ABOUT THE BOOK
New release — Book 5 — Cold Cream Murders series.
Someone dear to Olive is found dead—toes up and barefooted—in Digby’s Bees lavender field. Olive and Lizzy team up with WonderDog to find the killer. Digby’s hives are home to the wondrous Soprano bees. The little buzzers are the source of the secret ingredient that powers their Nonna’s Cold Cream—a fountain of youth in a jar.
Finding the killer turns out to be more of a challenge as the gals protect Digby’s bees from a determined land developer who wants the beekeeper’s farm. The clock ticks as saving the honeybees becomes every bit as important as finding the murderer.
While Olive and Lizzy buzz about, Grams, nonagenarian ace reporter for the Silverfish Gazette, takes on the story of a diamond heist in nearby Sarasota. Can the gals protect Grams from another near catastrophe or can the feisty lady handle it alone?
Help the Cold Cream gals solve the mystery of the Lavender Toes while once again bailing Grams out of trouble. And what about those bees?
Every book comes with a recipe for a homemade beauty product.
Book Details:
Title: Lavender Toes
Author: Barbara Silkstone
Genre: cozy
Series: Cold Cream Murders, book 5
Published: December 1, 2019
Print length: 174 pages
On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours
IFs ANDs OR WHATs INTERVIEW WITH BARBARA SILKSTONE
IFs
If you could talk to someone (living), who would it be and what would you ask them?
John Cleese. I would ask him to talk to me in his lovely British accent for as long as he wants. Being extremely funny would be a plus.
If you could talk to someone (dead), who would it be and what would you ask them?
Oscar Wilde. He would probably chat away without being asked. I believe he did more with fewer words than anyone in the history of the English language. I might ask him what he thinks of the internet, Twitter, Facebook, contemporary fiction, and movies. Oops . . . also I’d ask if I could record him as no one would believe I’d actually chatted with him.
If you could live in any time period which would it be?
The Roaring Twenties! I would have a wardrobe like Miss Fisher’s—especially the hats. Oh, and her figure and athletic prowess. I can’t walk and chew gum without stumbling.
If you could step back into a moment or day in time, where would you go?
There is a cottage in Upper Slaughter (Cotswolds) that has an eerie effect on me. I have visited it many times over the years but can’t walk in front of it—my body freezes. I CAN walk behind it through an old churchyard. (Cue the music from Twilight Zone.) I would like to go back in time to understand the how or why of my feelings. I think I’d want to watch it from a distance, just in case.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
The Cotswolds!
ANDs
5 things you need in order to write:
• total quiet
• no interruptions
• identifying with the protagonist
• my screwball sense of humor
and
• my computer (my handwriting has become illegible).
5 things you love about writing:
• I am able to revisit funny incidents in my past
• I love the many thankful messages I receive from readers who have been lifted up and lightened from my writings
• I love doing the research required to set my protagonists in a pickle and see them get out
• I enjoy getting up early every morning and surprising myself with ideas that weren’t there the night before
and
• I love the sense of giving birth to each new book. I’ve done it over forty times and each time is like the first time.
5 words to describe you:
• always smiling
• sometimes caring too much
• the queen of leaping before looking
• dental floss addict
and
• cat lover.
5 things you always put in your books:
• humor
• feel-goods
• optimism
• double entendres
and
• hidden references that make readers think twice.
5 favorite books:
• Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Illusions by Richard Bach
• H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
• Ghosts by Marsha Parker
and
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.
5 living people you’d like to invite to dinner:
• John Cleese
• Walton Goggins
• Andrew Scott
• Ryan Gosling
and
• Jude Law.
WHATs
What’s your all-time favorite place?
Upper Slaughter in the Cotswolds.
What’s your all-time favorite memory?
Being the new kid in a Catholic school. I was forced to stand in front of the class while the 5th grade nun introduced me. Every student was dressed in navy blue uniforms with black and white saddle shoes. We were poor and my mother dressed me in a second-hand light green, organdy dress and scuffed red oxford shoes. I wanted to disappear through the floor. After class Pat came up to me and said, “I’d like to be your friend.” That was eons ago and we remain lifetime best friends.
Pat: “When I saw you standing in front of the class I knew I had to be your friend.”
What’s your all-time favorite movie?
Rob Roy with Liam Neeson.
What’s your all-time favorite city?
London.
What’s one thing that very few people know about you?
I can’t bear holes in fabric. I’m really phobic about it.
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
People who have lost their compassion. It’s more than a peeve with me.
What’s the loveliest sight you’ve ever seen?
The Scottish Highlands.
What’s your favorite time of day?
Early morning when the world is still.
What’s your favorite song?
“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang “ and “A Sleepin’ Bee.”
What’s your favorite ice cream?
Butter Pecan.
What’s your favorite quote?
Sometimes the journey you set out on is not the one you return from.
The quote is from my book Wendy and the Lost Boys – Book 1 in my Wendy Darlin series.
What’s your favorite color?
Green.
What’s one thing you never leave the house without?
Cell phone and my shoes. I think I have a shoe-thing going on. References to shoes show up in most of my novels. Maybe it has to do with those ugly red oxford shoes in 5th grade?
What drives you crazy?
People who hurt other people. There is never a reason to be cruel or unkind.
What is the wallpaper on your computer’s desktop?
Sky and clouds.
What do you know now that you wish you knew then?
I wish I knew that not every wrong decision can be corrected and that there is no do-over button in life. I was naïve about many of the choices I made.
What movie genre do you prefer?
Cozy and Victorian mysteries.
What is your obsession?
French Market Coffee with chicory, and dental floss.
What are your idiosyncrasies?
I can’t stand getting my face wet, and I am horrified by holes in fabric.
What author would you most like to review one of your books?
Neil Gaiman.
What book are you currently working on?
Book 6 in my Cold Cream Murders series.
What’s your latest recommendation for:
Food: it used to be Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken but I ate it too often. Now I’m not allowed.
Music: anything by Queen – it’s timeless.
Movie: Rob Roy with Liam Neeson. It’s old but it’s still a favorite flick for my kitty and me.
Book: The Invention of Wings.
Audiobook: Where the Crawdads Sing.
Amazon Prime: Spirited (love this show).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Barbara Silkstone is the author of the Cold Cream Murders cozies, also the Florence Nightingale Comedy Mystery Series, light-hearted Victorian capers.
Silkstone is also the author of the best selling Mister Darcy series of comedic mysteries ~ 9 books~ plus an additional 10 Regency novels and novellas, all with a light, humorous touch.
Please check out her Wendy Darlin Comedy Mysteries – 5 Cozy Capers.
Connect with Barbara:
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Buy the book:
Amazon
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