Great Escapes Book Tours

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.

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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