I am thrilled to be talking to New York Times Best-Selling Author Denise Swanson. She has two cozy mystery series -- the Scumble River Mysteries and the Devereaux's Dime Store series -- as well as the Change of Heart Romance Series. She also has some incredible stories to tell: her writing career came out of what she has called a face-to-face encounter with evil.

You can find all her mysteries in order on her website, and if you're looking for the romances, here's that link. The 19th (!) Scumble River Mystery has the irresistible title of Murder of a Cranky Catnapper. 

Catnip!

As always, if you'd rather read than listen, here's the transcript. Enjoy!

Transcript of Interview with Denise Swanson

Laura Brennan: My guest today is New York Times best-selling author Denise Swanson. Her mystery series include both the Scumbel River Mysteries and the Devereaux's Dime Store Mysteries. And if that weren't enough, she also writes the Change of Heart Romance series. Denise has multiple awards and nominations including the Agatha award, the Mary Higgins Clark award, the Reviewer's Choice award, and was also nominated for RT Magazine's career achievement award, alongside Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich.

Denise, thank you so much for joining me.

Denise Swanson: Thank you for inviting me.

LB: Okay, so I was counting up all your published books -- plus, I know you must have more in the works. And you're creeping up on 30 books in the last 16 years, is that right?

DS: I think that close. Yes, I have -- the 19th Scumble River will come out in September, which is Murder of a Cranky Catnapper. And the 6th Devereaux's Dime Store book will come out next July. And I have four romances published so, getting right up there.

LB: You had a career as a school psychologist, correct?

DS: Yes. I worked for 22 years as a school psychologist. I worked every age level from preschoolers all the way through high school, but my favorite was the junior high, that's where I spent most of my time.

LB: How did you then make the shift from helping junior high school students survive --

DS: And their parents!

LB: -- and their parents, bless your heart -- to writing mysteries?

DS: Well, I've always wanted to write. I've always written. I actually wrote my very first book in kindergarten. I am an only child and I grew up on a farm and my mom had a lot of time, she was a stay-at-home mom. So I was reading by the time I went to kindergarten. When I was in kindergarten, the teacher didn't really know what to do with me and she she sat me into the corner and said pretty much, amuse yourself. Because she had to teach everybody else. So I used my big chief tablet to write an alphabet book. And I have to say that when I brought it up to show it to my teacher, it wasn't quite the reaction I was expecting. I brought it up and I said oh, look what I've done! And she paged through the tablet and said to me, you've used your whole tablet. What will you use for the rest of the year? So that was my first bad review. The message came across pretty clearly that this was not an activity that she encouraged.

 

Claudia Rose, the protagonist of Sheila Lowe's Forensic Handwriting Mystery series, is a handwriting analyst -- as is Sheila herself. The stories are the best of both the mystery and thriller worlds: high stakes and plenty of adrenaline, but solid mysteries, plenty of clues, and a lot of heart.

Let's lead with the important stuff: if you are reading or listening to this before August 16, 2016, Sheila is having a book launch party and you are invited! Click on the link to learn more. Plus, here is the pre-order link for the new book, Outside the Lines.

In addition to having written The Complete Idiot's Guide to Handwriting Analysis and Handwriting of the Famous and Infamous, Sheila is the president of the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation, which has resources for those interested in learning more about handwriting analysis.

AHAF is also has resources for an important, and at the moment, often overlooked skill: cursive writing. They recently released a paper on the importance of cursive writing in the digital age. Want to help your kids learn cursive? You can learn more about New American Cursive here, and there's yet more information at CursiveIsCool.com.

She gives a shout out to the Enid Blyton children's books, particularly The Rocking Down Mystery, which appears to be out of print, although used copies can still be found (thank you, Internet!). I recommend Gavin de Becker's The Gift of Fear, a brilliant book on how to read people and situations. And here is the link for Women Against Gun Violence.

Finally, Sheila has also written the stand-alone psychological thriller, What She Saw.

Here are the Claudia Rose Forensic Handwriting Mysteries in order. Enjoy!

1 - Poison Pen

2 - Written in Blood

3 - Dead Write

4 - Last Writes

5 - Inkslingers Ball

6 - Outside the Lines

Transcript of Interview with Sheila Lowe

Laura Brennan: I am so excited today to be talkin...

 

With two delicious series going, each with a new book out over the next six months, author Gigi Pandian still managed to find time to chat with me, and I'm thrilled. Her adventure-filled mysteries are among my favorite series. How do you know if you'd like them? If you're a fan of Elizabeth Peters, either her Vicky Bliss or her Amelia Peabody series, then you will love Gigi's books.

We talk about a lot of things, and one of them is food. Dorian, the gourmet chef (and living gargoyle) from The Accidental Alchemist grumbles about it, but he manages to create masterful dishes with only vegan ingredients. Gigi has a treasure trove of recipes on her site for you to try as well, and don't miss her Pinterest board! 

Gigi's interests are so wide-ranging -- alchemy! mythology! world travel! -- that I'm not going to try to encapsulate it all here. Instead, let me suggest you follow her on Facebook and subscribe to her newsletter. Little doses of wonderment await. And joy -- did I mention what joyous romps the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mysteries are? There, now I did.

Plus Gigi just shared some great news about The Accidental Alchemist series: her original three-book series has been extended! There will be more adventures for Zoe and Dorian ahead.

Here are the two series, in order:

The Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series

1 - Artifact

2 - Pirate Vishnu

3 - Quicksand

4 - Michelangelo's Ghost

The Accidental Alchemist

1 - The Accidental Alchemist

2 - The Masquerading Magician

3 - The Elusive Elixir

As always, if you'd prefer to read rather than listen, here is the transcript. Enjoy!

Transcript of Interview with Gigi Pandian:

Laura Brennan: My guest today is USA Today bestselling author, Gigi Pandian. The Accidental Alchemist won this year’s Best Novel Lefty Award, while Artifact, a Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery, was named a Best of 2012 Debut Novel by Suspense Magazine. Lucky for us, both of these mysteries launched excellent series.

Gigi, thank you for joining me.

Gigi Pandian: Thanks so much for having me today.

LB: Your very first novel was Artifact.

GP: Yes.

LB: And that was the first outing for Jaya Jones.

GP: Yup.

LB: The subheading for that is “A Treasure Hunt Mystery.” Which came first? Did the treasure hunt aspect of it come first or did you come up with the charac...

I've been a fan of Jessie Chandler's capers since I picked up Pickle in the Middle Murder on a whim. C'mon, murder in the privies at a Renaissance Faire? This wench was all over that!

Her latest retains the fun and furious pace of her earlier novels, but her storytelling continues to mature. She has a new publisher and a new editor as well, and gives a shout-out to both Bella Books and writer/editor Katherine V. Forrest.

She started writing after devouring the Mickey Knight series by J.M. Redmann. She took classes from Lori Lake and Ellen Hart, both of whom she cites as major champions and influences on her work. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) gets a nod as well.

Jessie ended her four-book run with publisher Midnight Ink, but remains on good terms with them and in fact gives them credit for coming up with the term 'caper' to describe the series. (Heads up to cozy fans: although these books are very funny, Jessie is quick to point out that they are *not* cozies. Give the interview a listen or a read to see if they're right for you.)

Jessie also discusses the inspiration for the character Rocky. If you want to learn more about Prader-Willi Syndrome, Jessie provided this link.

Here are the books in the Shay O'Hanlon Caper series in order:

* Bingo Barge Murder

* Hide and Snake Murder

* Pickle in the Middle Murder

* Chip Off the Ice Block Murder

* Blood Money Murder

As always, if you'd rather read than listen, a transcript is below. Enjoy!

Transcript for the Interview with Jessie Chandler

Laura Brennan: Jessie Chandler is the award-winning author of the Shay O'Hanlon Caper series, with her first four books racking up nominations and wins for Golden Crown Goldie and Ann Bannon Popular Choice awards, IPPY awards, USA Book Awards and Rainbow Book Awards. The fifth book in the series, Blood Money Murder, has just been released.

Jessie, thank you so much for joining me.

Jessie Chandler: I am so happy to be here, Laura. Thank you so much.

LB: For someone who didn't plan to become a writer, you've kind of taken the world by storm here.

JC: Kinda. I'm still not sure what happened.

LB: Well, before we get to your books, let's talk a little bit about you. You've had a lot of interesting jobs.

JC: I have, yes.

LB: Am I right that one of them was as a police officer?

I have been a fan of this series, set in Ghana, since the first book, Wife of the Gods. Dr. Kwei Quartey writes with warmth and compassion and ruthless honesty about the struggles of his hero, Inspector Darko Dawson, a good man in a difficult and often corrupt system.

In the interview, Kwei seems taken aback by my comparison to Raymond Chandler, but I stand by it: the mean streets may be in Ghana rather than Los Angeles, but the themes of justice and entrenched corruption are universal.

Each of the novels takes on a major issue as the backdrop to personal stories of murder and betrayal. You don't have to read them in order, but if you'd like to, here you go:

1 - Wife of the Gods

2 - Children of the Street

3 - Murder at Cape Three Points

4 - Gold of Our Fathers

Kwei has also written a novella outside of the series: Death at the Voyager Hotel, which features a woman amateur sleuth who is not content to let a hotel drowning be swept aside as a tragic accident.

As always, if you'd prefer to read the interview rather than listen, here is the transcript. Enjoy!

Transcript of Interview with Kwei Quartey

Laura Brennan: My guest today manages to juggle two careers, as both a crime writer and a practicing physician. Doctor Kwei Quartey writes the Inspector Darko Dawson mystery series, set in Ghana. The fourth book in the series, Gold of Our Fathers, takes Inspector Dawson into the world of illegal gold mining and the corruption that grows along with the promise of wealth.

Kwei, thank you for joining me.

Kwei Quartey: Thank you for inviting me, Laura.

LB: Wife of the Gods is your first novel, and it's just a tour de force.

KQ: Thank you.

LB: Let's start by assuming that someone is listening who doesn't know anything about your series. What's the basic thing they need to know going in?

KQ: The series that I call the Chief Inspector Darko Dawson series, all set in Ghana, at least so far. And the protagonist Darko Dawson is an inspector in the Criminal Investigations Department in Accra. That's the headquarters, but he is sent to other parts of the country, which is in fact what happens with Ghana police service officers, they get sent to various parts of the country. Darko himself is a good father and husband, he's got two children and a wife who sometimes gives him insight into the mysteries he's solving. He's a bit of a rebel in the office, though. A little belligerent to his superiors and sometimes breaking the rules if he feels that the rules are silly or they need to be broken if he's going to solve his mystery.

LB: Now, you have also mentioned that -- because you are a doctor -- that being a doctor is a little like being a detective.

KQ: The parallels are remarkable, actually. I once saw a couple in my practice and the woman, the wife in the couple, came in with a litany of complaints which were all disconnected, from headaches to a pain in her side, to joint pain. All sorts of disparate complaints. The husband, who came in but was quiet, I noticed was studying her very hard, and some of these things were tip-offs to me that there...

Debut author Heather Weidner melds together the lighthearted fun of a cozy mystery with the action and juicy cases that come with the territory when you're a private eye in her first novel, Secret Lives and Private Eyes.

Heather has been steeped in mystery all her life: she's a policeman's daughter (she mentions how she donated crayons to the SWAT team) and she's currently the president of the Central Virginia chapter of Sisters in Crime. Plus she has a kickass Pinterest board! Too much fun.

She also gives a big shout-out to several writers who helped her along the way: Mary Miley, Mary Burton, Teresa Inge, Lyndee Walker (LyndeeWalker.com) and Maggie King (MaggieKing.com).

And of course, The Poe House.

As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy!

Transcript for Interview with Heather Weidner

Laura Brennan: My guest today is a debut author Heather Weidner. Her mystery, Secret Lives and Private Eyes features PI Delanie Fitzgerald, who is thrilled to take on an assignment that doesn’t involve straying husbands. She’s less thrilled when it turns into a high-profile murder case. Heather is also a short-story writer and the president of the Central Virginia chapter of Sisters in Crime.

Heather, thank you for joining me.

Heather Weidner: Thank you so much for having me Laura.

LB: Congratulations on your debut novel.

HW: Thank you! It's been a long time coming.

LB: Well now, you are a short story writer too. That's a very different genre.

HW: It is, it's very contained and you're limited in the number of characters that you can have, and the subplots. So I like writing both. I get to experiment with different characters and different styles. But in a novel setting you have many more characters and plot lines that cross and zigzag and sometimes look back on themselves.

LB: Now, Delanie, how did you come up with that particular character?

HW: I am part of Sisters in Crime in Central Virginia and we have a lot of speakers that come to talk to us. And we had a female private eye and I had just started my story and I thought, wow, this would be a great opportunity. I wanted a female sleuth, I wanted someone that was strong and that was willing to take some chances, take some risks and have some fun. So, it would give her some freedom -- she's not really law enforcement so she can poke around and things and get herself into some situations, sometimes that she probably shouldn't, but...

LB: Yes, Delanie does have a knack for getting herself into things.

HW: Sometimes it's humorous and sometimes it's dangerous. She's sort of my alter ego, except she gets into way more trouble than I do.

LB: One of the nice things about the book is that it's not your typical lone wolf PI with no ties to the community.

Today's author writes a cozy mystery series with echoes of my favorite film, "The Thin Man." (Dashiell Hammett's book is darn good as well, but I'm a sucker for Myrna Loy and William Powell.) Her Nick and Nora mysteries feature a crime reporter starting over back in her home town and a cat who may -- or may not -- be the reincarnation of a missing detective. Together with a wonderful supporting cast, they solve crimes and mete out justice. Meow If It's Murder is the first in this charming series.

Toni and I chat about a lot of things: favorite authors (including the delightful Krista Davis, who you can hear interviewed here) and two charities she actively supports: Kids Need To Read (founded by Denise Gary, P.J. Haarsma, and actor Nathan Fillion) and Alley Cat Allies.

To learn more about Toni, be sure to check out her author page and of course the blog she shares with her cat, ROCCO. He interviews mystery authors and runs frequent book giveaways, so don't miss it.

As always, here's the transcript if you'd rather read than listen. Enjoy!

Transcript of T.C. LoTempio Interview

Laura Brennan: T.C. LoTempio is the national bestselling author of the Nick and Nora Mystery series, as well as nearly a dozen other books, ranging from paranormal mysteries to rom com. Meow if It’s Murder introduced Nora Charles, a crime reporter who longs for a quiet life, and Nick, the cat who adopted her.

Toni, thank you for joining me.

T.C. LoTempio: Thank you for having me, Laura.

LB: Tell me a little bit about yourself. What got you started writing?

TL: Okay. Well, I’ve been writing since I was ten years old. My mother used to read me stories at night, and I wouldn’t like the ending, so I’d make up my own. And then I’d buy comic books, and I wouldn’t like the way those ended, so I’d make up those stories. And it just progressed from there. I used to write fairy tales, you know, and I was always good at English in school. I got away from it a little bit. I got married, life got in the way as they say. And then, after my parents died, I kinda got back into it. I was at a training session with a friend, and we were learning how to do e-mails at the time, that’s how long ago this was. And she said to me, “Oh, you write such good e-mails. You should probably be a writer.” And I said, “You know, I think I am one. I just have to get back into it.” And it just took off from there.

LB: You’ve actually written many, many different kinds of novels. Are you finding your genre?

TL: I think it started out that way. Actually, the type of novel that I enjoy writing the most is the one that I stopped because agents would tell me there’s no market for it. It’s Horror. Stephen King-type books. And they said, unless you are Stephen King,

Today's guest became an international best-selling author with her debut thriller, The Faithful.

S.M. Freedman's smart, haunting thriller was inspired by the idea of a massive meteorite striking the earth and causing mass destruction -- a scary possibility that Shoshona took in unexpected (and deliciously creepy!) directions. The White Sands Missile Range is a real place where real people are working to keep us safe from just such a possibility, and I found an article on one of the ideas they're testing for nudging space stuff out of our path. Just, you know, so folks can sleep at night...

On another note, Shoshona's author page on Facebook linked to an AMAZING article on teaching your kids about "tricky people" -- ie: the kind of adult who is not safe. Parents, read this. It's an easy, not-scary read because the kids did everything right, and it introduces a potentially life-saving concept to parents and kids alike.

Back to books! Impact Winter, the sequel to The Faithful, comes out on July 1st. Shoshona is running a Goodreads Giveaway, so go check that out before July 1st. Or you can preorder!

One last thing: we talk about Shoshona's career as a private investigator and how no one suspected a woman in her twenties of being a PI. It reminded me of Steph Cha's Juniper Song series, where the same is true for her PI. Truth mirrors fiction!

As always, if you'd rather read than listen, here's the transcript. Enjoy!

Transcript for interview with S.M. Freedman

Laura Brennan: My guest today is international best-selling writer S. M. Freedman. Her debut novel, The Faithful, is a complex, haunting thriller, and it’s soon to be followed up by the sequel, Impact Winter, which launches July 1st.

Shoshona, thank you for joining me.

S.M. Freedman: Thank you so much.

LB: So before we talk about your books and your writing, I have a few questions about your background. You actually worked as a private investigator?

SF: Yes! Yes I did. I worked in the private investigator. I started out -- actually, I went to a theater school in New York, and I came home with the knowledge that I really didn't want to pursue that as a career. So the only thing I could think of that I was interested in becoming was a private investigator, and I thankfully had a little bit of a hook up in that industry. So I was able to get in and be trained by them. And I spent a little under a decade doing that job.

LB: Oh, my gosh! That's the dream.

SF: It was definitely the dream for my twenties. I loved it. It's not necessarily the best choice of career, at least for me as a mother. But, uh --

LB: I can see that.

SF: As a young girl, I loved it. Nobody ever suspected me of anything, I looked completely innocent.

LB: Steph Cha, who I also interviewed, she has a PI series and her PI is a young, in her 20s,

New York Times Bestselling author Kat Martin writes romantic suspense like no one else. Her series include the BOSS, Inc. series, The Against Series/Raines of Wind Canyon, The Brodies of Alaska, and The Sinclair Sisters Trilogy. She has two series of paranormal romantic suspense, as well as Historical Romances, Contemporaries, and stand-alone novels.

I can't possibly list them all, much less in order, but luckily I don't have to because Kat has a printable checklist on her site.

We talk about her latest novel, Into the Whirlwind, the second book in the BOSS, Inc. series, and about creating the deep relationships and characters that make her novels so satisfying to read. We also talk about her own adventures with her husband (including a mystery/romance/western that they wrote together!) and a new writing adventure: her first thriller comes out early next year.

As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy!

Transcript of Interview with Kat Martin

Laura Brennan: Kat Martin is a New York Times Bestselling author of over 60 novels, ranging from romantic suspense to historical romance, with some paranormal, contemporary, and western tales thrown in just to keep things interesting.

She has over fifteen million copies of her books in print and has been published around the world. Her most recent novel, Into the Whirlwind, continues the BOSS, Inc series with Dirk and Meg’s explosive story.

Kat, thank you so much for joining me.

Kat Martin: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

LB: Well, first of all, congratulations. Because as we record this, Into the Whirlwind has just launched.

KM: Just hit the shelves this morning. I was on Facebook and it's always exciting because everyone really gets excited and they all Facebook and it's kind of a fun day.

LB: So let's jump back just a bit. You actually didn't start out as a writer. You began in a different profession.

KM: You know, I didn't know what I wanted to be when I went to college. I just took general courses at the University and then I got out and I still didn't know what I wanted to do. So I ended up, I wanted to say in Santa Barbara where I went to the University of Santa Barbara, UCSB, wanted to stay in that gorgeous town.

So I pretty much just went knocking doors to find a job and I thought, well, I'll just take anything I can get till I can figure this out a little better. And it was really hard, it took me 30 days to find a job knocking on doors five days a week, you know. But I finally found a job, and it happened to be in the title business, which is real estate related. So after I was in the business for about five or six years, I realized that if I wanted to make any money I had to get out of this and get into something that was -- you know, you can work on commissions in real estate. So that's what I did, I got out and I got into the actual business of selling houses. And that's what I did for 13 years. Then I started writing after that.

LB: How did you decide you wanted to write?

First of all, congratulations to Amanda Flower: earlier this month, she won her first Agatha Award at Malice Domestic for her middle-grade mystery, Andi Unstoppable. With six series underway and a seventh one starting next year, there doesn't seem to be much that Amanda Flower can't do.

You can find out more about her at AmandaFlower.com and also here on Facebook, where she loves to chat with her fans.

When we talked about her most recent series, the Magical Bookshop Mysteries, we talked about Emily Dickinson, and I wanted to give a shout-out to the poem we discussed, one of my very favorites. Here's the full text of Because I could not stop for Death and here's a link to a charming site, The Emily Dickinson Museum, for those wanting to know more about the poet.

The next book features Edgar Allan Poe, and he, too, has a museum.

If you'd rather read than listen to the interview, simply scroll down for the transcript. Meanwhile, here are her series, in order:

Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries (written as Isabella Alan)

Prequel e-Novella!: Plainly Murder

1 - Murder, Plain and Simple

2 - Murder, Simply Stitched

3 - Murder, Served Simply

4 - Murder, Plainly Read

5 - Murder, Handcrafted

Andi Boggs Mysteries (middle-grade)

1 - Andi Unexpected

2 - Andi Under Pressure

3 - Andi Unstoppable

Appleseed Creek Mysteries (complete)

1 - A Plain Death

2 - A Plain Scandal

3 - A Plain Disappearance

4 - A Plain Malice

India Hayes Mysteries

1 - Maid of Murder

2 - Murder in a Basket