FEATURED AUTHOR: MADDIE DAY

ABOUT THE BOOK

Despite the bitter winter in South Lick, Indiana, business is still hot at Robbie Jordan’s Country Store restaurant. But when another murder rattles the small town, can Robbie defrost the motives of a cold-blooded killer? Robbie and her friend Lou go snowshoeing and find a contentious academic frozen under the ice. Police suspect Lou might have killed him after their public tiff in Pans ‘N Pancakes the night before. To prove her friend’s innocence, Robbie absorbs local gossip about the professor’s past and develops her own thesis on the homicide—even if that means stirring up terrible danger for herself along the way.

INTERVIEW WITH MADDIE DAY

Maddie, do you have a writing routine?
I am at my desk and writing every day (except Sunday) at seven. I work all morning on creative stuff, either first draft or revisions, then take my power walk. After lunch I use the afternoon for the business end of being an author: writing guest posts, arranging events, and finances. 

What do you think is hardest aspect of writing a book?
The middle. The beginning is fun, and anything can happen. The end is exciting and it's satisfying to wrap up the story and make the puzzle work. But the middle? It's hard to get my arms around the first hundred pages, remember everything that happened, and still keep the story moving forward toward the end. I always despair, and I always get through it. But it's not easy for me.

How often do you read?
Daily, but sometimes I don't get through many pages. I love being on vacation or even after a surgery when I can read a book a day.

What is your writing style?
In this series, my style is light and funny. I love finding quirky Southern phrases for my police lieutenant, Buck Bird, to utter.

Well, if you like quirky Southern phrases, you just might like my Goose Pimple Junction series! What books do you currently have published?
This is my third Country Store Mystery. Writing as Edith Maxwell I have two historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries, with Called to Justice the most recent (and at least three more in the future), and four Local Foods Mysteries. Number five in the latter series, Mulch Ado About Murder, will release in late May.

Is writing your dream job?
Yes! I've been a writer all my life (journalism, academic writing, tech writing), but creating mystery fiction full time is the best job I've ever had.


What is the worst job you’ve ever had?
One summer in high school I went door-to-door with Fuller Brush catalogs. I hated it.  I don't like making cold calls, and even for a political candidate I adore I refuse to do door-to-door canvassing. I just can't. But I'll talk to a group of readers I don't know any day!

If you could only watch one television station for a year, what would it be?
Our local public television affiliate. But that's the only one I watch, anyway (and that, rarely).

How do you feel about Facebook?
My names are Maddie and Edith, and we're Facebook addicts. I love it! I like to keep up with friends, relatives on the other coast, fellow authors. I spend way too much time over there.

For what would you like to be remembered?
Besides being a great mom to two sons, I'd like to be remembered for taking my readers out of their worlds, giving them a great story to live in for a few days, and restoring justice to the fictional world by the end of the book.

What scares you the most?
You realize I make up scary stuff for a living, right? I have always had a way too vivid imagination. Any noise in our antique home at night, particularly when I'm alone, terrifies me. The stories get cranking in my brain far too easily.

I hear you. Would you make a good character in a book?
Maybe. I've been pretty adventurous in my life I've had a half dozen careers, lived in places like West Africa, Brazil, and Japan, and taken certain risks that others find amazing.

What do you love about where you live?
I love the history in my town, and that I can walk everywhere (and do).


What’s your favorite thing to do on date night?
Strolling a few blocks to our local bistro and having an excellent meal. We always split the chocolate hangover cake for dessert.


What’s your favorite beverage?
An excellent glass of red wine.

What is one of your happiest moments?
Gazing at my adult sons when they are both home together and cooking dinner, music on, jokes being exchanged, and the kitchen full of delectable smells. I never get enough of them.


What are you working on now?
I am writing the first Cozy Capers Book Group mystery, Murder on Cape Cod. I'm excited for this new series, and just got back from a solo writing retreat week on Cape Cod where the books are set, soaking up flavors, accents, and scenery.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

National best-selling author Edith Maxwell is a 2017 double Agatha Award nominee for her historical mystery Delivering the Truth and her short story, “The Mayor and the Midwife.” She writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and the Local Foods Mysteries; as Maddie Day she writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Her award-winning short crime fiction has appeared in many juried anthologies, and she is honored to served as president of Sisters in Crime New England. A fourth-generation Californian and former tech writer, farmer, and doula, Maxwell now writes, cooks, gardens, and wastes time as a Facebook addict north of Boston with her beau and three cats.



Connect with Maddie:
Website  |   Blog  |  Facebook  |  
Twitter  |  Goodreads  

Sales links:
Amazon

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