FEATURED CHARACTER: MADDIE DAY'S ROBBIE JORDAN

ABOUT THE BOOK



Robbie Jordan’s rustic country store is growing in popularity. But when a dead body appears, it turns out that Robbie’s home-style cooking attracts hungry customers—and murder!

While Robbie scrambles through breakfast orders for her expanding clientele at Pans ‘N Pancakes, tempers run as high as the sticky August heat in South Lick, Indiana. Real-estate developer Fiona Closs plans to build a towering luxury resort at one of the most scenic hilltops in Brown County, and not everyone can see the sunny side of the imposing proposition—including Robbie’s furious Aunt Adele, who doesn’t waste a minute concocting protests and road blockades. When tensions boil over and a vocal protester is silenced forever at the resort site, Robbie ditches the griddle to catch the killer. But if slashed tires are any indication, she’ll need to crack this case before her own aunt gets served something deadly next . . .

Includes Recipes for you to try!



Book Details:


Title: Strangled Eggs and Ham

Author: Maddie Day


Genre: cozy mystery


Series: A Country Store Mystery, book 6


Publisher: Kensington (June 25, 2019)


Print length: 304 pages

On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours





GUEST POST BY MADDIE DAY’S ROBBIE JORDAN



Hey, there. This is Robbie Jordan, and I thought I’d tell you a little about myself.

People always ask why in heck I moved from Santa Barbara – the American Riviera, according to the Chamber of Commerce – to southern Indiana. Well, I had a pretty rotten ex-husband whom I married right out of college. I really needed a change of scenery after the divorce, and when my mom suggested I go visit Aunt Adele and see if I could find a job cooking, I jumped all over it. Sure I miss the Pacific, but Brown County is a sweet spot to live in. And it's not like the ocean went anywhere. I can always go back for a swim and lungfuls of salt air.

After my mom died (sniff) and I inherited some money, I was able to buy a country store full of antique cookware, which I now sell. I fixed up the place, doing the work myself, into a breakfast and lunch restaurant and named it Pans ‘N Pancakes. Corny, I know, but it’s become the community watering hole and I couldn’t be happier. I also created a few B&B rooms upstairs.

What do I do to relax? I've been doing puzzles since before I can remember. Words, their meanings, their shapes, it's always seemed like magic to me. I was a really early reader, and I've never seen a crossword grid I didn't want to solve. I’m also a cycling enthusiast. In Santa Barbara, it’s biking weather all year round, and even in the hottest days of summer and early fall you get a sea breeze. Everybody rides their bikes. Plus, environmentally it's a no-brainer  – you save the atmosphere and get your exercise at the same time.

We’re have a super hot August this year, and tempers are kind of steamy, too. Sadly, one of my B&B guests didn’t make it out alive. Adele seems to have gotten herself into a mess with protesting this new development going up. It’s already a dangerous mess, and I’m worried about her.

Gotta run – it’s time to flip some pancakes. Hope you stop by the store sometime. Be sure to say hi when you do!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Maddie Day writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. As Edith Maxwell, she writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, and award-winning short crime fiction. With eighteen novels in print and five more in production, Maxwell has been nominated for an Agatha Award six times. She lives north of Boston with her beau and two elderly cats, and gardens and cooks when she isn’t killing people on the page or wasting time on Facebook.

Connect with Maddie:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook ( Edith Maxwell)  |  Facebook (Maddie Day)  |  Twitter ( Edith)  |  Twitter (Maddie)  |  Goodreads  |  Instagram 

Buy the book:
Amazon   |  Barnes & Noble

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CHARACTER INTERVIEW WITH MADDIE DAY'S ROBBIE JORDAN

ABOUT THE BOOK

For country-store owner Robbie Jordan, the National Maple Syrup Festival is a sweet escape from late-winter in South Lick, Indiana—until murder saps the life out of the celebration . . .

As Robbie arranges a breakfast-themed cook-off at Pans ‘N Pancakes, visitors pour into Brown County for the annual maple extravaganza. Unfortunately, that includes Professor Connolly, a know-it-all academic from Boston who makes enemies everywhere he goes—and this time, bad manners prove deadly. Soon after clashing with several scientists at a maple tree panel, the professor is found dead outside a sugar shack, stabbed to death by a local restaurateur’s knife. When an innocent woman gets dragged into the investigation and a biologist mysteriously disappears, Robbie drops her winning maple biscuits to search for answers. But can she help police crack the case before another victim is caught in a sticky situation with a killer?

Book details:

Title: Biscuits and Slashed Browns (A Country Store Mystery)

Author: Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell)
Genre: Cozy foodie mystery, 4th in series

Setting: Indiana

Publisher: Kensington (January 30, 2018)

Paperback: 292 pages

Touring with: Great Escapes Book Tours

ABOUT THE CHARACTER

Robbie (Roberta) Jordan is a twenty-eight year old chef and carpenter living in South Lick, Indiana. She was born in Santa Barbara, California, but has now lived in Indiana for nearly five years. She learned carpentry from her late mother, Jeanine, and used her skills to renovate an old country store into a breakfast and lunch restaurant. She was briefly married but it didn’t work out. Her father is an Italian professor, Roberto Fracasso, who lives in Pisa.

INTERVIEW WITH MADDIE DAY'S ROBBIE JORDAN

Robbie, how did you first meet Maddie? 
I met her back in 2014 when she started writing about me.

Want to dish about her?
She seems to like to complicate my life, which isn’t really fair. On the other hand, she’s a really disciplined writer, and she loves where I live.

Why do you think that your life has ended up being in a book?
No idea! It’s crazy, isn’t it?

Did you have a hard time convincing Maddie to write any particular scenes for you?
At one point I really want to go search in the woods for a missing guy. She kept saying, you have to have someone with you! I tried everybody, and finally convinced my friend Phil to keep me company. But when he had car trouble and couldn’t make it, I told her I had to go anyway.

What do you like to do when you are not being actively read somewhere?
I love a good hilly bike ride almost as much as I like a really challenging crossword puzzle!

Tell the truth. What do you think of your fellow characters?
I adore my Aunt Adele, and have grown fond of Lieutenant Buck Bird, with his folksy speech and infinitely large appetite. My hunky boyfriend Abe O’Neill isn’t bad, either, and I don’t know what I’d do without my young co-chef Danna Beedle.

Do have any secret aspirations that Maddie doesn’t know about?
I love listening to opera – my dad is Italian, after all – and I’d love to take voice lessons some day so I could sing along better. Maddie has no idea!

If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?
I’d ride my bike to the lake (in the summer) with a cozy mystery and a beer in my saddlebag.



Tell us about your best friend.
Lou Perlman is my bff. We ride together, and can talk about anything. She’s super smart, about to get her PhD in sociology, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t also full of fun. 



What are you most afraid of?
I’m afraid of losing any more family. I already lost my mom, and only found my father recently. I don’t have any siblings – well, except for my Italian half-sister and half-brother – and I’m terrified that something bad will happen to Adele or to Roberto, my father.



What’s Maddie’s worst habit?
Frankly, she’s not the best housekeeper around. I guess because she writes three books a year she just doesn’t have time.



How do you feel about your life right now?
I love my life. I’m happy with Abe, my store and restaurant are doing well, and living in a small town like South Lick is the best. I’d rather not run across any other dead bodies or encounter any more murderers, though.

Describe the town where you live. 
South Lick is a small town nestled in the hills of southern Indiana. We have a lovely century-old Town Hall and library, and several Art Deco buildings. The town used to have a mineral springs spa – the “lick” in the name refers to the minerals in the water – and a casino back in the early 1900s. I can walk nearly everywhere and also get out onto country roads within minutes. It’s perfect.

Describe an average day in your life.
I get up and run the restaurant five or six days a week until we close at two-thirty. I play with my tuxedo cat Birdy, go for a bike ride, and do a puzzle if I don’t have a dinner date with Abe.

What makes you stand out from any other characters in your genre?
I’m a Californian transplanted to the Midwest, and I don’t know of any other cozy protagonists who love cooking, carpentry, and crosswords like I do.

Will you encourage your author to write a sequel?
You bet! She’s already written the fifth and sixth books in the series, and she’s hoping for a contract extension for more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Maddie Day is a talented amateur chef and holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-nominated author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and three cats in Massachusetts.

As Edith Maxwell, she writes the Local Foods Mysteries (Kensington Publishing) and the Quaker Midwife Mysteries (Midnight Ink).

You can find all Maddie’s/Edith’s identities at www.edithmaxwell.com. She blogs every weekday with the other Wicked Cozy Authors at wickedcozyauthors.com. Look for her as Edith M. Maxwell and Maddie Day on Facebook and @edithmaxwell and @maddiedayauthor on Twitter.

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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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