Ellen is a girl after my own heart; she loves cats and chocolate! Her works include both Cozy Mysteries (Molly McGhie) and Romantic Comedies (Smitten with Travel). Her books will have you glutching your gut while laughing-out-loud. You can find out more about her books from her Website. And don’t forget to follow her on Facebook. In the Mysteries, Midsummer Sun and Murders anthology she is introducing us to a whole new set of characters. Set in the fictional town of Why, North Dakota we are sure to be in for cozy adventures.

Ellen’s new series starts out with the book she is including in the anthology;
Planning for Murder (North Dakota Library Mysteries).
When Thea Olson moved back to her hometown in North Dakota, the last thing she expected was to add “investigate a murder” to her To Do list. But when her cousin is falsely accused of killing her business partner, Thea is drawn into solving the case. Can she clear her cousin’s name or will Thea be the murderer’s next victim?

Let’s get to know Ellen more through her answers to a few questions…

Is anything in your book based on your real-life experiences or purely all imagination?
My husband is a proud born and bred North Dakotan and is the inspiration behind setting this series in a small fictional town in North Dakota and the main character’s Norwegian-American background.

I’ve always loved To Do lists and have recently gotten into bullet journaling and creative planners. For me, that means taking my lists of things to do, sticking them in a pretty journal and using decorative elements to jazz things up. You’d be amazing how much more enjoyable it is to check “clean the bathroom” off your list if you have a cute sticker next to it. LOL!

I thought it would be fun to incorporate my new hobby into this story. The murder victim runs a business which sells planner supplies—stickers, pens, journals, craft paper, note pads etc.—hence the title of my novella, “Planning for Murder.”

Share something your readers wouldn’t know about you.
Something you might not know about me is that I used to live on a sailboat. My husband and I bought our first sailboat when we lived in New Zealand, and then when we came back to the States, we bought another one in Florida. My adventures learning to sail, my experiences living aboard a boat, and our time cruising in New Zealand and the Bahamas are the inspiration behind my Mollie McGhie cozy sailing mystery series. Mollie and I have a lot in common. Thankfully, I don’t stumble across dead bodies like she does, though.

Can you give us some insight into what makes you main character tick?
My main character, Thea Olson, is an organizational development consultant. In her professional life, she’s used to analyzing people’s personality types in order to help them be more effective in their careers. When it comes to solving murder cases, she applies this skill to understand suspects’ motives and try to figure out what would drive them to kill.

---

_{Before the release, you are going to want to pre order your copy! Not only will you get it at the lowest price of 99 cents, but you will also get a fun addition that the authors put together for our readers; a recipe book of great summer salads.}

_{We are also doing something extra special for our potential readers; we’ve put together an exciting package with over 30 prizes to win. Ereaders, gift cards, signed copies of books, ebooks, audio books, the list goes on. And you can check out the list AND sign up to win the Mysteries, Midsummer Sun & Murder anthology prize pack by clicking on the box below.}