When did you realize you wanted to write novels?
As soon as I started to read “adult” novel, so around ten years old.
How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?
For history (I am a historian), in my forties. For fiction, I had two short stories published in 2019 and my first novel in 2021 on my seventieth birthday.
Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?
I’m Indie published, but I’m working on a project now that I hope to have traditionally published.
Where do you write?
I write in my study, which is the second bedroom of my 1917 condo—and I look out onto a brick wall.
Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?
I listen to music all the time—classical from a station out of London.
How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?
My characters all have aspects of me. My plots, on the other hand, are inspired by other peoples’ comments, newspaper and magazine articles, and sometimes just magically appear. That’s what happened in Dead in the Alley.
Describe your process for naming your character?
That depends on the book. Sometimes the characters just tell me their names. Sometimes they are riffs on characters from other authors’ books. I might look up a list of names if I have a foreign character.
Real settings or fictional towns?
Both. In this book, the town is fictional but based on a real town.
What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?
One of my characters refuses to laugh at bad jokes, no matter how funny they are.
What’s your quirkiest quirk?
I never laughed at my husband’s bad jokes. It became a joke between us.
If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?
There are probably a lot of them. But I think I’ll go with Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers. It appeals to my love of mysteries, my academic soul, as well as the culmination of Peter Wimsey’ pursuit of Harriet Vane. It takes place at Oxford, has murder, academic rivalries, a strong female character, and romance. What more could you ask for?
Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?
I wish I had told my husband every day how much I loved him. (Sorry to be so maudlin.)
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
People who are late, and then just tell me that’s the way they are.
You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?
Books, music, and food. (I think having cats would be too difficult in that situation.)
What was the worst job you’ve ever held?
Working on the assembly line in a model-making factory. I lasted three weeks.
Who’s your all-time favorite literary character (any genre)? Why?
Nicholas vander Poele, aka Nicholas Fleury in Dorothy Dunnett’s House of Niccolò series. He’s got an eight-book character arc, is brilliant, devious, kinder than he sometimes appears, altogether a fascinating character in the historical period I study, the late fifteenth century. He also gets to travel over most of the known world, which I’d love to do, and at one point owns a house in Venice, which I envy.
Ocean or mountains?
Mountains.
City girl/guy or country girl/guy?
City girl
What’s on the horizon for you?
Right now, I’m writing the third book in the Global Security Unlimited series and the first in a new cozy culinary mystery series. I have two short stories coming out in anthologies next year, a new free holiday short story available on my website, and I’m planning the next book in the Death in the North Country series to follow my detective couple from Dead in the Alley.
Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?
My books are filled with food, cats and dogs, urban settings, humor, history, and romance. Somehow, even with murder on the table, my characters can’t help falling in love!
A Murder in the North Country Novel
Where do you turn when you’ve lost it all?
When Bay Bishop’s husband was found in the alley behind their Northern Michigan restaurant, she lost not only the partner in her dreams of establishing the best fine-dining establishment in the area but the man she thought was the love of her life. Then she finds out how he had betrayed her. Now she’s a suspect.
The detective who shows up on her doorstep turns out to be the high-school boyfriend who broke her heart. Faced with uncomfortable truths and new beginnings, Bay must chart a course to prove her innocence and create a new future while she also tries to unravel a family secret that may give her the key to who she really is.
The story features a twisty mystery set in a small city in Northern Michigan on the shores of Lake Michigan in wine and cherry growing country, a charming inn, plenty of food, a former bike racer hero, and a lovable Portuguese Water Dog.
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