When did you realize you wanted to write novels?
Since I edited my high school newspaper a gazillion years ago. When I graduated in newspaper journalism, I became a newspaper reporter. Practicality and a meager, correct that – empty checkbook - pointed me toward real estate sales. As a Philadelphia real estate broker, I was also a restoration addict. I’ve shoveled many a pile of plaster out of old houses.
I started this mystery about ten years ago, then set it aside. Three years ago, I started writing every single night, well after midnight. I decided time was of the essence, as we say in real estate. I wrote and rewrote. When I signed a contract for a three-book series, I left real estate. Some days I mentally hyperventilate over the next scene I’m writing, but nevertheless, I’m grateful to be here.
Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?
Traditionally published.
Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?
I like silence. although I enjoy hearing murmuring voices at my local library. Overhearing others discovering books makes me happy. It always has.
How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?
As a broker, I know real estate is a world most people find interesting. It is also often misunderstood. Real estate is not HGTV. Houses aren’t built in a day. Buyers and sellers are understandably emotional. Helen’s career gets her involved with people in a very personal way. It’s a great segue to a mystery.
The Chesapeake Bay gives me lots of interesting locations and people with different backgrounds. I have twins like Helen. My husband, who is very much alive, complains he was already dead before my first chapter. It’s a joke among my friends and family. We live on a cliff that looks onto the bay.
Describe your process for naming your character?
Helen is named after my mother. She always believed in my writing ability. I wish I could share these moments with her. Helen’s daughter is named Lizzie after Elizabeth Bennett, and her son Shawn is an Irish version of my son John.
Real settings or fictional towns?
Fictional town at the very top of the Chesapeake based on a real waterfront town.
What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?
Helen consults her self-made Detection Club of famous sleuths to catch the killer.
What’s your quirkiest quirk?
I talk out loud to myself. But then, I strike up conversations with strangers too.
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Women portrayed as helpless or stupid. Everyone gets themselves in difficult situations. Running through the woods in high heels shouldn’t be one of them.
You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?
A pen and paper set. Orange vodka and comfortable shoes.
What’s on the horizon for you?
My second in the series, Killer in the Kitchen, will be released in September. Very excited about that. In Killer in the Kitchen, Helen’s daughter, Lizzie, a popular home shopping network host, invites her to meet a celebrity chef about to sell his mansion.
A Chesapeake Bay Mystery, Book 1
A Chesapeake village rocked by murder. A family empire resented. A friend accused.
It isn’t the first-time real estate agent Helen Morrisey has found someone naked in bed while showing a house. But this one is different. One glance at the bluish cast around his lips and the vacant, staring eyes, and Helen knows developer Al Capelli is never going to sign another sales agreement.
His death is big news for a small Chesapeake water town where a family empire is built around secrets and their brash money style is resented by locals. Within days, his lover, her old friend, begs Helen to find the killer before she’s arrested for murder. Helen quickly realizes that solving a murder mystery in real life is a lot more dangerous than reading one. She decides to create her own Detection Club of expert sleuths—Miss Marple, Jessica Fletcher, Nora Charles, Agatha Raisin, and, yes, Nancy Drew to help unearth the truth.
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