This book left me with so many burning questions, I had to go straight to the source!!

It’s a bit of both. I begin with the core characters and families. I have a rough outline of family trees and key roles. From there, it’s about knowing the primary mysteries for each of the books I’ve planned. I began with 10 plots in mind, then added 2 more for Halloween and Christmas themes. In each one, I know the major characters, the murder victim, and the 2 or 3 likely killers. If I know the reasons or the setting, I will purposely include hints in earlier books… but I also intentionally mention names or places in a book before it becomes prominent, as I want readers to have a sense of familiarity with everything. At that point, when I’m outlining chapters before I begin writing, I decide how to grow each character and ensure they have memorable and tangible traits that make readers think about the five senses, people in their own lives, and famous people they might be reminiscent of. I think that helps create a more rounded character and the series becomes believable, despite the frequency of murder occurring in such a relatively small location.

Oh, yes! I have struggled with this since the beginning. For one thing, the books are told in first person. It’s impossible to make anyone sexy in first person. They either come across as arrogant or foolish. Imagine Kellan standing in front of a mirror saying “Wow, I’m so sexy, women will drop to floor in front of me.” I’ve also got to stay within the ‘cozy mystery’ boundaries, so there’s minimal sexual content. Do you know how difficult that is for a male lead in his early 30s? In reality, all he thinks about is sex. The poor guy’s wife died 7 years ago. Are we to believe he has been celibate the entire time? Sure, it definitely happens in reality, but if I want him to come across sexy and confident, he also has to be sexy… so I try to increase it with each book. At first, we toyed with him and Maggie. Then we had some Francesca stuff. Then, we had 2 or 3 women he was interviewing who flirted with him. Finally, he opens up to April. I push as much as I can with long looks, witty comments, inner thoughts and suggestive dialog. His sexiness comes from his personality, that he can do almost anything, that he knows how to laugh at himself, that he works out and looks hot, etc. Other than him commenting about how he feels better about himself when he works out, it’s the women in his life who tell us that he is in incredible shape and very attractive, not him. From there, we have to use our imagination… but in Haunted House Ghost, he absolutely stands up for himself, and there will be a very different side of him in his dalliances with a certain female friend. He gets a little alpha in a few scenes.

Ugh! They might… I have a large extended family. My grandparents had tons of siblings, so I had lots of great aunts and uncles. Everyone seemed to pass away when I was a child, so I spent a lot of time at the funeral home for wakes and funerals. I knew several by name and loved going to the cemetery. I believe it was a good thing to learn about it at a young age, but at the same time, I have a complex perspective on death that sometimes makes me seem a little cold-natured. I avoid talking about people getting sick and dying, or that type of conversation, because it brings up too much emotion. With Kellan, he hides it with humor. I just pretend it’s not happening.

Phew! Tough one… I read about 200 books per year. Fifty percent are cozies, and the rest come from other genres, so my style is a mix-and-match from all of it. I always write as if I’m talking to the person myself, telling the story as if I’m relaying a memory to a friend. Then I go back to layer in the character voices and styles to ensure that everyone sounds and acts different, in case I merged too much together in a bad way. I purposely chose a male lead in his 30s because there are hardly any of those around in the cozy mystery world. Most are also written in the third person, so I chose to write in first person. I also chose not to force my writing style to be light and simple like so many of them are done. My plots are a bit more complex, my language and vocabulary (including sentence length and style) are longer or deeper — not because I don’t like the lighter stuff, and not because I’m trying to be stuck up in any way… it’s truly just a way to push the boundaries of the books to have a wider audience and constantly evolve and improve the genre. To me, cozy means: No sex, no violence, no graphic scenes, and a cozy little town where everything isn’t what it seems under the surface. Beyond that, everything is up for grabs. 

I’ve always started out knowing who it would be. However, in 1 of the 7 published books, the killer changed midway through the writing process. I was certain a character I had introduced would be a throwaway character, but as I developed his/her personality, the possibilities for the future seemed to open a new thread. As a result, I added a second story-line to the overall mystery, made this person guilty of something but not irredeemable. (S)he would be punished but will still show up without having gone to jail. When I made this change, I was uncertain for a few weeks… I had to change dialog, scene order, and drop new red herrings. Even up until the final proofreading stage, I was still finding things that had to be altered slightly to ensure I tied everything together perfectly.

If Nana D was actually making us margaritas, what do you think her recipe would be??

Double the tequila. Less ice so they can’t be watered down in any way. Extra lime because she likes to be sweet and sour at the same time. And nothing fancy…. while I love a good hibiscus margarita at a Mexican restaurant, she’s gonna stick to the basics… only the things she could get when she started drinking them at 10 or 11 in the 1950s.

Ingredients

• 4 parts Jose Cuervo Silver
• 2 Parts Cointreau
• 2 Parts Lime Juice
• ice
• Salt
• Optional Agave Syrup

Directions

1. Rim Glass with either Lime wedge or agave syrup
2. Twist rim of glass in salt and set aside
3. Add Tequila, Cointreau and Lime juice to shaker of ice and shake until chilled
4. Add a couple cubes of ice to cocktail glass (NOT TOO MANY, WE DON’T WANT TO WATER IT DOWN!)
5. Strain mixture into glass
6. Don’t even bother garnish because it’s BOTTOMS UP TIME!
7. CHEERS!