FEATURED AUTHOR: LORI DUFFY FOSTER

ABOUT THE BOOK


Lisa Jamison has done well for a single mom who got pregnant at fifteen.

She’s a reporter at a well-respected newspaper, and her teenage daughter is both an athlete and honors student. Though their relationship is rocky these days, Lisa has accomplished what she set out to do. She has given her daughter the kind of life she never had.

But all that changes when Lisa sees her daughter in the eyes of a dead man.

The cops call it a drug killing, but Lisa doesn’t believe it. She knows her ex-boyfriend was no drug dealer even though she hadn’t seen him in sixteen years. Lisa ignores warnings from her medical-examiner friend. She fails to heed barely veiled threats from the sheriff of a neighboring county. Instead, she risks her life and the lives of her daughter and their closest friend on a dangerous quest for answers.

The investigation leaves Lisa fighting for her family in a morbid, black market world she never knew existed. She learns that trust is complicated and that she, despite her cynical nature, has been blind. She trusted the wrong people, and now she might have to pay with her life.

Book Details

Title: A Dead Man’s Eyes

Author: Lori Duffy Foster

Genre: mystery/suspense

Series: The Lisa Jamison Mystery Series, book 1

Publisher: Level Best Books (April 13, 2021)

Print length: 228 pages

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT INTERVIEW WITH LORI DUFFY FOSTER

Things you need in order to write: I need either silence or the din of a café. Once I really get into the writing, I tune everything out anyway. So, it no longer matters. I once wrote eight hundred words a napkin in a McDonald’s play area, surrounded by bunches of kids and the smell of ketchup. I hate the smell of ketchup, but I wrote anyway.
Things that hamper your writing: guilt is my greatest obstacle—guilt over not spending enough time with the kids, guilt about dirty dishes, guilt about not exercising enough. I am good at feeling guilty.

Things you love about writing: I love exploring human nature through writing, but I also the love craft of it. The rhythm of writing soothes me—manipulating and shaping voice, tone and pacing. It is the same kind of sensation I get swimming underwater. A sense of lightness, of freedom.
Things you hate about writing: I hate that I can’t do it all the time. I hate that sometimes I get stuck and can’t make forward progress. I hate that no work is every really done. There is always something that can make it better.

Things you love about where you live: we live on more than one-hundred and fifty acres amid rolling hills, old hayfields, and forest in a timber frame hybrid house with a wraparound porch. I can garden, hike on my own property, spend days in my PJs without worrying that anyone will see me, and sing as loudly as I want to when no one is home without fear that neighbors will hear my horrid voice. I often watch the deer while I write, sometimes spotting a bear or a bobcat. My husband has set up a campfire movie theater in the woods for summer evenings with the kids. I love where we live.
Things that make you want to move: I miss cafés, where I can write, and the variety of take-out foods in urban areas. The nearest café that is suitable for writing is forty minutes away. And I miss Target, but I am probably saving a lot of money by being an hour away from the nearest store.



Favorite foods: I am a rice fanatic. It’s the one food can’t live without. I also love most all vegetables and cheeses along with Indian, Mexican and Thai foods made with chicken or that are vegetarian.
Things that make you want to throw up: eggplant and shellfish make me ill. I have tried to like both, but they always make me sick to my stomach.

Favorite smell: I love the smell of a pine forest in late summer after a rainstorm. It takes me back to my childhood in the Adirondack Mountains of NY State. 

Something that makes you hold your nose: raw beef. Yuck!

Something you like to do: I would like to run again. I ran six marathons before I had kids, but life gave me a bunch of extra weight and two foot surgeries that have hampered my running ability. I am hopeful though. I might even register for a 5K this summer.

Something you wish you’d never done: I “borrowed” my oldest sister’s bike once when I was a kid to visit a friend who lived in a mountainside neighborhood. Unfortunately, the brakes were broken. On the way home, I flew down the hill and over a ten-foot wall, landing in intensive care for four days. So, I guess I wish I had never “borrowed” that bike.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lori Duffy Foster is a former crime reporter who writes from the hills of Northern Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband and four children. She was born and raised in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, where a part of her heart remains. Her short fiction has appeared in the journal Aethlon, and in the anthologies Short Story America and Childhood Regained. Her nonfiction has appeared in Healthy Living, Running Times, Literary Mama, Crimespree, and Mountain Home magazines. A Dead Man’s Eyes, the first in the Lisa Jamison mystery/suspense series, is her debut novel. Look for book two in the series, Never Broken, in April of 2022. Her first standalone thriller, Never Let Go, releases from Level Best Books in December of 2022. She is also author of Raising Identical Twins: The Unique Challenges and Joys of the Early Years. Lori is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, The Historical Novel Society, International Thriller Writers and Pennwriters She also sits on the board of the Knoxville (PA) Public Library.



Connect with Lori:

Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads


Buy the book:
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FEATURED AUTHOR: MARGARET MORGAN

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

MrsMcKeiver has lived in the Hills for over twenty years, enough time to be the approved midwife. The Hills is a remote area of limestone outcrops, difficult to travel through and its people taciturn and stubborn. However, by 1799 sweeping changes everywhere saw land enclosed and people plunged into destitution. Mrs McKeiver is pivotal in providing the contents for huge dumplings, delivered and shared out by the sainted Reverend Reeves. She not only cares for and delivers babies, but takes on the role of matriarch of the area, despite being impoverished herself.  Her crippled adult son, Clement, depends on her for everything, making her realise she needs to marry again.  She accepts her farmer friend’s proposal and becomes a farmer’s wife. With the Reverend Reeves she arranges the marriage of mysteriously pregnant Hester Walters, his cook, to farm foreman, Edward Wainwright. The union is successful from the start, thanks to her.
 

Book Details

Title: The Complete Works of Mrs. McKeiver            

Author: Margaret Morgan

Genre: historical fiction    

Publisher: Publishing Push

Print length: 780 pages




LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH MARGARET MORGAN

A few of your favorite things: cats, animal protection, reading and writing.  
Things you need to throw out: anxiety.     


Things you need in order to write: computer, comfortable seat.
Things that hamper your writing: excess noise, feeling ill.


Things you love about writing: it’s my world.
Things you hate about writing: the effort needed, as I have MS.

Easiest thing about being a writer: having ideas.   
Hardest thing about being a writer: actually doing it.


Things you love about where you live: the peace of a seaside suburb.
Things that make you want to move: I like the countryside.


Things you never want to run out of: puddings and cake.
Things you wish you’d never bought: silver long jacket.


Words that describe you: dogged, reliable, honest.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: critical, blasé.

Favorite foods: spaghetti, thai food.
Things that make you want to throw up: thick pizza, offal.   

Favorite song: "Little Sister," Ry Cooder.
Music that make your ears bleed: Heavy Metal.

Favorite beverage: tea.

Something that gives you a pickle face: malted drinks.

Favorite smell: coffee.

Something that makes you hold your nose: boiled cabbage.

Something you’re really good at: making up silly poems.
Something you’re really bad at: maths.


Something you wish you could do: go for a walk.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: become a teacher.

Something you like to do: read.

Something you wish you’d never done: sailing.


Last best thing you ate: chocolate pudding.

Last thing you regret eating: smoked fish.

Things you’d walk a mile for:  apricot brandy.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: childbirth on TV.

Things you always put in your books: anecdotes.
Things you never put in your books: overmuch cruelty.

Things to say to an author: you are great.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally: you can’t write novels.

Favorite places you’ve been: Paris.

Places you never want to go to again: Africa.

Favorite things to do: go to cafes.

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: swim.

Things that make you happy: love.

Things that drive you crazy: bad TV.

Proudest moment: when my form won a Carlton TV Competition for Local History. Met Prince Edward.
Most embarrassing moment: knickers falling down at school.


Biggest lie you’ve ever told: I love you.

A lie you wish you’d told: that suits you.

Best thing you’ve ever done: passed A levels.

Biggest mistake: marrying wrong person.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: climbing a very difficult climb.

Something you chickened out from doing: parachute jump.

The last thing you did for the first time: caught Covid in hospital.

Something you’ll never do again: go into hospital.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margaret was a toddler on a farm which did not have any modern conveniences in the house or in the farm buildings. Everything was original 1750’s. Electricity came in 1954, and later still a bathroom and steel kitchen sink. Tractors and other machinery gradually emerged too, until they had all the required modern machinery. She gained ‘A’ levels and trained as a PE teacher, teaching the subject until symptoms were identified as MS.
 Changing to EFL she accompanied her husband overseas on various contracts until 1985, when she taught in prep schools in London for sixteen years. Retiring in 2002, for health reasons, she began to write about Mrs McKeiver.



Buy the book:
Amazon UK  |  Amazon US  

FEATURED AUTHOR: KATHLEEN SHAPUTIS

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Independent Rogue Bruce enjoys running a Scottish bed-and-breakfast with her Aunt Baillie from America. They specialize in hosting romantic Elizabethan-themed weddings, complete with resident ghost, Lord Kai. But love is something Rogue is not the least bit interested in. Content with her work, she requires no male accompaniment for happiness. Then Bruce MacKenzie, a Thor look-alike in plaid and denim, suddenly begins bringing more than the usual number of deliveries from town, while Jonathan Olson, a snobbish Rhett Butler type, arrives at the castle to teach a writing seminar to aspiring authors. With two men after the heart she’d thought safely locked away, Rogue is torn. But when things start to take a sinister turn, danger befalls Rogue and those dear to her. The musical soundtrack of Rogue’s life flares from complacent, to dizzily romantic, to heart-pounding scary in this sizzling triangle.



Book Details:

Title: His Kilt Dropped Here

Author: Kathleen Shaputis

Genre: magical realism romance

Publisher: Clutter Fairy Publishing (February 18, 2021)

Print length: 240 pages

INTERVIEW WITH KATHLEEN SHAPUTIS

Kathleen, what’s the story behind the title of your book?
Originally, this book was published by Crimson Romance, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, with the title His Lass Wears Tartan. The title and the cover image, I felt, were bland, unappealing. Sales were dismal. I ask for the rights back and immediately gave it a title with more of a hook for my audience. The drop of a kilt brings to mind a tantalizing picture of pleasure, does it not? The title of a book is almost as difficult as naming a newborn, lol.

Tell us about your series. Is this book a standalone, or do readers need to read the series in order?
His Kilt Dropped Here is the second book in the Baillie Castle Trilogy and can be read as a standalone. The series is set in a Scottish castle during contemporary times with a gorgeous ghost, Lord Kai, and each includes various magical realism adventures and sometimes, murder. There are the castle characters, both staff and owners, and the delightful Diva Squad from Seattle. I’ve enjoyed living among them over the years and miss their frivolity and mayhem. Which leads me to say, there might be a fourth book sometime in the future.

Where’s home for you?
I lived in a two-acre forest in western Washington. Close enough to towns and civilization to be comfortable shopping, but far from constant noises of traffic and people. I adore rainy days and chasing the horizons for rainbows. Looking out any window, I’m surrounded by fir trees and maples, providing evergreen colors throughout the year, and splashes of vibrant hues during the spring and fall. It’s a Patch of heaven on earth.

What choices in life would you like to have a redo on?
So many interesting plots come to mind – if I’d made this choice or that, how different life would be. One belief I held for a long time was what if I hadn’t married shortly after high school. My childhood dream to be a guide dog instructor had been crushed as it was a male-only job in those days and, broken in spirit, I fell for a young’s man’s pursuit. It was a mentally and physically abusive two years, though it produced my daughter. You learn even the darkest times can produce a diamond now and then.  

If someone gave you $5,000 and said you must solve a problem, what would you do with the money?

Funny, after that last question, my first thought is to set up a scholarship for young women to follow their heart’s desires. There is much to be said in helping a fresh mind begin a new journey into the world. I’d want the scholarship to help open doors into schools of medicine, science, politics and literary arts. Assisting the next JK Rowlings or president of the United States, oh the possibilities.


If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
Ooh, that’s an easy one, Scotland – somewhere just outside of Edinburgh. I’m 48% Scot in my DNA from the Baillie and Bruce clans, so the moors call me often. However, living in the Pacific Northwest is almost the same longitude or latitude as that beautiful island. So I plant white heather and snuggle into a cardigan sweater with a hot cup of tea and call it home.

How did you create the plot for this book?
I had the marvelous pleasure of traveling to a week-long writers conference held at Hevers Castle in England back in 2012. I found a group on Facebook called Abroad Writers Conference, and they listed a chance to study and write while staying at an English castle. Since my trilogy is set at a Scottish castle, I used the concept of having a group of writers come to Baillie Castle. None of the characters are based on the original group, lol, most of whom came down with colds during the week.

Are you like any of your characters?
I think I find a little of myself in many of my characters. Similar to an actor digging into emotional memories or events to draw out a tear, I find certain foibles of my own blossoming in various characters. Even the Diva Squad, my girls, make me laugh at their antics as I can see myself reflected in some of their snarkiness.

Who are your favorite authors?
One in particular is Jane Porter in southern California. I’ve followed her books from the years she lived in Washington, writing The Frog Princess, Odd Mom Out and Flirting with Forty, to now having her own publishing house, Tule Publishing, with a stable of excellent authors. The quality of her characters and storylines never fails in making me feel good.  


What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write?
I am working on a memoir, a dark year in my life during the pregnancy and loss of my great grandson. The working title is Less Than Three Months. It’s a story of teenage pregnancy that I hope will touch others to the roller-coaster adventure of bringing a new life into the world. It’s been six years since we lost him, but every time I sit at the computer to add to the story, it’s as if a fresh blade has scratched across my heart.

What steps to publication did you personally do, and what did you hire someone to do? Is there anyone you’d recommend for a particular service?
I have a wonderful cover designer, Steven Novak of Novak Illustrations, who has been able to take my blurbs and ideas into delightful book covers. I’ve seen his work with other authors as well, and the professionalism is unmatched. Another important person, of course, is an editor. Hiring Sandra Sookoo, a USA best-selling author who contracts for editing on the side, has been an educated delight. A good editor must not only point out the weaknesses and typos but understand your voice as well.

What are you working on now?
My next book to come out is a women’s fiction, Twinkies and Tranquilizers. A single working mother during the disco, swinging Seventies, cruises in the middle-class lane with her precocious daughter as sidekick. For seven years, she tucked in her red cape and headed for her clerical job. Taking a new position in the production company begins an avalanche of back-stabbing and gaslighting from her misogynist boss and others. Her confidence and health are shattered in their efforts to destroy her as an employee, a mother and most of all, a woman. I hope to publish this summer.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathleen Shaputis, author/ghostwriter, lives in the glorious Pacific Northwest with her husband, Bob, a clowder of cats, two pompously protective Pomeranians with little social aptitude, Brugh and Miss Jazzy, and an overgrown adolescent blue tick coon hound, Juno. 

If not writing during her lifestyle in an acre of forest, she keeps busy reading from her never-ending, to-be-read pile and watching romantic comedies. Her hygge in the woods.


Connect with Kathleen:
Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads



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FEATURED AUTHOR: ELIZABETH PANTLEY

ABOUT THE BOOK

Hayden fell through a mirror and was thrust into an alternate, magical place. Destiny Falls is not on any map and is home to a family she never knew she had. The town is enchanted and charming, but something is amiss. She gets an ominous warning, and the promise of a package. Once it arrives, someone turns up dead and there are too many other suspicious episodes to call them coincidences. All signs point to the mysterious disappearance of her mother – way back when Hayden was just two days old. Can she identify and eliminate the threat before another person in her life is stolen away?

Book Details

Title: The Disappearance of Emily 

Author’s name: Elizabeth Pantley

Genre: cozy mystery

Series: Destiny Falls Mystery & Magic, book 2

Published: March 15, 2021

Print length: 250 pages

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH ELIZABETH PANTLEY

A few of your favorite things: a crackling fire in my fireplace, a good book, and a big bowl of popcorn.

Things you need to throw out: a million yellow sticky notes with ideas, character traits, dialog, and some scribbles that I have no idea what they even mean!

Things you need in order to write: my laptop and a cup of tea.

Things that hamper your writing: interruptions!!!

Things you love about writing: creating an enchanted world that I’d love to visit.

Things you hate about writing: having a whole book floating around in my head that needs to be sorted, organized, and put down on paper.

Favorite beverage: sweet tea.

Something that gives you a pickle face: anything with bubbles. (Even champagne.)

Something you’re really good at: raising children.

Something you’re really bad at: raising a garden.

Things you always put in your books: a happy ending.

Things you never put in your books: devils.

Things to say to an author: I couldn’t put it down!

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: You know, one thing I would change in your (already published) book…

Favorite things to do: writing fiction!

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: bookkeeping :-(

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: climbed a mountain to the summit!

Something you chickened out from doing: scuba driving. No thanks…

Destiny Falls Mystery & Magic, book 1

Falling into Magic   


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Pantley is the international bestselling author of The No-Cry Sleep Solution and eight other books in the No-Cry Solution series of books for parents. Her books have been published in over twenty languages. She is also the author of well-received Destiny Falls Mystery and Magic book series. She lives in the Pacific Northwest and is the mother of four and Nana to one.



Connect with Elizabeth:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Goodreads 


Buy the book:

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FEATURED AUTHOR: S.C. MERRITT

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

It's wedding week, and as mother of the bride, Glory wants her daughter’s wedding to be a day she’ll never forget. But when her address is found in the pocket of an unidentified body in a car crash, Glory’s biggest nightmare becomes reality. The past has followed her to Sweetwater Springs, and it’s not going away without a fight. Can she solve the mystery and maybe even her husband’s two-year-old cold case murder in the process? 

Book Details
:
Title: Cake and Corruption

Author’s name: S.C. Merritt

Genre: cozy mystery

Series: Sweetwater Springs Southern Mystery series, book 6
Published: March 4, 2021

Print length: 184 pages

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT INTERVIEW WITH S.C. MERRITT

A few of your favorite things: flamingos, Chex Mix (homemade).

Things you need to throw out: unused kitchen gadgets.

Things you need in order to write: quiet, solitude, coffee.

Things that hamper your writing: noise, interruptions.

Things you love about writing: creativity, freedom.

Things you hate about writing: plotting, writer’s block.

Easiest thing about being a writer: brainstorming ideas.

Hardest thing about being a writer: turning the ideas into full length stories.

Things you love about where you live: friends, new home.

Things that make you want to move: sense of adventure, meeting new friends.



Things you never want to run out of: toilet paper.

Things you wish you’d never bought: clothes off Facebook sites.

Words that describe you: social, adventurous.

Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: control freak, judgmental.

Favorite foods: pizza, sausage, bacon, most breakfast foods.

Things that make you want to throw up: beef tongue, sushi, poke.

Favorite music: classic 70’s, Rat Pack.

Music that make your ears bleed: Country, Rap.

Favorite beverage: Starbucks Double Shot on Ice (Venti).

Something that gives you a pickle face: unsweet tea.

Favorite smell: plumeria, cocoa butter suntan lotion.

Something that makes you hold your nose: old kitchen garbage/dumpster smells.

Something you’re really good at: singing, planning events.

Something you’re really bad at: delegating (like I said, control freak).

Last best thing you ate: filet prepared by my son-in-law.

Last thing you regret eating: chicken salad (too many WW points).

Things you’d walk a mile for: to help my kids.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Seinfeld.

Things you always put in your books: food, classic cars, pets.

Things you never put in your books: profanity.

Things to say to an author: Your book sucked me right into the story.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Your book sucked.

Favorite places you’ve been: Hawaii, London, California.

Places you never want to go to again: New York City.

Favorite things to do: hosting parties, relax by a pool.

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: join a gym.

Things that make you happy: family, friends, tropical locales.

Things that drive you crazy: living in limbo with no plan of action.

Proudest moment: seeing both my children happily married and doing what they love.

Most embarrassing moment: getting kicked up onto a beach body surfing in Hawaii with my bathing suit top off.



Best thing you’ve ever done: becoming a Christian.

Biggest mistake: choosing the wrong college major.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: jumped off a bridge into a river.

Something you chickened out from doing: jumping off an Olympic high dive.

The last thing you did for the first time: published a book.

Something you’ll never do again: ride up to Glacier National Park with a driver I don’t trust.



OTHER BOOKS BY S.C. MERRITT

SWEETWATER SPRINGS SOUTHERN MYSTERY SERIES

Potluck and Pandemonium (book 1)


Lakefronts and Larceny (book 2)


Reunions and Reckonings (book 3)


Moonshine and Murder (book 4)


Fruitcakes and Fatalities (book 5)


Cake and Corruption (book 6)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

S.C. Merritt writes cozy mysteries featuring female sleuths, plots with a twist, lots of humor, and a little sprinkle of romance. Her Sweetwater Springs Southern Mystery Series is set in a small, Alabama town full of quirky characters, delicious restaurants, and lots of murder. Recipes are included in each book.

When not writing, she is traveling, watching classic movies and TV shows, or collecting flamingos. She lives in Mississippi with her husband and miniature Schnauzer, Izzy and dreams of living in a tropical locale someday.



Connect with the author:
Website  |   Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Goodreads  |  Amazon  |  BookBub

Buy the book:
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SC Merritt Book Giveaway

FEATURED AUTHOR: AVERY DANIELS

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

It all began when a dying man with an arrow in his chest grabs her ankle.


During a heat wave at a Santa Fe resort, Julienne has the resort owner pressuring her to solve the murder.
The victim is a high profile business man who made enemies rather than friends, leaving Julienne with a roster of suspects. She was supposed to be training the staff and spending quality time with Mason rather than investigating a murder. The heat turns up when an old girlfriend of Mason's checks in and is determined to get back together.



Arrowed is the fourth book in Avery Daniel's Resort to Murder series and is an exciting contemporary cozy mystery. If you like Cleo Coyle, Maddy Hunter, Duffy Brown, Lynn Cahoon, and Annette Dashofy, then you'll love this series with a strong intelligent sleuth, lavish settings, and tantalizing mysteries.



Buy this spunky clean cozy mystery and start enjoying Julienne's adventures today!




Book Details:
Book title: Arrowed
Author’s name: Avery Daniels
Genre: cozy mystery
Publisher:  Blazing Sword Publishing, Ltd. (March 1, 2021)
Print length: 266 pages

INTERVIEW WITH AVERY DANIELS

What’s the story behind the title of your book?
I name all my books in the Resort to Murder series after the murder weapon, so a bow and arrow are used in this book.

Is this book a standalone, or do readers need to read the series in order? 

It is a progressive series, but each book can be read by itself. The series follows Julienne who is a manager-in-training at a five star luxury resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Some books are at her “home resort” and others are at resorts located elsewhere. The reader gets to live vicariously the luxury life as Julienne solves the mysteries.

Where did you grow up?
Colorado Springs is my home town.  It is the home of a five star resort that I grew up enjoying, so it was natural to write a mystery series based at that resort under a fictional name.

Where’s home for you?
Colorado Springs, Colorado at the base of Pikes Peak. Denver (60 miles north) is known as the Mile High City, but Colorado Springs is actually higher in elevation at 6050 feet high compared to Denver’s 5300.  Altitude sickness is real for visitors!


What do you love about where you live?
I love the relatively mild winters, not scorching hot in the summer, low bug population, and great outdoors.



Have you been in any natural disasters?
I have come close to a wildfire evacuation a couple of times (fire came within a few blocks) and saw a tornado swirling and forming directly over my head. Fortunately the funnel didn’t come close to the ground in my area. The fires destroyed many homes on the east side of town and a few people I knew lost everything.

If you had an extra $100 a week to spend on yourself, what would you buy?
Craft supplies from scrapbooking and card making to canvasses and paints. It is addicting and can be pricey. But then the practical side kicks in and says save it.

What is the most daring thing you've done?

I am an introvert. At the cat shelter where I volunteer, I dressed in a baggy cat costume for fundraising efforts. I had to be outgoing and sociable. For me, that was really putting myself out there.

What is your most embarrassing moment?

I hate even telling this. Here goes. When I was working at a large corporate 200-level company in their accounting department, the ladies were required to were a dress/skirt Monday-Thursday. One summer morning I’m walking in from the parking lot and didn’t realize in my groggy daze that getting dressed I had the back of my dress tucked into my pantyhose. As if that weren’t bad enough I walked in with my manager who opened the door for me, and I rode up in the elevator with other people. It wasn’t until I got to my desk that somebody told me. I’m still mortified just thinking about it.

If you could only save one thing from your house, what would it be?
My cats, Dani and Codi. I love them so much and will do everything to save them.

Would you rather be a lonely genius, or a sociable idiot?
A lonely genius. First, I’m an introvert anyway so the lonely part wouldn’t be that lonely. Second, we need more genius in the world. Geniuses don’t get the recognition they deserve.

Are you like any of your characters?
Julienne is a little like me in that she yearns to travel, plays clarinet (although she is much better than I), and is a bit self conscious. She is training people on the hotel software in this book, and I used to be an adult trainer.

With what five real people would you most like to be stuck in a bookstore?
JK Rowling, Suzanne Collins, Sherry Thomas, Gayle Lynds, and Victoria Thompson.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write?
I write thrillers under a pen name (C.G. Abbot), and I had to write a violent scene. The villain is a seriously evil man, and I needed to show how brutal he was to emphasize the danger to the heroine. I had a very hard time writing that scene.

Where is your favorite library, and what do you love about it?
I love libraries. In my city we have a great new library built just a few years ago with a computer lab for classes to support the community and a maker space with classes for all kinds of crafts and shop activities.  
But I am starting to compile a list of historic libraries throughout the world that I would love to visit such as the Library National Assembly Paris. 

You can be any fictional character for one day. Who would you be?
It’s hard to narrow down to just one. Here are four: Phyrne Fisher from the Miss Fischer Mysteries, Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie (34th in line for the throne of England) of the Her Royal Spyness mysteries, Charlotte Holmes of the Lady Sherlock series, or Maggie Hope of the Maggie Hope Mystery series.

What would your dream office look like?
There is an office building in town that I’ve always thought would be amazing to have an office there.  Here are a few of the things I love about it: a marble entryway with 20’ ceilings; large, private executive suites (office sizes average 19’X 19’); fireplaces with mahogany wood & marble surrounds in all executive suites; furnished with executive desk with glass top, custom bookcases and credenza; fireplace with Italian marble and mahogany wood surrounds; wall sconces above fireplace; elegant wall hangings including paintings, artwork & mirrors; offices are surrounded by lush woodland and breathtaking views of mountain scenery, and acres of Ponderosa pine trees surround the property.

You can see why I write about luxury resorts!  My mother always did say I had Champagne taste on a beer budget.

What are you working on now?
I am plotting a brand new cozy series. This will be a cozy paranormal mystery series with a self-help reading newbie vampire. First Bite is the title for the first in the Accidental Vampire PI mysteries. I’m also slowly laying the groundwork for the next Resort to Murder book, Stoned. Then there is the next Elizabeth Grant thriller I’m also compiling research for. I stay busy. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Avery Daniels was born and raised in Colorado, graduated from college with a degree in business administration, and has worked in fortune 500 companies and Department of Defense her entire life. Her most eventful job was apartment management for 352 units. She still resides in Colorado with two brother black cats as her spirited companions. She volunteers for a cat shelter, enjoys scrapbooking and card making, photography, and painting in watercolor and acrylic. She inherited a love for reading from her mother and grandmother and grew up talking about books at the dinner table.

Connect with Avery:
Website  |  Blog  |   Facebook  |  Goodreads
 

Buy the book:

Amazon  |   Barnes & Noble 

FEATURED AUTHOR: KEVIN DOYLE

ABOUT THE BOOK

Released from prison for one murder, only to be arrested for a second, Sheila Hampton has no one to turn to save Sam Quinton, local private eye, who sets out to prove her innocence and uncover the knot of corruption that entangled its victim for over two decades.



Book Details:

Title: Heel Turn

Author: Kevin R. Doyle

Genre: mystery (private eye)

Series: Sam Quinton, book 2
Publisher: Camel Press (March 9, 2021)

Print length: 202 pages

TWENTY QUESTIONS/ONE WORD INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN DOYLE

1.    Where is your cell phone?  Nowhere.

2.    Your hair? Vanished.

3.    Your workplace? Home.

4.    Your other half? Non-existent.

5.    What makes you happy? Music.

6.    What makes you crazy? Students.

7.    Your favorite food? Pizza.

8.    Your favorite beverage? Dr Pepper (does that count as one word).

9.    Fear? Poverty.

10.    Favorite shoes? Rockports.

11.    Favorite way to relax? Swimming.

12.    Your mood? Sporadic.

13.    Your home away from home? Beach.

14.    Where were you last night? Home.

15.    Something that you aren't? Organized.

16.    Something from your bucket list? Scuba.

17.    Wish list item? Retirement.

18.    Where did you grow up? Kansas.

19.    Last thing you did? Grade.

20.    What are wearing now? Shorts.



OTHER BOOKS BY KEVIN DOYLE

Squatter's Rights

The Group

When You Have to Go There

And the Devil Walks Away

The Litter

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A high-school teacher, former college instructor and fiction writer, Kevin R. Doyle is the author of three crime thrillers, The Group, When You Have to Go There, And the Devil Walks Away, published by MuseItUp Publications, and one horror novel, The Litter, published by Night to Dawn Magazine and Books. Last year saw the release of the first book in his Sam Quinton mystery series, Squatter’s Rights, by Camel Press. Doyle teaches English and speech at a high school in central Missouri.

Connect with Kevin:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Goodreads  

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble