#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Paula Charles

I’d like to welcome the fabulous Paula Charles to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Things you need for your writing sessions:

A big glass of water and a tube of hand lotion

Things that hamper your writing:

I can’t listen to music when I’m writing. My little brain gets distracted too easily.

Favorite music or song:

I was raised on country music and even though I listen to a wide variety of music, older country is still my favorite.

Music that drives you crazy:

“Bro country.” You can keep it and give me some Alabama and George Strait any day.

Favorite smell:

Baking bread. Yum!

Something that makes you hold your nose:

Cinnamon! Don’t get me wrong, it smells wonderful but I’m super allergic. It makes it hard to go shopping during the holiday season because the scent of cinnamon is everywhere!

Last best thing you ate:

I made a cherry cranberry pie last weekend, and it was delicious!

Last thing you regret eating:

A bag of microwave popcorn. It was good in the moment but is haunting me today.

Things you’d walk a mile for:

A good cup of coffee. (Has anybody else noticed a bunch of my answers revolve around food?)

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room:

Spiders and yellow jackets!

Things you always put in your books:

Easter eggs such as family names and funny moments that my family will recognize.

Things you never put in your books:

Open door, bodice ripping romance.

Things to say to an author:

I preordered your book! Can’t wait to read it!

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book:

Still got your head in that book? (Usually said when person doesn’t believe you’re really writing a book.)

Favorite places you’ve been:

Ireland! It was pure magic and felt like going home to a place I’d never been before.

Places you never want to go to again:

Las Vegas. It’s not like I hated it, just don’t necessarily need to go again.

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done:

Probably knitting. I’ve done a lot of crafty type things, but knitting is probably the one I’m best at.

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it:

Well, except for a blanket I knit for my son. I knit and knit and knit and the darn thing ended up long and narrow. It was about six feet long and two feet wide.

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books:

The basics of my main character, Dawna, in Hammers and Homicide are based off of my grandmother. She ran a hardware store in my hometown and lived in the house I used as inspiration in the book. Dawna quickly became her own person, though, and shares very little traits with my grandmother.

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not:

Probably the fact that Dawna is a terrible cook. I actually enjoy cooking and am pretty darn good at it, if I do say so myself!

About Paula:

When Paula Charles isn’t writing under the towering trees of the Pacific Northwest, she can be found in the garden with her hands in the dirt or sitting on her front porch with a good book and a glass of iced tea. She has a love for small towns, ghost stories, and pie. During her childhood, she grew up in a town suspiciously resembling the fictional Pine Bluff, Oregon where she trailed behind her grandmother in the family’s hardware store until her grandmother would get fed up and put her to work counting nails. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, and also writes cozy mysteries under the pen name of Janna Rollins. Paula lives on a small farm in Southwestern Washington with her husband and an entire menagerie of furry and feathered creatures. 

 When Paula Charles isn’t writing under the towering trees of the Pacific Northwest, she can be found in the garden with her hands in the dirt or sitting on her front porch with a good book and a glass of iced tea. She has a love for small towns, ghost stories, and pie. During her childhood, she grew up in a town suspiciously resembling the fictional Pine Bluff, Oregon where she trailed behind her grandmother in the family’s hardware store until her grandmother would get fed up and put her to work counting nails. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, and also writes cozy mysteries under the pen name of Janna Rollins. Paula lives on a small farm in Southwestern Washington with her husband and an entire menagerie of furry and feathered creatures. 

 Let’s Be Social:

Website: Cozy Mystery Writer | Paula Charles Cozy Mystery Author

Facebook: Paula Charles & Janna Rollins, Author

Instagram:  paulacharles_jannarollins

Website: Cozy Mystery Writer | Paula Charles Cozy Mystery Author

Facebook: Paula Charles & Janna Rollins, Author

Instagram:  paulacharles_jannarollins

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Christina Romeril

I’m so excited to welcome the fabulous Christina Romeril to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things:

I like chocolate, mysteries in books and on TV, hiking in the mountains, hot, sunny climates, pretty notebooks, colorful highlighters and pens.

Things you need to throw out:

I have so many shoes, some of them hurt my feet, but I just can’t bear to part with them. I have lots of T-shirts I don’t wear, but I tell myself I will someday. My husband could probably add lots to this list, but you never know when you might need something again.

Things you need for your writing sessions:

My writing sessions always include something cold to drink when it’s hot and something hot when it’s cold. My top picks are an ice cold Coke and hot chocolate. My other essentials are my computer, a notebook, pens, legal pad, chocolate, and quiet.

Things that hamper your writing:

I always feel like I should get everything off my to do list before I settle down to write. I’m easily distracted by social media scrolling, answering messages that come in, and too much noise (I never have music playing while I write).

Things you love about writing:

I love making up stories. I love to dream up characters, their quirks, backstories, motivations, and then build a plot around them. I also love revising once the first draft is finished.

Things you hate about writing:

Writing the first draft is my least favorite part of writing. Getting all the ideas onto paper is just hard. The thing I hate MOST is writing a synopsis.

Things you never want to run out of:

Chocolate, Coke, Non-alcoholic beer.

Things you wish you’d never bought:

Scrapbooking supplies. It makes me feel guilty when I see them, because I haven’t done it in years.

Words that describe you: Determined, kind, creative, happy.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Stubborn, impatient, critical, impulsive.

Favorite foods:

I love food. It would be much easier to list what I don’t like. Depending on my mood, I love pizza, steak, fried chicken, pasta, hamburgers, poke bowls, sushi, hot dogs, soups, salads, tacos…you see what I mean.

Things that make you want to gag:

Blood pudding, seriously, my family is European, and it was always in our fridge when I was growing up.

Something you’re really good at: Cooking, but I don’t enjoy doing it all the time. Decorating, I’m pretty sure I’ve spent about a thousand hours watching decorating shows and studying décor magazines and books.

Something you’re really bad at:

Making pie crust. I have been shown by experts, and yet I still can’t make a decent pie crust. I also struggle with basic cookies such as sugar cookies, chocolate chip etc.

The last thing you ordered online:

Highlighter set, specifically the Zebra 5 count Mildliner Creative Marker Double Ended Fluorescent set.

The last thing you regret buying:

White shorts. I’m always afraid to wear them because I’ll get them dirty. Case in point, I had them with me for a month in Mexico and didn’t wear them once.

Favorite books (or genre):

Mysteries and thrillers are my happy place, but I used to read a lot of romance, but only occasionally, now.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Fantasy. The exception is Harry Potter, and maybe the Divergent series. I’m also not a huge fan of books that are labelled as women’s fiction. I’m all about solving a murder or saving the world when I read.

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): Top of my list is Melissa McCarthy, I think she would be a riot. I’m an introvert, so the list is short.

People you’d cancel dinner on: This would be a long list, but I’ll limit it to Vince Vaughn, he kind of annoys me, and Brad Pitt, there’s just something about him that turns me off. I’m sure both men are perfectly nice, but I’m not going to dinner with them.

Favorite things to do:

Hiking, exercising, eating.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing:

Play team sports, really.

Things that make you happy:

Spending time with my family. Being in the mountains.

Things that drive you crazy:

Spending time with my family. People who don’t put the grocery cart in the cart return in a parking lot.

About Christina:

Christina Romeril is the author of A CHRISTMAS CANDY KILLING, her debut novel and the first in the Killer Chocolate Mysteries. The series is set in Montana at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, one of her favorite places to visit. She and her husband live a few hours away in a small village in Southern Alberta. When Christina isn't writing, she loves to hike in Waterton Lakes National Park, or just hang out there eating gourmet hot dogs and ice cream. When the former banker isn't out enjoying nature, she loves to create and consume chocolate confections. Not necessarily in that order.

Let’s Be Social:

You can find me on Facebook and Instagram @ChristinaRomerilWriter as well as at www.christinaromeril.com.  

#WriterWednesday Interview with Jackie Layton

I’m so excited to have the fabulous Jackie Layton on the blog today for #WriterWednesday. I love this series!

Favorite thing to do when you have free time: Go on a walk or watch a mystery on TV.

The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to do list: Cleaning the bathroom.

Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: Coffee or water, because I’m trying to drink more water.

Things that distract you from writing: The ding of text messages. I’m learning to leave my phone in another room on silent.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Marketing

Easiest thing about being a writer: Coming up with ideas

Favorite snacks: Brooks Dark Chocolate Acai & Blueberry flavored snacks

Things that make you want to gag: Collared greens.

Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: An author

Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: Write books

Favorite places you’ve been: I’ve enjoyed so many places I’ve traveled to. I dreamed of visiting France for most of my life and I loved every minute of that trip. Other top places on my list are Maine, Newport, RI, Kentucky, Tybee Island, Charleston, Savannah, and Waco, TX.

Places you never want to go to again: I’m usually a positive person and can’t think of a place I don’t want to visit again. I could name a specific hotel or Air B&B, but I don’t want to offend anyone.

Favorite things to do: Spending time with family and friends.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Giving a political speech.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: I moved to Georgia to attend pharmacy school when I really didn’t know anyone there.

Something you chickened out from doing: I don’t usually chicken out of big things, but I’ve been known to chicken out of a book club meeting where I barely know the people.

The coolest person you’ve ever met: Besides my husband, I met Vince Gill. He was so nice and the coolest person I ever met.

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: Seeing Luke Bryan in real life surprised me.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: I can’t wait for your next book to come out. I think of your characters as my friends.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: One lady nicely told me people in South Carolina only drink Pepsi. Most of my friends in South Carolina drink Coke. So, that confused me.

The funniest thing that happened to you on vacation: My husband and I went to Seville, Spain to visit our son who was there for school. We barely know any English, and we took a bus from the airport to the town. I thought I knew what our stop was called, and I thought the driver called it. My husband wasn’t sure that’s what the man said. Before we could quickly decide, the man drove away. Pulling off, I saw our son walk up to the stop. For some reason, our phones didn’t work, it was over 90 degrees, and I tried waving to Scott so he’d know we were on the bus. The next stop wasn’t like a block away. No, we turned a few times before he stopped again. So we hopped off with our luggage and trudged along the streets hoping for a miracle. Boy, were we happy to see Scott’s smiling face. He had a grin like only a child can give you when you mess up.

The most embarrassing thing that happened to you on a vacation: I cracked my ribs wake boarding with the kids in the ocean. Ouch.

Book Blurb:

When a client’s dog turns up missing and her husband turns up dead, Low Country dog walker Andi Grace Scott will have to rely on dogged determination to track down a killer . . .  

When a frantic client calls, worried about her dog, Andi Grace is happy to drop by the woman’s home and check in on her beloved pet. She’s initially concerned when she discovers the dog’s not in the house, but she’s out-and-out shocked to discover that the woman’s husband is—strangled to death in his office chair. On top of that, she soon finds a ransom note demanding a hefty sum for the dog’s safe return. Andi Grace knows better than to meddle in a murder investigation, but there’s no way she’s going to let a dognapper get away with it.

Unsure of whether the killer took the dog or if they were unrelated crimes, Andi Grace finds herself confounded from the start. More puzzling still is that the dog’s owner seems more upset about her missing pooch than her dead husband. Could the whole thing have been a setup? Did the woman murder her own husband and send Andi Grace to the house under false pretenses to discover the body? As sinister as that possibility may be, the trail of clues leads Andi Grace to uncover an even more nefarious scheme, and she knows she’ll have to tie up all the loose ends fast before the whole case goes to the dogs . . .

About Jackie:

Jackie Layton is the author of A Low Country Dog Walker Mystery series. She loves her life on the coast of South Carolina, and it inspired the setting for her series. Jackie also works as a compounding pharmacist. When she’s not writing, Jackie enjoys golf cart rides along the marsh and walks on the beach. She also enjoys traveling, especially to visit family in Kentucky and Texas.

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#WriterWednesday Interview with Sue Minix

I’m so excited to welcome Sue Minix to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

A few of your favorite things: I love chocolate in all forms, puppies, old movies, and reading mysteries.

Things you need to throw out: I need to throw out my VCR, the exercise bike I never use, and all the expired stuff in my medicine cabinet.

Things you need for your writing sessions: I need my laptop, coffee or herbal tea depending on the time of day, and my dog Sadie by my side in order to write anything at all.

Things that hamper your writing: Not having any of the above, forgetting to turn my phone off, somebody working in the yard.

Things you love about writing: I love creating the story and characters, plotting, and editing.

Things you hate about writing: I hate writing!!! It can take me an hour to come up with one good sentence. And then my editor makes me take it out.

Things you never want to run out of: Honestly, I hate to run out of anything. I keep backups of my backups.

Things you wish you’d never bought: The exercise bike I need to get rid of!

Favorite music or song: I love light rock and anything from the 60s or 70s.

Music that drives you crazy: Heavy metal because I can never understand the words.

Favorite beverage: It’s a tie between coffee and Mountain Dew Code Red

Something that gives you a sour face: Ginger tea

Favorite smell: My dogs paws. They smell like corn chips.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Blue cheese and gin. I can’t get past the smell to try either one of them.

The last thing you ordered online: I ordered a selfie tripod so I can take my own author photos.

The last thing you regret buying: That stupid exercise bike!!!

Favorite books (or genre): I love mysteries of all kinds.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Super heavy literary novels

Favorite things to do: I love to go hiking. It doesn’t matter where.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Cleaning my house. I can always think of something better to do.

The funniest thing to happen to you: I drove my car into my empty driveway one day and thought, “Oh my God! My car’s been stolen!!!”

The most embarrassing thing to happen to you: I once spent two hours searching a mall parking lot for the car I traded in the day before.

About Sue:

I'm a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, and when I'm not writing, you can find me reading, watching old movies, or hiking the New Mexico desert with my furry best friend.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: Home | Sue Minix Author

 Facebook: Sue Minix Author | Facebook

Instagram: Sue Minix (@sueminixauthor) • Instagram photos and videos

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Lois Winston

I’d like to welcome author Lois Winston back to the blog. Congratulations on your latest!

Favorite thing to do when you have free time: See a Broadway show. Unfortunately, since I recently moved nearly 1,000 miles from Manhattan. I’m going to have to find a new favorite thing to do the next time I have some free time.

The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to-do list: Housecleaning. Why is it that someone always spills something right after you’ve washed the kitchen floor?

Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: Coffee, coffee, and more coffee!

Things that distract you from writing: Emails, texts, and my husband. (Yeah, I know I should ignore them. Easier said than done. Especially the husband!)

Favorite snacks: Chocolate, pretzels, and ice cream. Not necessarily together but often all together.

Things that make you want to gag: Peanut butter.

Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: An astronaut.

Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: Write novels.

Something you wish you could do: Sing. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to hear me try.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Anything I can’t do well. I want to feel a sense of accomplishment whenever I learn to do something new.

Things to say to an author: I love all your books! When is the next one coming out?

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Oh, anyone can write those books. When are you going to write a real book?

Favorite places you’ve been: Manhattan, Italy, and Disneyworld (yeah, I’m a really just a kid at heart)

Places you never want to go to again: Anywhere with 100+ degrees heat and 100% humidity. (Disneyworld is far better in the winter, spring, and fall than in the summer!)

Best thing you’ve ever done: Learned to stand up for myself.

Biggest mistake: Allowing myself to be roped into living with my in-laws for six years.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Backpacked across Europe with a friend when we were in college.

Something you chickened out from doing: All rollercoasters or other thrill rides. (Yeah, I know I said I had wanted to be an astronaut, but that was before I ever rode a rollercoaster!)

The nicest thing a reader said to you: I once had a reader tell me my books had helped her get through a really difficult time because they’d made her laugh when all she had wanted to do was cry.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: A reader once gave me a 1-star review because my book was nothing like what Lee Child writes. Huh? I write humorous cozy mysteries. It’s no secret. All you have to do is look at the cover or read the back cover copy. Lee writes thrillers. Why would she expect my books to be anything like his?

Stitch, Bake, Die!

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 10

With massive debt, a communist mother-in-law, a Shakespeare-quoting parrot, and a photojournalist boyfriend who may or may not be a spy, crafts editor Anastasia Pollack already juggles too much in her life. So she’s not thrilled when her magazine volunteers her to present workshops and judge a needlework contest at the inaugural conference of the New Jersey chapter of the Stitch and Bake Society, a national organization of retired professional women. At least her best friend and cooking editor Cloris McWerther has also been roped into similar duties for the culinary side of the 3-day event taking place on the grounds of the exclusive Beckwith Chateau Country Club.

The sweet little old ladies Anastasia is expecting to meet are definitely old, and some of them are little, but all are anything but sweet. She’s stepped into a vipers’ den that starts with bribery and ends with murder. When an ice storm forces Anastasia and Cloris to spend the night at the Chateau, Anastasia discovers evidence of insurance scams, medical fraud, an opioid ring, long-buried family secrets, and a bevy of suspects.

Can she piece together the various clues before she becomes the killer’s next target?

Crafting tips included.

 Buy Links

Paperback https://amzn.to/2YiodcR

Kindle https://amzn.to/3ylMivw

Apple Books https://books.apple.com/us/book/stitch-bake-die/id1582066729

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/stitch-bake-die

Nook https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stitch-bake-die-lois-winston/1140036766;jsessionid=25A7F9659AD9C525D5EAB0BECCEA6D09.prodny_store02-atgap06?ean=2940162610267

About Lois:

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.

Let’s Be Social: 

Website: www.loiswinston.com

Newsletter sign-up: https://app.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z1z1u5

Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/anasleuth

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lois-winston

It's My Book Birthday!

My new cozy mystery series launches today with Level Best Books. Many thanks to Shawn, Verena, and Harriette!

There is nothing like finding a dead body, clad only in a red satin thong, on your property to jolt you from a quiet routine. Jules Keene, owner of the posh Fern Valley Camping Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is thrust into the world of the Dark Web when one of her guests, Ira Perkins, is found murdered in the woods near her vintage trailers. Jules quickly discovers that the man who claimed to be on a writing retreat was not what he seemed, and someone will go to any length to find what he left at her resort. Jules, along with her Jack Russell Terrier sidekick Bijou, has to put the rest of the missing pieces of a blackmailing scheme together before her business is ruined.

Jules’s resort, set in the heart of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains near Charlottesville in the quaint town of Fern Valley, offers guests a unique vacation in refurbished and upcycled vintage trailers. Hoping to expand her offerings, she partners with her maintenance/security guy to create a village of tiny houses, the latest home DIY craze, but a second murder of a reporter interrupts Jules’s expansion plans. Curiosity gets the best of her, and she steps up her sleuthing to find out what Ira Perkins was really up to and what he was really hiding at her resort.

Book Links:

Apple Books: ‎Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers on Apple Books

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GGBFWT5

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Vintage-Trailers-Blackmailers-Heather-Weidner/dp/1685120369

Barnes and Noble: Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers by Heather Weidner, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

Booktopia: Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers eBook by Heather Weidner | 9781685120375 | Booktopia

FNAC: Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers - Dernier livre de Heather Weidner - Précommande & date de sortie | fnac

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/vintage-trailers-and-blackmailers

Thalia: Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers von Heather Weidner - eBook | Thalia

#ThisorThatThursday Interview with Ellen Byron

I’d like to welcome one of my favorite mystery authors, Ellen Bryon, to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things: Books, my needlepoint projects, my doggy.

Things you need to throw out: So much I can’t even list it all! Our house could be on an episode of Hoarders.

Things you need for your writing sessions: my computer – desk or laptop; a printout of my notes; a Papermate Sharpwriter pencil.

Things that hamper your writing: the internet.

Things you love about writing: coming up with a great plot twist, a wonderful image, or a clever joke. Things you hate about writing: those moments or hours when none of the things mentioned above are coming to me.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Just doing it.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Pretending that “research” counts as writing!

Things you never want to run out of: Ideas.

Things you wish you’d never bought: Any item of clothing that didn’t fit when I bought it, but I bought anyway because it would fit when I “lost weight.”

Words that describe you: driven, generous, creative, funny.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: stubborn, obsessive, impatient, competitive.

Favorite foods: Pizza, spaghetti, sushi, cake, See’s chocolate.

Things that make you want to gag: Cilantro and anything coffee-flavored. Even See’s. If I bite into a piece of chocolate and it’s coffee-flavored, I not only spit it out, I rinse my mouth. I even hate coffee ice cream, which even non-coffee lovers seem to like.

Favorite music or song: “Get Down Tonight,” by KC and the Sunshine Band. I think it’s the best pop song ever written and no one will ever convince me otherwise. I live for all songs KC! My favorite band EVER. Music that drives you crazy: Slide guitar. It’s like nails on a chalk board to me.

Favorite beverage: Tea.

Something that gives you a sour face: Root beer. Blecch. And have I mentioned I hate coffee?

Favorite smell: roses.

Something that makes you hold your nose: garlic.

Something you wish you could do: go en pointe in ballet. Not having achieved this is one of my biggest regrets.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Needlepoint. It’s a very pricey hobby. But I do love it and it relaxes me.

Things you always put in your books: recipes, even though I’m not much of a cook.

Things you never put in your books: dead children or animals.

Favorite things to do: Write, dance, read, and needlepoint.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Clean. Some people clean to procrastinate from writing. I write to procrastinate from cleaning!

Most embarrassing moment: In high school, I played Duke Vincentio in an all-female production of Measure for Measure. The kid doing a costume change for me forgot to put out the pants for my costume, so I had to go onstage in just my tights. Thank God I at least had those on!

Proudest moment: Winning the Agatha Award for Mardi Gras Murder.

Best thing you’ve ever done: Have our daughter. Although there are days when both of us might not agree about this!

Biggest mistake: Turning down an overall deal from a studio that would have forced my then-TV writing partner and I to work on a show we didn’t like. In the end, we should have sucked it up and worked on the show because the deal would have had better long-term effects on our career.

The coolest person you’ve ever met: Martha Stewart, who I worked for as a cater-waiter when she was just starting out. You’ll find me standing next to Martha in a photo on page 29 of early editions of her first book, Entertaining.

The celebrity who didn’t look like he/she did in pictures/video: I’ve either written for or interviewed a ton of celebrities and honestly, they all looked like their photos. Sometimes they even look better, as in the case of a certain actress with the initials LL who was caught up in the college admissions scandal. I met with her on a possible project years ago and she was even prettier in person.

About Ellen:

Ellen’s Cajun Country Mysteries have won the Agatha award for Best Contemporary Novel and multiple Lefty awards for Best Humorous Mystery. Her new Catering Hall Mystery series, written as Maria DiRico, launched with Here Comes the Body, and was inspired by her real life. Her pen name was the maiden name of her late nonna, Maria DiVirgilio, a long-time Astoria resident. Ellen is an award-winning playwright, and non-award-winning TV writer of comedies like WINGS, JUST SHOOT ME, and FAIRLY ODD PARENTS. She has written over two hundred articles for national magazines but considers her most impressive credit working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart.

 Let’s be Social:

Newsletter:

Facebook - Ellen Byron:

Facebook - Catering Hall Mysteries

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/ellenbyronmariadirico/

Bookbub - Ellen Byron

Bookbub - Maria DiRico

Goodreads - Ellen Byron

Goodreads - Maria DiRico

Buy links  https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/647531/murder-in-the-bayou-boneyard-by-ellen-byron/

 https://www.amazon.com/s?k=murder+in+the+bayou+boneyard+a+cajun+country+mystery&crid=JGK2M6U6FKH&sprefix=murder+in+the+bayou%2Caps%2C202&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_8_19

#ThisorThatThursday Interview with Marilyn Levinson (Allison Brook)

I’d like to welcome Marilyn Levinson/Allison Brook to the blog today for #ThisorThatThursday. I am having so much fun reading her Haunted Library series.

A few of your favorite things: my books—read and unread, chocolate bark, mystery series in any format, dining out, doing crossword puzzles and Sudoku, visiting other countries

Things you need to throw out: Clothing I haven't worn in three years, linens I no longer use, kitchen utensils I no longer use

Things you need for your writing sessions: My computer, of course; my movable bumpy footrest, good lighting, silence

Things that hamper your writing: The zing of an incoming email, noise.

Things you love about writing: Typing away when it flows; finishing the book; getting emails and messages that someone's just read one of my books and loved it, communicating with my fellow writers and with readers.

Things you hate about writing: When the words don't flow

Hardest thing about being a writer: Your work is never done—there's always another book, more promotion to work on

Easiest thing about being a writer: Your workplace is in your home. Your world involving your Work In Progress; communicating with readers and other writers; your agent and publisher; and information and research are all at your fingertips.

Things you never want to run out of: ideas, books, British mystery shows, book contracts

Things you wish you’d never bought: a George Foreman rotisserie, a very large and complicated Cuisinart Food Processor

Favorite foods: pasta, Indian food, ice cream, honeyed nuts, cheese

Things that make you want to gag: drinking milk

Favorite beverage: white wine

Something that gives you a sour face: lemonade without sugar

Something you’re really good at: knitting, Sudoku, teaching

Something you’re really bad at: using crutches, adding things to my website

Things you always put in your books: relationships, secrets

Things you never put in your books: erotica, death of a child

Favorite places you’ve been: South of France, Machu Picchu, Paris, England

Places you never want to go to again: some small islands in the Caribbean

Favorite books (or genre): mysteries, good literature

Books you wouldn’t buy: erotica,

Things that make you happy: Seeing my grandchildren, getting good reviews, watching a good movie

Things that drive you crazy: parents who let their children run wild in public; unnecessary horn blowing

About Marilyn:

"I was a bookworm from the moment I learned how to read. I devoured Nancy Drews, Judy Boltons, and Trixie Beldons – sometimes two books in one day. Was it any wonder I ended up writing mysteries?

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, I dreamed of becoming a ballerina or a writer. I practiced my pirouettes and penned short stories. My family moved to Long Island, where I continued to write stories until I was discouraged by a high school English teacher. Turned off to writing, I continued to read voraciously in college and concentrated on my major, Spanish. I studied in Mexico and Spain, intent on becoming fluent in the language. I taught high school Spanish, married my dentist husband, and we started a family. When our two sons were small, I found myself drawn back to writing fiction.

A writer is a writer forever. We may have more than our share of disappointments, but the rewards are many – knowing you bring joy to readers; sharing the camaraderie and support of your fellow scribes. Writing is a way of life, one I wouldn’t relinquish for anything."

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Help Marilyn celebrate her new book at her Facebook Party on September 10 from 7-10 PM EDT.