#WriterWednesday Interview with Mally Becker

I’d like to welcome the fabulous Mally Becker to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

A few of your favorite fall traditions: Baking fruit cobblers and bread once the weather cools off. Dressing up and decorating for Halloween. Rooting for the New York Mets to make the postseason.

Something autumn-related that you’ll never do again: This is the first time in years that we won’t be buying Costco’s 10-pound bag of candy for Halloween. The purchase was just our excuse to have eight pounds of leftover chocolate candy in the house. Time (for us) to grow up!

Favorite fall treat: Warm apple pie a la mode.

A fall treat that makes you gag: Pumpkin spice anything.

Favorite autumn beverage: Apple cider mimosas.

A drink that gives you a sour face: Pumpkin spice coffee.

Best fall memory: Taking our son to college football games when he was young.

Something you’d rather forget: The 10-day power outage following a freak October snow storm here in New Jersey.

A tradition you share with others: We place a scratch-off lottery ticket beneath everyone’s plate at Thanksgiving, then wait ‘til dessert for everyone to try their luck.

A tradition that can be retired: Aiming for perfection at holiday meals! It took me a long time to notice that everyone’s just grateful to be together with or without the “perfect” meal.

Best thing you ever cooked/baked in autumn: Chocolate chip apple cake.

Your worst kitchen disaster: I pulled the Thanksgiving turkey out of the oven and realized that I’d never removed the bag of giblets it came with.

Favorite place you spent a fall day: Paris.

The worst place to spend a fall day: At a football stadium during an icy late-November rainstorm.

Your best Halloween costume: I cut giant sheets of upholstery foam and used spray paint to create a human-sized ham-and-cheese sandwich costume. (Can you tell that Halloween’s my favorite holiday of the year?)

A Halloween costume that wasn’t quite what you imagined: A neighbor walked into a Halloween party wearing a hospital gown to which small cereal boxes had been stapled. A plastic knife stuck out of each small box. I was baffled and asked him about his costume. “I’m a cereal killer,” he said.

Best Halloween costume ever: A neighborhood friend purchased a full-sized gorilla costume for a costume party. He also wore it round the neighborhood that year on his usual morning walk, giving kids waiting for the school bus that day quite a start.

Worst Halloween costume disaster: Nope. We won’t be discussing the year I created a tutu that wouldn’t stay tied around my waist.

Best Halloween memory: My friend’s annual Halloween costume party was scheduled for the night of the October snowstorm I mentioned above. It was snowing, power was out, and trees were down all over the neighborhood. She held the party in the dark for the few of us crazy enough to walk to her house in the storm.

Worst Halloween experience: Traveling for business one year and missing Halloween entirely.

About Mally:

Mally Becker combines her love of history and crime fiction in mysteries that feature strong, independent heroines. Her debut novel, The Turncoat's Widow, was nominated for an Agatha Award in 2022. Kirkus Reviews called it, "A compelling tale ... with charming main characters.” The Turncoat's Widow was also named a Killer Nashville Silver Falchion finalist and a CIBA Mystery & Mayhem finalist.

The Counterfeit Wife, will be published on September 20, 2022 by Level Best Books, and she is at work on the third installment in her Revolutionary War mystery series.

A member of the board of MWA-NY, Mally was an attorney until becoming a full-time writer. She's also an instructor at The Writers Circle Workshops. She and her husband live in New Jersey, where they raised their wonderful son.

She thought she'd be clearing trails when she volunteered at the Morristown National Historical Park but found herself instead assigned to work with the Park's archival collection of letters. That's where she found a copy of an indictment for the Revolutionary War-era crime of traveling from New Jersey to New York City "without permission or passport." That document became the spark for The Turncoat's Widow and her Revolutionary War mystery series.

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Website: The Turncoat's Widow | Mally Becker