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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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Behind the story of Grave Consequences by Lena Gregory

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Lena Gregory is the author of the Bay Island Psychic Mysteries and the All-Day Breakfast Café Mysteries. She works full time as a writer and a freelance editor. Grave Consequences is the fifth book in the Bay Island Psychic Mysteries series.

Do Ghosts Exist?

“Throughout my Bay Island Psychic Mystery series I questions whether or not ghosts exist,” Lena said. I have had several brushes with the paranormal during my life. My younger brother, who shared my love of reading, passed away before I wrote my first book, but I often feel his presence while I’m writing. When my youngest son was two years old, he was sitting with me while I was working and he pointed beside me and asked who the guy with the long hair was. My brother always wore his hair long, but my little guy wouldn’t have known that because he was only a few months old when Chris passed away.”
Lena added that on another occasion, she and her youngest child were walking through a deserted cemetery when he pointed to a locked storage building. “He said he wanted to go in there where the lady just went. We left in a hurry after that. Those incidents, along with several others, led me to believe something beyond this world does exist. My daughter is firmly in my camp on that. My husband, on the other hand, believes just as strongly that there’s no such thing as ghosts. A debate over that topic at dinner one night led to the idea for my Bay Island Psychic Mystery series. I thought it would be fun to have one character who firmly believes, one character who absolutely does not believe, and the main character caught somewhere in the middle.”

When she’s doing a blog tour or at Facebook parties, Lena likes to ask if people believe in ghosts. “I also like asking if people have the ability to communicate with them. I’ve had some wonderful conversations on the topic with both believers and non-believers.”

More than a mystery

“I have been an avid reader since I first learned how to read. The first books I can remember being obsessed with were the Nancy Drew Mysteries. I would wait patiently each time a new book released, and as soon as it came in the mail, I’d run outside and sit beneath a big tree and escape into their world until I’d finished it. I loved the mysteries, but I also loved the characters and couldn’t wait to catch up with everything new they were doing. When I started writing, that’s what I wanted to create; enjoyable mysteries with a cast of characters a reader would want to be friends with. People they’d look forward to catching up with each time a new book released. In both my Bay Island Psychic Mystery series and my All-Day Breakfast Café Mystery series, each character’s journey is just as important to me as the plot of each individual story, as is the friendship between the characters.”

When Lena first began writing, she didn’t own a computer, had never heard of Microsoft Word, and didn’t know how to use email. She wrote the first half of her first novel by hand in a loose-leaf notebook. “When my husband realized I was serious about writing, he bought me a computer and set it up for me, then showed me how to work the basics.
Lena, who considers herself technologically challenged, eventually learned the basics. Then, one of her friends taught her how to use Microsoft Word. “From there, I had to learn every step of the publishing process from scratch; querying, writing the dreaded synopsis, editing, proofreading, cover art forms, marketing. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with some amazing people who’ve been willing to help me along the way.”

Research can be tasty

“I’ve had a ton of fun researching my Bay Island Psychic series,” Lena said. “I’ve researched stones and crystals, haunted places, and psychic readings, along with things like how to kill someone with one blow. But my favorite memories in the name of research came with my All-Day Breakfast Café series. My father and I always made a habit of going out to breakfast together, and in researching that series, we enjoyed many breakfast dates sampling food that would later be featured in the All-Day Breakfast Café series.”

Learn more about Lena Gregory at lenagregory.com.

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Review: Snowed Under by Mary Feliz

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Snowed Under

FroImage005m the publisher of Snowed Under

When professional organizer Maggie McDonald finds a body in a snowdrift outside her friend’s ski cabin, she must plow through the clues to find a cold-blooded killer . . .

Lake Tahoe in February is beautiful, but Maggie can’t see a thing as she drives through a blinding blizzard with her friend Tess Olmos and their dogs, golden retriever Belle and German shepherd Mozart. Maggie has offered her professional decluttering skills to help Tess tidy up her late husband’s cabin in preparation to sell. She also plans to get in some skiing when her husband Max and their boys join them later in the week.

What she doesn’t plan on is finding a boot in a snowdrift attached to a corpse. The frozen stiff turns out to be Tess’s neighbor, Dev Bailey, who disappeared two months ago. His widow Leslie expresses grief, but Maggie can’t help but wonder if it’s a snow job. As more suspects start to pile up, things go downhill fast, and Maggie must keep her cool to solve the murder before the killer takes a powder . . .

My review of Snowed Under

There were plenty of things to like about Snowed Under. It’s chock full of good tidbits about dealing with winter in snow country. There’s plenty of action to offset the feeling that this is, in a sense, a type of locked room mystery.

Unfortunately, something about the story didn’t quite mesh for me. I didn’t connecte with Maggie. She’s a likable character, and I felt like I knew what was in her head, but never what was in her heart.

As for why the police would accept an amateur sleuth into a police investigation—well, that’s just part of the territory for cozy mysteries. And, true admissions time, the story held my interest until the killer was exposed. Partially because I never figured out who the killer was until Maggie put the pieces together.

Learn more about Snowed Under or Mary Feliz at maryfeliz.com

Behind the story of Lady Rosamund and the Poison Pen

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LADY ROSAMUND AND THE POISON PEN

She wrote her first story at eight-years-old. It was about apple tree gnomes. Barbara Monajem has come a long way since then and is now an award-winning author. Lady Rosamund and the Poison Pen is the first book in the Rose and McBrae Mystery series.

Historically correct

Barbara said Lady Rosamund and the Poison Pen started with a feeling that political correctness was not working in today’s society. “No matter how well-intentioned it was at first, it ended up covering up prejudices rather than getting rid of them. Instead of lip service, genuine change in the hearts of people is required.”

Because Barbara writes Regency Romances, she was familiar with writing in a historical setting. “I decided to write about a character who is quite un-PC by today’s standards, but was quite normal by the standards of England in 1811, and show how she changes and grows…and how she blunders, sometimes unforgivably. All this while she’s solving mysteries, of course. Lady Rosamund’s process of change is similar to what people must go through now, but many of the prejudices are different.”

Changing places

It was quite a challenge to put myself into the mind of an aristocratic lady from two hundred years ago. ‘Being’ her—writing from such an intimate point of view—was sometimes a bit scary, as it led to close examination of my own prejudices. Which attitudes from my childhood led to certain patterns of thought, and how have they changed? Did I really used to think like this or that? Why was it sometimes so easy to understand and predict Lady Rosamund’s thoughts and reactions, and sometimes so difficult?”

She got her man

I always ask writers what kinds of research they do. Barbara wasn’t actually researching her book when she surprised herself. “I didn’t plan this, but it just happened. On a trip to Scotland, I found the hero for my series! He was a waiter on the Isle of Skye – a young man with a twinkle in his eye – and I thought, wow! He’s just what I imagine Lady Rosamund’s friend, Mr. McBrae, would be like. This is unusual for me. I rarely have more than a vague idea of what my characters look like. It’s sort of fun to have a real mental image this time.”

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Stranger than Fiction by Janet Finsilver

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Stranger than Fiction
Janet Finsilver

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Sometimes real life can be stranger than fiction. People often ask me where I get my ideas for my books. I’m always on the lookout for interesting articles in the news. However, sometimes I run across stories that are difficult to believe even though they’re true. They are tempting to put in my books, but I choose not to. With this in mind, I’d like to give you an example.

Our local paper had a front page story about plant poaching. This was something I’d never heard of, and it caught my attention. It sounded like a topic that might be good for one of my books. A major investigation was started by the California Department of Fish and Game after an anonymous phone call was received by one of their wardens.

The caller was a woman who had been standing in a long line at a post office. The man in front of her had a large stack of packages he was shipping to China. She asked what he was shipping. He put his fingers to his lips and whispered it was something very valuable. Then she asked where he got them. He responded by pointing toward the ocean. She became suspicious and called the California Department of Fish and Game about what she’d experienced but didn’t leave her name.

Janet Finsilver

The warden who received the anonymous call alerted US Customs and Border Protection. The package was x-rayed, and they discovered Dudleya farinosa, a small succulent found along the coast. The part I put in the “stranger than fiction” category is the fact that this man let a stranger know something about what he was doing that was illegal. I think in a mystery story, many people would feel like that was a very convenient way for information to be revealed—too convenient. But, there you have it. It’s a true story.

With a higher awareness after this discovery, authorities found more and more poachers. The plants were being uprooted by the thousands. They have become popular in a number of countries. Officials have said they sell for approximately fifty dollars each or more depending on the age and size of the plant in countries like South Korea, China, and Japan.

The plant is a small pale green succulent, often with edges or tips in bright colors. Its leaves form a rosette pattern. When they bloom, they have a tall stem with a cluster of bright yellow flowers. The plant is native to the coasts of Oregon and California and are found on the bluffs in these areas. It is sometimes called bluff lettuce or powdery liveforever.

Volunteers from the poached areas have organized to help replant the recovered smuggled plants. They sort them into piles of ones that can be go back in the ground right away and others that will need more tender care for a while. Meanwhile, officials will continue to be vigilant about identifying and arresting poachers, and reclaiming the plants.

Plant poaching is part of the plot in Murder in the Wine Country. I thought it was an interesting piece to include as it was so unusual. While my research says plant poaching has been going on in a number of places and with different plants for a while, nothing indicated there had been anything the magnitude of what was found in California until this was exposed.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this piece about plant poaching. It was all news to me!

Learn more about Janet Finsilver at janetfinsilver.com

Behind the story of No Filter by Heather Day Gilbert

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No filter fb size

Heather Day Gilbert is an award winning author who writes contemporary mysteries and Viking historicals. Her novels feature small towns, family relationships, and women who aren’t afraid to protect those they love. No Filter is the first in her Barks & Beans Cafe Mystery series.

A new type of cafe

“It was important to me to set No Filter in small-town West Virginia,” Heather said. “It’s actually set in Lewisburg, a well-known town not far from me. West Virginia gets some bad press (ever heard those hillbilly jokes?), so it’s important to me to portray my home state as it truly is. Yes, the drug epidemic is mentioned because it’s literally everywhere in my state, but I tend to focus on the strong family and community bonds you’ll find here, not to mention the beautiful mountainous landscape and unique tourism opportunities, like the Greenbrier Resort.”

Heather loved the idea of a cafe where customers could pet shelter dogs, hopefully leading to pet adoptions. She said, “Lewisburg seemed the ideal quaint town for such a cafe. My husband and I have visited it many times, and we always enjoy researching the locale. I already have quite a few West Virginia readers who enjoy my Christian mystery series (A Murder in the Mountains) that’s set here, and many of them have contacted me to tell me they’ve been to Lewisburg and they’re looking forward to the Barks & Beans Cafe cozy series, too.”

Keeping it clean and unpredictable

Heather said that because she grew up reading Agatha Christie books, she believes it’s important for her to write mysteries with unpredictable twists. She said, “Sometimes, they’re even unpredictable to me! I tend to get reviews saying that readers never saw the killer coming, and those reviews make me feel I’m doing something right. Books that surprise me in some way while portraying realistic family relationships always stick with me, so that’s what I strive to write. I also write clean mysteries, so there’s no swearing or graphic scenes because I want books my kids and teen nieces can read.”

HeatherdaygilbertwoodsThe big dog problem

Heather decided to feature a Great Dane in this series, and that was a challenge. “I definitely had to do my research as far as Great Danes. I’ve talked to Great Dane owners, and I even re-watched The Ugly Dachshund to make sure I was capturing this dog the right way. I’ve had a large dog—she was a 115-pound Shiloh Shepherd—but Great Danes are something else entirely.”

You did what?

Some writers like to do their research online, or talking to people, or other sane things. Heather prefers her research to be more…personal. “I’ve had my daughter close me in the trunk of a car to check how dark it was and if I could see anything. I’ve also had my kids duct tape my hands in front of me to see if I could break the tape (I did, using a method I watched on YouTube). Most enjoyable would be going shooting with my husband for research, as well as staying overnight at the Greenbrier Resort for an anniversary so I could write about it properly.”

Learn more about Heather at heatherdaygilbert.com

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