Geri Krotow stopped by the Tule blog to discuss the first book in the Shop ‘Round the World series, A Santa Stabbing!
Where did you get the inspiration for A Santa Stabbing?
I find inspiration everywhere, and I never know where it’s coming from next. I knew I wanted to write about a woman who’d seen a lot of life but still had so much of it to live and enjoy, no matter what tragedies may have occurred earlier in her life. The town we live in, in Pennsylvania, is a constant source of story ideas for me. Add in my military background, and it seemed a natural progression for Angel Warren to be a retired Navy pilot. This is my very first mystery novel after 30+ romances and I feel right at home in my new genre of cozy (ish) mystery.
Welcome to Tule! Can you share a fun fact about yourself to help us get to know you?
Thank you! I love being a Tule author! I was a Naval Intelligence officer for 9 years, and then was a Navy spouse to my husband who served for 27 years. We moved all over the planet and are now happy to be in the same place.
How do you relate your heroine, Angel, and how do you hope readers will relate to her?
Like Angel, I moved to a small Pennsylvania town after being overseas and out of the mainstream of American life for decades. I totally identify with her empty-nest syndrome, as I went through that after my chicks left the nest (a decade ago now). As for her inquisitiveness, that’s natural for a writer and an intelligence professional!
The Shop ‘Round the World series is your first foray into the cozy mystery genre. What is different about writing mysteries vs romances? Which one do you enjoy more?
What I love about Mystery is the same thing I treasure in Romance; the characters and sense of community. The biggest difference is that I feel I need to write more tightly, to keep the focus on the mystery plot of each particular book. But fleshing out the characters, their strengths as well as foibles, remains the same and as satisfying as ever. I also like that my sense of humor has shown up more in my mysteries.
Do you have any favorite Christmas or holiday traditions?
Decorating for the holidays is always fun for me. I never know what I’ll do year-to-year. I don’t feel as compelled to put out every last decoration as I used to when the kids were tiny. Instead, I go with the flow and try to incorporate some more contemporary trends into our otherwise very eclectically traditional Christmas. I’ve enjoyed decorating for Thanksgiving more and more, too.
What are you currently reading?
I’m in the midst of EverGreen Chase by Juneau Black and I just downloaded A Murder of Crows by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
About the Author
Geri Krotow is the bestselling author of over 25 novels of romantic suspense, contemporary romance and women’s fiction. A US Naval Academy graduate and Navy veteran, Geri’s strong heroines are reader favorites. Geri’s Shop ‘Round the World series with Tule is her cozy mystery debut.
Welcome to A Mid-Summer Murder, book two in my Shop ‘Round the World series. This often humorous, with a good dose of warm fuzzy, cozy mystery series takes place in fictional Stonebridge, Pennsylvania, and I’m delighted to take you on a mini “tour” of retired Navy helicopter pilot Angel Warren’s hometown today.
Fun author fact: Stonebridge is loosely based on the south central PA town I live in.
Angel hung up her Navy flight suit and moved back to her native town to open a very special international curio shop, where she strives to share some of the joy she’s experienced while living a global Navy lifestyle for over twenty years. Stonebridge is a quaint town that was founded by Jacob Stoner back in the eighteenth century. Here’s a Christmas time shot. You can imagine the fun shops, cafes, and restaurants that occupy each historical building. An added bonus: spectacular sunsets!
Next up, the building that Angel purchased (and um, finds her first dead body in). The main floor is where Shop ’Round the World is located, and the second and third floors are where Angel and her twin daughters live when the girls aren’t away at university. I picture it next to the building with the belltower in the downtown pic above. You can see Angel’s building’s top floors, from across the street in where I imagine Eloise’s yoga studio. It offers a great view for any dead bodies that show up on Main Street. This loft is actually where I had the A Santa Stabbing book release party!
There is no shortage of hiking and outdoor activities in Stonebridge, including a spooky old cemetery.
Perhaps these next two aren’t part of a tour, but they are big parts of the Shop ‘Round the World series. Meet Machiatto aka Mach, Nate the silver fox barista’s big Shiloh Shepherd doggie, and Ralph, Angel’s yellow nape Amazon parrot. Because, what’s a cozy mystery without beloved pets?
Thanks for coming along on this tour with Angel! Please connect with me at my website, where you can sign up for my newsletter and site news. And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Bookbub while you’re at it—I have so much fun cozy mystery coming your way in 2023!
Let’s keep the fun quaint town vibe going—what’s your favorite historical town that you’ve ever read about, been to, lived in, or want to visit?
About the Author
Geri Krotow is the bestselling author of over 25 novels of romantic suspense, contemporary romance and women’s fiction. A US Naval Academy graduate and Navy veteran, Geri’s strong heroines are reader favorites. Geri’s Shop ‘Round the World series with Tule is her cozy mystery debut.
A belated Happy 4th to all my U.S. friends and readers! There’s a reason for mentioning that a month too late – you see, my latest Rosie Hart adventure was set with July 4th as a background. And as I created a fun celebration, I once more so envied that little town of Airlie Falls and their close-knit community. How much fun would it be to live there… Sigh…
So, about this story: I was quite young when I first saw Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder – maybe too young – because it terrified me. Few would argue over Hitchcock’s ability to provide suspense – certainly not me, the proof being the fact that the story has stayed with me for all those years. I can still see Grace Kelly in that low-lit bedroom…
Suspense and terror aside, as I grew older, I came to appreciate the story-line, and it was basically from that idea my own story was born. My series, the Hart of Texas Murder Mysteries, is way more light-hearted than anything Hitch would present, yet right from the start I had a title in my head, my spoof of the original – Dial M for Mud Cake – hoping I could find the story it represented.
It took six books, but in this last, the 6th, I found it – and was enormous fun to create. And every day I opened that manuscript it made me smile. Of course, in the way things should go, my story bears little resemblance to Hitchcock’s story other than a telephone call and an order for murder. Basically, that’s where Hitch and I parted ways. However, it was those two things that led to the creation of a scene I had so much fun with – and will share in a moment.
Despite the fun, it wasn’t all straightforward. I knew I wanted my poor heroine Rosie, to be confused by the strange order for the mud cake. After all, as a baker, that would usually be a straightforward event for her. But that’s also when my usual modus operandi went off script. You see, normally, Rosie would be hunting down a murderer, often trying to clear the name of someone close to her.
This time there was no body, just someone who mistakenly thought Rosie to be a professional assassin who required the words Mud Cake as code for the hit. So, for Rosie – and myself – everything was upside down. Rosie wasn’t, at first, searching for a murderer, but a potential victim. A stranger. Not seeking justice for a dead person but trying to keep someone alive! To make it worse, I added a ticking clock. The deed had to be completed by the 4th of July, or matters would be taken into other hands. Rosie couldn’t let that happen. While ever that customer thought she was the assassin, the victim had a chance of survival.
And all this while helping to plan and execute the town’s extravagant plans for the Independence Day celebrations, try to curb the wild and ridiculous spending of the Fab Four who have discovered the home shopping channels (because surely nonagenarians wouldn’t really need a three-man tent and a bucking bronco – and that was just for starters!), as well as – you guessed it, also trying to prove her suspicion that the murder of an elderly heiress is connected to her own misguided cake order.
But let’s go back to that first phone call. Keep in mind that Rosie thinks this is a regular—if slightly odd—order for a mud cake.
Waving away Miz Lipskie’s warning whisper, I strode into the airy study just off the foyer. The voice on the other end wasn’t what I’d expected. It was low and muffled, and I’d barely said hello before the order came through—just as Miz Lipskie had said.
“I want to order a mud cake.”
“Yes sir, we’d be delighted to help you.” Actually, I was taking Miz Lipskie’s word for it that it was a male because the voice was so stifled it was hard for me to tell the exact gender. Still, she’d spoken to him several times and apparently been barked at, so obviously she knew.
There was a long pause before he replied. “We? I thought you worked alone?”
“Well, I do, but I have an assistant who helps me in the day-to-day running of the business.”
“Sheesh! Everyone’s a corporation these days! Even you people!” I was about to let that pass when he threw in his next comment. “Your number was passed on. What? You got a club or something? What’s with two of you working the same area? I thought you guys were pretty hard to find!”
I accepted the guy’s reference as a gender inclusive description, but frowned over the comment. “Two of us? Two bakers?”
The response was a low chuckle. “Sure, if that’s what you want to call yourselves. No skin off my nose. I just want the job done.”
He had a funny way of expressing himself that I found confusing but I did understand he wanted cake and that was something I could deliver. “I can do that. Now if I could just have some details? I ne—”
“Just the basics, right? I was told you’d only require the basics.”
“Well, I guess if you consider name and address, and your requirements to be basics, then I guess that’s what we do.” What was with this man? “But how about we start with the cake. Like, do you want chocolate mud? Caramel mud? Strawberry mud? White chocolate mud?”
“I thought you’d just do the job! What’s with the twenty questions?” He sighed. “So what? What’s your most popular? Simplest? I want that.”
“Chocolate. Now sir, what about cream? Do you want fresh or—?”
“Fresh? Hey, hey, stop right there! I don’t want the details, right? That other broad told me you were the best, so I figured you’d just get on with it. Geez—I got a weak stomach.”
This was the craziest order I’d ever taken. He was upset by cream? “Lactose problem?”
The response was a roar of laughter. “Hey, you got a sense of humor! I like that!” The laughter turned into a coughing fit and I waited it through, wondering why I had the feeling it wasn’t genuine. “Just no mess, okay? I don’t like mess. Now, I was told you’d do it for ten. Is that right?”
“Um, I’d usually charge fifteen for a layered cake, there’s a—”
“Fifteen! Where am I supposed to get that kind of money?”
I didn’t actually hear a phone slam down, but I kind of sensed it. One moment he was there, and the next he wasn’t and I was left with a dead line. What in heavens…?
When I turned, Miz Lipskie stood in the doorway, arms folded and wearing an I-told-you-so expression. “Tell me I’m not the only one who thinks that man is a bit strange!”
“No, Miz Lipskie,” I began slowly, my mind whirling, “I don’t think you are.”
I had such fun with this and subsequent scenes with this mysterious caller. And imagine Rosie’s shock when she, later, finally understands that he’s not just quibbling over $5, he thinks it’s an extra $5000. $15,000 for a mud cake? Even she concedes she’s not that good.
I so hope you grab a copy and have fun with this story. It’s a nice tangly mystery coupled with all the fun and color of a fun July 4th celebration.
Now, I began this chat talking about movies – and mystery. Do you have a favorite mystery movie – or even a favorite mystery television series? I’m a sucker for all those wonderful 80s series – Murder She Wrote(I still watch them!) Columbo, Diagnosis Murder, Matlock – and adore all the slightly more current UK series – Vera, Foyle’s War, Silent Witness, Midsomer Murders, Mrs Bradley Mysteries etc. Share with us your favorite – or if you’re not a mystery fan – your fave movie or TV show
About the author.
Award winning YA & children’s author, Kaz Delaney, and her alter ego, have currently sold 73 titles between them over a 26 year career.
Her books have won many awards, among them the prestigious Aurealis Award for best paranormal and ARRA (Australian Romance Readers Association) awards. Her novel ‘Dead, Actually’ (Allen & Unwin) was nominated for a Davitt Award, (Best crime novel, Sisters In Crime) in the YA section. Dividing her time between teaching and writing, Kaz formerly tutored Creative Writing for CSU’s Enrichment Program as well as teaching and creating courses for the Australian College of Journalism.
Having always had a love of cozy mysteries, Kaz is having so much fun writing her Hart of Texas Mystery Series for TULE Publishing, that she worries it’s not legal!
With their family grown and gone, Kaz lives with her wonderful husband at beautiful Lake Macquarie, Australia, a place she describes as a strip of land between the ocean and lake. Like Rosie, Kaz loves to bake and grow vegetables and unlike Rosie, manages to make a mess of every crochet task she undertakes.
Delicious recipes straight from the kitchens of your favorite Tule authors.
Tess Harrison is a secondary character in my Wedding Bell Mysteries cozy mystery series. She owns the Briar Patch Bakery, which is across the street from (main character) Maddie Bell’s Blissful Beginnings Bridal Boutique. Every morning before Maddie opens the shop, she goes to the Briar Patch Bakery and writes two pages in her Aubrey Christiansen cozy mystery series and then has a cup of coffee with Hemlock, North Carolina’s hunky police chief Jackson Bradley. Maddie claims the chief is helping her with police procedures for her books, but people are starting to suspect that Tess’s Famous Seven Layer Cookies aren’t the only sweet the chief craves.
In real life, my grandma made Seven Layer Cookies every Christmas. I would always look forward to that wax-paper-lined holiday tin that was filled to the brim with these delicious treats. Now, I carry on this tradition and make them for my family during the holidays.
Enjoy!
– Nancy Robards Thompson
The Briar Patch’s Famous Seven-Layer Cookies
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter melted
1 (14-ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch-flavored chips
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped nuts or for a festive look add holiday-colored sprinkles.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees F for glass baking pan). In a small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and butter; mix well. Press the crumb mixture firmly in the bottom of a 13×9-inch baking pan.
Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over the crumb/crust mixture. Layer evenly with remaining ingredients; press down firmly with a fork.
Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Chill if desired. Cut into bars or diamonds. Store covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
Kaz Delaney stopped by the Tule blog to discuss the third book in the Hart of Texas Murder Mysteries series, Candy-Coated Conspiracy!
Where did you get the inspiration for Candy-Coated Conspiracy?
Initial inspiration came from two things. The first was location – well, specific location. It was always going to be set in a small town, as all the Hart of Texas Mysteries are, but I’ve always loved covers that featured candy stores – they’re so pretty – and real ones smell so good, so I knew one day I’d write about a mystery linked to a candy store. And secondly, I was drawn to a trope I’ve played around with a few times now and absolutely love, and that’s when someone is not who they’re pretending to be. I adore secret identity stories and once I’d hooked these two up, I had to work to find the story behind.
The hardest part was discovering what dastardly secret the town was hiding. I mean, how can a whole town keep something secret? My husband always says that the moment you tell one person—no matter how trusted they are—your secret is no longer a secret, so I knew if a whole town was keeping it secret it had to be big. And bad…
If you went to The Sweet Treat candy store featured in Candy-Coated Conspiracy, what candies would you be leaving with?
I’d probably need a truck to get me home with my load, but anything with nuts and caramel, preferably hard caramel. I’d love to try the sisters’ eggnog caramels and their marshmallow fudge. Um, oh yes! Tropical creams… They’d be delicious with their rich pineapple filling. And I probably couldn’t leave without some Rocky Road.
If you could spend the day with your heroine, Rosie Hart, what would you two get up to?
It’s a no brainer that we’d first bake. It’s a passion we both share and I can imagine the hours whiling away as we baked and chatted. She’s way more talented than I am so I’d be also watching and learning. I know her home almost as well as I know my own, but I’d still love to walk through those rooms, and chat with Rosie and Fiona about the color palette they chose.
Then we’d have to go into town so she could introduce me around. First stop would have to be to see the Fab Four out at the retirement village—those gorgeous, yet scandalous, rascally and irreverent nonagenarians—ensuring we didn’t come between them and a meal or food break; nor distract them from cheating their way through yet another hand of Texas Holdem’. We’d drop in on Miz Brenda and pick up some of her amazing preserves, say hi to Janet while we popped in to meet Sheriff Frank Kinnead, who, like Rosie, I see as a father-figure. Naturally I’d have to go to that iconic newspaper office to see Midge and inhale all the history held within those walls. We’d meet the other townspeople, and then hopefully have dinner with Jonah and his family, Fiona and Clay.
Although, if she was embroiled in a mystery, we’d have that famous whiteboard out and we’d be brainstorming while I helped her solve whatever needed solving. How much fun would that be!!
I’d probably roll home after having consumed too many sweet treats, and be wishing I could do it all again the next day.
What was your favorite scene to write and why? (include a snippet)
Oh gosh, this is a tricky one and I’ve really struggled for an answer—and also one that’s relatively short enough to be a snippet. Any scene with the Fab Four from Riverside Retirement Village is usually a hoot to write, and always so much fun. Then there are some really poignant scenes that still make me cry no matter how often I’ve read them—a final scene between Katya and Lester Jackson is beautiful; the scene with 103 year old Rita Wiley-Hannaford as she recounts her lost love story is as inspiring as it is sad as it offers up answers to this mystery. Speaking of the mystery, I liked the scene with Dwayne Morris’ sister where she explains to Midge and Rosie why her brother may have been not only pretending to be someone else, but why he was tearing up the house of his supposed elderly aunts. Here’s a teeny bit of it.
The set up is that Gabrielle, Dwayne’s sister, has been recounting a story passed from her grandparents; a story that had obsessed a young Dwayne from a young boy. It’s about a letter given to her grandfather’s cellmate that through misfortune never reached its destination – the cellmate’s family. The uncle of the two elderly women suspected of Dwayne’s murder.
——
Gabrielle closed her eyes momentarily, maybe trying to block out memories. Maybe trying to block out the horror of what her brother had done. Maybe trying to block out this day… And us.
“But why take so long?” Midge pondered. “He’d known this story all his life.”
“Mom had an idea about that as well. Obviously, the letter had been passed down and when my grandparents passed away it was in their papers. Mom had them, intending to go through them. The last time Evan was at her house, my mom was sorting those papers. She came across the letter, but later that evening after he’d left, the letter was gone.” Gabrielle was looking very tired now. “She said she’s been praying he wouldn’t do something stupid. But I guess it was too late. He did.”
For long moments we all sat in silence, I guess all pondering that statement. Well, I’m assuming they were. My thoughts were very personal and becoming more urgent. I’d been hanging on to go the bathroom for a while, not wanting to miss a moment but we seemed to be at a break point—an impasse of sorts, and as the situation was becoming grave, I asked for directions and excused myself. I always say I get my best creative ideas in the shower or bath so I guess it was no surprise that even releasing water raised another question we needed to ask.
Back out with the others, Gabrielle was rinsing cups in the kitchen sink, and Midge had our bags, ready to leave as soon as I’d made my return. But I couldn’t go just yet. Just one more question. Maybe two…
“Gabrielle, did you ever see the letter? Read it with your own eyes?”
When she shook her head, my heart sank. But I still had one more. “So, do you have any idea why your great-grandmother thought the whole thing was fictitious? Vivid imagination?”
At that, she smiled. It was wan and half-hearted, but it was a smile. “That I do know and I agreed with her.” She shook her head “Oh, come on… Diamonds hidden in a wall? And he hadn’t told anyone? The man was a pauper and he had diamonds supposedly hidden in a wall? Crazy!”
And there it was…
Diamonds.
My breath stalled at the mention of that word. Diamonds.
Don’t ask me how I knew, I just did. It was a gut thing. But it was significant.
And unlike Gabrielle’s great-grandmother, I believed the story.
What are you currently reading?
I’m reading a novel entitled Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. It’s a spoof on mystery novels, with its own mystery of course. Snow isn’t something that’s immediately associated with Australia but we do have a couple of snowfield areas in the mountains down south and this is the setting for this novel which plays into the locked room scenario as they’re cut off from the rest of the world by heavy falls. Given that I’m reading it in one of our coldest winters in a hundred years, I’ll be looking for a warmer setting for the next book I choose. I have just the titles in mind on my TBR (To be Read) pile. Six Days of Spring by Charlee James next on my Kindle list and I’m looking forward to that, but I’m also so keen to start on Tule’s Outback Babies series. It features some of my favorite people – and authors: Barb Hannay, Trish Morey, Fiona McArthur and Kelly Hunter – and I think it will be huge fun. And besides, I’m such a pushover for babies and little people. When I’m not indulging myself and want to pretend I’m working instead, I want to re-read The Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Labrecque
About the Author
Award winning YA & children’s author, Kaz Delaney, and her alter ego, have currently sold 73 titles between them over a 26 year career.
Her books have won many awards, among them the prestigious Aurealis Award for best paranormal and ARRA (Australian Romance Readers Association) awards. Her novel ‘Dead, Actually’ (Allen & Unwin) was nominated for a Davitt Award, (Best crime novel, Sisters In Crime) in the YA section. Dividing her time between teaching and writing, Kaz formerly tutored Creative Writing for CSU’s Enrichment Program as well as teaching and creating courses for the Australian College of Journalism.
Having always had a love of cozy mysteries, Kaz is having so much fun writing her Hart of Texas Mystery Series for TULE Publishing, that she worries it’s not legal!
With their family grown and gone, Kaz lives with her wonderful husband at beautiful Lake Macquarie, Australia, a place she describes as a strip of land between the ocean and lake. Like Rosie, Kaz loves to bake and grow vegetables and unlike Rosie, manages to make a mess of every crochet task she undertakes.
