My Ten Favorite Things about Writing LICENSE TO DILL
By Mary Ellen Hughes

Starting a new series is always exciting, but it’s also plenty of hard, intensive work. There’s so many decisions to make, such as where to set it, who your characters will be, their relationships, and so on, which is what I went through with THE PICKLED PIPER, book #1 of my Pickled and Preserved mystery series. After careful thought, I chose upstate New York as my setting and named my fictional town Cloverdale. I sent my twenty-nine year old principal character, Piper Lamb, there from Albany after she ended her going-nowhere engagement. And I put Piper’s Aunt Judy and Uncle Frank on a nearby farm, gave Piper a great assistant for her pickling shop, and introduced Piper to Will, a handsome Christmas tree farmer. So all the important decisions were made with book #1.

Book #2, LICENSE TO DILL, by comparison, turned out to be a breeze. Everything was set up and ready to go! All I needed to do was write the mystery (“all” she added, laughingly). But having already done the ground work, I could now relax and focus on the plot, which became the first of my…

Ten Favorite Things About Writing License to Dill:

1.    My characters, after a couple of weeks of rest, were super-eager for action. They practically snatched the pages from me to get back to work.

2.    Piper and her new boyfriend, Will, had progressed beyond the awkward getting-to-know-you stage and were pretty happy and comfortable with each other.

3.    Of course, I couldn’t let that continue, so I brought Piper’s ex-fiancé, Scott, back from his travels, and he decided to settle in Cloverdale. (Uh-oh.)

4.    I imported an entire soccer team of handsome young men from Italy to challenge Cloverdale’s All-Stars, which meant writing exciting soccer scenes. I now understand the game much better!

5.    The Italian team’s coach and manager occasionally spoke Italian. With the help of a Italian-born friend, I learned several useful Italian phrases and sometimes found myself writing with an Italian accent!

6.     Since a dill field figures importantly in the murder, I learned—and shared in the book—quite a bit about growing and using fresh dill. I could practically smell that wonderful weed as I typed.

7.    Since Piper makes all the pickles and preserves for her shop herself (with the help of her assistant, Amy), I kept various pickles on hand, because writing pickling scenes was sure to bring on a craving.

8.    Piper spends plenty of time with her Aunt Judy and Uncle Frank at their farm. Whenever Piper drove up, Jack, their mixed-breed dog went crazy with excitement. I, unfortunately, am allergic to dogs, but I could enjoy petting Jack vicariously through Piper—with no sneezes!

9.    While looking into the murder, Piper meets several people in the Cloverdale area with new-to-me occupations. I particularly loved writing about the chainsaw sculptor and will have to seriously consider bringing him back some day.

10.    After spending months with Piper and all the people of Cloverdale in THE PICKLED PIPER, I became pretty fond of them. (Well, most of them. There was, after all, a murderer in the mix.) But writing LICENSE TO DILL was like going to a reunion—lots of fun getting reacquainted with everyone. But I do hope they’ve forgiven me by now for what I’ve put them through…

About the Author:

Mary Ellen Hughes is the author of the Craft Corner mystery series – WREATH OF DECEPTION, STRING OF LIES, and PAPER-THIN ALIBI – as well as the Maggie Olenski mysteries – RESORT TO MURDER and A TASTE OF DEATH.

She has also authored several short stories, including THE WOMAN ON THE TRAIN, and short mysteries included in the Chesapeake Crimes and Tales from the Backlist anthologies.

A transplanted Wisconsinite, Mary Ellen now lives in Maryland where she is excited to be working on her new Pickled and Preserved mystery series beginning with THE PICKLED PIPER.

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Piper Lamb knows how to make fruits and vegetables keep for months. Unfortunately, it’s the people around her who are expiring too soon…

After her fiancé left her, Piper came to Cloverdale to rebuild her life and open up her shop, Piper’s Picklings, to sell pickles and preserves. When her ex decides to drop in for a visit—just as things are heating up between her and a local Christmas tree farmer—Piper finds herself in a jam. But there are other visitors to worry about…

An Italian soccer team is set to play the Cloverdale All-Stars in an exhibition game. Their manager, Raffaele Conti, was a bitter rival of Piper’s dill supplier, local farmer Gerald Standley. After Conti is found dead in Standley’s field, Piper must work to clear Gerald’s name and find out who relished killing Raffaele before the town is soured by another death.

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Jennifer’s Review of License To Dill

Review (4 Stars):  The thing I liked about this series was that you really felt like you were a part of this small town community while reading these mysteries.  Piper is settling into life as store owner of Piper’s Picklings when she learns that her ex is coming to town for a visit.  After being gone six months, Scott is under the impression that they can continue where they left off but Piper has moved on and is now seeing Will, the local Christmas tree farmer.  While Piper is dealing with her ex, the town is gearing up for an exhibition soccer game between the Cloverdale All-Stars and an Italian semi-professional team.  It is a bitter rivalry between the teams and soon the body of the Italian team’s manager, Raffaele Conti, is found in the field of Gerald Standley. Gerald and Raffaele knew each other from high school and it is no surprise that someone wanted the irritating Italian dead. Now, Piper must find the clues to prevent Gerald from going to jail for a crime that he didn’t commit.

License To Dill was a fun, entertaining and mouthwatering mystery that had me craving more of this sassy heroine.  I liked Piper from the very beginning and I felt bad that she kept trying to convince her ex that it was over between them to no avail.  The mystery was very fast-paced and exciting and you could definitely see why there was a long list of suspects that wanted Raffaele dead.  This is the second book in the Pickled Preserved mystery series and I can’t wait to go back to spend more time with the residents of Cloverdale, New York.

Giveaway

I’m excited to give away a copy of License To Dill. This giveaway is for US Residents only.  To be entered in the drawing by February 18th, please leave me a comment below:

    At The Drop Of A Hat

by Jenn McKinlay

I am a hat girl and always have been.  No, sadly, not the fancy hats to which the British are partial.  I think Americans are too obsessed with their hair to ever truly embrace the hat.  Pity.  Still, I love a good hat, and I own several fuzzy winter hats, floppy sun hats, utilitarian (ie. hide the unwashed rat’s nest) baseball hats.

My fascination with headwear was definitely a driving force in writing the London hat shop mysteries and because I love research this has been one of the best parts of the whole adventure.  The history of millinery, famous milliners, the evolution of the hat, all of these things have contributed to the writing of the books.

In AT THE DROP OF THE HAT, Viv and Scarlett are asked to mend a bridal hat made by their grandmother over thirty years before in the early nineteen eighties.  It is an emotional moment for the girls to have something that their grandmother made and they are determined to fix the hat for the bride Ariana Jackson.

Of course this part of the plot led me to research hats of the eighties which naturally guided me to Princess Diana and her famous milliner John Boyd.  I read his bio, studied years and years of his hats and now follow him on social media. The man is simply a genius.
Here’s a quote from his webpage (www.johnboydhats.com) so you can see what I mean:

“Making hats isn’t just a romantic story of sitting there waiting for some great creation to come. Millinery is deception all the time. If a client’s nose isn’t straight you twist her hat brim slightly the opposite way to straighten it. If she’s got two chins, you give her a face lift by tying a veil under one of them. The wearer doesn’t deceive, I do it for them.”  –John Boyd

See?  Certified artistic genius.  And although I have a total fan girl crush on the eighty-nine year old Scotsman, John Boyd is just one of so many famous hat makers that fill the pages of fashion, art and history.  Writing this series has been a pure joy because I have learned so much and because I get to spend hours turning the pages of old fashion magazines at my library, studying the fads and fashions of days gone by.

But there’s more than hat history involved in AT THE DROP OF A HAT.  Things have been tense between Scarlett and Viv as Scarlett can’t shake the feeling that Viv is hiding something from her.  She hopes that working on Mim’s old hat together will bridge the distance between them.  Viv is delighted to take on the job of restoring Ariana’s hat. It means so much to her to refurbish one of Mim’s original designs.  Unfortunately, contacting Ariana with the estimated cost becomes difficult when she never answers her phone.

Finally, Scarlett decides to go visit the young woman at her place of work and give her the work estimate in person.  When she arrives at the solicitor’s office in Kensington, she finds Ariana in the alley, standing over the body of her dead boss who looks to have fallen to his death.  The police think the man was pushed, but Scarlett refuses to believe Ariana is the murderer.  It is now up Scarlett and Viv to find the real killer before Ariana’s future is boxed up for good.

Is Ariana a murderess?  Do Viv and Scarlett manage to refurbish Mim’s bridal hat to its original glory?  What secret is Viv keeping from Scarlett?  You’ll just have to pick up a copy of AT THE DROP OF A HAT to find out.

Happy Reading!

Jenn

About the Author:

Jenn is the New York Times bestselling author of several mystery series. She lives in sunny Arizona in a house that is overrun with kids, pets and her husband’s guitars.

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MURDER CAN BE SO OLD HAT

Cousins Scarlett Parker and Vivian Tremont’s fashionable London hat shop, Mim’s Whims, is visited by a new customer bearing an old hat box. Ariana Jackson is getting married and wants to restore her mother’s bridal hat and veil for the occasion. The elegant item was made by Scarlett and Vivian’s grandmother over thirty years ago, so Viv is delighted to take the job.

When Scarlett goes to Ariana’s office to consult about the restoration cost, she finds her outside, standing over her boss’s dead body. Though Ariana claims to know nothing about his demise, the investigation unveils a motive for murder. Now, with the bride-to-be in custody and the wedding on hold, Scarlett and Viv must find the real killer before Ariana’s future is boxed up for good.

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Jennifer’s Review of At The Drop Of A Hat

Review (4.5 Stars): This is the third book in the Hat Shop Mystery series and I love how Ms. McKinlay makes readers feel as though they are a part of the Notting Hill community. In this mystery, Scarlett and Viv agree to help Ariana Jackson restore her mother’s bridal hat for her upcoming wedding and when Scarlett is unable to get in touch with her, she decides to visit her at her work.  What she finds is another dead body and Ariana standing over the body with blood on her hands. With the wedding on hold and Ariana as the prime suspect, Scarlett and Viv decide to play detective again to find the real killer before Ariana goes to jail for a crime she didn’t commit.

Every time I read a mystery from this series, I am brought back to the lovely city of London and I desperately want to walk down Portobello Road just like Scarlett does.  Scarlett is still sticking with her vow of “no men” but has quite a bit of temptation in this story that tests her commitment to that vow.  I love how her character has grown from Cloche and Dagger and she is finally getting her self-confidence back and settling into her new way of life in London.  At The Drop Of A Hat was very fast-paced, entertaining and makes me want to visit this lovely community right away.  Looking forward to book number four in this enchanting mystery series.

Giveaway

I’m excited to give away a copy of At The Drop Of A Hat. This giveaway is for US Residents only.  To be entered in the drawing by February 17th, please leave me a comment below:

A Traveler’s Guide to Cape Willington, Maine

by B.B. Haywood
author of Town in a Sweet Pickle

Welcome to the fictional town of Cape Willington, Maine, founded in 1737 by sea captain Elijah Blake Willington. Elijah and his crew were headed for Portland Harbor when they got caught in a storm and had to travel further up the coast to get to land safely. The town has grown one hundred fold since that night. Now you can take a stroll down the Main Street and see all of the shops, new and old, and meet a few of the local characters as well.

Your first stop should be the Main Street Diner for a bite to eat. You’ll find all kinds of fantastic diner food here, including fresh seafood and local favorites. You can also catch up on the local news with Henry “Doc” Holliday and his friends. They usually sit in the corner booth, unless it’s occupied by tourists. Doc sits at that booth so often everyone calls it “The Doc office.”

For dessert, I would recommend stopping at the Black Forest Bakery for authentic German pastries, freshly baked every day by Georg Wolfsburger. Georg is a relatively recent transplant to Cape Willington, and a welcome one at that. His pastries are well known up and down the East Coast. His humor and friendliness are baked into every pastry. Maggie Tremont will be at the front counter to greet you when you walk in. She will try to get you to sample a pastry! She’s pretty convincing, so I would do what she says. (Just a little local gossip: Maggie and Georg are engaged, although they haven’t set a wedding date yet. But who knows—maybe they will soon!)

Don’t forget to stop in at Zeke’s General Store, also located on Main Street. Trudy Watkins and her husband Richard run the general store, which has been in continuous operation since the early 1800s. You can still find all of your favorite penny candies and an old counter with stools, where you can sit and have an ice cream. Trudy has a wonderful eye for gifts, new and antique alike. The store is definitely worth a stop.

After you’ve totally stuffed yourself, head down Ocean Avenue to see the historical Pruitt Opera House. It boasts a beautiful widow’s walk at the top of the building. The story around town is that Candy Holliday and Maggie Tremont almost lost their lives defending themselves from a murderer who chased them up the stairs and out onto the walk about five years ago. Thankfully they survived, and Candy is now quite the sleuth, with Maggie by her side.

Now it’s time to take a drive along the breathtakingly gorgeous Coastal Loop road (Route 192 for those of you with maps) for beautiful views of the sea and the Cape. The cliffs are to die for. Leave your car windows down and take in a deep breath of fresh, salty sea air. You’ll feel like a whole new person. If only we could bottle that scent!

Just keep driving around the Cape and you might find yourself at Holliday’s Blueberry Acres, located on the outskirts of town. If you do, drop in for a cup of tea with Candy and her father, Doc. Candy just might offer you a slice of her famous blueberry pie. Do not refuse! The blueberries at the farm are the tastiest you will find in Maine. If they have time, they might give you a tour of the blueberry fields and gardens, and you can meet “the girls”—Candy’s chickens, which she keeps in a chicken coop behind the barn. I heard she is trying to teach them to speak French!

Take as many photos as you like for your Instagram. Enjoy your stay in town, and please visit again soon!

NOTE: Town in a Sweet Pickle is Book #6 in the New York Times bestselling Candy Holliday Murder Mystery Series. It will be available in print and as a digital book on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015. Other titles in the series include Town in a Strawberry Swirl, Town in a Pumpkin Bash, and Town in a Blueberry Jam. Large print editions of all the books and an audiobook of Town in a Blueberry Jam are also available. For more information on the series, visit www.hollidaysblueberryacres.com.

About the Author:

B. B. Haywood is a pseudonym of writing team Beth Feeman and Robert Feeman. They conceived the idea for the Candy Holliday mysteries while driving around the Maine countryside, stopping at different small towns throughout the state.

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When Candy organizes a cooking event for her local newspaper, the town’s most prominent citizens turn out to witness the popular cookbook author Julia von Fleming serve as a guest judge. But when Julia comes close to consuming a poisoned pickle, she begins to suspect someone in Cape Willington is trying to kill her—and Candy is completely jarred to be among the suspects.

But the first taste was just a sample, and soon more jars of poisoned pickles begin to pop up around town. In the face of a pickled poisoning spree, Candy will have to track down the culprit to make sure her own name stays well-preserved. Along the way, she’ll pull the lid off a briny barrel of blackmail, thievery, and revenge that’s been souring their seaside hometown for years…

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Jennifer’s Review of Town in a Sweet Pickle

Review (3.5 Stars): This is the sixth book in the Candy Holliday mystery series and I loved the idea of having poisoned pickles showing up around town causing Candy to search for clues as to who is behind all of it. I enjoyed the cooking contest and the yummy recipes that are included in this story that is sure to make your mouth water reading this delicious mystery.  Candy and the residents of Cape Willington are delightful as always and I look forward to each new mystery in the series.  I do recommend that readers start with the very first book in the series just because there was a lot of background and information that has been happening over the course of the series and this will make your visit to this wonderful community more enjoyable.

Giveaway

I’m excited to give away a copy of Town in a Sweet Pickle. This giveaway is for US Residents only.  To be entered in the drawing by February 15th, please leave me a comment below:

 It’s a Family Thing
By Miranda James

Each of the “Cat in the Stacks” novels has centered on the family in some way. The core of the books is Charlie and his family, beginning with Diesel the Maine Coon cat in the first book, and then including his son Sean, daughter Laura, and others in subsequent books. The mystery plots in each of the books also center on family in some way.

In the latest book in the series, Arsenic and Old Books, the mayor of Athena, Lucinda Beckwith Long, presents Charlie with a set of Civil War-era diaries, a donation from the Long family to the college archive. The author of the diaries was Rachel Afton Long, and the mayor tells Charlie that the contents could help decide an upcoming election. Her son “Beck” Long is contending for a state senate seat against Jasper Singletary. The Longs and the Singletarys have a long history of distrust and discord between them. The Longs have been wealthy, one of the leading families of Athena for generations, while the Singletary clan consisted of poor subsistence farmers who claim their misfortunes were caused by the Longs.

Charlie naturally wonders how diaries written a century-and-a-half ago can impact the present. He is also astonished when two different women demand immediate access to them. A history professor desperate for tenure and a reporter whose reasons are murky both try their best to get their hands on the diaries. The situation is complicated by murder, and Charlie once again finds himself in the middle of the investigation.

As a student of history myself, and one whose family roots go back to 1831 in Mississippi, I wanted to write a story in which the distant past did affect the present. The Civil War era seemed a good place to start, and I thought incorporating the diaries of an antebellum woman a good way to open that window into the past. The result of all this is Arsenic and Old Books.

About the Author:

Miranda James is the pseudonym of Dean James, a seventh-generation Mississippian recently returned home after over thirty years in Texas. A mystery fan since the age of ten, he wrote his first novel at the ripe old age of twelve. The only copy of The Mystery of the Willow Key vanished years ago, but since it was highly derivative of the Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden mystery series, that’s probably a good thing.

Currently a librarian in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Dean has published articles on topics in library science, the history of science/medicine, and mystery fiction. His first book, which he co-wrote with fellow librarian Jean Swanson, was By a Woman’s Hand (Berkley; 1994). Jean and Dean won an Agatha Award for Best Mystery Non-Fiction and were nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar for Best Critical-Biographical work for this popular reference book. A second edition followed two years later, and Dean and Jean collaborated on two further projects, Killer Books (Berkley; 1998) and The Dick Francis Companion (Berkley; 2003). In all he has co-authored or co-edited six works of mystery reference and one short story anthology.

His first novel, Cruel as the Grave (Silver Dagger Mysteries) was published in 2000. Since then he has published eighteen more novels, writing under his own name and the pseudonyms Jimmie Ruth Evans and Honor Hartman. In August 2010 he launched a new series writing as Miranda James. The first book under this name, Murder Past Due (Berkley Prime Crime; $7.99) spent four weeks on the extended New York Times bestseller list for mass market paperbacks. The next book in the series, Classified as Murder (Berkley Prime Crime; $7.99), published in May 2011, also hit the NYT list. The third book, File M for Murder (Berkley Prime Crime; $7.99) is out now. The fourth book, Out of Circulation (Berkley Prime Crime; $7.99) debuted at no. 11 on the bestseller list. Book five, The Silence of the Library, debuted at no. 8 on the bestseller list. Book six, Arsenic and Old Books, is just out.

Dean lives with one elderly cat, thousands of books, and thinks frequently about killing people – but only in the pages of fiction.

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In Athena, Mississippi, librarian Charlie Harris is known for his good nature—and for his Maine coon cat Diesel that he walks on a leash. Charlie returned to his hometown to immerse himself in books, but taking the plunge into a recent acquisition will have him in over his head…

Lucinda Beckwith Long, the mayor of Athena, has donated a set of Civil War-era diaries to the archives of Athena College. The books were recently discovered among the personal effects of an ancestor of Mrs. Long’s husband. The mayor would like Charlie to preserve and to substantiate them as a part of the Long family legacy—something that could benefit her son, Beck, as he prepares to campaign for the state senate.

Beck’s biggest rival is Jasper Singletary. His Southern roots are as deep as Beck’s, and their families have been bitter enemies since the Civil War. Jasper claims the Long clan has a history of underhanded behavior at the expense of the Singletarys. He’d like to get a look at the diaries in an attempt to expose the Long family’s past sins. Meanwhile, a history professor at the college is also determined to get her hands on the books in a last-ditch bid for tenure. But their interest suddenly turns deadly…

Now Charlie is left with a catalog of questions. The diaries seem worth killing for, and one thing is certain: Charlie will need to be careful, because the more he reads, the closer he could be coming to his final chapter…

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Jennifer’s Review of Arsenic and Old Books

Review (4.75 Stars): Wow! I love Charlie and Diesel and with Arsenic and Old Books, I was sucked into this well-written mystery after reading the very first chapter.  I couldn’t believe how quickly the pages flew by and I was up half the night until I reached its conclusion. I enjoy this mystery series because it is from Charlie’s point of view and most of the cozies that I have read have been from the female prospective.  It is a nice change of pace, which is one of the reasons that I enjoy this series so much.  Arsenic and Old Books is a very entertaining mystery with fascinating characters, an adorable cat and a mystery that will keep you guessing.  This was a winner for me and I can’t wait to read more from this talented author.

Giveaway

I’m excited to give away a copy of Arsenic and Old Books. This giveaway is for US Residents only.  To be entered in the drawing by February 15th, please leave me a comment below: