Interviews

I’m thrilled to welcome Susanna Calkins as today’s featured author. Susanna’s historical mysteries include the Lucy Campion Mysteries, of which book seven, Death Among the Ruins, just hit shelves last week.

In our interview, Susanna and I talk all things history, research, and mystery plotting. Read on to learn more.

Connect with Susanna on Facebook, Twitter, and her website. Grab a copy of Death Among the Ruins from your favorite retailer here.

Hi Susanna, thanks so much for joining! Death Among the Ruins is book 7 in your Lucy Campion series, in which a chambermaid-turned-printer’s apprentice solves crimes in seventeenth-century London. What do you love about Lucy’s character? When you started this series in 2013, did you envision her character developing in the way it did?

Thank you so much for having me! While my first book featuring Lucy—A Murder at Rosamund’s Gate—was published in 2013, I had actually started envisioning her character about 15 years earlier. I had started writing that novel when I was still in graduate school, working on my dissertation in early modern English history. Lucy was originally a chambermaid, serving in the household of the local magistrate, which gave her a lot of ways to eavesdrop, find clues, and travel under the radar. (As a servant, she might be sent to the market and did not need anyone to chaperone her, as a woman of a higher social status would have required. So she had a lot of access and ability to search for important information).

However, when I had thought I was only writing one novel, but then I was offered a two-book contract, so I had to start thinking about how to develop her character. Circumstances changed after the plague and Great Fire of London, and Lucy no longer had a mistress to serve in the house. So she ended up becoming a printer’s apprentice, because they were short-handed following all the upheaval. Even though women could not truly enter the guild at this time, I wanted her to be someone who could continue to develop herself. She had taught herself to read and write, and I wanted her to be someone who could continue to move about the world as a bookseller, getting and sharing news with others. 

Your other historical mystery series, the Speakeasy Murders, is set in 1920s Chicago. How does writing this historical series compare with your Lucy Campion books? What do you love about each time period, and/or what about each do you find most difficult to write?

Both periods represented different types of challenges, as well as rewarding moments, when I did my research. Having completed my PhD in early modern English history, I felt very comfortable writing about 17th century London (even though I still had to look up so many details about daily life). And yet, I found that period to be less “lived” than 1920s Chicago. When I first moved to Chicago, I was really surprised by how Prohibition was still such a thing in the region . . . Every local I met seemed to have a story. (“My grandfather used to cut Al Capone’s hair,” or “My grandparents were rumrunners out of Lake Michigan.”) I can walk the neighborhoods that I write about in my books, and there is still so much from the era that is intact. It is easy to shut my eyes and imagine what it all was like, which made the research very fun for me. At the same time, I didn’t have the deep knowledge, and still don’t, of US history and Chicago specifically (even though I’ve taught American history for many years), so I’ve had to spend a lot of time reading and learning. But I can watch movies from the period, listen to music from the era, even do cocktail research—which makes everything sparkle! 

You have a PhD in history, and work at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. How do your job and academic background influence your fiction writing? Other than the obvious historical connections, are there any interesting or surprising overlaps between the two?

Even though I have a PhD in history, and still taught some history classes over the last two decades, I moved more fully into areas of social science, education, and educational research. My fiction is very much driven by questions—Why did that happen? How did it happen?—and if I don’t know the answer, then I seek to create a plausible explanation through my novels. I love being surrounded by smart, motivated people! When I worked at Northwestern University and now at RFUMS, I was able to ask colleagues about weird medical questions,  about corpses, murder, poison, and anything else. They never batted an eye, and would help me figure out plot points and clues, which was incredibly helpful. And in general, it’s super helpful to me to have other things besides my writing to focus on. During the weekends, I might switch between novel writing, to writing an academic journal article, and I think the creative and critical thinking blend very well.

What’s your approach to writing a mystery? Are you a planner, or do you let the mystery develop as you write? Are there any aspects of mystery that are particularly exciting or challenging for you?

I’ve published nine novels now, and I can honestly say that I did not approach any of them the exact same way. My first novel took me about ten years to write, and I just jumped all over the place, just writing scenes I felt like writing, without any sense of chronological development (which is wild to me now). But when I had written about 200 pages, I started thinking I needed to stop describing the impact of the main murder on the community and figure out who the murderer was. When you write a whodunnit, the author should probably know whodunnit!

After that, I usually worked out the answers to three questions: (1) Who is murdered? (2) Who murdered them and why? (3) Why should my sleuth care? After I have the answers to that question, I start thinking about interesting objects or events I’ve come across in my research, and I think about whether that would be an interesting plot point. and then after I do a combination of concept mapping and drawing out my scenes as  I go, so I can sort of figure out how things happen and what might need to happen next. This process usually, but not always, keeps me from writing myself into a corner. I call it “plopantsing” or throwing words in the air and catching them on paper.

Lastly, what are you currently working on? When can we expect more mysteries with Lucy, and/or do you have anything else in the works?

Although I love writing about Lucy, I’m taking a break for a while to work on some new projects. I have a historical mystery set in 1930s Chicago that will be a standalone, which I’m about to send to my agent to pitch. After that I’m developing another series, also set in 1930s Chicago, which I’m super excited about. It will be different from other things I’ve written, so stay tuned!  Thank you so much for having me!

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Thanks so much to Susanna for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

Today’s issue features author Emily J. Edwards! Emily’s A Girl Friday series is a nod to noir: in 1950, secretary-turned-investigator Viviana Valentine, solves crimes in New York City.

Book two, Viviana Valentine Goes Up the River, is out now. In today’s interview, I chat with Emily about 1950s misconceptions, historical research, her bookish podcast, and more.

Connect with Emily on Instagram, Twitter, and her website. Subscribe to her newsletter here. Grab a copy of Viviana Valentine Goes Up the River from your favorite retailer here.

Hi Emily, thanks for joining! Viviana Valentine Goes Up the River is book two in your Girl Friday Mystery series, which stars an intrepid secretary-turned-investigator in post-World War II New York. What inspired Viviana’s character and the noir theme for the series? Are there any mystery books or authors that influenced your writing in particular?

So much of what defines noir is the cynicism of the text—and I think I was really feeling that with all the talk of “the way things were.” Can’t we go back to the 1950s?” is an incredibly disturbing question to ask; while most people who ask it are desperate for the candy-colored illustrations of homemaker magazines or fuzzy memories of parents and grandparents, I wanted to show, in a way, how awful the 1950s were. Not only were they not even remotely as modern as people think they were (I implore people to realize Mad Men’s timeline began in 1960, not the 1950s), but the myth of promise was just that—a myth. People were still reeling from the war. Nothing was sorted out. If anything, the legacy of the American mid century should be one of absolute dysfunction.

The movies and works of the actual time period spoke to me, of course, but I was also inspired by 1970s reminisces of the genre as well—there’s a fair amount of playfulness in the books, and that was all inspired by Neil Simon’s The Cheap Detective. Because I may be cynical, but I show it through comedy, not tragedy.

With the series set in 1950, what kind of historical research did you do for the books? What challenges did you face when writing for this time period? Can you share some interesting details that you’ve learned?

Like most people, I started out with a much, much more modern idea of what 1950 meant. In my mind, 1950 was much cleaner, better organized, and shinier than what it actually was. A huge source of information for me was the Library of Congress website, where you can find extensive image libraries of American life. I pride myself on writing a great sense of place, so I needed to know how Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, and Manhattan at large looked in actual reality. And man, it was not great. There was a lot more trash on the street, buildings falling down, things felt extremely old—there was no desire to restore as there is today. This was also the time period in which Robert Moses began really going to town on the city—there was more destruction than there was construction.

The most difficult part of writing an historical novel is to remove words from your vocabulary that just simply didn’t exist back then—and this is where you’ll find my occasional anachronisms. I can and do look up stock paint colors available on every car I mention in the text, but in book two, I had a total brain fart and used the term ZIP code. Guess what? Didn’t exist until the 1960s. There were postal codes. But not ZIP codes. (I corrected the goof for the paperback.)

I’d also love to hear more about your podcast, F***bois of Literature, which discusses some of the most infuriating characters in literature. What do you love about hosting this podcast? What characters were you particularly excited to pick apart, and/or who do you want to discuss in the future?

Oh, thank you so much for bringing this up! I’ve been hosting the show since 2019 and I have never learned more about reading and books. I won’t say that I necessarily learned more about literature, as I rarely go into the types of history seminars go into, but I learned about people and my own incredible biases. It’s gotten me to confront a lot of my own judgments and feelings about things—addiction, sex, tourism. It runs the whole gamut. I was extremely lucky to have Esmé Weijun Wang on to discuss Lolita, which was challenging, and certainly, our discussion of Jane Eyre is a perennial favorite (guess what: Viviana Valentine is no little bird). There are two wildly different books I have been begging people to choose to talk about, but no dice yet: Tartuffe by Molière and The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. I’ll leave you to ponder about those choices, for sure.

The series’ setting—New York City in 1950—offers a gritty, noir backdrop to the mysteries. Why did you pick New York as the setting for these books? Is there another city, or even another historical time period, that you’d also love to write in?

I grew up right outside of the city, and literally everyone in my family for three generations was born there (me, my parents, and all of my grandparents). The great-grandparents were all Ellis Island immigrants, and one of the things that spoke to me the most about New York was that it was one of the last northern cities to desegregate (yup, it was really racist!), but even with keeping with the law-enforced white spaces that Viviana would most likely stick to, you could have all different cultures, and the conflict between them, the politics of their home countries, and confusion. Viv’s encounters eventually get less and less Caucasian, but it’s part of her naivete when the books begin that Viv is a product of her time—sometimes in the worst ways possible. 

But believe it or not, I wrote the whole thing from Los Angeles, a city where I lived for 15 years, which is equally as embedded in my brain. I’ve thought about writing another historical, but set in the 1930s in LA, when the city was just turning over from orange groves to movie studios. I don’t think LA gets enough credit for its interesting history. And there are so many amazing novels from just around that time—The Day of the Locust, one of the greatest books ever written for its incredible blend of gothic and noir, and all the Phillip Marlowe books.

Lastly, what are you currently working on? Can we expect more books with Viviana, and/or do you have anything else in the works?

I was extremely lucky that my editor read Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man and asked me for not one book, but three. The third Girl Friday Mystery, Viviana Valentine and the Ticking Clock, comes out almost a year to the day from the first novel, on November 7th, 2023. As of right this moment, there aren’t any more in the series, but hopefully that will change, as I absolutely have more Viv stories tucked away in my mind. Hollywood? Atlantic City? The horse races up in Saratoga? You bet! I’m currently plunking away at a modern noir/thriller set in LA, and I hope to get it to my agent by the end of the summer. Fingers crossed on that!

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Thanks so much to Emily for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

I’m thrilled to welcome bestselling mystery author Ellery Adams as today’s featured author. With no less than seven (!) mystery series to her name, Ellery knows a thing or two about murder, and her cozies often combine crime with books and cooking.

Paper Cuts, book six in the Secret, Book, and Scone Society series, is out now. In the interview below, Ellery and I cover bibliotherapy, book marketing, and what’s on her horizon.

Connect with Ellery on Instagram, Facebook, and her website. Grab Paper Cuts from your favorite retailer here.

Hi Ellery, thanks so much for joining! Your Secret, Book, and Scone Society series follows a cast of strong women who, as their name implies, share secrets, read books, enjoy pastries and, of course, solve the occasional murder. Each member of the Society has her own unique background, personality, and skills. Where did you get the inspiration for this series?

It all started with a discussion I had with a friend about the healing power of books. That led to research on bibliotherapy and the idea of having a bookstore owner who was also a bibliotherapist. I knew my main character couldn’t advise other people unless she’d been through her fair share of difficulties, so I gave Nora Pennington a shameful secret and outward scars to show others that she had literally been through a trial by fire.

Your books often explore the theme of healing and finding solace through literature. How do you approach incorporating this theme into your mysteries? What do you love about mixing healing and personal growth with books?

Every reader has performed some kind of bibliotherapy at one point in their lives. We have a friend or loved one in need of a book distraction, and we find them the perfect thing to read. The ability to escape inside fiction grants us a rest from our reality. But stories do so much more than that. If we encounter a character going through a similar situation to ours, that connection makes us feel less alone.

That’s the power of books. They connect us to others, relieve our loneliness, and teach us that we are capable of surviving tough times and even growing from those experiences.

You have several mystery series under your belt, including the Book Retreat Mysteries, Supper Club Mysteries, and the Books by the Bay mysteries. Do you have a favorite series to write? Does your writing process change depending on the series?

They’re all so different. The Book Retreat Mysteries are like a writing vacation for me. I get to live in Jane Steward’s world of luxury, beauty, and literary events. I get to have afternoon tea, a falconry lesson, and wander through a mansion stuffed with books.

The Secret, Book, and Scone Society books are challenging to write, but they’re also very rewarding. The characters in this series are so real to me that I actually miss them when I’m not working on their stories. I’ve always fantasized about owning a bookstore. Through Nora, I get to live this fantasy. And this series has given me a chance to blend genres. It’s really a mix of mystery and women’s fiction, which has allowed me to explore some grittier, darker topics.

I’d love to get some insight into your marketing strategy. How do you plan your social media, mailing list, events, and other outreach? You’ve published both traditionally and independently—does your marketing strategy vary depending on whether the book is indie versus traditionally published?

I don’t do mailing lists. I gave that up ages ago. I don’t like getting emails from authors (sorry!) as my email is already too cluttered. I like to focus on Instagram and Facebook posts and interactions as well as in-person events at bookstores. BookBub is a tremendous resource for finding new readers, but librarians and booksellers—and readers sharing my books with friends and family—are the reason I made it to where I am today.

My advice to my fellow writers is not to get too overwhelmed by marketing. Put your creativity into your writing and save your remaining energy by making meaningful connections online.

Lastly, what are you currently looking forward to? Can you share any works in progress, book releases coming up, and other exciting projects?

I’m beyond excited about the release of Paper Cuts because it might be the best book I’ve ever written. I’ve been wanting to add a neurodivergent character as a way of honoring my son for a long time, and I’m eager to see how readers response to Tucker, the young boy in the novel.Murder in the Book Lover’s Loft comes out July 25, and fans of my Books By the Bay series will be delighted to learn that Jane and Edwin are vacationing in Oyster Bay. They’ll see Olivia, Captain Haviland, Michel, Dixie, and more favorite characters. The collision of my two book worlds was a joy to write.

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Thanks so much to Ellery for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

Today’s featured author is Christa Bakker, whose debut cozy mystery series, the Saint-Maurice Mysteries, kicks off with Death By Naked Ladies. Read on for my interview with Christa, in which we chat French villages, writing and publishing cozy mysteries, and more.

Connect with Christa on Instagram, Facebook, and her website. And don’t forget to subscribe to her newsletter for a free short story. Grab a copy of Death by Naked Ladies here.

Hi Christa, thanks for joining! Your debut cozy mystery series, the Saint-Maurice Mysteries, is set in a rural French village. Book one, Death by Naked Ladies, introduces a photographer sleuth whose assistant seems to prompt poison pen letters—and murder. What makes a small village in France a great setting for a cozy mystery? What inspired you to pick this location and theme?

Hi Manon! Thank you for letting me talk about my favourite subject! My stories are set in France simply because I used to live there. I spent two years living in Lyon and three years in a village about an hour outside of Lyon, in the Beaujolais countryside. That village is what I modelled Saint-Maurice on, meaning it has a similar lay-out in my head and a similar size, though I added some features like a bakery and an abandoned hotel.

The vineyards, the food, the people . . . It all screamed to be written about. So, I threw some unsavoury characters into the mix, et voilá! One woman sleuth who takes vintage style pin-up photos, one sexy assistant who refuses to just be man-candy, and a bunch of baffling murders later, the Saint-Maurice Mysteries were born.

Like many cozy mysteries, the book is a clean read, but promises a hint of romance. In your opinion, what makes romance work in a cozy mystery? What do you like or dislike about including romance in cozy mysteries?

I love a bit of kissing. In books too! It’s an easy and fun way of introducing some extra tension, but it should never distract from the mystery. If the romance starts taking over as the main theme, then the book is no longer a cozy mystery, and to me, the puzzle is the best part. I try very hard to make the killer a surprise, so it would be a shame if all the reader can think about is the romance.

As a new cozy author, is there anything you’ve learned during the writing and publishing process that has surprised you? What tips and strategies regarding writing, publishing, and marketing have you found the most helpful?

That’s a difficult question. Since this is my first cozy mystery, I don’t know yet if any of it is going to work. But I’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback from early readers, so at least the most important part, the story, is good!

The most helpful thing I can say to writers is probably to keep going. Keep writing, keep learning, but also keep finishing. It’ll never be perfect, but it will be good enough. And I think that’s what surprised me the most, how excited people get when they read a story they like. As a reader, I already knew that, of course, but it’s really fun when people get that excited about your own story.

You’ve also written a Victorian fantasy novel, The Jet Jewel. How does writing a cozy mystery compare to fantasy? Are the two genres as separate as they seem, or did you find some similarities in writing them?

To me, they are worlds apart. Of course my style is mostly the same, but The Jet Jewel is the first story I ever finished. I learned a huge deal from writing it, both about story structure and pacing, but also about the publishing process and the fact that a book absolutely will not sell if it doesn’t fit into a specific genre and you don’t promote it.

I’m still proud of the book as an accomplishment and as a story, but if I ever write the sequel (this one ends on a downer; who needs that?), I’ll probably do a thorough rewrite. Cozy mysteries fit my voice and style much better, so that’s the genre I’m focusing on for now.

Lastly, when can we expect more books in the Saint-Maurice Mystery series? Are you working on any other projects that you’d like to share?

I’ve already written the first 3 stories in this series. Death by Naked Ladies will be out on April 28, Beaujolais Blood is coming a month later, on May 26, and on June 30, I’m publishing The Cold Case: a Vintage Murder. For now, they’re only available on Amazon, but I plan to take them to other stores in about six months. In total, there will be six books set in France, but since I’ve moved to the UK, my next series will be about a British sleuth, Mrs Yety (yes, that’s an anagram). Until then, though, I also have a free Christmas story about my French sleuth for anyone who signs up to my newsletter.

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Thanks so much to Christa for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

I am thrilled to introduce Gigi Pandian as today’s featured author. Gigi is a bestselling mystery author whose newest release, The Raven Thief, is the second book in the Secret Staircase Mystery series and features a fake séance, an impossible murder, and intrepid sleuthing.

If you follow my reviews on Instagram, you’ll know just how much I loved book one in this series, Under Lock & Skeleton Key (and The Raven Thief is equally fun!). These books are cozy and whimsical, but with head-scratching mystery puzzles that keep you entertained.

In the interview below, Gigi and I chat about the new book, Golden Age detective fiction, themes of family and culture, and more.

Connect with Gigi on Instagram, Facebook, BookBub, Amazon, and her website. Subscribe to her newsletter here and receive a free novelette and mini cookbook. Purchase The Raven Thief here.

Hi Gigi, thanks for joining! The Raven Thief, book two in your Secret Staircase Mystery series starring illusionist sleuth Tempest Raj, poses a locked room murder puzzle: during a fake séance, a body appears on the table—yet the eight participants never broke their circle of clasped hands. When plotting an intricate and seemingly impossible murder, how do you approach it? Do you start with the setup, or the solution?

Thanks for the invitation! I approach writing with the feeling I want to evoke: mysterious but lighthearted, with likable characters going on an adventure of some kind.

Before I was a mystery novelist, I was an avid mystery reader, and I still love the feeling that certain novels gave me the first time I read them, which is why I start there. Sometimes it was characters I adored that elevated the novel, sometimes it was an evocative setting brought to life by the author, and sometimes it was the aha moment when a baffling puzzle is brilliantly solved at the end. So in my own writing, I’ve tried to meld all of my favorite things together.

With that in mind, sometimes the solution of a complex mystery is the starting point, and sometimes it’s characters I see clearly in a certain location. So I approach each book differently, even my impossible crime novels like The Raven Thief. I didn’t start with the entire four-part puzzle. I had a couple of elements of the solution worked out before I began writing, but not all of it. Instead, I thought about the fun setting of a mystery-novel-themed home interior I wanted to create, and how Tempest and her friends and family would interact with it. My characters gave me the answers to the rest of the puzzle. And the tagline for the book: One murder. Four impossibilities. A fake séance hides a very real crime.

Both Under Lock & Skeleton Key and The Raven Thief reference plenty of Golden Age detective fiction, from Anthony Berkeley’s The Poisoned Chocolates Case to John Dickson Carr’s series featuring Dr. Gideon Fell. What do you love about these classic works of crime fiction? What do you think contemporary mystery writers can learn from the original masters of the genre?

The Raven Thief is a locked-room mystery series that directly pays homage to the Golden Age of detective fiction, but with my own modern twist. I love that in books from that era, the misdirection that authors created was much more about the fair-play clues than the psychology of the characters. My favorite books in the genre are lighthearted romps where you know that the puzzling mystery will be cleverly solved at the end. Authors like Anthony Berkley, John Dickson Carr, and Agatha Christie have made a deal with the reader in which the clues will be fairly presented.

In theory, the reader can solve the crime when the detective does. In practice, I never try to do that. It’s much more fun and satisfying to go along for the ride and then see how everything falls into place at the end.

One thing I’m doing in my books is developing characters and their relationships more than in some Golden Age novels, because I enjoy that as a reader.

What I especially loved about the Secret Staircase Mysteries is Tempest’s family and close-knit community alongside strong Indian and Scottish influences. What did you like about incorporating these themes of family and culture in a cozy mystery?

Thank you! Those elements were central to the idea for the series. The Secret Staircase Mysteries are locked-room mysteries featuring stage illusionist Tempest Raj, who uses her skills creating misdirection for her family’s home renovation company that builds magic into peoples’ homes through elements like sliding bookcases and hidden rooms. Secret Staircase Construction was founded by Tempest’s parents, so Tempest’s family is built into the premise. Her Indian grandfather and Scottish grandmother live in an in-law unit in the backyard — which happens to be a tree house.

My dad is from South India and my mom is of mixed ancestry including Scottish, and I’ve been traveling to India and Scotland since I was a kid. Those cultures are also incorporated into my Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mysteries, but Jaya is always jetting off to another country, whereas I wrote the book that became the first Secret Staircase Mystery right after the pandemic began. Therefore it was a wonderful escape to create a cozy small town that Tempest has just moved home to, with a family and friends surrounding her.

In addition to the Secret Staircase Mysteries, also write the Accidental Alchemist and Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mystery series. How do you approach writing these three different series, especially when it comes to planning the mystery?

It’s less that I plan different series differently, and more that I’ve evolved as a writer in the decade since I’ve been a published author. I trust myself a lot more as a writer now than I did at the start of my career.

I always love to ask authors what’s coming up on their horizon. Can we expect any more books with Tempest and her gang? Do you have anything else in the works that you’d like to share?

I’m putting the finishing touches on Book 3 in the Secret Staircase mystery series, and then I’m returning to revisions on Book 7 in my Accidental Alchemist mystery series. I love alternating between series, because my brain needs time to set aside a draft manuscript and come back to it with fresh eyes. I’m having so much fun with everything I’m writing.

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Thanks so much to Gigi for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

If strong female protagonists are your thing, stay tuned for today’s interview. Kris Bock’s Accidental Detective series stars fifty-year-old Kate Tessler, an ex-war correspondent who gets dragged into solving crimes in her Arizona hometown.

In the following interview, Kris and I talk about good sleuth qualities, mysteries in the American Southwest, writing advice, and more.

Connect with Kris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, TikTok, BookBub, and her website. Grab Someone Missing from Malapais Mountain from all retailers here.

Welcome, Kris! Someone Missing from Malapais Mountain is book four in your Accidental Detective series. Its heroine, Kate Tessler, is a fifty-year-old former international war correspondent whose dangerous career led to a brush with death and a war injury. What inspired you to write Kate’s character? What qualities do you like to see in a mystery protagonist?

In amateur detective mysteries, you have a lot of older women, such as Miss Marple, Jessica Fletcher, and Mrs. Pollifax, who have the advantage of years of experience with life. Then there’s Phryne Fisher in Kerry Greenwood’s series (made into the Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries for TV). In the books, she was an ambulance driver in World War I at age 16, so it makes sense that she’s fearless and desperate to grab ahold of everything life has to offer. Somehow these ideas combined in my mind to create Kate. She’s been a war correspondent, so she’s adventurous and fearless. It makes sense for people to ask for her help with problems they can’t or don’t want to take to the police, so I don’t have to have her accidentally stumbling on a dead body in every book. She knows how to investigate.

I traveled a lot when younger, although not to war zones. As I faced fifty, I wanted to create a mystery lead dealing with some of the same issues: aging parents, concerns about financing retirement someday, and a body that doesn’t recover like it once did. I didn’t necessarily plan to write humor, but people say they laugh a lot. That comes from how Kate sees the world, which is how I see the world. Laughter helps us survive the hard parts.

Many of your books, including the Accidental Detective series and others, are set in the American Southwest. What do you love about the Southwest as a book setting? Is there anything unique about this region that makes it a great setting for a mystery?

I’ve lived in a small town in New Mexico for over twenty years, three times longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. The landscape inspired my earlier romantic suspense novels, but I wanted to set the mystery series in a big city.

I set the series in Arizona because it provides so many mystery opportunities. The large senior population attracts scammers. Inpatient family members might kill to get an inheritance sooner. The border with Mexico creates anxiety over immigration and various kinds of trafficking. Plus you have all the usual potential crimes in any large population. I created a fictional city within the greater Phoenix metropolitan area and made the mayor someone Kate knew in high school, so she has a connection within the city government. I’ll be able to keep Kate busy for years.

My romantic suspense novels also include real places in the Southwestern United States. For example, in my treasure hunting adventure, Desert Gold, the heroine and her best friend hunt for the lost Victorio Peak treasure, a real Southwest legend about a heretic Spanish priest’s gold mine, made richer by the spoils of bandits and an Apache raider. I drew on personal experiences hiking in the desert for Erin and Camie’s adventures—though fortunately I’ve never stumbled on a rattlesnake nest or gotten caught in a flash flood!

Another book, What We Found, was inspired by finding the body of a murder victim while hiking in the woods. (Read about the whole experience of finding a dead body here.) Someone in law enforcement said that people often don’t report crimes they stumble across. That got me thinking—Why? What reasons would you have for not calling the police? The book also includes falconry, based on experiences I’ve had hanging out with a falconer.

Whispers in the Dark follows a young archaeologist who stumbles into danger as mysteries unfold among ancient Southwest ruins. That was inspired by a trip to Hovenweep National Monument some years ago. I loved that setting and had to use it in a book!

In addition to mystery, you’ve written suspense, adventure, and romance. What are your favorite aspects of these various genres? Are there qualities of any that are more fun—or more challenging—to write? What genre, if any, would you like to tackle in the future?

As a reader, I prefer not too much gore or violence, and I demand a happy ending! With cozy mysteries, you get intrigue, fun and interesting characters, plus a guaranteed satisfying ending. Romance, of course, must deliver a happy ending to the relationship. In romantic suspense, you need the happily ever after for the couple as well as a satisfying ending to the action plot.

For mysteries, I like to know more of the plot ahead of time, to make sure the pieces fit together and there’s enough action. Romance is more character driven, so I only need enough internal and external conflict to keep the characters apart long enough. If I know what they want and need, and why they can’t easily get it, I can start writing and see what happens. I started out as a writer with more focus on plot, so developing my character skills has been fun—but I do love a good, intricate plot with lots of action!

I also write a romantic comedy series with my brother, Douglas J. Eboch. He wrote the screenplay for the movie Sweet Home Alabama and thought it would be fun to write a prequel series where the movie characters are teenagers. It’s been fun and surprisingly easy to write with a partner. It probably helps that we’ve known each other for decades and always talk about writing when we get together! We now have three books out in the “Felony Melanie” series.

I don’t have plans to write in a different genre, but you never know. I’ve been reading some fun science fiction lately . . . But I have another mystery series with one book written, plus an idea for a third series, and a couple of romance series ideas. That should keep me busy.

You have written in so many genres, and published both traditionally and independently, is there anything you can share with new writers and authors? Can you share any writing and/or publishing wisdom that you’ve gathered over your author career?

I write fiction and nonfiction for children and adults—literally a little bit of everything when you consider the books for children, which include historical fiction, ghost stories, biographies, and nonfiction about science and history. My first published book was The Well of Sacrifice (written as Chris Eboch), an adventure for middle grade readers set in ninth-century Mayan Guatemala. It’s still used in schools when they teach the Maya.

I started writing for adults (as Kris Bock) and self-publishing over a decade ago, first romantic suspense and then a sweet romance series based around a cat café. Marketing is the hard part, so with the Accidental Detective series, I queried agents and eventually landed with a small traditional publisher. That’s been a good experience, but marketing is still necessary and hard! I make most of my money through educational publishing, which is work for hire, usually for a flat fee.

Do I have any wisdom? Basically, you have to work hard, learn a lot about the craft and the business, and hope you get lucky—and accept that you may not, and it’s not your fault.

As for writing tips, I get some of my best ideas while jogging. I’ll get moving and then start thinking about a story problem. Maybe the adrenaline is inspiring—or maybe the feeling of running is reminiscent of being chased, which encourages exciting plot ideas! As a bonus, it makes the jogging time go more quickly. I also like to take walks or go on hikes to brainstorm or even dictate scenes into my phone. Don’t assume something like that wouldn’t work for you. Try things and find out what does work

You can check out my writing tips at my Write Like a Pro! blog. I don’t post new material very often, but the sidebar down on the right-hand side links to past posts on various topics. I particularly like to talk about cliffhanger chapter endings!

I’ve also published two books of writing advice. Advanced Plotting and You Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers.

Lastly, can you share what you’re currently working on? Are there any new books, either in the Accidental Detective series or otherwise, that we can look forward to?

In the Accidental Billionaire Cowboys sweet romance series, a Texas ranching family struggles to maintain their privacy and work ethic after an enormous lottery win. Can they build new dreams and find love amidst the chaos? The first two books are out, with three more to follow this year.

As for The Accidental Detective humorous mystery series, Someone Murderous at The Midnight Motel comes out September 15, with one more book scheduled after that so far!

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Thanks so much to Kris for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

I’m thrilled to welcome cozy mystery author Diane Kelly as today’s Cluesletter featured author. As the author of more than forty mysteries, Diane’s cozies are themed everything from taxes to moonshine.

Diane’s latest release, Primer and Punishment, is the fifth book in her House-Flipper Mystery series. (Don’t you just love that theme?) Our interview below covers fixer uppers, publishing paths, and the career advice she’d give her younger self.

Connect with Diane on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and her website. Sign up for her newsletter here. Grab Primer and Punishment from all retailers here.

Primer and Punishment is book five in your House-Flipper Mystery series. True to its theme, this series follows carpenter Whitney Whitaker as she turns fixer-uppers into charming homes. In your opinion, what makes for a good cozy mystery theme? And/or, what was the inspiration for this house-flipping series?

A good cozy mystery theme is one with broad appeal that also has many aspects to be explored. As evidenced by the popularity of home improvement shows, renovation is something a lot of people find interesting, including me! There are a wide variety of housing styles, including houseboats like the one featured in this story, and the theme has given me a lot to work with. My characters have remodeled a stone cottage, a colonial, a decrepit roadside motel, an old country church, and now a houseboat.

When I launched this series, I knew I wanted to set it in Nashville, where I lived from 2014 to 2016. Such a vibrant and creative city! I considered various ideas and discussed my thoughts with my friend Paula over lunch. She pointed out how Nashville was booming and that a lot of renovation was going on. I owe the idea to her. As they say, fiction writers are liars and thieves, though in this case the theme was more of a gift from a friend.

You also write several other series, including the Mountain Lodge Mysteries, Southern Homebrew Mysteries, Paw Enforcement, and tax-themed Tara Holloway series. Do you have a favorite series to write? Does your writing process change depending on the series?

I love all of my series for different reasons, so it’s hard to pick one and say it’s my favorite. I will say that Laying Down the Paw, the third book in my Paw Enforcement series, is the one I am most proud of. I dug much deeper emotionally in that book than in any other. There’s a teen boy character—Dub—who is in crisis. My husband and I were doing respite foster care at the time and saw firsthand what these children go through. I drew on that experience in writing the book. I cried a bit while writing it, but I hope it brought some understanding of what some children are forced to endure when they don’t have a loving, supportive family. Even though cozies are generally lighter books, I try to bring attention to issues in subtle ways when I can and when it fits the story.

I’m also very partial to Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure, my first published book, because it was proof my dream had come true and that my hard work had finally paid off. It was such a thrill when my editor gave me the cover image for that book. That’s when it first really felt real.

You have published both traditionally and independently—what are the differences between self-publishing your books and working with a traditional publisher? Can you share the advantages and disadvantages to each, and share some advice for authors?

The great thing about traditional publishers is that they get your books into bookstores, do some publicity for you, design the covers, edit your work, and do any necessary formatting and uploading, so the author can focus more on the writing. With self-publishing, the author has to take care of each and every detail, or hire the parts out. But the upside is that publishing independently gives a writer much more flexibility. Stories don’t have to be a specified length. They also don’t have to fit neatly within genre guidelines, which publishers and bookstores generally prefer because it makes the books easier to market and sell. An author can write what they want, when they want, and get it out for sale much quicker—but their chances of seeing their indie books in bookstores or libraries are very slim. Most stores and libraries only carry traditionally published books. Whether a book is traditionally or independently published, authors need to do quite a bit of promotion on their own.

Choosing which avenue to pursue comes down to the amount of control an author wants to have, and whether the story fits within a publisher’s guidelines. For me personally, I like putting my full-length novels in the hands of a traditional publisher’s professional team. But for my novella-length work or short stories, I’ve found indie is the way to go since there aren’t a lot of high-paying markets for shorter works and it can take a lot of time to shop them around. I’d rather just get them out for sale when I have them ready and skip the middleman.

Having written so many novels, what advice would you give your younger self? Do you have advice for newer writers and authors hoping to find similar writing success?

Buy noise-canceling headphones immediately! Haha. Seriously, though, when I discovered them, it was a game changer. When I have my headphones on, I can get “in the zone” much quicker and ignore things that might otherwise distract me.

For new authors, I’d advise them to schedule writing time and find a place to do it where nobody else will be around and interrupt them. If someone really wants writing to become their career, they have to treat it like they would any other job. They have to show up on schedule and do the work. Other things have to take a back seat during that time. If they aren’t willing to make some sacrifices, it simply won’t happen.

Lastly, I know you have a few new books on the horizon. Can you share what they are? Are you working on anything else that you’d like to talk about?

Fiddling With Fate, the third book in my Southern Homebrew moonshine series, will release on April 4. It’s centered around a bluegrass band that Hattie Hayes, my modern-day moonshiner, hires to sing a jingle for her Moonshine Shack. My next Mountain Lodge Mystery, Snow Place for Murder, will release on October 24. I’m working on that book right now and having so much fun with it!

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Thanks so much to Diane for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

Olivia Matthews’s new book, Against the Currant, kicks off a brand new culinary cozy mystery series. The Spice Isle Bakery series promises good food, good company, and a heaping of murder. Olivia, who also writes romantic suspense as Patricia Sargeant and Regina Hart, joins the Cluesletter to chat about plotting cozy mysteries, mystery versus romance, and the craft of writing.

Connect with Olivia on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and her website. Subscribe to her newsletter here. Purchase Against the Currant here.

Hi Olivia! Thanks so much for joining. Against the Currant is the first book in the Spice Isle Bakery series, which stars Lyndsay Murray and her West Indian bakery. Culinary cozy mysteries are always popular—what do you like about this subgenre of cozy mystery? How does writing this series compare with your other cozy series, the Peach Coast Library and Sister Lou mysteries?

Hi, Manon! Thank you so very much for inviting me to visit with your community. I’m really excited to be here.

This is such an excellent question. Thank you for asking. I’d always wanted to write a fish-out-of-water protagonist. My Peach Coast Library Mystery series allows me to do that. Marvey’s a native New Yorker who’s transplanted to a small Southern town. My Sister Lou Mystery series features an older protagonist—she’s 63—whose secret weapon is being underestimated by the people she’s investigating.

Now, my Spice Isle Bakery Mystery series centers me in an intergenerational cast of characters and I’m loving it. There are three generations of the Murray-Bains family in the bakery, Lyndsay, her parents and her maternal grandmother.

In addition to cozy mystery, you also write romance as Patricia Sargeant and Regina Hart. What do you love about writing in these two genres? Can you compare cozy mysteries with romance, and/or speak to where they might intersect?

Another excellent question! Manon, you’re really keeping me on my toes. Ha!

I actually started my publishing career in the romantic suspense genre. The protagonists in my romantic suspense stories are ordinary people I’ve put in extraordinary circumstances. Their journey forces them to find their inner heroes. I absolutely LOVE doing that, which is one of the reasons I’m also drawn to cozy mysteries. My cozy mystery protagonists are amateur sleuths who’re forced into homicide investigations. That’s where my romance and mysteries intersect.

My contemporary romances feature a different type of villain. I refer to them as inner demons: self-doubt, distrust, fear. This forces my romance protagonists to turn in a different direction. They have to look inside themselves instead of outside. That’s where my romance and mysteries diverge.

With multiple mystery series under your belt, what does your writing process look like, particularly for mystery? Are you an outliner, or do you like to write and see how the mystery unfolds?

I’m a plotter. I have to outline my stories. It’s a self-defense tactic, I think. I’m afraid of the blank page. I outline my stories chapter by chapter and scene by scene. My outline for Against the Currant is forty-two pages long. This includes thumbnails on my cast of characters and research links/notes.

Now, this doesn’t mean things don’t change while I’m writing. As the characters become more three-dimensional, sometimes they take the story in a different direction. For example, in Mayhem & Mass, my first Sister Lou Mystery, one of my characters decided to quit their job. Imagine my surprise! But I always know who my villain is and why they committed their crime. This helps me with my foreshadowing.

You have also offered workshops, writers’ groups, and conferences to help writers craft their own stories. What do you love about teaching and presenting? If you’d like, can you offer any quick writing tips to Cluesletter subscribers?

LOL! I love, love, love, talking about the business and craft of writing. I really love it when my presentations become dialogues or exchanges.

As for a quick writing tip, I’d like to suggest that authors remember every scene has a Goal, Motivation and Conflict. The conflict doesn’t have to be an argument. And it doesn’t have to be between your protagonist and your antagonist. The scene could feature your protagonist and their friend or relative. So when you walk into your scene, ask yourself what is your Protagonist’s goal in this specific scene and why do they want it? What is your Protagonist’s Friend’s opposing goal in this specific scene and why do they want it?

To illustrate, perhaps your Protagonist’s goal is to interview a suspect at their home because they want the suspect to have a false sense of security. In contrast your Protagonist’s Partner’s goal is to interview the suspect at the police station because they think the suspect will provide more information in an unfamiliar setting. Your Protagonist and their Partner are in conflict in this scene and that tension gives the scene an engaging pace.

Book two of the Spice Isle Bakery series, Hard Dough Homicide, is slated for release this May. What can you tell us about this installment? Additionally, are there any other projects or upcoming releases you can share with us?

Thank you so very much for asking about Hard Dough Homicide, my second Spice Isle Bakery Mystery. You’re correct; its release date is May 23, 2023. Here’s the book description:

Someone in Brooklyn’s Little Caribbean neighborhood has an appetite for murder …

Spice Isle Bakery owner Lyndsay Murray’s always looking for new ways to grow her family’s business. But she already regrets agreeing to host the retirement dinner for local high school principal Emily Smith. The tyrant used to be her mother’s boss and they did not get along. Six guests arrive for the celebration, but only five survive. Emily starts convulsing—right after eating the curry chicken—and dies soon after. It’s not long before the police are knocking on Spice Isle’s door, bringing the Murray family back into the heart of another murder investigation—driving away customers in the process. Lyndsay can’t help but wonder if this is the end of the bakery, even though it’s just begun. She must put aside her reservations about investigating another crime, because the Murrays refuse to go down without a fight.

Thank you also for asking about my other projects. Down to the Wire is the first book in my Toure Security Group romantic suspense trilogy, which I’m writing as Patricia Sargeant. It’s scheduled for release in October 2023. I’m also wrapping up my Brooklyn Monarchs sports romance series in 2023. I’m writing that series as Patricia Sargeant, too.

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Thanks so much to Olivia for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.

I’d like to welcome today’s featured author, Samuel W. Gailey. His third novel, Come Away From Her, is a tense and twisty mystery set in rural Pennsylvania, where everyone has secrets and motives to hide. My favorite part? Both the body and the killer are identified at the very end of the book.

Read on for my interview with Samuel, in which we chat about small-town settings, plotting mysteries, and writing screenplays versus novels. And connect with Samuel on Instagram, Facebook, and his website. Grab Come Away From Her here.

Hi Samuel, thanks for joining! Come Away From Her follows Tess, a deaf woman whose arrival in Black Walnut, Pennsylvania, upsets the status quo of the small town. As a small-town native yourself, what do you love about this setting for a mystery? How does the setting of a small, close-knit community enhance or challenge a mystery-suspense story?

I grew up in a small community next to Black Walnut, and at that time, there were roughly 380 residents. Everybody knew everybody. We knew where everyone worked, what kind of truck you drove, and what folks liked to do on a Friday night. But we didn’t necessarily know what transpired behind closed doors. Folks were private, even secretive. And there was a sense of isolation, of being cut off from the rest of the world—especially in the 1980s when my story takes place. It was a pre-internet, pre-cell phone world. The residents were hardscrabble men and women who tended their farms or worked at the local slaughterhouse, hunted deer, rabbit, turkey, and pheasant to fill their freezers with meat for the winter, and generally found themselves leery of outsiders. Coupling all this with the harsh terrain and brutal winters, I felt this setting was ripe for a mystery/suspense novel.

My debut novel, Deep Winter, was set in the same region, and in both books, the presence of an outsider upsets the status quo of its residents. But ultimately, it’s the power and strength of the community that brings the characters together. I consider the community itself a character, too.

Your background is in film production, specifically screenwriting. How did that career prepare you for writing novels? Are there any skills from screenwriting that particularly helped you when plotting your books?

Screenwriting has certainly shaped my storytelling. Especially when it comes to pacing and showing conflict versus describing it. In every scene within a screenplay, there must be conflict. There doesn’t necessarily have to be a resolution, but every scene should convey something new about the characters and plot. That moves the story forward and keeps the viewer hooked, and wanting more. 

Another technique that I apply to novel writing is ending each chapter with a cliffhanger.

What is especially exciting about this book is its story structure—while a body is revealed almost immediately, the reader doesn’t find out who is dead and who the killer is until the end of the book, uncovering all characters’ motives throughout the story. How did you approach writing this twisty story? Can you share how you planned the mystery/how you plotted the book?

I used a similar device in Deep Winter and my current work in progress. I think it sets the hook immediately and propels the reader to keep turning the page.

The unknowing of who was murdered, coupled with the mystery of who committed the crime, creates an organic element of suspense. And I believe that starting with the crime then flashing back fifteen days creates a compelling structure that capitalizes on our human nature to be curious and crave closure. In Come Away From Her, I wasn’t sure who committed the murder until the very end of the first draft. Every character had a motive and flaw. I even had myself guessing who was murdered and why.

Your other novels include The Guilt We Carry (2020) and Deep Winter (2014), both of which are praised for their suspenseful, sharp writing and characters. How did writing those novels compare or differ from Come Away From Her? Were there any new or unexpected challenges that you faced while writing the new book? 

Whereas Deep Winter’s early drafts were very close to the final version in its story plot, structure, and character development, The Guilt We Carry and Come Away From Her underwent dramatic changes. 

In Come Away From Her, I struggled with developing Tess’s character. After numerous drafts, I didn’t feel like I knew her voice. Once I removed her literal voice and made her deaf, she blossomed into a character with grit and tremendous inner strength. Silence and deafness, usually perceived as a flaw or weakness, became her power. 

Lastly, what’s on the horizon for you? Do you have other books or writing projects in the works?

I just adapted The Guilt We Carry to pitch as a limited series, and I’m finishing up a novel set in the late 1700s centered on a German Mennonite family of settlers grappling with a murder committed by one of their own children. It’s Bad Seed meets The Revenant. 

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Thanks so much to Samuel for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.