Spotlight on: Carolyn Arnold

About the book

From bestselling author Carolyn Arnold…
Strap in for an adventure that will take you to the beautiful island of Jamaica and have you wanting a piña colada.

Jimmy finally takes a vacation–and a chance on love–only to be abducted. His female companion originally thinks he had cold feet about their relationship, but Sean and Sara know there’s more to it. Jimmy isn’t the type to just up and disappear, let alone leave a lady stranded.

Setting out on their private jet, Sean and Sara reach the tropical paradise of Ocho Rios, Jamaica with sightseeing as the last thing on their minds.

With a gold coin being their initial tie to Jimmy’s kidnapper, Sean and Sara even speculate about the involvement of pirates. Yet as the hours pass, and there’s no word from Jimmy’s captors, Sean and Sara will need to figure out the real motive before it’s too late.

With help from their friend, Adam, back in Albany, the pieces come together and not a moment too soon.

8th in the Amazon Bestselling McKinley Mystery Series

About the author

Carolyn Arnold is the bestselling author of the Madison Knight series, the Brandon Fisher series, and the McKinley Mysteries. Her love for writing dates back to her teen years, but her passion was reignited in 2006 when a fellow employee said “tell me a story.” Since then Carolyn has never looked back.

Her writing has since been compared to New York Times Bestsellers such as JD Robb, Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, Michael Connelly, Tess Gerritsen, and more.

Carolyn was born in 1976 in a rural town of Ontario, Canada, and she currently lives with her husband and two beagles in a city near Toronto.

For more information on the author visit https://carolynarnold.net/

Buy the book:
Amazon UK  |  Barnes & Noble  |  iTunes  |  Kobo  

Featured Author: Thomas Maurin

About the book:

This is a story about three smart, successful people who were once fast friends in college and have now been thrust together again in an unlikely, multi-layered investigation with far-reaching international implications and billions of dollars at stake. One is a forensic accountant for the SEC, one beta tests hardware and software for the US Department of Defense and the UK Ministry of Defense, and the third is a wildly successful entrepreneur, software developer and venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.



They get caught up in the hunt for a corrupt Swiss banker intent on finally unloading the last of the gold stolen by his father in World War II; a violent, narcissist leader of a Mexican drug cartel making his move to take over as the head of all cartels in Central America; and the daughter of a murdered Bulgarian arms dealer making the deal that will give her mother financial stability and get them both out of the increasingly unstable arms business. 

The plot unfolds as financial crimes committed by insiders put common criminal activities to shame in a world where technology has increasingly insinuated itself into our lives to good and bad effects.

Interview with Thomas Maurin

Thomas--or should I say Mike and Bonnie, since Thomas Maurin is the pen name for a husband/wife team--where’s home for the two of you?
Mike and Bonnie spend the winter and spring in Venice Florida, an island on the Gulf Coast, and summers and falls at their vacation home in Eugene Oregon.

Where did you grow up?
Mike grew up in Anderson, Indiana.  Bonnie grew up in Pocatello, Idaho.

What’s your favorite memory?
Our favorite memory is our wedding in 2005. At the rehearsal the evening before, a double rainbow appeared. The wedding itself was filled with love, close friends and family, music and poetry, great food and wine, with lots of champagne. We still consider ourselves newlyweds.

What do you love about where you live?
In Venice, we live in a penthouse condo that has 240 degrees of water and faces west.  Pelicans and osprey fly right past our windows and herons and other gorgeous birds nest in the rookery on the Intracoastal Waterway right below us. We see dolphins, manatees and lots of boats that are coming from the Gulf into the Intracoastal Waterway. And the sunsets are fantastic.

In Eugene, we live on a hill that looks out onto hills and mountains. We are surrounded by evergreens and live on the same street with Bonnie’s brother and sister (and their respective spouses). Our vacation home is filled with musical instruments, art and plants. And the sunsets are terrific.

Sounds wonderful! Have you been in any natural disasters?
Bonnie was in a minor earthquake. Mike has lived through several hurricanes and earthquakes.

Do you have another job outside of writing?
Yes, both Mike and Bonnie have worked with wealthy families for 30 years. Mike is an investment advisor and serial entrepreneur who serves as trustee for family trusts.  Bonnie is an educator and advisor to families on family dynamics, governance, and creating entrepreneurial legacies.

How did you two meet? Was it love at first site?
We met in San Francisco during a client engagement in early 2005. It wasn’t love at first site, but there was definitely chemistry. We married several months later and still work with that client.

What brings you sheer delight?
Hanging out with our three grandchildren.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be? 
We love where we live now. We also spend two weeks a year in Grand Cayman. We like the idea of spending a month in the autumn every year in New York. We love spending time in Paris, London, Idaho, Barcelona, Santa Fe, and San Francisco. We could spend part of the year in any of those places.

How did you create the plot for this book?
We first started discussing the idea for the book after we saw an exhibit in the Brussels Museum of Money about Belgian gold that had been seized by the Nazis. Some of it disappeared and has never been found. Some has been in litigation for decades and sits in a vault in New York. Then, we started creating the three characters who would be involved in finding some of that missing gold. After that, we wrote the first several chapters and realized we needed to learn more about writing fiction, so we hired an editor who helped us learn how to create character story arcs and story boards that linked the plot and story arcs we had created in a format that allowed us to continue writing. One of the biggest challenges we faced was that Broken Trust takes place in multiple venues and the characters are constantly moving from one time zone to another. The storyboard (and our editor) helped us manage logistics.

Do you have a routine for writing? Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?
We tend to write in bursts. We both work full time, so we dedicate two weeks a year to write in Grand Cayman. Since our work has predictable times when we are less busy, we carve out time to write during those periods as well. Bonnie tends to write most of the dialogue; Mike tends to write the action scenes. We both edit our own and each other’s efforts before we give the manuscript file to our editor. Then she edits it, and we edit it again. We like to write at home, either in Venice or Eugene, but also write in hotel rooms, in the car (but not while driving!), and sometimes on planes. 

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write? Why?
Bonnie: The hardest thing I had to write was my mother’s eulogy. My mother requested that one of her children write her eulogy and speak at her funeral. I was blessed that I was able to discuss it with her and with my siblings before she died. Their insights and suggestions helped me frame how and what I wanted to say. It was even harder to read what I had written at her funeral. This was also one of the best experiences of my life. I was able to understand my mother’s life in a much deeper way and to honor her as a mother, a daughter, a sister, a grandmother, an artist, a musician, and a teacher who loved life and loved us.

Mike: My dad’s eulogy. It was hard because I was trying to do something for a lot of people while emotionally distressed, to perform this duty when I would rather have just been grieving.

Why did you decide to self-publish?  What steps did you take?
We decided to self-publish after spending considerable time looking for an agent or a publishing house. Bonnie had published one book with a major publisher so we were open to that, but also understood realistically that getting a first novel published that way would be challenging.

We already had a small publishing house for our non-fiction books so we knew how to sell on Amazon and iBooks, how to register copyrights, how to pour Word texts into electronic and traditional book formats, how to get book covers designed through 99 Designs, and texts formatted, how to create websites to sell books, and lots of other parts of the publishing puzzle.

Since we travel a lot, live in Florida and Oregon, and work with an editor who lives in California, Mike created an intranet site where we could all save and review files while we wrote and edited Broken Trust. That way everything was saved in one place and we didn’t have to send texts as attachments to emails. Our editor found our independent reviewers and managed that process very well. Mike created a survey for them to track their experience on Survey Monkey. Laura also found the man who formatted Broken Trust for different electronic publishing formats. We didn’t know how to market a novel, but at our editor, Laura Matthews’s suggestion we contacted Penny Sansevieri at Author Marketing Experts. 

Are you happy with your decision to self-publish? 
Absolutely.

What are you working on now? 
We are working on the next two books in The Three Musketeers Series, Broken Web and Broken Code. We are also working with our editor on the movie script for Broken Trust.

About the author:

Thomas Maurin is the pen name of husband and wife writing team Bonnie B. Hartley, Ph.D., and Michael T. Hartley, CFP®. They both write non-fiction books and articles regarding financial and family business topics and have delivered talks on those subjects internationally over the last thirty years.



Connect with them:  Website   |  Twitter 

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Featured Author: Dianne Harman

About the book:

Kelly pulled into the harbor parking lot next to the pier and noticed that Amber’s car wasn’t in its usual place and there was no sign of her. She was usually standing at the door of Kelly’s Koffee Shop, waiting for Kelly to open up. Wonder what that’s all about, she thought.

The local residents of Cedar Bay come to Kelly’s Koffee Shop for breakfast, lunch, and lots of gossip. Kelly serves it all up as she works to solve the murder of the high school Homecoming Queen. The townspeople can’t believe what has happened in their sleepy little Oregon seaside town. She identifies five prime suspects, but which one did it?

Follow Kelly, her boxer dog, Rebel, and her boyfriend, Mike, the county sheriff, as they try to determine who the killer is in a murder that’s shocked the town.

Kelly’s Coffee Shop is a mouth-watering cozy mystery with recipes!

Interview with Dianne Harman

Tell us about your series. Is this book a standalone, or do readers need to read the series in order?
Although the book is part of a series, I always write a standalone book. It’s a personal thing. I don’t like to feel that I have to buy the next book and the next book and . . .

Where’s home for you?
Huntington Beach, California

Where did you grow up?
The Midwest – Denver and Kansas City

If you had $100 a week to spend on yourself, what would you buy?
More books!

What do you love about where you live?
The ocean is within walking distance!

What is the most daring thing you've done?
Trekking in Nepal and getting within one day of Mt. Everest!


What’s one thing that you wish you knew as a teenager that you know now?
It really doesn’t matter what people think of you as long as you’re happy in your own skin.


What makes you bored?
Having someone tell me the same thing in a number of different way when I understood it the first time!



What choices in life would you like to have a redo on?
I don’t think I’d redo anything. Whatever I have done has led me to this time, and I’m very happy where I am now.

What makes you happy?
Having people appreciate what I do.

Do you have another job outside of writing?
No. I am very fortunate to be able to write full time. The children are grown, and I don’t have an outside job. I really admire writers who can do this as well as care for a family and work outside the home.

How did you meet your spouse?
I met Tom in college. We got married six weeks later, and it’s lasted for a long, long time!

If you could only save one thing from your house, what would it be?
Probably whatever animal I had at the time.

Would you rather be a lonely genius, or a sociable idiot?
A lonely genius.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?
“It is what it is!”

What book are you currently reading and in what format?
I have several going at the moment. Just finished Gone Girl Gone and was blown away by it. I have become a huge e-book fan.

What’s one pet peeve you have when you read?
Books that aren’t properly edited with misspellings and other errors.


Do you have a routine for writing?
Yes. I wake up early, put my contact lenses in, make some coffee and try to get a couple of hours in before I do household things.

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?
I think my best writing comes early in the morning. I write at the computer in my office.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received about your writing?
When someone tells me they couldn’t put the book down.

What’s the worst thing someone has said about your writing? How did you deal with it?
I think the stupidest thing is when someone says they don’t like that genre and then give a book a bad review. If you don’t like the genre, don’t pick up the book, and for sure, don’t review it! My husband was a California Senator for many years, so I’ve developed a pretty thick skin over the years.

Why did you decide to self-publish?
I have control over the book.

Are you happy with your decision to self-publish?
I’m very happy with my decision. A mentor of mine told me to self-publish because he had gone with a publisher and the publisher had taken out bankruptcy. My mentor lost a lot of money and was quite emphatic that self-publishing was the way to go. Unless you’re in the Stephen King league, it seems to me that you’re still going to have to do the marketing, etc., so you might as well get all of the profits rather than giving a large part of a publisher.

What are you working on now?
The second in the Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery series, Murder at Jade Cove.

Other books by Dianne Harman

 

About the author:

Dianne lives in Huntington Beach, California with her husband Tom, a former California State Senator, and is a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post.


Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter 

Spotlight on: Twisted Threads (A Mainely Needlepoint Mystery)

What reviewers are saying . . .

The town, the people, most of the relationships, and the crimes all ring true, and the mystery was challenging enough to keep my interest without being unrealistically complex. I’m impressed . . . 
~The Bookwyrm’s Hoard

I adored this book the characters are great working together and they draw you into the book.
 ~Bab’s Book Bistro

You will be drawn in by this crafty whodunit that will keep you wanting to read just one more chapter until the end. What a terrific start to a great series, eagerly awaiting the next one!
 ~Shelley’s Book Case

I really enjoyed this mystery but I’m even more excited to see where the series goes. 
~I Wish I Lived In A Library

I didn’t want to put it down. There were so many things happening in this book, my head was almost spinning.
 ~Melina’s Book Blog

I adored this book! The characters were charming and the settings were delightful. 
~Brooke Blogs

. . . loved this book! It was such a rush of a story, and I loved all of the intricate detail the author put in to it . . . ~Marie’s Cozy Corner

. . . Did I enjoy Twisted Threads, and am I looking forward to the sequel, Threads of Evidence, coming out in August of 2015? Heck, YEAH, I am!
 ~Back Porchervations

I always enjoy a well written cozy mystery and Twisted Threads by Lea Wait is definitely one of them!
~Mysteries Etc.

I loved the characters and relationships . . . ~Community Bookstop

About the book:

After leaving a decade ago, Angie Curtis has been called back to Harbor Haven by her grandmother, who raised her following her troubled mother’s disappearance when she was a child. Her mother has been found, and now the question of her whereabouts has sadly become the mystery of her murder.

The bright spot in Angie’s homecoming is reuniting with her grandmother, who has started her own needlepointing business with a group called Mainely Needlepointers. But when a shady business associate of the stitchers dies suddenly under suspicious circumstances, Gram and Angie become suspects. As Angie starts to weave together clues, she discovers that this new murder may have ties to her own mother’s cold case.

About the author:

Lea Wait lives on the coast of Maine. A fourth generation antique dealer, and author of the Agatha-nominated Shadows Antique Print mystery series, she loves all things antiques and Maine, and she’s learning to do needlepoint. She also writes historical novels for young people set in nineteenth-century Maine. Lea adopted her four daughters when she was single; she’s now the grandmother of eight, and married to artist Bob Thomas.

Visit Lea's website

Kindle Countdown for Heroes & Hooligans in Goose Pimple Junction

January 18: .99

January 19: $1.99

About the book:

Goose Pimple Junction is just recovering from a kidnapping and a murder, its first major crimes in years, when trouble begins anew. Life is turned upside down in the quirky little Southern town with the arrival of several shifty hooligans: A philandering husband intent on getting his wife back, another murderer loose in town, a stalker intent on frightening Martha Maye, and a thief who’s stealing the town blind of their pumpkins, pies, and peace. Together, they’re scaring the living daylights out of the residents and keeping the new police chief busier than a set of jumper cables at a redneck picnic. Suddenly, he has his hands full trying to apprehend a killer, stop a stalker, and fight his feelings for the damsel in distress. 

Featured Author: Jennifer Fischetto

About the book:

Gianna Mancini has chatted with ghosts most of her life. It’s never affected her much.

Until now.

The latest ghost in Gianna’s family-centric, boy-complicated, job-depleted world is Emma Tinsdale, a woman Gianna despises. Wanting Emma out of her apartment and her orbit, Gianna chooses to help her move on, but she doesn’t expect to come across poisonous jam, a vengeful cop, or a group of friendly clowns.

When a relative is framed for Emma’s death, Gianna must dig deeper and faster to find out what really happened that fatal night on the beach. With help from her sister, her cop brother, and her ex-boyfriend, Julian, she gets close to figuring out the truth. But when the killer closes in, Gianna better watch her step unless she wants to become the latest member of the dearly departed.

Interview with Jennifer Fischetto


Jennifer, tell us about your series. Is this book a standalone, or do readers need to read the series in order?
One Garish Ghost & Blueberry Peach Jam is the first book in the Dead by the Numbers Mysteries series. There is a short story, a prequel to this book, in the Cozy Christmas Capers anthology, called "A Christmas Ghost & Zero Regrets." That collection of short stories (19 shorts total) by Gemma Halliday Publishing authors is available until January 31, 2015. After then, my short will be available separately.

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Long Beach, New York. It’s on Long Island and a beach community. I lived across the street from the boardwalk, beach, and Atlantic Ocean the first fifteen years of my life.

If you had $100 a week to spend on yourself, what would you buy?
Books. Notebooks. Food/snacks. And more books.


What’s one thing that you wish you knew as a teenager that you know now?
I wish I knew how awesome I am/was. I wish I loved myself. I grew up very insecure and had a lot of negative self-thoughts. It took many years to shake that. I still sometimes hear negative thoughts, but now I know they aren’t true. As a teen though, I believed them. This is one of the reasons I also write young adult mysteries.

What choices in life would you like to have a redo on?
None. I’ve made many “mistakes,” and I wish I had made some better choices, but I believe everything happens for a reason and everything is a learning experience. I don’t think I’d be where I am now or have the amazing kids I have if I was able to redo anything.

What makes you nervous?
I get anxious doing something, or especially going someplace, I’ve never been before. I’m working on this. 


What makes you happy?
Hearing my kids laugh. It always makes me smile.

What makes you excited?
Brainstorming a new book is very exciting. There are so many possibilities.

If you could only save one thing from your house, what would it be?
Aside from my kids and cat? I’d grab my MacBook. It was expensive.

Would you rather be a lonely genius, or a sociable idiot?
A lonely genius. I have social anxiety so being around people isn’t always easy. It depends on the situation and whether or not I know the people, but I’m fine not being sociable.

What would your main character say about you?
Gianna would say that I spend way too much time indoors and I don’t have nearly as much fun as she does. But she’d also admire my loyalty, my great ear for listening, and my trustworthiness. But if she was in my life, I’d totally be her partner-in-crime.

One of your characters has just found out you’re about to kill him off. He/she decides to beat you to the punch. How would he kill you?
Haha. I love food, so he’d poison me. Something untraceable and quick in a batch of fudgey-gooey brownies. There is very little chocolate I will refuse.

What book are you currently reading and in what format (e-book/paperback/hardcover)?
Servants of the Storm by Delilah S Dawson. It’s in print, hardcover. I love dark books and young adult, so I read a lot of that.

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?
I prefer to do it first thing in the morning at my desk. But in the winter, I also love doing it in the evening when it’s dark. It makes sitting at my desk cozy, and I feel like I’m alone in the world. Love that. LOL.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received about your writing?
I was told that I write great characterization and plots. This was said by an industry person whom I admire, so it meant a lot to me. By readers, I’ve loved the comments that say the book had a lot of twists and turns (my YA book, I Spy Dead People).

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write?
The first Jamie Bond book, Unbreakable Bond, was almost torture for me. LOL. I was so nervous that my co-author (and now publisher), Gemma Halliday, would hate my contribution. I feared she’d regret her choice to ask me to co-write with her, and it made the writing process so hard to do. I second-guessed every single word I wrote. Ugh! But luckily she was impressed.

What would your dream office look like?
Oh, I’ve dreamed of this. Haha. It would be in a sunroom of types. It’s all glass enclosed, but tall, ceiling-to-floor, narrow windowpanes, not big sheets of glass. It’s heated and has central air, so it’s not exactly a sunroom but looks like it. I have two desks, cabinets, bookshelves . . . the works. There’s a huge, oversized armchair and plenty of snacks. And it overlooks the ocean and beach, but it’s a private beach and there are never any people on the sand.

No joke, you just described my dream office! What are you working on now?
I am currently co-writing book 4 in the Jamie Bond series. It should release this summer.

Other books by Jennifer Fischetto

I Spy Dead People

Unbreakable Bond

Secret Bond

Lethal Bond

About the author:

Jennifer Fischetto is the National Bestselling Author of the Jamie Bond Mysteries. Unbreakable Bond, her adult debut novel, has received a National Reader's Choice award nomination. She writes dead bodies for ages 13 to six-feet-under. When not writing, she enjoys reading, cooking, singing (off-key), and watching an obscene amount of TV. She also adores trees, thunderstorms, and horror movies—the scarier the better. She lives in Western Mass with her family and is currently working on her next project.

Connect with Jennifer:


Website  | Facebook  | 

 Twitter  |  

Goodreads  

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Featured Author: Traci Andrighetti

About the book:

For Franki Amato, life in New Orleans is anything but “The Big Easy.” When she met handsome bank executive Bradley Hartmann, she knew she’d finally found a man she could trust. But she can’t say the same for his sexy new secretary, who is about as trustworthy as Mata Hari and every bit as seductive. Meanwhile, Franki’s best friend and employer, Veronica Maggio, has named her the lead investigator in the murder of a gorgeous cosmetics CEO who was found lying dead in the master bedroom of a historic plantation home.

Now the pressure is on Franki to figure out what a bottle of pink lip gloss and the legend of a pink diamond have to do with the bizarre killing. The problem is that the plantation is notorious for being haunted, and Franki is less than enthusiastic about the prospect of meeting a ghost. Adding to her stress, her Sicilian grandma is up to her usual meddling antics—this time planning Franki’s engagement to Bradley before he’s even considered popping the question. As Bradley grows distant and plantation employees begin dropping like Southern belles during a sweltering summer, Franki turns to a psychic with a phobia of ghosts to solve the mysterious murders and her own relationship fears.

Interview with Traci Andrighetti

Traci, what’s the story behind the title Prosecco Pink?
All of my books' titles have an Italian liqueur or wine with a color – hence my author tagline “Cocktails, color and crime. With an Italian twist.” So, the first book in the Franki Amato series is Limoncello Yellow, and a short Christmas story I wrote about Franki is called “Rosolio Red” (Rosolio is a liqueur made from rose petals). Of course, my latest release is Prosecco Pink. In all the cases, both the liqueur and the color are tied to the mystery. So, I’d love to tell you more about the title, but that would mean giving away a huge part of the plot!

Tell us about your Franki Amato series. Is this book a standalone, or do readers need to read the series in order?
Prosecco Pink is part of the Franki Amato mystery series. But, if you read my reviews on Amazon, for example, you’ll see that a lot of readers have said that the books can be read out of order.

What do you love about where you live?

There are a lot of things to love about Austin, Texas. For starters, our motto is “Keep Austin Weird,” which really just means that we support our local businesses. Then, of course, there’s The University of Texas (Hook ‘em horns!), amazing barbeque like Franklin’s, the SXSW musical festival (not to mention Austin City Limits), and, most recently, Formula One racing. So, Austin just keeps getting better all the time.

What are your most cherished mementoes?
I have two items that are really special to me. One is a clear, quartz rock that I dug up in an alley when I was twelve (I thought it looked like a giant diamond), and the other is an old-fashioned key I bought from a flea market in Rome on my second day ever in Italy. The quartz ties me to my childhood, and the key reminds me of my personal connection to Italy.

If you could only save one thing from your house, what would it be?
Well, besides my laptop, I would grab a huge, original poster of the movie Some Like it Hot from my wall. It’s the Italian version, so the title is actually A qualcuno piace caldo. I love it because Marilyn Monroe looks fabulous in a tight black dress, and because Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are dressed it drag.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?
I recently read a quote by the director Richard Linklater (an Texas original). He was asked about the fact that he had invested a lot of his own money in his last two films, and he explained his decision by saying, “You kind of have to bet on yourself in this world.” It’s a simple statement, but one that I profoundly agree with.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
That’s easy. The Eternal City — Rome, Italy. A lot of people think it’s dirty and noisy, but I think it’s lived in and alive. After all, “Roma” is “amor (love)” backwards. ;)

How did you create the plot for this book?
I was inspired by a visit to Oak Alley plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana. I took some friends who were visiting from Rome there, because I wanted them to see something that doesn’t exist in Italy. I’d been there before, but there was something about seeing the place through their eyes that convinced me it would be an intriguing location for a murder. To create the plot, I used a lot of elements from the mansion, itself, as well as elements from my own imagination.

Are any of your characters inspired by real people?
Yes! Franki, Veronica, David, and Franki’s nonna, Carmela, were all inspired by real people. So, if you think Carmela is too crazy to be real, think again. ;) The only one of my recurring characters who isn’t based on a real person is Franki and Veronica’s aging stripper landlady, Glenda. She was based on a group of strippers I met when I accidentally ended up in their dressing room in New Orleans (long story).

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?
Well, I would prefer to do my writing all day long in my house. But, I have a day job, so I have to do it in the middle of the night and on weekends. And sometimes I like to write at a coffee shop down the street from my house. Getting all jacked up on caffeine has its advantages.

What would your dream office look like?
Actually, I just created my dream office in my home, and it looks a lot like a guest bedroom. I like to lie down when I write, so I got rid of my desk and put a day bed in the room. The room is orange, has a giant black bookshelf in it, and it’s filled with knickknacks and treasures from Rome, including a poster of the movie Gidget Goes to Rome with the coliseum prominently featured. I now call my office my “Roman writing room.”

How did you find your publisher, and how long did your query process take?
My story is completely crazy (no surprise there). I had maybe written a third of Limoncello Yellow when a fellow author encouraged me to submit the first 2,000 words of the novel to a contest to win a Kindle and month of mentoring. The next thing you know, I had a two-book deal in hand. I still can’t believe it.

What are you working on now?
Honestly, I’m working on a book in a new series that I’m not yet at liberty to talk about. But watch for it in the summer. It’s going to be big, but not for the reasons you might think. ;)

Other books by Traci:

About the author:

Traci Andrighetti is the national bestselling author of the Franki Amato mysteries. In her previous life, she was an award-winning literary translator and a Lecturer of Italian at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a PhD in Applied Linguistics. But then she got wise and ditched that academic stuff for a life of crime--writing, that is.



If she's not hard at work on her next novel, Traci is probably watching her favorite Italian soap opera, eating Tex Mex or sampling fruity cocktails, and maybe all at the same time. She lives in Austin with her husband, young son (who desperately wants to be in one of her books) and three treat-addicted dogs.



Connect with Traci:

Website  | Blog  | 
Facebook  |  
Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Barnes & Noble  |  
iTunes  |  
Kobo  | Smashwords 

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