Under the name Connie Archer, my guest today writes the Soup Lover's Mysteries. Under Connie di Marco, she is launching a new series on June 8th, the Zodiac Series. Whatever name she uses, Connie is a terrific storyteller with a lot of heart, and I am thrilled to be talking to her today.

We cover a lot of ground, from the allure of cozies to creating memorable characters, to the true-life crazy things that can happen in a small town. And we talk about her blog tour, which you definitely want in on, since every stop generally involves a Madness of Mercury book giveaway. I link HERE to Connie di Marco's home page for more info on the Zodiac series, and HERE to the page that has links to all her blog tour stops.

Connie Archer's website can be found here for you soup lovers (you can find one of her recipes at Cinnamon Sugar and a Little Bit of Murder). Here, in order, are the five books in the Soup Lover's Mysteries series:

1 - A Spoonful of Murder

2 - A Broth of Betrayal

3 - A Roux of Revenge

4 - Ladle to the Grave

5 - A Clue in the Stew

For her latest book, The Madness of Mercury, book one of the Zodiac Series, Connie was inspired by someone who lived in San Francisco at the same time she did: Jim Jones, of the Jonestown Massacre. Very creepy. On a slightly less deadly note, we also talk about the Rashneeshees and their poisoning of a town in an attempt to win elections (luckily, no lives were lost, but it was a close call).

Connie also gives a shout out to Sue Grafton and to cozy writer Nancy Parra, who writes (among other things) a gluten-free cozy series.

If you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy!

Transcript for Connie di Marco/Connie Archer interview:

Welcome to Destination Mystery, a podcast for readers who love a good mystery. I'm Laura Brennan.

Laura Brennan: My guest today is a bestselling mystery author with a double identity. As Connie Archer,

I'm thrilled to have my first historical mystery writer! Susanna Calkins' evocative mysteries feature Lucy Campion, a chambermaid who, amid the social chaos of the Plague and the Great Fire of London, manages to rise to the ranks of printer's apprentice -- an unusual job for a woman at the time. But whether she's a servant or an apprentice, her quick mind and sense of justice are always at the fore. And they often end up embroiling her in murders.

We talk about Susanna's extensive research, which include a mention that the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London is this September. We also talked about murder ballads, the inspiration for the first book in the series, A Murder at Rosamund's Gate, which I am giving away as part of the May Bundle Of Books, along with Tammy Kaehler's (signed) Dead Man's Switch and Amanda Flower's latest cozy, Crime and Poetry, and a $10 Amazon gift certificate.

I hunted around the Internet to find a good post to share on murder ballads, and the best one I could find was written by Susanna herself!

She also gives a shout out historical mystery writers whose work she loves: Anne Perry and Rhys Bowen. But most notably, she introduced me to the work of Sam Thomas, whose Midwife Mysteries are set 20 years before Susanna's books. His next book will involve the backstory of one of Susanna's characters -- a literary crossover not to be missed! (And much more to my taste than crossing Jane Austen with zombies. Not that anyone would do that...)

There are four books in Susanna's series, earning her a slew of nominations for Best Historical Mystery (Agatha, Lefty, Mary Higgins Clark, and the Macavity's Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award). For those wanting to know what order they should read in, here you go:

1 - A Murder at Rosamund's Gate

2 - From the Charred Remains

3 - The Masque of a Murderer

4 - A Death Along the River Fleet

Rather read than listen? Here's the transcript. Enjoy!

Transcript of Interview with Susanna Calkins

Welcome to Destination Mystery, a podcast for readers who love a good mystery. I'm Laura Brennan.

Laura Brennan: Today I have the pleasure of talking to Susanna Calkins. Her historical mysteries feature Lucy Campion, a young woman who rises from chambermaid to printer’s apprentice in the turmoil of 17th century England, surviving both the Plague and the Great Fire of London -- and using her observational skills and quick wits to find the answers to more than one suspicious death.

 

Tammy Kaehler's Kate Reilly Racing Mysteries feature thrills on and off the track. Her fourth book, Red Flags, has just been released. You can learn more about Tammy directly from her website. Plus Tammy has graciously donated an autographed copy of her first Kate Reilly Racing Mystery, Dead Man's Switch for the May book giveaway. Sign up in the box on the right before May 31, 2016 to be entered to win.

Speaking of Dead Man's Switch, we talk about how Tammy got the initial spark for the series. She gives a shout-out to Hallie Ephron, and if you want to know the name of the how-to book Hallie wrote, it's Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel. But if you're into suspense, you should check out her fiction as well.

We also talked about drivers who have helped her: Patrick Long, Oliver Gavin and Pippa Mann. Pippa's breast cancer awareness sponsorship for the Indy 500 mirrors a scenario Tammy came up with for Kate, who, in her books, has teamed up with Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Between the time we recorded this and now, Pippa did announce that she will once again be driving the pink car at the Indianapolis 500.

Finally, Tammy talked about writers who have influenced her: Dick Francis, Agatha Christie, and a recent spark from Margaret Maron.

I had a request to put series books in order, which I think is a brilliant idea, so here are Tammy's Kate Reilly Racing Mysteries, from first to most recent:

1 - Dead Man's Switch

2 - Braking Points

3 - Avoidable Contact

4 - Red Flags

I will happily add more as Tammy writes 'em!

Meanwhile, if you would rather read than listen to the interview, here is the transcript. Enjoy!

-- Laura

Transcript of Interview with Tammy Kaehler

Welcome to Destination Mystery, a podcast for readers who love a good mystery. I'm Laura Brennan.

Laura Brennan: My guest today is Tammy Kaehler, author of the Kate Reilly racing mysteries. Set in the fast-paced world of professional motorsports, the mysteries feature a racecar driver who happens to be a damn good amateur sleuth, as well as a woman proving herself in the male-dominated field of racing. Murder interweaves with the dramas on and off the track. The fourth book in the series, Red Flags, has just been released.

Tammy, thank you for joining me.

If you're looking for fast-paced thrillers with well-rounded characters and plenty of chills, look no further. Peg Brantley delivers.

We talk about the inspiration for Red Tide; culture and vulnerable populations in The Missings; her most recent novel, The Sacrifice; and what she admires about her characters. 

Also, she gives a shout-out to two books:

- A debut cozy getting great buzz, Cynthia Kuhn's The Semester of Our Discontent, and

- A WWII novel, Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys. 

Her next novel, Trafficked, is due out this fall. It centers on human trafficking -- the same topic I discussed when chatting with Désirée Zamorano, author of Human Cargo, if you'd like to check out our conversation.

Don't forget, if you want a chance to win April's bundle of books -- thriller All In (signed by author Lisa Klink), noir Dead Soon Enough by Steph Cha; and cozy The Diva Steals a Chocolate Kiss by Krista Davis, along with a $10 Amazon gift card, sign up for the monthly newsletter in the boxes on the right.

If you'd rather read than listen, here's the transcript. Enjoy!

Peg Brantley Transcript

Welcome to Destination Mystery, a podcast for readers who love a good mystery.

My guest today is thriller writer Peg Brantley. It’s no accident Peg Brantley’s thrillers feel so terrifyingly real. She immerses herself in research, interviewing crime scene investigators, FBI agents, and human trafficking experts, and studying topics as diverse as arson dogs and Santeria. She’s gone through the citizen’s police academy and obtained her concealed carry permit, all in an attempt to bring realism to her stories.

Her third novel, The Sacrifice, was a finalist for two Colorado literary awards. She’s currently working on her fourth novel, the second in the Mex Anderson series.

Laura Brennan: Peg, thank you so much for joining me.

Peg Brantley: Thank you for asking me.

LB: Tell me a little bit about yourself. How did you get started writing?

PB: My bonus son had a heart attack when he was 40, no 39 years old, and we moved him home with us. And I lost track of everything else that was going on in my life. I was paying attention to him. And after about a year and a half of that I decided, you know I've always wanted to write a book, and I'm home all day. Why not? So it was out of his tragedy, family tragedy, that got my heart where it needed to be.

LB: Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry to hear that.

PB: He's doing well now, by the way.

LB: That is, that was the question. So your son came home and you had to take care of him and you ended up writing...

I am thrilled that my first interview with a cozy author is with the New York Times Bestselling Krista Davis. She has two delightful cozy series, the Domestic Diva mystery series and the Paws & Claws mysteries, set in pet-friendly Wagtail, Virginia.

 

I'll be giving away a copy of her most-recent Domestic Diva novel, The Diva Steals a Chocolate Kiss, as part of my April giveaway, along with books by Lisa Klink (signed by the author!) and Steph Cha, and a $10 Amazon gift certificate. To enter, just sign up in the box on the right.

 

Her 10th Domestic Diva mystery, The Diva Serves High Tea, will be published on June 7th. We chat about cozies - including the conversation around #SaveOurCozies, where readers are banding together to convince publishers that cozy mysteries are worth supporting. For a little more on what's going on, you can check out posts on these sites:

The Cozy Mystery List Blog

The Book's The Thing

Any others I should link to? E-mail me at [email protected]

If you'd rather read than listen, below is the transcript of our chat. Enjoy!

 

Welcome to Destination Mystery, a podcast for readers who love a good mystery. I'm Laura Brennan.

Krista Davis writes what she knows. Like her protagonist, Sophie Winston, Krista had a gregarious Ocicat named Mochie; lived for a time in Old Town, Alexandria; and loves to entertain family and friends.

Her Domestic Diva mystery series is a three-time Agatha Award nominee, and both of her series were on the New York Times Bestseller list, with Murder, She Barked, the first in her Paws & Claws mystery series, hitting the top ten. Her cozies include recipes, tips for gracious living, great characters and tremendous heart. I don’t know how she does it all.

Laura Brennan: Krista, thank you for joining me.

Krista Davis: Thank you so much for having me, Laura.

LB: Have you always wanted to be a writer?

KD: You know, I think I have. I went through periods when I did other things in life, but I go way way way back to grade school when I wanted to write and to read. And I even remember sitting in the window of my very boring house on a very boring street and thinking that books could just take you anywhere in the world and even to outer space. They could really introduce you to people that you would never meet otherwise. And I just thought they were marvelous.

LB: Tell me how the Domestic Diva -- that was your first series -- tell me how the Domestic Diva mystery series started.

KD: My agent suggested that I write a proposal for a different series. And when the editors were looking at that, they came back and asked, would this appeal to readers of Real Simple? Well,

Episode 3 is an interview with author  Désirée Zamorano. We talk about her masterful PI novel, Human Cargo; her short story, "Quickie;" Akashic Books' Mondays Are Murder flash fiction series (hers will go live on August 1st!); and we briefly touch on her literary novel, The Amado Women.

Désirée isn't just a writer, she is a fellow mystery lover, and she gives a shout-out to a number of fabulous writers and books. I've linked to the websites of these contemporary writers: Edgar winner Naomi Hirahara, Ausma Zehanat Khan, Sara Gran, best-selling author Kate Atkinson, James Sallis (who has won the lifetime achievement award from Bouchercon, among many other mystery awards), Rachel Howzell Hall, Sue Ann Jaffarian, and the wonderful Steph Cha, whom I interviewed in Episode 2.

Classic mystery writers include Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, John D. MacDonald (the Travis McGee novels) and Patricia Highsmith. One last influential writer mentioned, although not in the field of mystery, is Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.

We talk about books and writing, but we also discussed the need for women to be financially savvy and have an "escape fund" -- not necessarily to escape a dangerous relationship (although obviously that can help), but also so you're not stuck in a bad work situation. Money is freedom. 

The most important links, however, are the ones Désirée sent me on human trafficking:

* Fighting Human Trafficking, and

* 20 Ways You Can Help

If you'd rather read than listen, here is the transcript. Enjoy!

Transcript of interview with Désirée Zamorano

Welcome to Destination Mystery: A Podcast for Readers who Love a Good Mystery. I’m Laura Brennan.

A Pushcart Prize nominee and award-winning short story author, Desiree Zamorano has wrestled with culture, identity, and the invisibility of Latinas from early on and addressed that in her commentaries which have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, NPR’s Latino USA, and Publisher’s Weekly. She is also proud of having co-authored with her sister two plays commissioned by Southern California's Bilingual Foundation for the Arts. "Reina" and "Bell Gardens 90201" received Equity productions and toured for a total of eight years.

She delights in the exploration of contemporary iss...

Episode 2 is an interview with Noir author Steph Cha and her Juniper Song Mystery Series. You can listen to it here, or if you'd prefer, you can listen on i-Tunes.

In this interview, we talk about all three of Steph's novels, Follow Her Home, Beware Beware and Dead Soon Enough. She also gives a shout-out to the Los Angles Review of Books as well as two authors she loves. You can check them out on their websites: Megan Abbott and Denise Mina. And you can find Steph on her website.

In case you missed it, I am giving away a big bundle o' books by three mystery writers (Steph Cha's Dead Soon Enough, Lisa Klink's All In (signed by the author), and Krista Davis' The Diva Steals a Chocolate Kiss), plus a $10 Amazon gift card. If you'd like a chance to win the book bundle, all you have to do is sign up for my newsletter before April 30th. Everyone on the list at midnight Pacific Time, April 30th, will be automatically entered to win.

No spam, by the way, just a monthly newsletter. I won't sell, rent, lend-out, or ransom your e-mail address.

If you'd rather read the interview than listen, here's the transcript!

Enjoy!

Episode 2: Steph Cha Transcript

Welcome to Destination Mystery, a podcast for readers who love a good mystery. I'm Laura Brennan.

My guest today is Steph Cha. She is the author of Follow Her Home, Beware Beware and Dead Soon Enough, the third book in the Juniper Song Mystery Series. Her writing has appeared in the LA Times and she is currently the Noir Editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books. A graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School, she lives in her native city of Los Angeles, California, and I am thrilled to have her here today.

Laura Brennan: Welcome! How are you doing?

Steph Cha: I'm doing well. Thank you for having me on.

LB: Absolutely! I really love your work, it's just so rich and so full of the characters and the relationships -- it’s just so good. But let’s start by talking about Juniper Song. She’s your series protagonist, and really, what was her genesis?

SC: Well, I wanted to write an LA novel. I guess even before I started writing, I had the idea -- I’d read Raymond Chandler in college -- and I just had the idea that it would be cool if a book like Follow Her Home existed, in that I wanted to -- I really love the way that Chandler represented Los Angeles, but it did seem very much a representation from another era, where it's a very starkly white man's vision of the city. And it just did not really jibe with my experience growing up in LA.

Episode 1 features thriller author Lisa Klink and her terrific book, All In. You can listen to it here or you can listen on i-Tunes.

I am giving away a copy of All In, autographed by Lisa, as part of my April giveaway, in one big bundle o' books: All In plus Steph Cha's noir, Dead Soon Enough, and Krista Davis' cozy, The Diva Steals a Chocolate Kiss. And a $10 Amazon gift card. If you'd like a chance to win the book bundle, all you have to do is sign up for my newsletter before April 30th. Everyone on the list at midnight Pacific Time, April 30th, will be automatically entered to win.

No spam, by the way, just a monthly newsletter. I won't sell, rent, lend-out, or ransom your e-mail address.

In this interview, we talk about Lisa's novel All In (thriller) and her work in The Dead Man book series (horror/thriller). If you'd rather read the interview than listen, here's the transcript!

Enjoy!

 

Episode 1: Lisa Klink

Welcome to Destination Mystery, a podcast for people who love a good mystery. I'm Laura Brennan.

Lisa Klink started her career in the world of Star Trek, writing for Deep Space Nine and Voyager before coming back to earth on shows such as Martial Law and Missing. In addition to writing for television, she scripted a theme park attraction and authored graphic novels, short stories, and three novels in The Dead Man series. Lisa is also a five-time champion on Jeopardy, but most important for today's chat, Lisa is the co-author, with Joel Goldman, of the thriller All In.

Laura Brennan: Lisa, hi and welcome!

Lisa Klink: Hi! How's it going?

LB: I'm doing very well. I'm so excited to be here. I loved All In.

LK: Oh, thank you.

LB: You're welcome. And I want to talk to you about it, and about the genesis of the project, but the first thing I want to do is gush about Cassie. Because it's so rare that we see, I mean it's not rare these days to find a kick ass woman protagonist, but to find a book where the woman is actually more kick ass than the man – –

LK: Yeah.

LB: I mean, love Jake, Jake's great and he's great at what he does, he's super fantastic at poker and at his life – –

LK: Mmm-hmm.

LB: And his livelihood, but you know, Cassie's the one who saves their ass. Again and again. So tell me a little bit about her first. How – – was it deliberate? Did you guys decide – – because you wrote this book with Joel Goldman.

LK: Yes.

LB: Did you guys decide to do that deliberately?

LK: I wish I could take full credit for Cassie, but Joel Goldman is actually the one who came up with Cassie and Jake. He has written several ongoing series with detectives and cops and lawyers. He has a whole bunch of series going on and he wanted to start a new series with this pair Cassie and Jake, an asset recovery specialist and a poker player. So he kind of had all of that in his mind when he brought it to me,