AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR VIRGINIA KELLY'S AMATEUR SLEUTH GABI ESPINOSA

Today we sit down for a chat with Gabriela (Gabi) Espinosa from author Virginia Kelly’s Gabi Espinosa Mystery Series. 

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

I was playing it safe, raising my fifteen-year-old in a small town in the Florida Panhandle. Turner’s Crossroads became a safe haven when, at age eleven, my parents died, and I moved in with my paternal grandmother. I’d been living in Peru with my Peruvian mother and American father, and although I didn’t fit in with the town, I adjusted. So when my life turned upside down, I came back to Turner’s Crossroads.

 

What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?

I don’t gossip in a town full of gossips.

 

What do you like least about yourself?

I’m big on avoiding painful emotions.

 

What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?

I used a wooden cutting board as a self-defense tool.

 

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?

It’s been more of a disagreement about how to handle two people in my life. To deal with a gossipy, grumpy employee, I prefer patience. My author believes a serious talk will make a difference. She forgets I’ve tried that. Then there’s my problem patron (I’m a librarian, but then so is my author). He requires patience as well as acceptance. But when his behavior suddenly changed, I altered my approach, which meant chasing answers.

 

What is your greatest fear?

Losing a loved one.

 

What makes you happy?

My daughter and living a safe, no-more-shocks, quiet life.

 

If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?

My husband would not have been murdered. If he were alive… Well, my life would be totally different. I would not have moved back to Turner’s Crossroads. I would still work in a large academic library, and I wouldn’t fear losing anyone else.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?

It’s a toss up between Ryker Fordham, my always-a-problem patron, and Mark Stone, the new deputy. Mr. Fordham (he was a friend of my late father’s) always complained about some library books, but his personality, odd to say the least, took a sudden nosedive. Mark Stone bugs me because I can’t figure him out. He’s impossible to read. Why he ever came to our little backwater is a mystery.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?

Not to trade places, but I’d love to adopt my friend Rhonda’s attitude about life. She knew how to live her life fully, her way.

 

Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?

My story, an amateur sleuth mystery, is Virginia’s ninth published title. Fully indie, she regained the rights to her traditionally published books. She stumbled into my life after writing romantic suspense novels for years. Why Tangled Secrets is a mystery, is… well, a mystery. Virginia’s one of those writers who sits down to write with barely any plan—a pantser. You can find more about her and her other books at her website. 

 

What's next for you?

Virginia’s putting me through another journey to, as she calls it, “complete my character arc.” It’s a rather daunting process, one I’m not sure I can handle. But she’s pulled others I’ve met in her books through their character arcs, so I’ll continue to believe in her ability to guide me through mine.

 

Tangled Secrets: A Gabi Espinosa Mystery

 

Turner’s Crossroads, where nothing happens… Until it does.

 

Reeling from her husband’s murder, librarian Gabriela Espinosa took her young daughter and sought refuge in the perceived safety of her tiny hometown in the Florida Panhandle. Six years later, the murder of her best friend shatters her sense of security and threatens the walls Gabi built to protect herself from grief.

 

Suspicion falls on an old friend of her late father’s. Though the man is troubled, Gabi believes he’s incapable of violence. In his defense, she begins asking questions which put her at odds with the local sheriff’s department and a mysterious new deputy. 

 

As she uncovers a tangle of complicated relationships, there’s a second murder. With fear resonating through the town’s sleepy façade, Gabi confronts a dark past that lays bare Turner’s Crossroads’ secrets, putting her, and her daughter, in danger.

 

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MYSTERY AND HISTORICAL AUTHOR ANN McALLISTER CLARK SUGGESTS UPCOMING ONLINE LIBRARY EVENTS FOR READERS AND WRITERS

Award-winning mystery author Ann McAllister Clark is a teacher, journalist, and former used bookstore owner. She writes the Morgan’s Bridge Mysteries and the St. Augustine Mysteries  and has also written an historical novel, The Chrysalis: An American Family Endures the Civil War. Ann joins us today to offer some online talks of interest for both readers and writers. Learn more about Ann and her books at her website. 

Saved by the Librarian

I’ve been staring out the window – a lot!  My dear friend and retired librarian heard of my slothfulness and came to my front porch wearing a mask and gloves. She tucked into my door a pretty pamphlet and then quickly left. I thought that, of course, you are not sitting around staring out the window, yet you might find interest in what she left for me.

 

My county library system is the St. John’s County Library system in Florida. They have very kindly been holding several virtual events a week for patrons to enjoy. Anyone in the country can go to their YouTube channel, Facebook page, or website to watch; you don’t have to be a card-carrying St. John’s Library patron.

 

I have been watching the interviews of interest to readers and writers.  Let me list just a few of them for you. There are many more and If you miss one, they will still be available.

 

January 6^th at 12:00 pm Eastern

Arson Investigator – Interview with Tom Perkins discussing his expertise.  He works in Rochester, NY as an investigator on the arson talk force. I’ve got to see this one as my next book has an explosion in the bakery!

 

January 11^th at 12:00 pm Eastern

Quirky History – Libraries explores how libraries were created. 

 

January 19^th at 12:00 pm Eastern

Book Repair – explores the dos and don’ts of book repair. Learn about the process and to view items made specifically to repair worn and damaged book.

 

January 29^th at 12:00 pm Eastern 

An interview with John Szabo, City Librarian for the LA Public Library. John F. Sazabo has been the City Librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library since 2012, serving the largest population of any library system in the United States. With 25 years of experience, under his leadership, the Los Angeles Public Library initiatives have been immigrant integration and citizenship, improving financial literacy and providing health resources and programs. 

 

Morgan’s Redemption

A Morgan’s Bridge Mystery, Book 1

 

Opening a used bookstore, newly arrived Amanda Stimpson begins her quest to discover the answers to the mysteries of her name and ancestry.

 

The stories she is told are fascinating, heartwarming, mysterious and shocking.

 

The characters in the village are varied in bravery, loyalty, kindness, prejudices, cruelty and finally, REDEMPTION.

 

She discovers the secret as to why she is called MacIntosh Moon.

 

The little West Michigan town yields one surprise after another as Amanda finally finds her true roots.

 

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MYSTERY AUTHOR MARILYN LEVINSON/ALLISON BROOKS ON THE ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN

A former Spanish teacher, Marilyn Levinson writes mysteries, romantic suspense, and novels for kids. As Allison Brook she writes the Haunted Library mystery series. Other mysteries include the Golden Age of Mystery Book Club series and the Twin Lakes series. Today Marilyn joins us to discuss the origins of Halloween. Learn more about Marilyn and her books at her website. 

The Haunted Library Mystery Series takes place in Clover Ridge, Connecticut, where Carrie Singleton is the head of programs and events. She is the only person, besides her four-year-old cousin, who can see and talk to Evelyn Havers, a former library aide who haunts the library. Carrie’s feline Smoky Joe is the library’s popular resident cat. Her boyfriend, Dylan Avery, is an insurance investigator. Carrie finds herself embroiled in solving mysteries and murders. Evelyn often helps her, except when the suspects happen to be her relatives.

Halloween has become one of our most popular holidays. It certainly wasn't the case when I was growing up in Brooklyn. Then we did our best to avoid the boys running around with chalk in their hands intent on drawing a line down the back of our jackets while they shouted "Halloween!" These days it's the second most popular holiday regarding sales and decorations. Pumpkins abound on doorsteps and in windows, the colorful fruit of autumn. (Yes, it's technically a fruit because it has seeds though we think of it as a vegetable.)

Halloween began with the Celtic celebration of Samhain—the midway point between the fall equinox and the winter solstice—the end of harvest and a time of increasing darkness and the advent of winter.  For those of us in the U.S., it's the start of our holiday season: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa, which occur around the Winter Solstice and the shortest day of the year. No big surprise that all three are holidays of light.

The ancient Celts celebrated Samhain with bonfires, many of which burned sacrifices. They feared that the dead might return at this time of the year and wore costumes to scare away the ghosts of the dead. When the Christian reign began, Pope Gregory the Third instituted All Saints Day on November First; the eve before became All Hallows Eve and evolved into Halloween. Countries created their own unique way of celebrating the holiday. In Mexico, November First became El Día de los Muertos. Instead of fearing the dead, Mexicans picnic in cemeteries and share the day with their departed.

Holidays evolve as society changes. We in the United States celebrate Halloween with decorations, parties, and costumes. The dark side of the unknown aspect of Halloween still intrigues us, but a playfulness has set in as well. For many years now, children have worn costumes to go Trick or Treating. Now many adults dress in costumes. Instead of Trick or Treating, they attend private parties or take part in a parade. There are several popular costume parades such as the one in Greenwich Village in Manhattan every year.

Death Overdue, the first book in my Haunted Library series, starts out in October. My sleuth, Carrie Singleton, has a low-level job in the Clover Ridge Library in Clover Ridge, CT. She's bored and restless and ready to move on. Which is when she is offered the position of head of programs and events at the library. To find out why Carrie decides to stay in Clover Ridge, how she gets involved in a cold case and a recent murder, and how she meets her future boyfriend, you'll have to read Death Overdue.

Carrie is well aware that Halloween is a huge event and makes sure that the library is decorated accordingly—with cutouts of skeletons, pumpkins and black cats. She also arranges a Halloween costume party for adults, the first in the library's history. All those who attend—including library staff—must dress as a literary or movie character. Carrie comes as a female Sherlock Holmes. Others come as Snow White, Captain Jack Sparrow, Alice in Wonderland, Superman, Scarlett O'Hara, and Santa Claus. She hires a magician to perform and a storyteller who tells ghostly and grizzly tales. After that, the guests parade around the room while a group of judges choose the best and the funniest costumes. A good time is had by all. Except when Carrie leaves, she discovers that someone has broken a window in her car. The dark side of the holiday—and of all mysteries.

Death Overdue

A Haunted Library Mystery

Carrie Singleton is just about done with Clover Ridge, Connecticut until she's offered a job as the head of programs and events at the spooky local library, complete with its own librarian ghost. Her first major event is a program presented by a retired homicide detective, Al Buckley, who claims he knows who murdered Laura Foster, a much-loved part-time library aide who was bludgeoned to death fifteen years earlier. As he invites members of the audience to share stories about Laura, he suddenly keels over and dies.

The medical examiner reveals that poison is what did him in and Carrie feels responsible for having surged forward with the program despite pushback from her director. Driven by guilt, Carrie’s determined to discover who murdered the detective, convinced it’s the same man who killed Laura all those years ago. Luckily for Carrie, she has a friendly, knowledgeable ghost by her side. But as she questions the shadows surrounding Laura's case, disturbing secrets come to light and with each step Carrie takes, she gets closer to ending up like Al.

Now it's due or die for Carrie in Death Overdue the delightful first in a new cozy series by Allison Brook.

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--INTERVIEW WITH SNEAKY, THE COBBLE COVE LIBRARY CAT

Sneaky, the Cobble Cove Library Cat

Today we’re joined by library cat Sneaky from author Debbie De Louise’s Cobble Cove Mystery Series. Learn more about Sneaky, Debbie, and her books at Sneaky’s blog and Debbie’s website.

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

I was a lost kitty looking for a home. It’s a vague memory for me because I was quite young before I found my way to the Cobble Cove Library where I was taken in as their library cat and later became Alicia’s furry friend.

What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?

I’m flexible, and I don’t mean that I can stretch out my paws and flip on my back. I can play a variety of parts and do justice to them all.

What do you like least about yourself?

I’m too much like a real cat. Even though I help with clues, I don’t talk like some of the other cat sleuths such as Midnight Louie.

What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?

Creating my blog was my own inspiration, but my author was the one who set it up. 

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?

I always want juicier parts. I also requested to be on a cover. Debbie finally agreed to that, but it took her three books to do it.

What is your greatest fear?

That my series will end because Debbie will move on to another series. She already has one book of a new cozy started, so it’s a dark shadow hovering over me.

What makes you happy?

When people buy our books and write good reviews about them.

If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?

I’d like to be talking in some scenes or at least thinking and communicating with readers.

Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?

I won’t say Fido, the dog in the series, because I don’t see him as a threat. He’s too dumb for that. I love Alicia and Laura, the children’s librarian who joins our crew in our second book. I can’t really say that I dislike any of the other characters. Sheila, the library director, was a challenge, but she came around.

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?

Possibly Sheila. I’d love to be a library director. I’d put in more sunny windows with seats for watching birds and sunbathing, and I’d also schedule a lot more Sneaky story times with the kids.

Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?

Debbie is a librarian and that’s why she can write so well about libraries. She also writes other books and stories besides our series. Most of them are mysteries (not necessarily cozies) but some are other genres. You can find out more about her on her website where she writes her own blog, too.

What's next for you?

Debbie has written a fourth Cobble Cove mystery which we both hope will be published soon, but she still has to edit and submit it to her publisher. If you look on YouTube, Debbie has some trailers for our series. The latest one gives a sneak peek to the upcoming book. 

A Stone’s Throw

A Cobble Cove Mystery, Book One

Widowed librarian, Alicia Fairmont, travels to the small upstate town of Cobble Cove, New York, where her dead husband spent part of his childhood. There she meets newspaper publisher, John McKinney, a widower. When she accepts a position at the Cobble Cove Library and becomes romantically involved with John, she learns some secrets that tie him and his father with her husband’s family. As strange events take place, Alicia begins to suspect that the hit and run accident that killed her husband may have been murder and that John is the prime suspect.

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COOKING WITH CLORIS--BEEF CANDY WITH GUEST AUTHOR MARION MOORE HILL

Marion Moore Hill has been a reporter, ad copywriter, legal secretary, and college teacher, and was for 20 years an adult-literacy tutor. Cook the Books is her fifth mystery novel. Learn more about Marion and her books at her website. 

I write about a librarian protagonist, but Juanita Wills is NOT the stereotypical librarian I have seen portrayed in some fiction. She's neither mousy nor rigid about details, and she does have a private life, thank you. She's far from perfect, but is responsible (most of the time), cheerful (most of the time), honest (most of the time) and kind (most of the time). She cares about her community and especially about people who have been dealt a tough hand in life.

Tracy Marie Riek is one of those. A doting mother and an attractive, hard-working young wife, Tracy Marie may seem to "have it all." But Tracy Marie doesn't read well, a fact she tries to hide in most interactions with others. Reluctantly, she has entered an adult-literacy tutoring program, and the local librarian is her tutor. Juanita likes and admires her tutee, although Tracy Marie's secretiveness and willingness to lie worry her. When Bobby Riek dies in his workplace, apparently the victim of nicotine poison introduced into a bakery cupcake that was packed in his lunch, Tracy Marie is suspected. Juanita risks her own life to prove her student innocent of a murder charge.

Juanita loves food (as I do) and is part of a gourmet group, but struggles with a weight problem. She doesn't obsess about wanting to weigh 105 pounds and have the waist of an anorexic teenager, but has been warned by a doctor that she needs to trim down and get fitter. Her on-and-off approach to dieting and exercising endures a reality check when long-time boyfriend Wayne Cleary lands in the hospital ER with a possible heart attack. Wayne's problem turns out to be gastrointestinal, caused by bolting greasy fast food too quickly, but the incident serves as a wake-up call about their eating habits for both Juanita and Wayne.

Writers' lives sometimes intersect in an eerie way with their characters'. I had finished writing Cook the Books, and it was in the publication stage when my own husband learned he had blockages in his heart that required triple-bypass surgery. Elbert's surgery got my attention, as Wayne's episode did Juanita's. My husband is now on a heart-healthy diet (low fat, low salt, low sugar), which I'm following, too, since that's easier than making two different meals. On the up side, we're both shedding pounds without making any real weight-loss effort. On the down side, a "low everything" diet can also mean low flavor. So it's a challenge to make interesting, varied meals these days.

But I've always liked a challenge. Over the years, I had developed recipes for friends and relatives who were diabetic, or gluten-intolerant, or had other food allergies. So this is just one more interesting food puzzle. Juanita and I will both work on solving it for ourselves and our loved ones, just as Juanita can't resist getting involved in solving mysteries.

Beef Candy

(This dish may be used either as an hors d’oeuvre or as an entree (served with either rice or rice sticks.)

1/2 lb. very lean beef, sliced cross-grain very thinly into 2-3-inch squares

4 cloves garlic (more if desired), mashed

2 green onions (white part only, more if desired), finely chopped

1 teaspoon fresh lemon grass (available at Asian markets), chopped (frozen or dried can be used

if fresh isn’t available)

2 teaspoons fish sauce (available at Asian markets)

pinch salt

pinch black pepper, ground

1/4 teaspoon red pepper, ground or flakes

2-3 teaspoons juice off Vietnamese pickled leeks (available canned at Asian markets)

—OR use 2-3 teaspoons lime juice if pickled onions aren’t used

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons canola or peanut oil

6 Vietnamese pickled leeks (available canned at Asian markets), cut into very small strips

1/4 teaspoon 5-spice powder (optional)

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

Slice beef and place in bowl with mashed garlic. Add chopped onion, chopped lemon grass, fish sauce, salt, black pepper, red pepper, pickled-leek juice, sugar, oil, and 5-spice powder (if used), and mix altogether well.

Tear or cut aluminum foil into 3-to-4-inch squares. Place a slice of beef diagonally on each foil piece. Top each with a few pickled-onion strips and a little chopped peanuts. Roll up each beef square, then roll a foil square around the beef. Twist and turn up ends of each foil roll (somewhat resembles a Tootsie Roll). Place completed beef rolls in an oven-proof dish. Broil in an oven for about 8 minutes, OR bake in 500-degree oven for about 10 minutes.

(The beef rolls may also be baked without the aluminum-foil wrapper, which is faster to do but makes a less showy presentation.)

NOTE: Beef Candy is referred to in Cook the Books when protagonist Juanita Wills cooks for an evening with her gourmet group. The recipe is one given to me by a Vietnamese friend, Quynhgiao Hoang.—Marion Moore Hill

Cook the Books

The third book in the Scrappy Librarian Mysteries takes Juanita Wills, intrepid public librarian in small-town Oklahoma, into the secretive world of adult-literacy studies as she strives to prove her student innocent of murdering her husband. Who poisoned that tainted cupcake that was in the victim's lunchbox--his wife or a co-worker at the same big-box hardware store? Or someone else?

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