, I write about the side of Washington that doesn’t garner much attention from political reporters or Twitter. There are layers behind every politician and reasons for why they behave the ways in which they do. In subtle ways that don’t ruin the mystery, I uncover those stories.”

Colleen has worked on Capitol Hill in a variety of different jobs for the past fourteen years. She knows the setting well and tries to describe it as accurately as possible. “My books provide some fun facts and historical education, as well as entertain with the mystery. My day job is at the Library of Congress and I am lucky enough to be in a position where I can experience a lot of what Capitol Hill and D.C. has to offer, such as exploring venues like the National Archives and the Smithsonian. These places often show up in my books, which provides more flavor and an insider treat for curious readers.”

Colleen shogunIn the name of research…

“When I was writing the fourth book in my series, K Street Killing, I wanted to investigate a rooftop setting for a major scene. But the iconic rooftop I had in mind isn’t open to the general public. Instead, it’s reserved for special occasions, rentals, fundraisers, weddings, or other high-profile events. After my husband and I had dinner in the restaurant on the first floor, I told our waiter a small white lie, explaining that I might want to host a major event on the rooftop. We were quickly ushered to the roof, where I got to walk around and ask all the questions I wanted. Of course, it wasn’t for an actual event. Instead, it was for staging a fictitious murder!”

Learn more about Colleen Shogan at colleenshogan.com.

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Review of Prisoner in the Castle by Susan Elia MacNeal

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prisoner in the castleFrom the publisher of Prisoner in the Castle

World War II is raging, and former spy Maggie Hope knows too much.

She knows what the British government is willing to do to keep its secrets.

She knows the real location of the planned invasion of France.

She knows who’s lying. She knows who the double-crossers are. She knows exactly who is sending agents to their deaths.

These are the reasons Maggie is isolated on a remote Scottish island, in a prison known as Killoch Castle, out of contact with friends and family.

Then one of her fellow inmates drops dead in the middle of his after-dinner drink—and he’s only the first. As victims fall one by one, Maggie will have to call upon all her wits and skills to escape—not just certain death . . . but certain murder.

For what’s the most important thing Maggie Hope knows?

She must survive.

My review

The Prisoner in the Castle brings home the terror that anyone would feel if they were imprisoned on an island and a killer was on the loose. 

The characters were a quirky lot, but also felt real, and normal. Of course, that was the point of the Special Operations Executive, to see what ordinary people could do under extraordinary circumstances. The setting was also described well and felt appropriately depressing. Especially the castle. Yeesh! 

In this Maggie Hope adventure, we see the SOE premise brought home fully as we experience the systematic elimination of British spies gone astray. Will Maggie rise to this latest challenge?

At times, Maggie’s internal dialogue felt repetitive, but overall this was a good read. There’s a nice balance of action and twists to keep the story moving. This one will keep you turning the pages to see how—or if—Maggie Hope survives.

Behind the story of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Disappearing Diva

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Before becoming a New York Times Best-selling author, Gemma Halliday went through a number of careers. According to her website, she’s been a film and television actress, a teddy bear importer, a department store administrator, a preschool teacher, a temporary tattoo artist, and a 900 number psychic. These days, Gemma has found her niche—writing mysteries. Here’s the story behind her latest, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Disappearing Diva.

The classics

“I grew up reading mystery classics such as the Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, so the idea for the Marty Hudson Mysteries came directly from those. I really liked the idea of bringing about a female-driven, modern take on the legend of Sherlock Holmes. It was very important to me that women be the main protagonists in the story, so I began combing some of the Sherlock Holmes literature for some of the lesser-known female characters that might make interesting subjects of the new series. Turns out, there really aren’t that many important female characters in this series! The most prominent one was probably Irene Adler.

“In the original Sherlock Holmes stories, Irene Adler is portrayed somewhat as the ‘one who got away’ and the only woman Sherlock Holmes ever really loved. She was the one woman he saw as an intellectual equal. In our version of the Sherlock legend, Irene Adler is not only beautiful and intelligent—being a computer prodigy who began her career by hacking into the Pentagon as a child—but she’s also fun, fashionable, and never takes no for an answer. Irene plays the sidekick to our main character, Marty Hudson, who is very loosely based on Sherlock Holmes’ long-suffering landlady at 221 Baker St. in the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle versions.

“In our world, Marty Hudson inherits a dilapidated Victorian at 221 Baker St.—in modern-day San Francisco, not Victorian England—and she struggles to rehabilitate the old home on her salary as a barista at the Stanford University Bookstore Café. One perk of working at Stanford? Marty has access to crash as many lectures and classes as she possibly can, gaining her an eclectic knowledge base that leads to many ‘Sherlockian’ moments throughout the series.”

Girl power

“I write for readers not for myself. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as an author is that you have to know who your audience is. If I’m speaking in a language that no one around me understands, I haven’t got a prayer of getting my message across to anyone. But if I listen to my readers and understand what it is they want to hear, I can get my message out loud and clear.”

With that mantra as her guiding principle, Gemma says most of her books have a very clear theme of “girl power.”

“Many of my characters reflect my own personality in that they are very girly, they love dressing up in pretty clothes, shoes, and jewelry, and embrace their feminine sides completely. But men should never mistake their girliness for weakness. I’m a firm believer in the idea that a woman can wear a fabulously adorable pink outfit and still be a boss in the boardroom. I think a lot of times in society, and in literature as well, women are either portrayed as strong or girly. In my books I try to portray women who can be both. You will find a lot of beautiful, bubbly, fabulously dressed, incredibly intelligent women in my stories. And while they have a healthy appreciation for the men in their lives, none of them rely on those men to take care of them or ‘save them’ from any of the difficult situations they may encounter.”

The partnership

Gemma said her favorite thing about writing the Marty Hudson Mysteries is working with her co-author, Kelly Rey. “While a lot of the plotting and mystery elements in the book are things I like to do, Kelly has an absolute knack for writing hilarious scenes and quirky characters. So many times while I was working on this book I found myself laughing out loud at something that Kelly had written. I feel so fortunate to have a job where my days are infused with laughter like that!”

At one point, Gemma and Kelly were trying to figure out exactly how their victim should meet her demise. Gemma said, “Kelly had already written some really wonderful scenes that I wanted to keep in the book, however we had written ourselves into a corner with how we would work in the actual way our victim had been killed with those existing scenes. As my family can tell you, I probably sounded like a crazy woman walking around my house for three days muttering to myself, ‘How am I going to kill her?’ I can only hope that ‘Alexa’ never records any of the conversations in my house. If she did, the police would for sure be at my front door!”

Learn more about Gemma Halliday or Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Disappearing Diva at gemmahalliday.com.

Book & a Latte Contest

What: This month, Gemma is giving away one Kindle copy of “Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Brash Blonde” and I’m adding a $5.00 Starbucks gift card. One random entry will be chosen as the winner. The winner will receive a book and a gift card.

How to enter: Choose one or more of the options below. Each option gives you an additional chance to win.

Who can enter: This contest is only open to continental US residents over 18 years of age.

Winners: Selected winners must claim prizes within 72 hours of notification. Verification of entries: All winning entries are subject to verification.

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Behind the story of A Cajun Christmas Killing by Ellen Byron

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A Cajun Christmas Killing by Ellen ByronEllen Byron’s second novel in the Cajun Country Mysteries series won a Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery. Her debut book in the series was a USA Today Bestseller and was nominated for multiple awards. Her latest book in the series, A Cajun Christmas Killing, takes us to Louisiana for the holidays.

How A Cajun Christmas Killing began

Byron said A Cajun Christmas Killing grew out of the tradition in several parishes north of New Orleans called Bonfires on the Levee. “Participants build giant bonfires that they light on fire Christmas Eve amidst much partying and fanfare. There are many theories about the origin of this tradition, but now locals like to say that the bonfires exist to light the way up the Mississippi River for Papa Noel so he can find his way to all the Cajun children’s homes.

“I’ve always been fascinated by this uniquely Louisiana tradition and thought it would provide a great entrée into one of my Cajun Country Mystery books. I got to experience it myself with my family in 2015. A storm threatened to postpone the event, but luckily for us it went on, even under a gentle rain. I’ll never forget the sights, sounds and smells of that evening – all of which you’ll find in A Cajun Christmas Killing.”

Beneath a plot that moves quickly and offers up plenty of quirky characters, there’s actually a bit of what Byron likes to call stealth social commentary. “What I mean by this is that I’m very subtly addressing an issue. In this case, I actually address two issues: racism and anti-Semitism. Ione Savreau, a black co-worker and friend of my protagonist Maggie Crozat, is demoted as general manager of the historic site, Doucet Plantation. She’s replaced by Tannis Greer, who’s young, blonde and white. When a man is found murdered in the plantation’s manor house, Tannis immediately points a finger at Ione.

“As to addressing anti-Semitism, Emme Harmon, the widow of the murder victim, is an upscale native New Orleanian from a family with storied Southern genealogy. She’s in love with the victim’s brother, a practicing Jew, which horrifies her bigoted old-school mother and brother. I believe my readers will root for Ione’s vindication and Emme’s happiness. In doing so, they’ll be striking a blow against racism and anti-Semitism, possibly without even realizing it.”

A Cajun Christmas Killing by Ellen ByronBooks are best

Byron feels she’s had a wonderful career as a writer. She’s had plays published and produced, published hundreds of magazine articles in national publications, and has written many hours of television shows along with a TV writing partner. With all that success, she still feels books are best. “I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun than I’ve had writing mysteries and being accepted into this most generous community. And I’m eternally grateful to everyone who reads my books.”

Ellen Byron Contest Code: #CajunHoliday

In fact, Byron must enjoy writing books immensely because she wrote A Cajun Christmas Killing while working a full-time job writing animation for Nickelodeon and parenting a teenager. “I’d drive my daughter to school at 7 a.m. for a zero period class, come home and write for a couple of hours, go work a full day as a different kind of writer, then come home and work on the book some more. I’m not kidding when I say some of the craziest typos of my career were in that first draft. There were sentences that seemed to be written by a delirious person or someone on drugs.”

Differences between TV and books

While writing books is a very solitary profession, working on TV is not. And where there are coworkers, there are opportunities for a little fun. Byron recalled one opportunity from her last season on the sitcom Wings. “Our bosses sold a series starring Jenny McCarthy to NBC. Jenny was famous for being a Playboy Playmate of the Year, and a calendar featuring sexy shots of her came out around Christmas of that year.

“As a joke present for our bosses, twelve of us women who worked on the show took one of the calendars and had our faces superimposed over hers. For example, my face—glasses, brown hair, and all — replaced Jenny’s in a provocative pose on a bearskin rug. Our bosses and fellow writers thought this was hilarious. Then we went on the set, where we were greeted by winks and the occasional whistle from some crew members — who thought we’d actually posed for the sexy shots in the calendar!”

Learn more about Ellen Byron and A Cajun Christmas Killing at ellenbyron.com.

Book & a Latte Contest

What: This month, Ellen is giving away one of three books. The winner may choose a hardcover copy of Plantation Shudders (first in series), a softcover copy of Body on the Bayou (second in series), or an e-book copy of “A Cajun Christmas Killing.” I’m adding a $5.00 Starbucks gift card. One random entry will be chosen as winner. Winner will receive a book and a gift card.

How to enter: Choose one or more of the options below. Each option gives you an additional chance to win.

Who can enter: This contest is open to anyone over 18 years of age. (Only e-book will be sent out of continental US.)

Winners: Selected winners must claim prizes within 72 hours of notification. Verification of entries: All winning entries are subject to verification

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