FEATURED AUTHOR: MARY MARKS

ABOUT THE BOOK

In tracing her ancestry, quilter Martha Rose discovers a ritzy half-sister, a stash of family secrets, and a decades-old mystery that only she can unravel . . .
 


Martha Rose is shocked to find she has a half-sister, especially one so different from her. Giselle Cole is wealthy, widowed, and lives a glamorous life in West Los Angeles. At least her grandmother was a quilter! But Giselle can’t answer Martha’s many questions about their father—he disappeared when she was only a child and the few clues left behind indicate he may have been murdered. So Martha and Giselle team up on an investigation that weaves them through the streets of L.A., their father’s hidden love affairs, and into some mysterious unfinished Cole family business . . .

 

Book Details:


Title: Knot My Sister’s Keeper

Author: Mary Marks

Genre: Cozy mystery
Series:  Quilting Mysteries, book 6

Publisher: Kensington Books (July 2018)

Print length: 328 pages

On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH MARY MARKS

Things you need in order to write: Lots of coffee and a quiet space.
Things that hamper your writing: Unmade bed, household clutter.

Things you love about writing: I get to slay the real villains in my life with impunity, I get to create quirky characters, I get to construct an entire universe.
Things you hate about writing: Keeping the main plot line interesting.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Inventing interesting characters.
Hardest thing about being a writer: Self-discipline and meeting deadlines.


Things you love about where you live: Peaceful, quiet, near ocean, plenty of green.
Things that make you want to move: Cost of living.


Things you never want to run out of: Toilet paper.
Things you wish you’d never bought: Chairs upholstered in white.


Favorite foods: Anything with sugar.
Things that make you want to throw up: Nutritional supplements, vitamin pills.

Favorite music: “Louie Louie;” “Sweet Home Alabama;” Anything sung by Dylan, The Eagles, The Stones.
Music that make your ears bleed: Rap; Metallica; atonal modern classical music (what’s the point?).

Favorite beverage: Coke Zero.

Something that gives you a pickle face: Hard liquor, broccoli.

Something you’re really good at: Crosswords, Sudoku, hidden object computer games.

Something you’re really bad at: Directions.


Something you wish you could do: Play a musical instrument.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Cook.

People you consider as heroes: Women all over the world who endure; our military protectors.

People with a big L on their foreheads: Politicians!


Things you always put in your books: A blonde in a halter top.

Things you never put in your books: Pornography.

Things to say to an author: I love your books, I’ve read everything you’ve written, you’re brilliant.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: You need to hire an editor!

Favorite places you’ve been: Middle East, Africa.

Places you never want to go to again: Houston, Texas in the summertime.

Favorite genre: Cozy mysteries.

Books you would ban: Hate literature.

Favorite things to do: Watch great TV or movies with a friend.

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: Folding clothes, ironing, emptying the dishwasher.

Things that make you happy: Finishing a book and sending it off to my publisher.

Things that drive you crazy: Politicians!

OTHER BOOKS BY MARY:

Forget Me Knot
Knot In My Back Yard 
Gone But Knot Forgotten
Something’s Knot Kosher
Knot What You Think




ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born and raised in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, Mary Marks earned a BA in Anthropology from UCLA and an MA in Public Administration from the American Jewish University. After taking an early retirement from UCLA administration, she became an award-winning quilter. Later, in a desire to write a memoir, Marks took writing classes at UCLA, and soon fell in love with cozy fiction. She became a published author at the age of 70.

Forget Me Knot was the first book in her Quilting Mystery series, and was a finalist in the Malice Domestic competition. The second book, Knot In My Backyard, was a Barnes and Noble Best Seller. The third book, Gone But Knot Forgotten, won an award for Best Amateur Sleuth from Romantic Times. The fourth book, Something’s Knot Kosher, has a 5-star rating on Amazon. The fifth book, Knot What You Think, was published to rave reviews.

Marks lives in Camarillo, California with her loyal dog Gingie, orange cat Louie, and dozens of unfinished quilts.

Connect with Mary:
Website  |   Facebook  


Buy the book:

Amazon  |   Barnes & Noble 

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FEATURED AUTHOR: MARY MARKS

ABOUT THE BOOK

The newest member of Martha’s close-knit quilting circle has an eye for couture. But when the designer’s fingerprints are found blanketing a crime scene, Martha must prove that he didn’t have a hand in homicide! 
 
Martha Rose is alarmed by the discovery of Dolleen Doyle’s dead body, especially when evidence suggests a fellow quilter committed the crime.  Set on clearing her pal, Martha searches for answers—but with ties to a convicted fraudster’s stolen millions and a secret office room, the victim’s past raises even more questions. As Martha inches towards the culprit, she learns that wrapping the case up—and living to baste another square—will be trickier than she ever imagined . . .

LOVE OR HATE INTERVIEW WITH MARY MARKS

Things you need in order to write:
A pot of fresh coffee and a clean house.
Things that hamper your writing:
A to-do list of errands to run and an unmade bed
.

Things you love about writing:
Inventing my own universe where I can get even with the real villains in my life and entertain readers while I do it.
Things you hate about writing:
Having to worry about producing enough words to satisfy my publisher.

Hardest thing about being a writer:
Finding the discipline to write when I’d rather be doing something else.

Easiest thing about being a writer:
Thinking stuff up.


Things you love about where you live:
Quiet, mild climate, beautiful surroundings.
Things that make you want to move:
More space. Wish I had a room for overnight guests, and another room for quilting.


Things you never want to run out of:
Toilet paper.
Things you wish you’d never bought:
An oversized desk.


Words that describe you:
Eccentric, independent.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t:
Overweight.

Favorite smell:
Expensive French perfume
.
Something that makes you hold your nose:
Cleaning up after my dog.

Something you’re really good at:
Quilting
.
Something you’re really bad at:
Exercise
.

Something you like to do:
Skydiving
.
Something you wish you’d never done:
How long a list do you want?


People you consider as heroes:
Women in every walk of life, in every culture.

People with a big L on their foreheads:
People who want to impose their values and restrictions on others.



Last best thing you ate:
Key lime cheesecake.

Last thing you regret eating:
Key lime cheesecake.

Things you always put in your books:
A blonde in a halter top.

Things you never put in your books:
Overt sex, bad language.

Favorite places you’ve been:
Mediterranean and African countries.

Places you never want to go to again:
Hospital.

Favorite things to do:
Write, quilt, watch good TV and movies, read an excellent book, eat
.
Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing:
Housework.

Things that make you happy:
Grandchildren, good reviews. In that order.

Things that drive you crazy:
Washington DC.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born and raised in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, Mary Marks earned a B.A. in Anthropology from UCLA and an M.A. in Public Administration from the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. In 2004 she enrolled in the UCLA Extension Writers Program. Her first novel, Forget Me Knot, was a finalist in a national writing competition in 2011. She is currently a reviewer of cozy mysteries for The New York Journal of Books.

Connect with Mary:
Website  |  Facebook 

Buy the book:
Amazon   |  Barnes & Noble
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Featured Author: Mary Marks

Mary Marks' new novel, Forget Me Knot, is book one in her new series, A Quilting Mystery, published by Kensington. I'm happy to talk to her today as part of her tour with Great Escapes Book Tours.

About the book:

Forget Me Knot is the adventure of Martha Rose, a sassy, sarcastic woman of a certain age and her two quilting friends Lucy and Birdie. The trio discovers the corpse of another quilter and days later the victim’s prize winning quilt is stolen. Martha is enlisted to draw on her knowledge of quilting to decode the secret messages the victim left behind. But the deeper she digs, the closer the killer gets to stopping Martha permanently.

Interview with Mary Marks

Mary, how long have you been writing, and how did you start?

I’ve always enjoyed writing, mostly journaling my private thoughts. After retirement, when I started quilting in earnest, I kept a photographic and written log of all my quilts. I realized this record constituted a sort of diary that I wanted to turn into my life’s story. So I enrolled in memoir writing classes in the UCLA Extension Writers Program.

I was shocked to learn how much I didn’t know about writing. I worked on the memoir for four years, honing my skills. Then I made a weird left turn and took a mystery writing workshop. I had never aspired to writing fiction—-let alone mysteries. But after that class, I was hooked. The next two years were spent in workshops learning to write fiction. The end product of all that work was Forget Me Knot, which will be published approximately ten years after I started my writing journey at UCLA.

How did you come up with the title Forget Me Knot?

It just popped into my head. And since my characters are quilters, I wanted to include a word that referenced sewing, so I changed the word “Not” into “Knot.” Now, all the titles in this series have the word “Knot” in them.

How would you describe your book in five words?

Funny quilty mystery with romance.

How did you create the plot for this book?

Like most of my plots, it created itself as I wrote. I had a bare-bones idea of a story and just fleshed it out as I went along. Many times the characters will tell me where they want the story to go. You have to have a lot of faith in your own intuition and subconscious to write that way.

How do you get to know your characters?

I write a character biography for my main characters. I need to know who their family was, where they came from, what their life was like, preferences and traits before I know how they’re going to react or think. For the minor characters, I just let them start talking or acting in a scene. It doesn’t take long before their true selves show up.

Which character did you most enjoy writing?

I love writing the quirky, humorous characters. But most of all I enjoy Martha Rose. She’s not a perfect human being. She’s sarcastic and funny, has a heightened sense of justice, and is often foolhardy.

What would your main character say about you?

"That’s what I want to be when I grow up."

Are any of your characters inspired by real people?

One of my main characters Lucy Mondello, is modeled after my late sister-in-law. Most of the other characters are composites of people I’ve known. My bad guys are often inspired by real-life. That’s the great thing about writing fiction. You can take villains you know and expose their crimes or kill them off with impunity.

I totally agree! Are you like any of your characters?

There’s a little part of me in all of my characters. Otherwise, how would I know so much about them? But I’m most like Martha Rose except I’ve made more mistakes than she has.

Tell us about your favorite scene in the book.

I have several favorites. But the chapters I had the most fun writing were when Martha is arrested and has to spend the night in jail—-from her horror and disgust to her clever way of surviving.

Who are your favorite authors?

How long can I make this list? In the mystery genre I love Elizabeth George, Martha Grimes, Sue Grafton, Jacqueline Winspear, and Preston & Child’s Pendgergast series. In the cozy mystery genre it would be Janet Evanovitch, Brad Parks, and M.C. Beaton. Other authors I love are Kent Haruf, Rumer Godden, Fannie Flagg, and Jan de Hartog.

You get to decide who would read your audiobook. Who would you choose?

Bette Midler.

Do you have a routine for writing?

Yes. I like long stretches of uninterrupted time to write. I don’t do well with short bursts. Normally I wake up Saturday morning and make a pot of coffee. Then I sit down in my jammies with my laptop. I usually stop by five or six in the evening. One Saturday, I wrote for twelve hours straight, but that was because I had a deadline looming. On Sunday and Monday I’ll repeat the process, winding up at around four in the afternoon. The rest of the week is taken up with other things.

Where’s home for you?

I live where Martha Rose and her friends live, in Encino, a suburb of Los Angeles.

If you could only keep one book, what would it be?

The Bible. It has great drama, mystery, romance, wisdom, and comfort.

Your last meal would be...

Fattening.

LOL! Great answer. Would you rather work in a library or a bookstore?

I worked in the Powell library on the UCLA campus when I was an undergrad. I loved the atmosphere. Would not like the commercial aspect of a bookstore.

You won the lottery. What’s the first thing you would buy?

A full-time cook.

You and me both! What three books have you read recently and would recommend?

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion: A Novel by Fannie Flagg
Auntie Lee’s Delights : A Singapeorean Mystery by Ovidia Yu

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

My secret guilty pleasure is playing Hidden Object Adventure Games on the computer. The Mystery Case Files series are my favorites.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I’d split my time between Los Angeles and Israel.

What are you working on now?

I’m writing the third novel in the Martha Rose series called Gone But Knot Forgotten. (See what I mean about putting “Knot” in every title?”)

About the author:

Writer Mary Marks was born and raised in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. After retirement from UCLA Administration, Marks became an award winning quilter. Writing about her quilts led to writing cozy mysteries. Forget Me Knot is the first in her new series. The author also contributed a chapter to an anthology based on Jewish mysticism, From Ashes to Healing. She has also been published online and in various newsletters. Marks is currently a reviewer of cozy mysteries for The New York Journal of Books.

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