AN INTERVIEW WITH COZY MYSTERY AUTHOR SUSAN SANTANGELO

The Muses, Boomer and Lilly

Today we sit down for a chat with Susan Santangelo, author of the cozy Baby Boomer Mysteries. Learn more about Susan and her books at her website. 

When did you realize you wanted to write novels? 

I wrote feature stories professionally for newspapers and magazines most of my adult life. I loved reading cozy mysteries, and I noodled around writing one for several years but never started one. Then I was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was a real wake up call. So about fourteen years ago, I started writing my first mystery. 

 

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?

Four years. 

 

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?

I’m a hybrid author. 

 

Where do you write?

I have a home office, which I share with my muses/dogs, Boomer and Lilly. I like to bounce story ideas off them. They have excellent instincts. 

 

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

No music. But doggy snoring is fine. No barking, though.

 

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

Because my books are written in the first person, all my readers think Carol Andrews is me and my husband Joe is Carol’s husband, Jim. The books aren’t about our lives, though. It’s just a coincidence that the first book in the series is titled Retirement Can Be Murder, when Jim decides to retire and his wife doesn’t want him home driving her crazy, and I began writing the book just as my own husband was retiring! That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.       

  

Describe your process for naming your character.

My series is the Baby Boomer mysteries, so I choose character names that are appropriate to that age group. “Carol” was one of the most popular first names when I was in school. Carol’s best friends are Nancy, Claire and Mary Alice. All those names were popular back in the fifties and sixties.

 

Real settings or fictional towns?

The books are set in the fictional town of Fairport, CT, a combination of two real towns in Connecticut, Fairfield and Westport. The antique house where Carol and Jim live in the series is based on the Fairfield house that my family and I lived and loved in for many years.

 

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?

Carol talks to her dogs, Lucy and Ethel, ALL THE TIME. 

                                                                                          

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

I’ve been known to chat with Boomer and Lilly. Not as often as Carol talks to Lucy and Ethel, though.   

 

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?

Anything by Janet Evanovich. Her Stephanie Plum series is set in Trenton, NJ, where we used to live.

 

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?

I wish I’d started writing mysteries when I was younger.  

 

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

Rudeness.

 

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?

Dogs, a cell phone and a charger.

 

What was the worst job you’ve ever held?

I had a part-time job in the gift wrap department of a major retailer. I was a total failure.

 

Who’s your all-time favorite literary character (any genre)? Why?

I’d love to be Miss Marple. She proved that nobody should ever underestimate a senior citizen!  

 

Ocean or mountains?

Ocean.

 

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

The country, but close to a city.

 

What’s on the horizon for you?

I’m writing book 11 in the series, Masquerades Can Be Murder, which has a ghost in it. 

 

Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?

I hope people enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

 

Mistletoe Can Be Murder

A Baby Boomer Mystery, Book 10

 

Carol Andrews is planning her grandson CJ’s first Christmas down to the last detail. What she didn’t plan on is a furnace fiasco, the unexpected appearance of CJ’s Other Grandmother, Margo, and her new boyfriend, a family feud, a stolen credit card, and murder. When Margo’s boyfriend becomes the police’s chief suspect, Carol is forced to add crime-solving to her holiday to-do list before Santa can come down the chimney.

 

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