Happy Homicides 5: The Purr-fect Crime
by Joanna Campbell Slan, Linda Gordon Hengerer, LouLou Harrington, Neil Plakcy, Teresa Trent, Terry Ambrose, Amy Vansant, Randy Rawls, Christina Freeburn, Wendy Sand Eckel, and Karen Cantwell
GENRE: Cozy Mystery anthology
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The authors will be awarding a $50 Etsy GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Please visit GoddessFish.com to follow the tour, remember the more you comment better your chances on winning.
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BLURB:
The purr-fect way to meet your new favorite author! This collection of traditional mysteries will be like catnip for feline-friendly readers. It’s paw-sitively the best Mother’s Day gift ever. Plus, you can email us to get a FREE Bonus File with recipes and holiday craft ideas. You’ll enjoy stories by these bestselling and award-winning authors: Joanna Campbell Slan, Linda Gordon Hengerer, David Bishop, LouLou Harrington, Neil Plakcy, Teresa Trent, Terry Ambrose, Amy Vansant, Randy Rawls, Christina Freeburn, Wendy Sand Eckel, and Karen Cantwell. For more information, go to www.HappyHomicides.com
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EXCERPT:
THE NAMING OF CATS: A Rosalie Hart Mystery
Wendy Sand Eckel
Editor’s Note: The quaint little town of Cardigan on Maryland’s Eastern Shore seemed like the perfect spot for Rosalie Hart to open the Day Lily Café. A flat stretch of land between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, the Eastern Shore is home to crusty watermen, dug-in farmers, and people who are fiercely proud to call it home. Rosalie has enough on her plate running the restaurant. But when her Maine Coon uncovers a mystery, the cat has been let out of the bag.
Chapter 1
“Your cat is up to something,” Tyler said as he walked into my kitchen. I set a steaming cup of coffee next to him and watched as he scrubbed his hands under the faucet.
“I think Sweeney Todd is happy to be outside.” I lifted my coffee mug and blew over the surface to cool it. “This is the first day it hasn’t rained in over a week.”
He dried his hands and turned to face me. “Thanks for the joe.”
Tyler Wells leased the farmland of my new home, Barclay Meadow. It wasn’t really my choice to move here. Three years ago, when my dear Aunt Charlotte bequeathed me this two-hundred-year-old house and the vast land surrounding it, I was happily immersed in my married life in Chevy Chase. But all that changed when my husband of over twenty years pronounced his love for a much younger and blonder version of me.
The sun streamed through the windows, warming the honey wood floors. Tyler and I had fallen into the habit of sharing a cup of coffee every morning before we started our days. I checked the clock. I would be leaving soon to go to the restaurant I recently opened, the Day Lily Café, currently serving breakfast and lunch five days a week in the sleepy little town of Cardigan.
Tyler brushed his sandy blond hair off his forehead. “Sweeney is digging pretty close to the vegetable gardens. You might want to stop him.”
“I’m on it.” I set my coffee down and headed outside.
My shoes squeaked on the grass as I rounded the house. A dense mist rose from the Cardigan River at the end of the sloping lawn. It was a beautiful spring morning on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
I spotted Sweeney by an old Sycamore tree. Its trunk was gnarled and twisted looking like something out of Sleepy Hollow. He was digging furiously at the ground with his front paws.
My adopted Maine Coon cat was originally named Sweetie Pie. But on the first day I brought him home, he slaughtered four goldfinches in under an hour. That’s when Tyler suggested the name change. At the precise moment I started to disagree, Sweeney dropped a fifth lifeless bird on my peep-toe pump.
I knelt down next to him. He had dug so deep almost all nineteen pounds of him were immersed in the hole.
“Hey, what are you . . .” He swiped one paw with a particularly vigorous motion and a clump of dirt launched onto my black skirt. “Sweeney, for goodness sake.” He stopped digging and let out a long, guttural mmrrrow. He pushed back out of the hole and eyed me intently. My stomach tightened with dread. “What have you found, baby?”
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Author Interview: Teresa Trent, Author of the Pecan Bayou Mystery Series
Author Interview: Teresa Trent, Author of the Pecan Bayou Mystery Series
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
There are two parts to contributing to an anthology, and the first is writing the story. I was inspired by senior citizen tap dancing groups and have made a promise to myself that once I am officially in that club (not as far away as you might think) I am going to buy myself a pair of tap shoes and a sequined vest and have fun! I really enjoyed creating a story around these characters and I’m sure they will now show up in other Pecan Bayou adventures.
The second part is getting to work with all these other super cozy mystery writers. You don’t get to see the behind-the-scenes part of this book but we email and chat for months before the book comes out. I have learned so much from these other writers over the five editions of Happy Homicides. It always makes me laugh when friends come up to me to tell me how much they loved the book and admit they are now cheating on me as a reader with one of the other authors in the anthology. It’s all good!
What inspires you?
Everyday life. You see people doing wonderful things for each other everywhere. The child who makes a friend of someone nobody else likes at school. The daughter helping her mother into a wheelchair so they can shop at Walmart. The people who do so much in a faith community but never look for recognition. Now, this sounds pretty sweet, but you have to keep in mind I write murder mysteries. I take these kinds of people and put them into my stories and I’m hoping we’ve gone from a textbook mystery with red herrings, props, motives and clues to a mystery with people you like, secrets kept for a reason and good winning over evil.
Who are some of your favorite authors that you feel were influential in your work?
I am just finishing Fannie Flagg’s The Whole Town’s Talking. If you are not familiar with her work, she is the writer behind Fried Green Tomatoes. Her grasp of characters in small towns is inspiring. She is one of the few authors whose books I read more than once.
Have you ever had one character you wanted to go one way with but after the book was done the character was totally different?
I have had this happen so many times it’s embarrassing. There is usually one little thing about the character I particularly like. Maybe this character talks too much, or maybe they have a penchant for pecan pie. If it makes me laugh, then I can predict it will make my readers laugh so the character’s quirky thing just keeps popping up in my imagination. Ruby Green, the hairstylist at The Best Little Hairhouse in Texas showed up with a cooler full of beer at the paranormal investigation in my first book and now she’s a fixture in all my books complete with her rendition of the way it ought to be.
What are your future projects?
I just published Till Dirt Do Us Part, the seventh book in my Pecan Bayou Series. This is the same series that is featured in all the Happy Homicides Anthologies. My Henry Park Series debuted this January. This series takes place in Colorado and my main character is an illustrator who has psychic powers.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
THE BOOK IS ON SALE FOR $0.99 DURING THE TOUR
The authors are supplying a bonus gift for readers. They can receive it by sending an email to HH4Bonus@joannaslan.com
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Happy Homicides 5: The Purr-fect Crime authors include Joanna Campbell Slan, Linda Gordon Hengerer, David Bishop, LouLou Harrington, Neil Plakcy, Teresa Trent, Terry Ambrose, Amy Vansant, Randy Rawls, Christina Freeburn, Wendy Sand Eckel, and Karen Cantwell. For more information, go to www.HappyHomicides.com or visit us at http://www.facebook.com/happyhomicides To read a free sample, get your copy of Happy Homicides 2: Crimes of the Heart here: http://bit.ly/2HHCrime
Joanna Campbell Slan: RT Reviews has called Joanna Campbell Slan “one of mystery’s rising stars,” and it’s easy to see why. She’s the award-winning and national bestselling author of three mystery series. Her first series, the Kiki Lowenstein Mystery series, was an Agatha Award Finalist, and features ace scrapbooker Kiki Lowenstein. Previous to writing fiction, Joanna penned seven scrapbooking technique books and wrote for Creating Keepsakes, Memory Makers, and PaperKuts. She has taught scrapbooking online, on cruises, and in Europe, as well as here in the US.
Linda Gordon Hengerer
Linda was a football widow during her first marriage, and she wrote American Football Basics (original title Football Basics) because she thought more women would enjoy football if they understood it. She is also interested in food and wine, and has written an easy guide to food and wine pairings.
New Jersey native turned Florida resident, Linda moved to Vero Beach in 1996. She writes the Beach Tea Shop Mysteries, a cozy mystery series set in an area suspiciously like Vero Beach.
LouLou Harrington
Writer, traveler, and nature enthusiast Loulou Harrington is the author of the Myrtle Grove Garden Club mystery series. Originally a native of northwest Arkansas, Loulou now resides in the Tulsa area and spends frequent weekends wandering among the lakes and foothills of northeastern Oklahoma, the setting of her cozy series and an area she hopes her readers will enjoy as much as she does.
Beginning her career as a romance novelist, she published nine contemporary romances with Harlequin, writing as Ada Steward, before succumbing to the lure of her first love: the mystery novel.
First discovering Nancy Drew as a child and continuing with Miss Marple and Travis McGee as an adult, Loulou learned to appreciate the puzzle and suspense of the mystery combined with the familiar characters and settings of the recurring series. So while she still believes that into each life a little romance should fall, she has come to the opinion that it should trip over at least one dead body along the way.
Neil Plakcy
Neil Plakcy is the author of the Mahu Investigations, mysteries which take place in Hawaii. They are: Mahu, Mahu Surfer, Mahu Fire, Mahu Vice, Mahu Blood, Mahu Men, Zero Break, Natural Predators and Children of Noah.
His M/M romance novels are GayLife.com, Mi Amor, Love on Site, Love on the Web, Love on Stage, Love on the Pitch, and the Have Body, Will Guard series: Three Wrong Turns in the Desert, Dancing with the Tide, Teach Me Tonight, Olives for the Stranger, The Noblest Vengeance and Finding Freddie Venus.
He has also written the golden retriever mysteries In Dog We Trust, The Kingdom of Dog, Dog Helps Those, Dog Bless You, Whom Dog Hath Joined and Dog Have Mercy.
He is co-editor of Paws & Reflect: A Special Bond Between Man and Dog (Alyson Books, 2006) and editor of many gay erotica anthologies. A journalist, book reviewer and college professor, he is also a frequent contributor to gay anthologies.
Teresa Trent
Teresa Trent writes cozy mysteries that take place in small towns in Texas. She was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee but with her father in the military, didn't stay for long. She's lived all over, but likes to call three states her favorite homes. Colorado, Illinois and of course, Texas. Being a fan of the Andy Griffith Show and Murder She Wrote she loves creating quirky small towns and colorful characters. She decided to feature a character with Down syndrome in the Pecan Bayou series because after giving birth to her own son with DS, she discovered there were very few people like him in the world of cozy mysteries. If you're wondering which book to start with in the Pecan Bayou Series, start with #1 A Dash of Murder. Many of Teresa's mysteries occur before or during a holiday and A Dash of Murder is her Halloween book.
Terry Ambrose
Terry Ambrose started out skip tracing and collecting money from deadbeats and quickly learned that liars come from all walks of life. He never actually stole a car, but sometimes hired big guys with tow trucks and a penchant for working in the dark when “negotiations” failed.
A resident of Southern California, he loves spending time in Hawaii, especially on the Garden Island of Kauai, where he invents lies for others to read. His years of chasing deadbeats taught him many valuable life lessons including—always keep your car in the garage.
Amy Vansant
Amy specializes in fun, comedic reads about accident prone, easily distracted women with questionable taste in men. So, autobiographies, mostly.
Amy is the former East Coast Editor of SURFER Magazine but the urge to drive up and down the coast interviewing surfers has long since left her. Currently, she is a nerd and Labradoodle mommy who works at home with her goofy husband.
She loves interacting with fans when the dog isn't laying on top of her, so stop by her blog or Twitter and say hi!
Randy Rawls
I'm Randy Rawls, author of mysteries and thrillers. I grew up in northeastern North Carolina, then did a career in the Army. I've been an avid reader all my life and have tried to incorporate what I learned from the best into my writing. While I live in South Florida, my heart resides in Texas. I'd love to hear from you at RandyRawls@att.net.
Christina Freeburn
Reading has been a part of Christina's life since she can remember and soon developed into a love of writing.
Read about her writing process, her hobbies, and the heroines she believes are a self-rescue princess at her blog The Self-Rescue Princess.
Wendy Sand Eckel
Degrees in criminology and social work, followed by years of clinical practice, helped WENDY SAND ECKEL explore her fascination with how relationships impact motivation, desire, and inhibition. Combined with her passion for words and meaning, writing mystery is a dream realized. She lives in Maryland where she enjoys family and friends, two cats, and living near the Chesapeake Bay.
Karen Cantwell
Karen's novel, Take the Monkeys and Run was a semi-finalist in the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest (under the original title of Monkeys in My Trees)and has gone on to be a Kindle bestseller on Amazon. She has written three more books in the Barbara Marr Murder Mystery Series: Citizen Insane, Silenced by the Yams, and Saturday Night Cleaver.
When she's not writing, Karen loves gardening and spending time with her family. She is currently working on the release of Keep Me Ghosted, the first book in the new Sophie Rhodes Ghostly Romance Series, as well as beginning the draft of Kiss Me, Tate, part of the upcoming Barbara Marr spin-off, Love in Rustic Woods Series.
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Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the tour and thanks for the chance to win :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for having us, Eskie Mama!
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great interview! I hope everyone picks up a copy of Happy Homicides 5 The Purr-fect Crime and don't forget to enter our giveaway. $50 on Etsy!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for hosting, Eskie Mama, and I really enjoyed the interview. Looking forward to reading every story and really looking forward to seeing more of Teresa's series.
ReplyDeleteGreat giveaway!
ReplyDeleteWhat book would you like to see to see turned into a movie. Thanks for the giveaway. I hope that I win. Bernie W BWallace1980(at)hotmail(d0t)com
ReplyDeleteReally enjoy the Happy Homicides books. Looking forward to reading #5.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoy the Happy Homicides books. Looking forward to reading #5.
ReplyDelete