Cecilia Peartree lives in Edinburgh with a background in computer programming and database management. She writes, surrounded by cats, the Pitkirttly Mystery series, Max Falconer Mystery series, Misplaced Heiresses series, Adventurous Quest series, Brighton Heirs series, Scottish Futures series and short stories. Will Pamela Prendergast be her newest series?
After moving to Cramond, the historic village on the coast of the Firth of Forth, Pamela gradually uncovers the truth about her husband’s secret life and his unexpected death. But the closer she comes to the truth, the more dangerous it is for her.
Who is your protagonist? Pamela Prendergast is a woman in her mid to late 40s, a trained artist who works in children’s book illustration and occasionally paints murals for nurseries, libraries etc. At the start of this book she has recently been widowed.
Tell us what time frame your stories are in and what setting or world? The story is set in the present day in one of the historic former villages that have been absorbed into Edinburgh, on the coast of the Firth of Forth (the estuary of the river) in Scotland.
Is your book part of a series, if so, tell us about the series. This book is not yet part of a series.
What has happened to propel your character into a “new beginning”? Pamela and her husband had been about to move house to a different area of town when her husband met with a fatal accident. Pamela has to go ahead with the move for legal reasons but is uncertain about it. On moving day a stranger arrives and presents her with a mysterious box, and the contents add a different element to her new life and ultimately lead her into mystery and danger.
Is your protagonist happy about this new beginning or resistant to it? She isn’t sure about it, although in some ways she feels she should leave the past behind.
Give the readers a hint of what’s to come for your character in future books. It’s possible this will be the first of a series in which Pamela and her friends investigate suspicious deaths. I’ve already written a short story for her, along these lines.
Verena spends her time homeschooling her artistic daughter, walking the nature trails around her Texas home. She is the owner, with her partner, of the Aconite Cafe, a publishing company. A true coffee lover, Verena is the author of A Fresh Brew: A Dragon Cozy Mystery. She also wires the Hill Country Mysterys, Dusty Paws Mysteries and is part of the Cozy Mystery Tribe Anthology books.
Forty, foxy, and fond of forensics. Moving back to my old stopping grounds came with more trouble than I bargained for. I left my investigation agency back in Fort Worth to start over free from stress.
This is the first book in a series. The third book is planned to be released in February 2023 with another 2—3 books to release during 2023.
Who is your protagonist? Blair Warren is a 43-year-old go-getter—or she used to be. Once upon a time, she had a dream to bring every cheater to justice. To give every woman the confidence they needed to leave relationships that were harboring their dreams. But that was before a heavy hitter in Dallas ran a slander campaign against her agency. Now she is living a small-town life she never wanted and trying to put back the broken pieces of her own confidence.
Tell us what time frame your stories are in and what setting or world? Blair’s story takes place in modern day Kingsland, Texas. While the events, places and people of Blair’s story are fiction, the town is a very real tourist trap that fans of the series can visit for themselves. Like with all of Verena’s books, Blair lives in the same universe as the Hill Country Mystery series, even making pop in over appearances there.
Is your book part of a series? If so, tell us about the series. Murder in LBJ Cove is a part of the Firedrake Investigation series. Throughout these books, we will follow Blair as she solves murders with her friends in Kingsland, Texas.
What has happened to propel your character into a “new beginning”? In a prequal story, Cheated into Retirement, Blair is forced to leave a life she built from scratch. For as long as she could remember, all she ever wanted was a successful P.I. business deep in the bustle of city life. She had it all, living the dream she worked hard to make a reality, but one case, one lie, one scorned spouse blew it all up. Within less than a year, she found herself back home, living in the small town she ran from trying to find a new balance in a life she never asked for.
Is your protagonist happy about this new beginning or resistant to it? For the first time in her life, Blair is lost without a passion to drive her forward. When she lived in Dallas, a stable relationship, or a group of friends were not things she desired. At first, all she wants is to wake up from the nightmare and have everything back to the way it was. She finds herself working in a job that is the furthest away from investigation she can be—a bakery—trying her best to hide from the realities of her new life. But a passion is a passion, and throughout Murder in LBJ Cove she discovers there’s more to investigating than just cheaters.
Give the readers a hint of what’s to come for your character in future books. When we meet up with Blair in Murder in LBJ Cove, she is broken and humbled by her experiences in Dallas. The smear campaign against her hit her harder than she ever thought it would and she can’t imagine ever going back to investigation again. But over the first few books, we’ll watch as each case gives her a little bit of her confidence back. She’ll discover how much of a blessing that tragedy was and find out what she really wants for her life. From friendship to romance, Blair is going to do a 180 on her life goals and discover that there is happiness on the other side.
Ann Sutton is a die-hard fan of Agatha Christie, and it only seems right that her mysteries are set in the golden age of Christie’s mysteries. Ann was born and raised in England, but lives with her family in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Anne is also the author of the Dodo Dorchester Mystery series.
A merry Christmas party with old friends. A dead body in the kitchen. A reluctant heroine. Sounds like a recipe for a jolly festive murder mystery!
Who is your protagonist? Persephone Pontefract (Percy) is married to Piers, a civil servant, and is mother to two boys, ages 11 and 8. They live in a rambling farmhouse with their cook who has become a more of a friend to Percy than a servant since her mother is an overly critical woman who is embarrassed by her daughter’s height and lack of poise.
Bored now that her children are in school, Percy is looking for a meaningful hobby and literally falls into sleuthing at an overnight Christmas party.
Unlike the protagonist in my other series, Percy is almost 6 feet tall with very large feet and a burgeoning waistline. Rather plain, with a tendency to speak before thinking, you can’t help but fall in love with her. As one of my readers said, Percy is so relatable.
Tell us what time frame your stories are in and what setting or world? Percy’s stories take place in 1928 in England.
Is your book part of a series, if so, tell us about the series. This is book 1 in the series that will follow Percy as she stumbles into murders while her husband is ‘away’ on business.
What has happened to propel your character into a “new beginning”? Both her children are now in boarding school (a tradition she finds barbaric) and she finds herself at a loose end.
Is your protagonist happy about this new beginning or resistant to it? When she bumbles into her first murder she is terrified and when her cook suggests she look into the case she is resistant.
Give the readers a hint of what’s to come for your character in future books. A total novice when the series begins, Percy will grow into her new role as the series develops and perhaps learn what her husband is doing on all those trips for work.
I’m looking forward to seeing what new beginnings Percy contintues to explore! Victoria LK Williams
At the beginning of January, usually on the 1st, everyone thinks about what they want to do differently from the year before. Maybe it’s to take better care of your health, start a new hobby, finish a project that’s been on hold for a long time, or start something completely new.
In this next series of author interviews, that is just what the creators have done to their characters; set them on a new beginning or adventure. If we’re lucky, this will be a series and we can watch the characters and story progress through multiple books.
So as you begin your new year, give yourself some reading time and watch what these have authors plan for us….
Babs to her friends, this writer is from Nova Scotia, where she lives with her husband and rescued cat and dog. She has worked in journalism, public relations and radio. Her passions, other than fiction writing, include sewing (she gives lessons too!) and writing about sewing.
Babs’ new book is up for preorder and is the start of a new series! I can’t wait to read Crafting for Murder, where she combines her love of sewing, dogs and mystery into this fun new series..
Seamstress, crafter, and empty-nester Valerie Rankin has plans to open a crafter’s co-op that will put Gasper’s Cove, Nova Scotia on the map. One month before opening day, she still has to pin down a venue, patch up the family business, iron out corruption in the town council, and unravel why anyone who tries to help her ends up dead. With the help of her Golden Retriever, an ex-con who loves cats, and a community of first, second, and third cousins, she just might pull it off.
Who is your protagonist? The central character in my Gasper’s Cove Mysteries series is Valerie Rankin. She grew up on the eastern shore of Nova Scotia and is part of the same family that has operated Rankin’s General store for over a hundred years. Like many of her generation, Valerie left the community to go live in Halifax when she married. There, after unexpectedly becoming a single mother of three, she worked a series of jobs to support her family. The one she enjoyed most was as a sewing instructor. After her children had grown and flown, she returns to Gasper’s Cove to run a small sewing school in the family store. She also hopes to one day establish a co-op for the local crafters to sell what they make.
Tell us what time frame your stories are in and what setting or world? The stories are set in the present and in Gasper’s Cove, a small fishing community on Gasper’s Island, connected to the mainland and the larger community of Drummond by a causeway. Here is a picture of the actual location, not far from where I live, on which Gasper’s Cove is based. This place, one where my family has connections, has a dreamy quality that makes me think it probably does contain Gasper’s Cove.
Is your book part of a series? If so, tell us about the series. Valerie does, of course, establish her Crafter’s Co-op. The series is about how she and one small, almost forgotten community reinvent themselves. The challenges presented in each book call on the characters to rely on their own ingenuity and resourcefulness to move forward.
What has happened to propel your character into a “new beginning”? Valerie really has run out of other options. Her grown children have left Halifax and gone on to their own lives. She is faced with a choice. Does she stay where she is, surrounded by the empty spaces they have left behind, or does she go back to the place where she was once truly happy– the small coastal town she grew up in? She’s trying to reconnect with who she once was.
Is your protagonist happy about this new beginning or resistant to it?
This is the dilemma. Essentially, Valerie isn’t really trying to have a new beginning but to rewind life to the way it was, with the security she felt in a small, closed community. In fact, she even goes home to live in her aunt’s house, complete with its mid-century modern contents, taking residence in the past. However, the people she left behind have changed and grown. There is a place for her in Gasper’s Cove now, but it has to be a new place. She fights this reality and continues to try to look backwards for as long as she can. Valerie is slow to understand that her own nature and abilities will pull her forward if she likes it or not. Valerie wanted a quiet life. Instead, she is on her way to an interesting life.
Give the readers a hint of what’s coming for your character in future books. This series has given me as an author, the opportunity to share the quirky history and culture of Nova Scotia. I have experienced much of what is in these books, and I know these characters well. As the series develops, I hope readers will enjoy sharing the ways in which ordinary people, like Valerie Rankin, in this odd corner of the world handle unpredictable events. Humor, community, and the ability to think outside the box, in an environment that doesn’t understand the concept of boxes, are key to how Valerie’s life develops, and I think hold the various mysteries together.
And by the way, I am really proud of Valerie. She underestimates herself but I never do.
Pen In Hand, Words on Page 