FEATURED AUTHOR: ANNETTE DASHOFY

ABOUT THE BOOK

Paramedic and deputy coroner Zoe Chambers responds to a shooting and discovers her longtime friend, Horace Pavelka, has gunned down a man who’d bullied him mercilessly for decades. Ruled self-defense, no charges are filed. When another of his tormentors turns up dead in Horace’s kitchen, Police Chief Pete Adams questions the man’s innocence in both cases…especially after Horace and his girlfriend go into hiding.



While fighting to clear her friend, Zoe is handed the opportunity to finally learn what really happened to her long-lost sibling. What starts out as a quick road trip on a quest for answers leads her to an unfamiliar city in the middle of a November blizzard, where she finds way more trouble than she bargained for.



Pete’s own search for his missing fiancée and a missing murderer ultimately traps him in a web of deception. Face-to-face with one of the most cunning and deadly killers of his law enforcement career, Pete realizes too late that this confrontation may well be his last.



Book Details:


Title: Under the Radar

Author: Annette Dashofy

Genre: cozy mystery 


Series: Zoe Chambers Mystery, book 9


Publisher: Henery Press (February 25, 2020)


Print length: 288 pages

On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours


IFs ANDs OR WHATs INTERVIEW WITH ANNETTE DASHOFY

IFs


If you could be anything besides a writer, what would it be?
My first reaction is to say a writing instructor, because I do teach workshops from time to time as a side gig. But that feels like a cheat. My second choice would be yoga instructor, but I’ve already done that, so again, cheat! If I had to pick something completely different, I think I’d like to be a house flipper. I’ve become addicted to HGTV and love those shows! Of course, I have no design or construction skills, so I’d probably go bankrupt on my first attempt!

If you had to do community service, what would you choose?
I already do some volunteer work with the Alzheimer’s Association, a cause near and dear to my heart. My dad died of complications from Alzheimer’s, and my mom had vascular dementia. I help on their Caregiver’s Conference planning committee every year. I’ve also thought I’d like to help with Meals on Wheels. I remember as a kid visiting my cousin in the summer, I rode around with her and her mom, delivering meals to shut ins. It felt very gratifying.

If you were on the Amazon bestseller list, who would you choose to be one before and one below you?
I’m fortunate in that I have been! I even was on the same line as James Patterson once. I have a screen capture of that somewhere on my computer.


If you could meet any author for coffee, who would you like to meet and what would you talk about?
Craig Johnson. I’m a total fangirl of his writing and while I’ve met him several times, I’ve never been able to sit down for a nice chat with him. I’d like to pick his brain about his books, his characters, the setting. Basically, I’d completely geek out on him.

If you could choose a fictional town to live in what would it be and from what book?
Durant, Wyoming, from Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series. (See my fangirl comment above!)


If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
My husband is nearing retirement age, so this is something we discuss. I love Colorado, New Mexico, and Florida, but I have a hard time narrowing it down. Colorado’s too cold in the winter, Florida’s too hot in the summer, New Mexico dries out my skin. I really think I’d like to travel around and follow the good weather!




ANDs


5 favorite possessions:

    •    my framed photo of our family farm taken in the early 1900s
    •    my antique mantle clock from the same farm
    •    a quilt I made that I’m especially proud of
    •    my very comfortable office chair
and
    •    my Subaru Forester

5 things you love about where you live: 

    •    Spring with all the flowers and buds and warm breezes
    •    our property with its woods and creek and lots of privacy
    •    the green of summer
    •    early autumn when the humidity gives way to a touch of crispness
and
    •    my view of rolling farmland outside of my office window

5 favorite foods: 

    •    pizza
    •    chile rellenos
    •    palak paneer
    •    chocolate
and
    •    peach pie

5 things you always put in your books:
    •    horses
    •    cats
    •    coffee
    •    a dead body 
and
    •    cops

5 favorite places you’ve been: 

    •    New Mexico
    •    New Orleans
    •    Long Beach, California
    •    St. Petersburg, Florida
and
    •    Durango, Colorado

5 favorite things to do: 
    •    ride horses
    •    read
    •    travel
    •    have coffee or lunch with a friend
and
    •    sleep!

WHATs

What’s your all-time favorite movie?
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?
People who block the aisles in the grocery store.

What’s the most beautiful sound you’ve heard? 

Tie between the chirps of spring peepers (frogs) and the whinny of a baby colt because both mean spring to me.

What’s your all-time favorite picture of yourself?
Me and my beloved old mare, Jenny.


What’s your favorite time of day?
Morning. Oddly, it’s also my least favorite time of day depending on A.) how well I’ve slept and B.) if I’ve had coffee yet!

What’s your favorite song?
Yesterday, by the Beatles. It’s been my favorite song since I was very young. The simplicity and emotion of the piece continues to earn it a top spot in my heart.

What’s your favorite snack?
Potato chips.

What’s your favorite dessert?
Peach pie.

What’s your all-time favorite place you’ve visited?
Durango, New Mexico.

What’s your favorite beverage?
Coffee.

What’s your favorite ice cream?
Chocolate followed closely by pralines and cream.

What’s your favorite hobby or past-time?
Horseback riding.

What’s your favorite thing to do when there’s nothing to do?
Read, of course!

What’s your favorite movie snack?
Popcorn with lots of butter.

What’s your favorite social media site?
Definitely Facebook with Instagram becoming a close second.

What’s your favorite color?
Turquoise.


What is the wallpaper on your computer’s desktop?
Currently, it’s a shot I took at Presque Isle, Lake Erie.


What is your obsession?
HGTV, especially Chip and Joanna on Fixer Upper.



What book are you currently working on?
Til Death, the 10th in my Zoe Chambers Series.

What’s your all-time favorite place in your town?
I don’t live in town, so can I pick my favorite place on our farm? The creek that runs behind our pasture. As soon as we start having warm days in spring, I head down there to listen to the peaceful babbling of the water, to search for green sprouts, and to just relax.

What’s your latest recommendation for:
Food: Chile rellenos at Rubio’s in Aztec, New Mexico.
Music: anything by Christian Kane. (I’m hoping he puts out some new music soon!)
Book: The Enemy We Don’t Know, by Liz Milliron (first in a new series and it’s AWESOME).
Audiobook: I’m currently listening to Rhys Bowen’s The Tuscan Child, and love it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

USA Today bestselling author Annette Dashofy has spent her entire life in rural Pennsylvania surrounded by cattle and horses. When she wasn't roaming the family's farm or playing in the barn, she could be found reading or writing. After high school, she spent five years as an EMT on the local ambulance service, dealing with everything from drunks passing out on the sidewalk to mangled bodies in car accidents. These days, she, her husband, and their spoiled cat, Kensi, live on property that was once part of her grandfather's dairy.



Her Zoe Chambers mystery series includes five Agatha Award nominees including Circle of Influence, Bridges Burned, No Way Home, Cry Wolf, and Fair Game. The ninth in the series, Under The Radar, comes out February 25, 2020.

Connect with Annette:
Facebook  |  Twitter  |   Instagram  |   BookBub  |  Pinterest

Buy links:
Amazon  |   Barnes & Noble  |   Buy Indy

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GUEST POST BY ANNETTE DASHOFY

ABOUT THE BOOK

A relaxing trail ride turns tragic when Paramedic and Deputy Coroner Zoe Chambers discovers the body of a popular county commissioner in her Pennsylvania woods. Inconsistencies surround the horrible accident, but before she can investigate further, she’s pried away by a plea for help from her best friend whose son has been deemed a person of interest in a homicide over a thousand miles away. When he vanishes without a trace, his mother begs Zoe to help clear him and bring him safely home. The task takes Zoe out of her comfort zone in a frantic trip to the desolate canyons and bluffs of New Mexico where she joins forces with the missing boy’s sister and a mysterious young Navajo.

Back at home, Vance Township’s Chief of Police Pete Adams must deal not only with the commissioner’s homicide, but with an influx of meth and a subsequent rash of drug overdoses in his rural community. Bodies keep turning up while suspects keep disappearing. However little else matters when he learns that half a continent away, a brutal killer has Zoe in his sights.

GUEST POST BY ANNETTE DASHOFY

Welcome to Book Five

As I was preparing to start this blog tour, I reached out to my readers on Facebook and asked them what topics they would like me to write about. A great many of the responses contained questions about the problems of being five books into a series.

There are definitely pros and cons about writing the fifth (actually sixth now) book as opposed to writing the first. Or writing standalones. When I was on books two and three (Lost Legacy and Bridges Burned), I was focused on the pros. I already had a base cast of characters and a setting. I didn’t have to work out their backgrounds or create a new world in which they would live. This gave me a huge jump start. Plus I like Zoe and Pete, Sylvia, Wayne, Nate, Earl, and all the rest of the regulars. I enjoy spending time in their heads.

However, there are definitely a few problems that no one tells you about in the writing workshops and how-to books, most of which focus on getting that FIRST book published.

For starters: reintroducing these characters. Over and over again. I know them. My regular readers know them. But there are those readers who pick up the third or fourth or fifth book first. They don’t know the characters or the setting. How do I introduce Zoe and Pete and the gang to the newbies without boring those who are already familiar with them?

My method has been to keep it simple. Start the action early and let the new readers meet everyone on the fly. I’ll drop a mention of their occupations at the first opportunity, but then allow the new reader to learn by tagging along. A bit of back story here. A memory of something that happened a few months ago there.

I should mention, I have a fabulous editorial team who help me immensely with this. They point out when I haven’t properly introduced a recurring secondary character. Usually I could swear I have, but when I go back and reread my manuscript . . . oops.

The trickiest part is with characters who had been suspects in previous books. If you see “Joe” running the local diner in book four and then go back and see him as a prime suspect in book two, the red herring factor is ruined. Other than having a lot of transients in town, showing up, being suspects, and then moving on, I don’t know of a good answer. I do send a lot of earlier suspects away, never to be heard from again. But some of them come back. I guess I hope other readers are as forgetful as I am and don’t realize they’ve seen that guy before. Plus I try to have a number of other red herring characters who don’t show up again. It’s definitely tricky.

My editors help here too. Early on I had a character just vanish without explanation. I received a note on my manuscript: “What happened to Rose?”

That question actually triggered this fifth book, No Way Home. Rose, Zoe’s best friend, had vanished by the time the second book came out. I knew she’d taken her kids out west to recover, but wasn’t going to mention it. However, since my editor asked, I added a line about the trip out west in Lost Legacy. And again in Bridges Burned. All the while, I was hatching a plan to follow up on that throw-away explanation.

It helps that I love the west. It also helps that my best friend lives in New Mexico and opens her home to me whenever I can get out there for a visit.

I mean “research trip.”

The result? In No Way Home, Rose begs Zoe to fly to New Mexico with her to find out what has happened to Rose’s missing son and his girlfriend. Reluctantly, Zoe travels over a thousand from her comfort zone (and from her budding romance with Pete) to be plunged into a foreign world of canyons, bluffs, and one mysterious—and potentially deadly—Navajo.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Annette Dashofy is the USA Today best-selling author of the Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township. Circle of Influence, published by Henery Press, was a finalist for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and for the David Award for Best Mystery of 2014. Lost Legacy, was released in September 2014 followed in April 2015 by Bridges Burned, which has been nominated for the Agatha for Best Contemporary Novel. With a Vengeance, the fourth in the series, was released May 3, 2016.




Connect with Annette:

Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter 
 
Buy the book:
Amazon   |  Barnes & Noble

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GUEST POST BY ANNETTE DASHOFY

ABOUT THE BOOK

Paramedic Zoe Chambers and the rest of rural Monongahela County’s EMS and fire personnel are used to wading into the middle of trouble to rescue the sick and the injured. But when someone with an ax to grind seeks retribution by staging accident scenes and gunning down the first responders, Zoe finds herself forced to not only treat her own brethren of the front lines, but also, in her role as deputy coroner, seek out whoever is killing her friends.

At the same time, Vance Township Police Chief Pete Adams races to track down a gun, a mysterious all-terrain vehicle, and the sniper before Zoe goes back on duty, placing herself—and Pete—firmly in the gunman’s crosshairs.

Related subjects include: cozy mysteries, women sleuths, murder mystery series, whodunit mysteries (whodunnit), book club recommendations, audio books for download, police procedurals series, amateur sleuth books.

Books in the Zoe Chambers Mystery Series:
• Circle Of Influence (#1)

• Lost Legacy (#2)

• Bridges Burned
(#3)

• With A Vengeance (#4)

GUEST POST BY ANNETTE DASHOFY

A Little Murder, A Little Romance

I once tried my hand at writing romantic suspense. That pitiful effort is filed away on a CD somewhere, never to see the light of day again. It soon became apparent to me that I don’t “do” romance. I kill people. It’s so much more fun!

Except . . . I guess I do do romance.

When I started writing the Zoe Chambers mystery series, I had Zoe and Chief of Police Pete Adams set up to be friends. Both sucked at relationships, so I imagined them as being attracted to one another, but determined to remain just friends. Romantic tension. Nothing more.

Then The Kiss happened. It was one of those scenes that took me by surprise as I wrote it. Wow. I didn’t see that coming. Neither did some of my beta readers of an early draft. Too out-of-the-blue, they said. So I went back and added a few hints that these two liked each other. Still, they resisted the idea of being a couple. I write murder mysteries, not romance. Right?

In the second book, I introduced Harry Adams, Pete’s father who suffers early stage Alzheimer’s. The disease frequently leaves him at a loss to come up with someone’s name, and he’s lost his ability to edit his thoughts before speaking, but not to see some things darned clearly. He’s the one who asks Pete “When are you gonna marry that girl?”

But I think the moment I realized just how much readers were vested in Pete and Zoe as a couple came when I attended an event for another author. The bookstore owner pointed me out in the crowd prior to the author’s arrival. At that point, a bearded gentleman wearing camo and a ball cap covered in fishing lures trudged up to me and gruffly demanded to know, “When are Pete and Zoe gonna get together?”

First off, this guy was not whom I pictured as my target audience. Secondly, if he was hooked by Pete and Zoe’s romance-that-wasn’t-a-romance, what were my female readers thinking?

The third book in the series, Agatha nominated Bridges Burned, Zoe’s eye wanders just a bit. She finds herself attracted to another man, but doesn’t act on it. I got my most scathing review ever. Reading between the lines, I finally figured out, this reviewer was mad at Zoe for her treatment of Pete in the book!

Wow.

I told you, I write murder mysteries. Not romance.

Anyhow, in With a Vengeance, there are no outside attractions, and Pete and Zoe are on stronger footing as a couple, deeply concerned about the danger they each face with a sniper who’s killing emergency responders in Vance Township. And they end up in a very interesting place.

You’ll have to read the book to find out where.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Annette Dashofy is the USA Today best-selling author of the Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township. Circle Of Influence, published by Henery Press, was a finalist for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and for the David Award for Best Mystery of 2014. Lost Legacy, was released in September 2014 followed in April 2015 by Bridges Burned, which has been nominated for the Agatha for Best Contemporary Novel. With A Vengeance, the fourth in the series, will be available May 3.

Connect with Annette:
Website  |  blog  |   Facebook  |  Twitter 

Buy the book:
Amazon   |   Henery Press

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Featured Author: Annette Dashofy

About the book

Paramedic Zoe Chambers is used to saving lives, but when she stops a man from running into a raging inferno in a futile attempt to rescue his wife, Zoe finds herself drawn to him, and even more so to his ten-year-old daughter. She invites them both to live at the farm while the grieving widower picks up the pieces of his life.

Vance Township Police Chief Pete Adams, of course, is not happy with this setup, especially when he finds evidence implicating Zoe's new houseguest in murder times two. When Zoe ignores Pete's dire warnings, she runs the very real chance of burning one too many bridges, losing everything--and everyone--she holds dear.

Interview with Annette Dashofy


Annette, what’s the story behind the title Bridges Burned?
Besides the obvious series of fires that take place in the story, several of the characters cross lines that may or may not burn some bridges behind them. I’d been toying with variations of Burned Bridges, Burning Bridges, etc., when one of my critique partners, Jeff Boarts, who we tease because he frequently breaks into Yoga-Speak, suggested flopping the title around. I loved it and so did my editor. Hence: Bridges Burned.

Tell us about your series. Is this book a standalone, or do readers need to read the series in order?
The Zoe Chambers mystery series is set in rural southwestern Pennsylvania. Zoe is a paramedic and deputy coroner which places her in the heart of the action, dealing with life and death. She has a sort-of love interest with Pete Adams, a Pittsburgh police officer turned small town chief of police. While there are threads (such as the Pete/Zoe relationship) that continues and grows throughout the series, the books can be read out of order without the reader becoming lost.

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania on a farm very much like the one where Zoe lives. In fact, I still live on ten acres of what used to be my grandparents’ 150 acre dairy farm.

What do you love about where you live?
I love being surrounded on three sides by nothing but pasture and woods. Living a half hour’s drive from anywhere worth going can be an inconvenience, but after spending time in the city, I need that drive to decompress. I’ll always be a farm girl at heart.



Have you been in any natural disasters?
Only if you consider the flood created by Hurricane Ivan. We’re well inland, so we didn’t get the brunt of the storm, but I sat in my house watching our little creek, which is ordinarily about three-feet across and a couple hundred yards behind my house, turn into a raging river that tore out all our fences and came within twenty-five feet or so from my back door. Our road was washed out both north and south of us, so if I’d had to evacuate, I wouldn’t have been able to drive out.


What makes you excited?
An invitation by one of my horsey friends to go riding! Hint hint.

How did you meet your husband?
I was working at a local western shop and he was one of those guys who comes in and picks up the salesgirls!

Was it love at first site?
Honestly, no. After our first date, I remember telling my mom I liked him as someone to hang out with, but didn’t think it would become anything serious. That was thirty-five years ago!

If you could only save one thing from your house, what would it be?
My cat. Provided my husband was okay. Or maybe I’d give him the cat and I’d grab my laptop!

Would you rather be a lonely genius, or a sociable idiot?
Ha! I’m an introvert, so “sociable” isn’t a great draw. Definitely a lonely genius!

If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
New Mexico. Or Colorado. I grew up watching westerns with my dad and fell in love with the “wild west.” I finally traveled there a couple of years ago and, like John Denver’s song, Rocky Mountain High, I felt like I was “coming home to a place I’d never been before.” I went back last fall and am planning a third trip.

How did you create the plot for this book?
There had been a natural gas explosion near here and sadly, a young girl died in the fire. Early news reports suggested the explosion and death hadn’t been accidental. Those reports were quickly proven false, but they made me wonder, what if . . . After some research, I had my story.

Who are your favorite authors?
Craig Johnson, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Hank Phillippi-Ryan, and Lisa Scottoline. Not in any particular order.


What book are you currently reading and in what format (e-book/paperback/hardcover)? I’m currently reading my fellow Agatha Award nominees for Best First Novel. I read Finding Sky by Susan O’Brien on my Nook, and I have Tracy Weber’s Murder Strikes a Pose on my e-reader, too. I’m reading the paperbacks of Tagged for Death by Sherry Harris and Well Read, Then Dead by Terrie Farley Moran.


Do you have a routine for writing?
I wish. My “dream” routine, which happens about once, maybe twice a week, is to write all morning, then spend the afternoon on other writing business or promotional stuff. But more often than not, I have to spend the day with my mom, so I do an early morning writing “sprint,” just to keep the forward progress going.

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?
As I mentioned, I usually prefer to write in the morning. I have an office in my home where I’m most productive, but my husband and I have a small camp on the Youghiogheny River in Confluence, PA. During weekends in April through September, he fly fishes all day and I write. Since I don’t have any other obligations when we’re there, I get a LOT of work done.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received about your writing?
An older gentlemen recently emailed and told me, like Pete, he’d fallen in love with Zoe! That was just about the sweetest thing any fan has ever said to me!

That is a great compliment! Where is your favorite library, and what do you love about it?
My little local library, because my folks took me there as a youngster. It was in that small building that I discovered my love of books and of writing. Mom always thought I’d become a librarian, but I took a similar, but different path!

What would your dream office look like?
Oh, great question. My current office is small and cluttered. I would love one with lots of storage space and even more bookshelves with a neat desk and the one thing I don’t have right now—a comfortable reading corner IN my office.

Why did you decide to publish with Henery Press?
I’d been trying the agent route for a number of years. I had two different agents for another series, which didn’t sell, and parted company with both of them. I was at that point of constantly hearing “she’s on the cusp of being published,” but couldn’t quite make it happen. I finally decided, after over ten years of beating my head on the publishing wall, to give myself some deadlines. I would query Circle of Influence to agents for six months. If nothing happened, I would shop it around to some presses. If still nothing happened, I was going to self publish it . . . and probably give in to my husband’s nagging to get a real job. No agents showed any interest, but ten days after I submitted to Henery Press, they offered me a three-book contract. I’ve loved every moment with them.

What are you working on now?
Bridges Burned is the third of that three-book contract, but I’ve since signed with Henery Press for three more Zoe Chambers mysteries. I’m currently working on the fourth in the series.

About the author

Annette Dashofy is the Agatha nominated and USA Today best selling author of the Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township. Circle of Influence (Henery Press) was published in March 2014, followed by Lost Legacy, which was released in September 2014, and Bridges Burned, available in April 2015. Her short fiction includes a 2007 Derringer Award nominee featuring the same characters as her novels.

Connect with Annette:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads  |   Amazon  |  Pinterest