To celebrate the release of her latest book, Amanda has graciously offered to give away a copy of the first book in the series, "Crime and Poetry" (US ONLY). To enter, see the Rafflecopter box at the bottom of this post. (Contest ends December 9, 2016.) If you are the randomly chosen winner, I'll contact you and pass on your information. Good luck!
Q&A with Amanda...
Q: Your cozy mystery series uses poetry. How did you choose the poets/poems to use?
A: In Crime and Poetry, I settled on Emily Dickinson's work as the poems I would use to solve the crime. Even before I started writing Prose and Cons, I knew I wanted to use a 19th century American writer. Who is a better writer to choose for a mystery set close to Halloween and Edgar Allen Pope? I knew he was a perfect fit.
Q: How much research is involved in writing your cozy mysteries?
A: I do the most research for my novels for the first book in a series because that's the time that I am establishing the setting and the characters. I want to know everything I can about the places and people I create. I know much more about them than ever appears in the final version of the novel, but it's important to me to have a good understanding of the places and people in order to tell a good story. As a series goes on and I know these places and people like the back of my hand, my research is much more specialized. I might spend hours looking for one tiny detail or I might just spend a few seconds Googling something for a random fact. However, in both cases, my favorite way to research is to go to places I'm writing about or ask someone who has knowledge and/or experience with what I am writing about. Having first-person experience is very important to me as an author.
Q: Do you get your ideas from any real-life people or situations?
A: Always. Every single day. Everything in my life is book fodder, just ask those closest to me. I change the names and adapt situations. For better or worse, much of my life is cozy mystery like — minus the dead bodies — so I have a lot of material with which to work.
Q: How long does it generally take you to write a book?
A: Because of my deadlines, I write a new novel every two to three months.
Q: What can you tell me about your next project?
A: I'm currently writing a novel that will release in 2018. It's the second book in my Amish Candy Shop Mystery Series coming out with Kensington. It's the second book in the series. The first book, Assaulted Caramel, releases in September 2017, and it's about a New York City chocolatier who returns to Ohio to visit her Amish grandparents, only to be tangled up in a small-town murder.
Q: That sounds like a good book! I look forward to reading it.
A: Thanks. I would also like to share the following information with your readers. When they buy a mystery, they can help feed a community! Purchase any edition of Prose and Cons between now and Tuesday, December 20, 2016, and I will donate $1 for every book sold to a food pantry, The Landing, located in Akron, Ohio. The Learned Owl is also making a $1 donation to The Landing for every copy the bookstores sells and is selling personalized and signed copies of the novel. They can ship anywhere.
Q: That's wonderful! Think so much for doing that in sharing information with my readers. This is a wonderful book, and I hope they pick up a copy and donate to this worthy cause. Thanks for stopping by. I'm sure my readers enjoyed learning a bit more about you and your latest release.
My review...
Violet Waverly is helping her grandma Daisy run
Charming Books in Cascade Springs, NY. The store is unique in that the patrons
don’t choose the books. The books choose the patrons. Violet and Daisy are
gearing up for the local Food and Wine Festival, as well as hosting the Red Inkers,
a local writing group, who are planning a Poe-try reading, which will feature
poems by Edgar Allan Poe. The last thing Violet expects is to find one of the
members of the group dead on-site. Violet knows she must work quickly to solve the
murder. She is concerned about how it will affect the bookstore, as the town is
preparing for an influx of visitors for the festival. She will need to enlist
the help of Faulkner (a crow), Emerson (a cat), Police Chief David Rainwater,
and Mayor Nathan Morton (who broke her heart when she was 17). What secrets
will Violet uncover along the way, and how well they impact the store? What
part will Poe’s works play in the case?
It is such a joy to read the second book in Flower’s
“Magical Bookshop Mystery” series. Flower has the ability to transport the
reader to an imaginative and wonderful world. The quaint setting is perfect for
this cozy mystery, which is complete with charming characters and scenery, as
well as a solid mystery. The perfect blend of suspense and comical scenes makes
it difficult to put this book down. I truly enjoy the author’s play on words,
too. There are a few unique twists, including the method of murder, along the
way. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.
Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy, but I was not required to write a review.
Opinions expressed are my own.
Amazon link for purchase...
a Rafflecopter giveaway
