CozyCon 2018, Part Three

Thank you for joining Denis, Daisy, and me for the third (and final) segment of my coverage of The Poisoned Pen's CozyCon, an annual event that showcases some of the best cozy mystery writers in the business. I'm posting the segments in the order in which host Barbara Peters originally wanted them before an author's late flight meant some last minute changes. In this installment, we're going to be enjoying the company of Kate Carlisle, Jenn McKinlay, and Paige Shelton. There's no time to waste, so let's get this show on the road!

First off, I'm going to mention that these three are sharp and don't miss a trick... or me checking that a little black gadget on top of my book bag was turned on. "What's that?" Jenn whispered. "A recorder," I whispered back. To the raised eyebrows of the three, I clarified, "No more sitting here scribbling notes!" to which I received thumbs up and smiles. (I don't remember what else they did, but Daisy certainly chuckled on the recording. Memo: Get video recorder!) I've found that using the recorder means that I'm free to comment and/or ask questions, something I seldom ever did because I was too busy catching up on my note-taking. But I digress.

L to R: Paige Shelton, Kate Carlisle

Poisoned Pen staff member John Charles led the second panel and began it by saying, "I know it's hard to believe Jenn and Paige and Kate, but there may be some people who don't know who you are, so could you tell us a little about yourselves?"

Paige was first. "I moved here about three years ago to Gilbert, Arizona from Salt Lake City, Utah where I lived for twenty-seven years-- a long time. My son's in college in Missouri, in fact, I get to go there next week to see him graduate. I've had friends tell me that when their kids were out of college it felt as though they'd been let out of jail, so I'm looking forward to that.

"I started writing when I was seven and started taking it seriously in 1997. I thought I'd be published by the year 2000, but I wasn't published until 2010. Thirteen years of trying to get published! I have stacks of rejections. When we moved here, my husband was in the basement of our house in Salt Lake City and found all my rejections. He yelled up to me, 'Do you want to keep these?' and I said, 'Yes!' He said, 'But these are brutal!' and I said, 'Yes, but I'm published now, so there!'

"I have seventeen books now which makes me look like a slacker compared to these two, but I'm enjoying it a lot."

Kate Carlisle

"I'm Kate Carlisle. I write the Bibliophile mysteries and also the Fixer-Upper mysteries. And I wrote six Harlequin Desires." (She then said something sotto voce, but it doesn't matter how many times I listen to that bit of the recording or how many times I monkey with the sound, I can't decipher it because there was too much laughter. Memo: Get software that can remove extraneous noise from recordings.)

"My first book was published in 2009; it took me many years... oh! I have a rejection that says 'I'm sure you mean well, but you will never publish.'" Universal gasps were heard throughout the bookstore. "I just stuck it in an envelope and put it somewhere and kept writing.

"Book twelve in the Bibliophile mysteries comes out next month. Brooklyn and Derek, who have been together for a few years now, get married... or so we think! Along the way there's a librarian convention-- Jenn and I went to San Francisco to a meeting of the National Librarians Association to do research. That was a really fun book to write.

"The Fixer-Upper mysteries have Shannon Hammer who's a building contractor specializing in Victorian-style architecture. They're also on the Hallmark Channel, and that's so much fun!"

L to R: John Charles, Jenn McKinlay

"Hi, I'm Jenn McKinlay. I'm a former librarian; I worked for Phoenix Public Library...." Jenn was stumbling badly here. "Okay. I'd just like to ask-- does anybody else react badly to allergy medicine?" Nods of agreement from the audience. "My family seems to think I turn-- to put it nicely-- psychotic-- anybody? Just me?"

"How would anyone be able to tell the difference?" John Charles asked innocently. The bookstore erupted with laughter, and I caught the Kodak Moment with my phone. "You will burn! Burn!" Jenn exclaimed before she got back on track. "The whole thing starts with the coughing, sneezing, itchy throat, watery eyes, and I start drinking lots of water, thinking I'll wash it away. Then I crack. I take half a Benedryl-- I am unconscious in twenty minutes! That doesn't work because of deadline. Ten pages a day. I have to make this happen. So my doctor tells me to take Zyrtec. So I tried Zyrtec. Half a pill. I get amazing amounts of work done; I'm focused. It's like Adderall. And then about six hours in, I want to punch somebody so bad! My own family thinks I'm insane! So I can't take Zyrtec."

"Try ____." (Sorry, Daisy, my niece who works in the emergency room of her local hospital. I just couldn't decipher that.)

"What is that? Is it British?" Jenn asked. (She'd already been introduced to Daisy.)

"It's terazosin hydrochloride; you can get it here," Daisy replied.

"We have someone here from England who's going to hook me up!" Jenn said, then whispered (into her microphone) to Daisy, "Write that down!" Daisy whispered back, "I'll give you it on a piece of paper later!"

Available June 26, 2018!

John Charles then wanted to talk about their newest books. Kate Carlisle led the way since she'd already talked about hers during her introduction.

"It doesn't come out until late June-- and I'll be coming back to talk about it then. It's called Buried in Books. The title has a couple of different meanings. One is that it takes place during a librarian convention, so there are tons of books, and that may be a hint of how the murder occurs. Also 'buried' rhymes with 'married' and I thought that was cute....um...um...um... [now it was Kate's turn to struggle for words]... that's about it!"

"You took an allergy pill, didn't you?" Jenn said.

"I take one every day, and it makes me very... normal," Kate replied.

Available Now!

 "Lost Books and Old Bones is the third book in my Scottish Book Shop mystery series," Paige said. "It takes place in Edinburgh like the other ones do. My aim in this series was to make it an escape, but to weave Scottish history in the story, too. In Lost Books and Old Bones, the history I weave in is Burke and Hare, the graverobbers who turned to killing because they could make more money giving the doctor fresher corpses.

"There's also a modern-day murder. Delaney finds some scalpels in the secret storeroom in the bookshop that may or may not be tied to the doctor who was taking the bodies from Burke and Hare."

"Follow that, Jenn," John Charles requested.

Available Now!

"What was the question?" Jenn quipped. "Wedding Cake Crumble just came out... right? I'm on deadline, so I'm putting in sixteen-hour days. I  have this Twitter problem, and when I'm tired of writing... well, I'm telling myself that I'm going to leave social media..." Cue sounds of disbelief in the audience. "Did you read the book? Well, here! You tell them what it's about because I can't remember!" Jenn said, handing her microphone to my friend Jenn from Tucson who was sitting with Daisy and me in the front row.

"You're so mean!" Tucson Jenn cried. "That was five books ago! Well, it's Angie's and Tate's wedding, and all these people keep dying who are connected peripherally to the wedding. So who is the target?"

Nice, concise job, Jenn!

"Is this the one where you got to invite a lot of your characters from the other series?" John Charles asked.

"No, that was the latest Library Lovers book, Death in the Stacks," the Jenns replied.

"This is my tenth Cupcake Bakery mystery. It's set here in Scottsdale, and it was the first book written under my own name," Jenn McKinlay said. "I broke into writing by writing as somebody else..."

Jenn McKinlay

"James Patterson?" said John Charles with yet another innocent look on his face.

"Yeah. I should!" Jenn said. "I was at a book signing at the Tucson Festival of Books, and... I don't know why I'm here. I like gossip. Let's just gossip! Anyway, they put me in this tent, me and my cupcake book. I think I was in the second or the third group in the sweltering heat-- has anyone been to the Tucson Festival of Books?-- it's freakin' awesome, everyone should go!

"Anyway, I'm sitting there and I see I'm with Andy Gross-- super psychological thriller guy. I love him-- Gregg Hurwitz, and Thomas Perry. One of these is not like the others...! So I've got these three manly thriller writers talkin' shootin' and guns and suspense, and I'm like... I have cupcakes! To make a long story short, what was great about it was that Andy Gross is the nicest person ever because I have no sense of personal boundaries-- which anyone who knows me knows. I went right in there and said, 'You're the first guy who wrote with James Patterson! How was that?' He said, 'Well, I wouldn't have a career without him, but I wouldn't necessarily write with anyone again.' I thought that was a really great answer. 

"This is the tenth book in the series, but it seems like I wrote it a long time ago, and this was a good story," Jenn concluded.

John Charles then asked about the advantages and disadvantages of writing a series.

Paige Shelton

"I am so going to steal what Candy [C.S. Harris] once said because I think it's fabulous," Paige replied. "Writing series is great because you get to revisit your characters and you get to watch them grow and give them long lives and lots of things happening to them, but it keeps you from writing that other thing you're thinking about. What if you've got this series commitment... what happens to the new people who are coming into your mind? Do you try to wedge that in, or do you just ignore it?"

"I love reading series," Kate said, "I love writing my series because these people live in my mind and I like most of them even more than I like members of my own family. Even though they're not real. But they feel real, and I love visiting them." At this point, Kate was struggling for words, probably because she was trying to find a new way to answer a question she's been asked countless times. What did she do?

Kate Carlisle

"Um. I don't know... I'm uh... I took one of Jenn's pills...." Kate waited for the laughter to die down. "The thing about series is that you come back to the community. You come back to learn what's going on with the characters..."

"But how do you keep track of all those characters?" John Charles asked. "Do you ever put them in the wrong place, or..."

"Like when I called Brooklyn Shannon?" Kate responded. "I did this with the book that I just got back from my editor for revisions. She had all these cross-outs, and I wondered what in the world? And I had called people by the wrong name. I called the killer the name of her dog for instance."

"It's a good thing there are copy editors," John Charles said.

Jenn McKinlay

"I'm a series reader like Kate," Jenn said. "I'm going to try to answer this one straight...." People in the audience began to laugh. "Why do I even try?" Jenn wailed. "I found Nancy Drew when I was nine, and I blew through the entire series in one summer. So, I always had a real affection for series, and when I started writing, I knew I wanted to write a series.

"The problem with publishing is that when you sign up, you're usually offered a contract for three books. That made me envision my story arc lasting for three books. Then the books start doing well, and the publishers say, 'We want three more!' Then 'We want three more!' The Cupcakes are on ten; I had that wrapped up in three, so when you ask me things like why I broke them up, give me a break here!

"And then sometimes the publishers do a little housecleaning, which is what happened to my Hat Shop series. I had the last book end on a wicked cliffhanger-- it was epic!-- and when they told me there would be no more books, I had to get the book back and rewrite it in a week. Well, thanks Megan and Harry-- everyone's saying, 'That hat shop thing... would you be interested...?' Who knows? I just sent proposals to the publishers, so maybe...." All the Hat Shop fans clapped and cheered.

"It's a crazy business," Jenn said. "I was on the gravy train. The gravy train broke down. Now the train seems to be working again. Writing a series, I think you always know you have one foot on the ground and one in the grave. And you just never know. Be flexible!"

Paige Shelton

John Charles then asked the three women for recent reading recommendations.

Paige: Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate!

Kate: Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien.

Jenn: I can't escape the YA librarian thing-- Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.  

I'm not going to give you a blow-by-blow of the question and answer session that followed because this post is more than long enough already. I love these three women to bits, and their writing has given me hours of enjoyment.

The entire bookstore was filled with smiles and laughter, but what really warmed my heart was seeing Denis and Daisy full of smiles and hearing their laughter and comments on the recording I made. I have just a couple more photos to share, and then I'll pull the curtain on a supremely entertaining CozyCon. I hope you enjoyed it, too!

The signing table

Standing L to R: Vicki Delany, Daisy Carter. Seated L to R: Paige Shelton, Jenn McKinlay, Kate Carlisle.

Cozy Con 2018: Part Two

I'm going to exercise a little poetic license and deviate from the actual order of the panels for The Poisoned Pen's CozyCon 2018. I'm going to post them in the order in which host Barbara Peters wanted them. Peters had to contend with an author whose flight was late, and I don't so I can follow her original plan. And just in case you missed Part One, you can catch up with the rest of us.

Right now it's time to get this show on the road, so here's the panel with historical mystery writers C.S. Harris, Tessa Arlen, and Ann Parker!

L to R: Barbara Peters, C.S. Harris

"Originally, I was a reader of romance, which will surprise all of you since I started The Poisoned Pen," host Barbara Peters said. "I cut my reading teeth on the Oz books, Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, whatever. My mother was the more serious mystery reader. She loved P.I. stories, so I was also brought up on Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald. I read Robert Parker in real time, but I find that historical mysteries are my passion.

"One of the reasons why I enjoy Poisoned Pen Press and all the other presses is that they publish books that I like to read. I publish books that I like to read, and these three authors write books that I particularly like to read.

"Candace's latest book was reviewed on Shelf Awareness today. They called it 'a blend of Elizabeth George and Georgette Heyer, Why Kill the Innocent will appeal to mystery and Regency readers with its intricate plotting and historical detail,'" Peters continued. "This is the thirteenth Sebastian St. Cyr mystery, and in reading it you will get a history lesson about the totally dysfunctional family of George III. George IV, the heir, had a daughter from one of the worst marriages in recorded history, and she's the focus of part of the plot of this book, right?"

C.S. Harris

"Yes. Princess Charlotte," Candace replied. "I knew the general outline of the family, but I was appalled when I read more and learned what the Prince Regent put his wife through.

"He sent his mistress to the dock to meet his bride's ship. Caroline, his bride-to-be, knew that Lady Jersey was his mistress, and the Prince Regent sat Lady Jersey prominently at the wedding feast. Lady Jersey was invited along on the honeymoon. He had given Caroline pearl bracelets as wedding gifts, and he took them back and gave them to Lady Jersey who made a point of wearing them around Caroline because the Prince Regent had appointed her one of Caroline's ladies-in-waiting. It's really hard to imagine that he could've been any crueler to her unless he would've locked her up.

"The Prince Regent was a narcissist, a pathological liar, and he was very vindictive," Candace told us. "He was incredibly mean to his daughter. I don't think he had the capacity to love anyone other than himself. As his daughter Caroline grew up, the crowds loved her and would cheer as she rode down the street. This made her father hate her because those same crowds would boo and hiss whenever he went by, so he tried to keep her out of the public eye. Despite this, Caroline grew to be a very likable woman.

Available Now!

"She died in childbirth, and that made everyone scramble to get married because, although George III had had all these children, Caroline was the only one who was legitimate. By the time Caroline died, they were all in their forties, so it was too late, and that's how England wound up with Queen Victoria."

"So that's the household in which the mystery takes place. We'll get back to that, but you can see that it was a setting that was just ripe for disaster!" Barbara said. "So, Ann Parker, there you are-- it's good to see you!

"For you, this is a pivotal book because Inez Stannert, whom we first met during the silver rush in Leadville, Colorado, has decided that her life needs a reboot, and she's gone off to San Francisco, which is a rough town. There's a lot going on."

"Yes," Ann replied. "San Francisco in 1881 had the Barbary Coast, it had Chinatown, and in addition to the Barbary Coast waterfront, there was another in the Mission Canal District that I became very intrigued with. It was also a rough part of town. Inez and I began to tiptoe through the town to see what was there and what was of interest. Inez was looking for business opportunities; she's a savvy woman. It was an interesting period for businesswomen in San Francisco."

Ann Parker

"Inez was part owner of a saloon in Leadville with her husband, and they're now divorced," Barbara said. "She's also invested in a couple of bordellos in Leadville with her partner, Flo, who's a madam. So, for her day and age, Inez is an adventurous venture capitalist."

"It just so happens that this is an exciting time for women entrepreneurs in San Francisco," Ann said. "Women owning and running millinery shops, laundries, stationery shops, and boarding houses-- proper and not-so-proper. A lot of them needed capital to grow their business. There actually was a woman in San Francisco who was well-known for giving loans and helping women to build their businesses. Right now her first name is POOF! gone, but they used to call her Mammy Pleasance. Does this ring a bell for anyone? But there is a history of women funding women, which is pretty cool."

Available Now!

"Needless to say, a body floats up, her past comes back to haunt her-- both literally and figuratively-- from Leadville, so it's a very interesting book with lots going on," Barbara said. "And it's a kind of pivot for her to see where we're going. Because Leadville was becoming like Cabot Cove a little bit so San Francisco really opens up possibilities."

"Oh, yes!" Ann replied. "There's San Francisco, and across the bay there's Berkeley. The University of California existed during this time frame-- and accepted women."

Barbara moved on to the third writer on the panel. "So, Tessa, this is your fourth book for Lady Montfort. You've jumped from the Edwardian Era right into World War I."

"Yes," Tessa replied. "In fact, in the third book, I did a little countdown. When the mystery was solved, the boys were going off to war. I left it at that, but then I decided I wanted Lady Montfort to be involved in the war on the home front. I'd just finished reading Robert Graves' Goodbye to All That, and I thought, 'Oh, this is what I want to do.' So it starts in the summer when England is struggling to bring in the harvest without men and women are stepping up to run the Land Army as well as run hospitals and keep everything going.

"Clementine [LadyMontfort] is up in Scotland visiting a friend who's in a very special hospital called Craiglockhart which is taking care of the growing number of soldiers struggling with what they called then 'shellshock' and what we know today as PTSD. The Battle of the Somme ran throughout the summer months, and the casualties were horrendous.

Tessa Arlen

"So Clementine visits Oscar and decides that the Dower House can be turned into a rehab center, which not only had to be funded by her husband but had to get approval through the War Office.

"Everything is going well at the hospital. The doctor has many types of therapy, and he's worked hard to educate the nearby villagers because they all believed these men are cowards and malingerers. Then a young war hero who's not only suffering from shellshock but amnesia as well is found murdered in the hospital's vegetable garden. Since the War Office is about to arrive for its quarterly inspection, with this murder, it looks as though the hospital is completely out of control."

"And Mrs. Jackson, the formidable housekeeper is in charge of the hospital," Barbara remarked. "Many of your readers will already be familiar with country houses being turned into hospitals after watching the second season of Downton Abbey.

"Lady Montfort and Mrs. Jackson have a Holmes-Watson... no, they don't because they're really quite equal. There's not that disparity between them."

"They're intellectually equal, but socially they're not equal at all," Arlen observed. "But they do have a huge respect and liking for each other."

Available Now!

"Candace, let's get back to Why Kill the Innocent," Barbara said. "You've told us about Princess Charlotte and her terrible situation. When a body is discovered, who is it, and why is it of such importance to St. Cyr?"

"The victim is Princess Charlotte's music teacher and a minor composer and was based on a real person named Mary Guest who did teach Charlotte. But she wasn't murdered!" Candace replied. "St. Cyr gets involved because his wife literally trips over the body."

"Sebastian has evolved quite a bit since the series began," Barbara said.

"Yes," Candace replied. "When he returned to London from fighting Napoleon, he was quite damaged-- PTSD-- and then he learned secrets about his own family that he found very hard to accept. Yes, he's definitely coming back from the edge."

"St. Cyr's family is wildly dysfunctional and so is his wife's family," Barbara commented. "You almost have to wonder if there were any normal families among the British upper crust during the Napoleonic Era!"

"I think it was a combination of money and power... and people who were marrying, not for love, but for alliances," Candace said. "Parents had very little to do with their children who were spoiled by nannies."

L to R: Tessa Arlen, Ann Parker

"Ann, let's get back to you," Barbara said. "Inez has come to San Francisco, and she's not alone."

"That's true!" Ann chuckled. "She's brought her ward with her, Antonia, who is a young girl Inez met in Leadville in the previous book. By book's end, Antonia has no family, so Inez takes her under her wing.

"It's interesting how these things bubble up from the unconscious," Ann remarked. "I had no intention of this happening, but I'm glad it did. It's wonderful to get to know Antonia, and I'm finding it's a lot of fun pairing her with Inez. Antonia is such an independent, strong-willed child. She's almost like Inez in miniature. It will be interesting to see where this goes."

"Inez came from such a solid, affluent background, but she made one terrible mistake," Barbara said.

"But he's such a charmer!" Ann laughed.

"Yes, he's a gambler," Barbara said. "It's just so interesting to see Inez, who comes from such a solid upbringing, make this one mistake, and she's led a very unconventional life ever since." 

"Yes, her family disowned her, and the only person who keeps in touch is her sister," Ann said. "How does a person live their life after making one terrible mistake?"

"Lady Montfort, on the other hand, made a spectacular marriage," Barbara said to Tessa.

"Yes, and now Clementine's broken the rules by investigating murders," Tessa said. "She investigates upstairs, and Mrs. Jackson-- who at first didn't want anything to do with this-- investigates downstairs. By this fourth book, Mrs. Jackson is completely on board."

C.S. Harris

Looking at C.S. Harris, Barbara said, "You left us with a cliffhanger, you rat! Do you plan these things out, or do they just happen?"

Candace laughed. "I know how it's going to turn out! Laura Joh Rowland, who's a good friend of mine, told me that she made a mistake with her Sano Ichiro series. She planned it as a one-off, and she said that, if she had it all to do again, she'd plan out the series. So... that's what I did. I sat down and planned things out, like Sebastian's personality and his family. I thought I'd have this all done by book six, but I'm writing book fifteen right now!"

"I like the fact that the series is moving in such small increments of time," Barbara said.

"Yes, thirteen books, and it's only been three years."

"I tell everyone it was a twenty-year war and only ended with Waterloo," Barbara said.

"Fourteen is Who Slays the Wicked," Harris told us. "The blurb will be out soon, so I'm not giving anything away by telling you that Lord Ashworth is the victim."

"Good! At least one of these bastards gets killed!" Barbara exclaimed. (Does she get emotionally involved with any of her favorite series? Nah. Not a bit!)

Ann is interested with the Palace Hotel and a printing co-operative, so she's thinking about an opera singer, that co-operative, and maybe a body in a trunk for her next book, although she's going to have to talk with her editor (Barbara) first. "Oscar Wilde actually visited Leadville," Barbara told us, "and Ann has been trying to think of a reason for Inez to go back there so she can meet Wilde."

"I'm going to wait a book or two on that," Ann said.

Tessa, on the other hand, is thinking about writing something new. "It's a very different protagonist," Tessa said. "She's very young, a little socially awkward, but she's quite independently-minded. She becomes infatuated with an American fighter pilot who's stationed on an airfield that's on her grandfather's land. This takes place during World War II, and the dialogue is so much easier! Her name is Poppy Redfern, and she lives in a very remote village which is horrified at having all these Americans on their doorstep. I'm married to an American, so it's very easy for me to write this!"

Thus endeth Part Two. Come back next Monday for the third and final part which features Paige Shelton, Kate Carlisle, and Jenn McKinlay!

CozyCon 2018, Part One

As our niece Daisy's time with us was drawing to a close, one of the last things we did together was to attend The Poisoned Pen's annual CozyCon which showcases authors who write cozy mysteries.

We arrived early-- as we always do-- and Daisy took the time to go shopping on Scottsdale's famous Main Street. When she got back, she said she wished she'd had more time, so I'm envisioning her next visit to include a longer shopping expedition there.


This year nine authors were attending CozyCon, and they were split into three panels. I'm going to do one panel per post due to time limitations. The authors in the first panel were Jane K. Cleland, Vicki Delany, and Teresa Dovalpage.

L to R: Jane K. Cleland & Barbara Peters

While telling us how things were scheduled, host Barbara Peters told us that her husband Rob had made curd and marmalade from the lemons on their tree. We would be able to have the lemon curd with cake during the breaks, and the lemon marmalade would be one of the prizes handed out during the event. I'll tell you now before I forget: that lemon curd was to die for-- absolutely the best I've ever eaten. (Now that I've reminded myself of it, I'd dearly love to drive over to their house, knock on the door, and say, "Please sir, may I have some more?" But my momma raised me with some manners. One does not go begging at 1 AM!)

In the photo to the right behind Jane Cleland, you can get a glimpse of a Japanese print which figures in Cleland's latest mystery, Antique Blues. We got to see an original print, which was lovely and showed us what Jane was talking about in the different shades of blue.

Jane K. Cleland

"One of the reasons why I like Jane's books so much is that I get to learn stuff," Barbara Peters said. "I have always trusted Jane's research because she's very diligent in that regard.

"One of the things I found interesting in this book is that you're forever striving to expand the lives of your characters and of Prescott Antiques, which started out when she was involved in an auction house scandal in New York and moved to New Hampshire to reboot her life.

"Josie's creating her own little empire. I don't want to spoil anything in the book for you, so I'll just say that Josie makes an interesting decision or two that is going to open up the theater for Prescott Antiques in future books."

Teresa Dovalpage

Barbara turned to the next author. "So, Teresa, here you are from Santa Fe, and your book (Death Comes in Through the Kitchen) is set in Cuba but not recently, just a little further back, right?"

"Yes, because I left in '96, so I did a bit of research to make sure that some of the things I mentioned in the book are still standing and had not been demolished because the book is set in 2003."

"So some of the things involving the transfer of power with the Castros had not occurred."

"That's for the next book," Teresa said.

"Oh, you don't want to move that far ahead!" Barbara replied. "Tell us a bit about the CIA. I loved that!"

"A character is entering Cuba, and one of the ID cards he has says 'CIA'--Culinary Institute of America-- but he is detained for hours because the customs agents at the airport believe he's from the Central Intelligence Agency," Teresa explained. "I've had people tell me that that couldn't have happened, but it really did!"

"This well-intentioned, naive American comes to Cuba to meet a young woman who writes a food blog," Barbara said. "I wouldn't describe this book as a cozy in the traditional sense, but it does have really great food. Did you yourself vet all the recipes?"

L to R: Vicki Delany & Teresa Dovalpage

"Yes. Actually, the book started because of the recipes," Teresa replied. "I didn't want to lose all the recipes my grandmother used to make, but I didn't want to write a cookbook. I don't cook that well anyway. But I could incorporate the recipes into a story. It was a challenge, but a challenge I enjoyed. I tell people that I know I have an accent when I speak, but I assure them that I do not have an accent when I write!"

Then it was Vicki Delany's turn. "Vicki is here from Canada," Barbara told us. "In the past, we've talked about your Constable Molly Smith mysteries and your three standalone books, which are terrific, but you've now embarked on a new path in writing cozies. Tell us about your Lighthouse Library mystery coming in June."

"The Lighthouse Library series was published by Penguin Books under the pen name Eva Gates, and they're set in an actual place-- the Bodie Island Lighthouse outside Nags Head, North Carolina," Vicki said. "As I say in my introduction to the books, there's no way the real building could house a library, offices, a children's library, an apartment, and even a room for a cat, so it's my interpretation of the Tardis or Hermione Granger's handbag-- far far bigger on the inside than it appears on the outside.

"I liked writing that series, and it was my first attempt at writing cozies, but it fell victim to the Great Penguin Massacre..."

"In which they dropped six hundred series," Barbara said. "Six hundred of nine hundred series."

"Well, that was the end of that I thought," Vicki continued, "but the new publisher, Crooked Lane Books picked it up, and I'm absolutely delighted that the newest book in the series, The Spook in the Stacks, will be out in June. My year-round Christmas series survived at Penguin. The third one, Hark the Herald Angels Slay, came out in November, and they have contracted for the fourth."

Vicki Delany

"So you're just basically sitting around making stuff up," said Barbara with a twinkle in her eye.

"Well, that's what we do here, Barbara!" Vicki said.

"Tell us about your Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series," Barbara prompted.

"Actually, it's my favorite of all the things I've written simply because I'm having so much fun with it," Vicki said. [I can attest to this because Vicki showed me the pair of Sherlock Holmes socks she'd just purchased, and she told me they would be making an appearance in the next book she writes.]  "It's set in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. I knew I wanted to write a series set in a bookstore, but I knew I needed a hook. It didn't take long for me to realize that it would be totally feasible to have a store dedicated solely to Sherlock Holmes and all the pastiche as well as all the merchandise.

"I've loved creating this series, and the main character is Sherlockian. She has that Sherlock Holmes mindset. I feel that it's a typical cozy with a bit of an edge. It's set in a nice town on Cape Cod, in a nice bookshop, and Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room is next door. Gemma Doyle has a bit of an edge because she's not that sweet as cozy characters generally are. She can be rude and she can be abrupt."

"And she's probably not a cocaine user which would be really Sherlockian," Barbara added. "Although with medical marijuana...."

"There's a thought!" Vicki exclaimed. "The Sherlock Holmes Bookshop, Emporium, and Marijuana Dispensary. Jenn McKinlay, I have the next big thing in cozy mystery series-- the Marijuana Dispensary Mysteries!"

"It's a cash and carry business," Barbara quipped.

"Don't forget about the marijuana brownies for Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room," someone in the audience said, who shall remain nameless (but she must have been channeling a certain episode of Barney Miller).

"I'm making a mental note of that as we speak," Vicki said. "I could even have the recipe in the back of the book."

"And Teresa can write it out for you in Spanish," Barbara added. "You can see how addictive series like these can be when you start making stuff up."

And you can see how addictive attending CozyCon can be, can't you? Stop by next Monday when you'll be able to attend part two of The Poisoned Pen's CozyCon 2018!

A Note from the Slacker

As of this writing, Daisy will be heading back to England tomorrow (Monday) evening. It's been a whirlwind two weeks with plenty of places visited, several adventures experienced, and countless photos taken. I've gone over a week without finishing reading one single book-- and I have no idea how many years (decades?) it's been since that last happened.

It's going to take me a while to go through all the photos Denis and I have taken, but I thought I'd share a literary one with you, taken Saturday, May 5, at The Poisoned Pen. Denis, Daisy and I attended their annual CozyCon and had the chance to meet and listen to nine authors: Tessa Arlen, Jane Cleland, C.S. Harris, Ann Parker, Teresa Dovalpage, Kate Carlisle, Jenn McKinlay, Paige Shelton, and Vicki Delany.

By the end of the conference, Daisy had chatted with authors and found more new series she wants to read.

Seated, Left to Right: Paige Shelton, Jenn McKinlay, Kate Carlisle. Standing, Left to Right: Vicki Delany, Daisy Carter.

It's going to be very difficult to see Daisy leave. I am not looking forward to it. But... hopefully by the end of the week, I'll be back in blogging mode. I have some plans for next month that I want to let you know about!

CozyCon 2017 at The Poisoned Pen!

As long as The Poisoned Pen has had CozyCons, I've been there, so I left bright and early on Saturday, April 22, and drove across town to my favorite bookstore to make sure that I'd have the best seat in the house. A lot happened, and I have a lot of photos, so I'm not going to waste time setting the scene. Let's get right down to it!

The folks at The Poisoned Pen like to have a little something for everyone at these CozyCons (which Barbara Peters would have preferred to call "Malice in the West" but Malice Domestic is a tad protective), and you can see this by the lineup of authors for this year's event. The fans flocking in got to see, listen, and chat with: Tessa Arlen, C.S. Harris, Renee Patrick, Megan Miranda, Jennifer McMahon, Francine Mathews, Paige Shelton, Hannah Dennison, and Jenn McKinlay. You can see by the cover collage above that those authors represent some mighty fine reading, and there were so many of them that they were brought on in shifts! Let's bring on the first shift: Historical Mysteries....

L to R: Arlen, Harris, Peters, Rosemarie & Vince Keenan (Renee Patrick)

I'm going to warn you now that this was a three-hour event, and even though I wrote as fast as I could, you're only going to get the highlights. Fortunately, there are plenty of highlights.

The Keenans AKA Renee Patrick

The first question asked of the historical panel was about the names they write under. Rosemarie and Vince Keenan are a husband and wife team who write their Lillian Frost and Edith Head mysteries under the name of Renee Patrick. As Vince said, "We were afraid that a book with two authors' names would make people think that it's twice as good." The name they write under is Rosemarie's confirmation name (Renee) and Vince's middle name (Patrick), and we all agreed that "Renee Patrick" does sound like a 1940s Hollywood starlet, which is roughly the time frame in which their series takes place.

L to R: Arlen, Harris

C.S. Harris had written seven historical romances under her real name, Candice Proctor, before writing her Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries, and her publisher was concerned that her romance readers would be upset when faced with her historical mysteries, hence the name change. Barbara Peters not only remarked that she "adores" the Sebastian St. Cyr series, she also thinks of it as "Jane Austen Dark."

On the other hand, Tessa Arlen writes her Lady Montfort series under her own name, and she and Hannah Dennison (on a different panel) are the only two who are "authentically English." She went on to tell us that her most recent book, A Death By Any Other Name, takes place in the days leading up to World War I and is all about the cutthroat business of rose growing and the Edwardian moneyed classes. When host Barbara Peters mentioned that Lady Montfort's secret weapon is her housekeeper, Mrs. Jackson, the conversation led to a short discussion of the fact that, back in those days, cooks and housekeepers were awarded the honorary title of "Mrs." even if they were unmarried (like the single Edith Jackson).

Candice told us that her books are set a century earlier than Arlen's and that in writing she found it difficult to get all the servants out of the way long enough to have someone murdered! Her most recent Sebastian St. Cyr mystery is Where the Dead Lie, and she and Barbara both advised us to read the series in order.

"One of the things I love about Tessa's series is that Lady Montford is happily married," said Barbara, looking at Arlen expectantly. 

"Yes, she is," Arlen said with finality.

"Well, don't just drop it!" Peters laughed, so Arlen picked up the thread once again.

"Her husband decided to see her talent in solving crime as her keen interest in life, and he thinks she'd make a good criminal lawyer if only women were allowed to be so," Arlen said.

Peters giving book recommendations.

Talk then jumped a few decades to the Keenans' Lillian Frost and Edith Head mysteries set in Hollywood in the late 1930s. 

"Edith Head worked all the time, so she needed someone to do the investigating, and that led us to Lillian Frost," Vince Keenan said. "We were quite happy to use the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin formula. We also knew that most books set in Hollywood at this time tended to be dark."

"Your new book Dangerous to Know takes place in Hollywood during the lead-in to World War II," Barbara said.

"Yes," Vince said. "At this time Hollywood was the world capital of classical music because so many composers, conductors, and musicians were among the first to leave Europe."

"There are a lot of interesting people in this book," Peters said. "Marlene Dietrich, Dorothy Lamour...."

"And a lot of interesting things going on as well. We had no idea that George Burns and Jack Benny were brought up on smuggling charges in 1938. It was such a big deal that it took Europe out of the headlines for weeks," Vince said. "And then the whole thing just disappeared. Too quickly. One of the things we love about writing this series is that Edith Head knew everyone. We could have anyone show up, and it would be plausible." (And those cameo appearances are one of the fun things about this series!)

"Next year is 1939, the greatest year in the history of movies," Peters observed.

"Yes! The book we're writing now has Lillian being the social secretary of an eccentric millionaire," Vince said. "Edith Head may always be working, but Lillian pulls her weight by meeting all these important people."

C.S. Harris with a fan.

Tessa Arlen's next book will be Death of an Unsung Hero, which takes place in 1916 in a rehabilitation center for shell shock victims.

C.S. Harris's next book, the thirteenth Sebastian St. Cyr mystery, will be Why Kill the Innocent.

The third Lillian Frost and Edith Head mystery will be Script for Scandal, which takes place in 1939. Edith Head will be working on a B-movie which will give the Keenans the chance to show readers what a costume designer actually does. (The couple are currently arguing over the casting of their fictional movie!) 

Then it was time to take a break, head for the refreshment table, and head to the authors for book signing and chat!

L to R: Jennifer McMahon, Megan Miranda, Barbara Peters, Francine Mathews

Jennifer McMahon, Megan Miranda, and Francine Mathews were on the second Contemporary Suspense panel. Barbara Peters started the discussion by saying that "trust no one" is currently a very vibrant subgenre, one in which it seems that "everyone we know and love will try to kill us."

Megan Miranda, author of The Perfect Stranger, told us that she likes "the idea of writing about someone who moves to a new place for a fresh start, knowing that they can present any side of themselves that they choose to." On the other hand, Jennifer McMahon likes to write books-- like her latest Burntown-- in which she confronts her own fears. 

Francine Mathews, author of Death in a Mood Indigo, said, "My Merry Folger books really don't fit in the Trust No One category. Folger is a police officer who lives in a safe and loving environment. As she investigates crimes, her assumptions are constantly challenged. In writing this series, I also wanted to tap into the long history of Nantucket Island with its thousands of incoming tourists." 

Francine Mathews

You should've heard the gasps of delighted shock when Barbara Peters told the crowd that Francine also writes the Jane Austen mysteries under the name Stephanie Barron! Then there was a humorous interlude when Peters continually tried to bring up the Merry Folger book that's due out in June when Mathews didn't want to talk about it. After one such attempt, Mathews exclaimed, "You really can't trust anyone!" which made us all laugh.

Peters went on to say that she thinks one of the reasons why "Trust No One" is so popular is because, due to social media, privacy is becoming a thing of the past. 

"No one reads fiction anymore expecting to know the ending," Mathews said. "They're always looking for the hidden narrative."

Mathews wrote her very first book-- the first Merry Folger book Death in the Off-Season-- as a bet with her husband. That was twenty-seven books ago, and a lot has changed. In 1992, she was a CIA analyst who didn't like wearing stockings and longed for the life of Jane Austen. 

Francine said, "Last year Soho approached me, wanting to bring out the four Merry Folger mysteries I'd written in the '90s, and they also wanted a new one. But twenty-five years had passed. I told them, 'Okay... if you let me rewrite those four before writing number five.'

"I sucked as a writer twenty-five years ago! And it's unbelievable how much crime solving has changed in that length of time. Rewriting those books was a very humbling experience that I don't recommend to anyone-- but I certainly benefitted from it." 

"Jennifer, your books are all standalones, aren't they?" Barbara asked.

"Yes, they're creepy psychological thrillers mostly set in Vermont," Jennifer McMahon replied. "Strange things have a habit of making me want to use them in my books. I read something about a telephone that Edison invented which was to be used to speak with the dead. There's a lot of wackadoodle stuff out there. If I don't scare myself while I'm writing, I know I'm not doing a good job."

L to R: McMahon, Miranda

She went on to say, "I've never liked those big-headed characters at Disneyland. One of the first jobs I had was wearing a bunny suit, and you wouldn't believe how trusting those kids were with me! No-- I don't like those big-headed characters. You never know who's in there. Bunny suit... trusting kids... I could've been anyone!"

"We really need to have you come back for Halloween," Barbara quipped.

"When I was young, we'd go every summer to a family place in the woods in the Poconos," Megan Miranda said. "On one trip I had to sleep alone in the living room, and it really creeped me out. In the wee hours, I woke up to the sounds of my aunt barricading the hallway, and I thought, 'But I'm on the other side!' I don't know if it's because of that, but I've always been a worst case scenario type of person, and I think you can see it in my books-- like my latest, The Perfect Stranger." 

Francine Mathews (L) chatting with a fan.

Francine told us something that happened to her which gives a bit of insight to what can happen while working with publishers. "I was told that Random House wanted another book in the Merry Folger series. It had to be called Death on Nantucket. They wanted a lighthouse on the cover... and can it be published under the name Stephanie Barron?" They got their way on two out of three. The book is being published under the name Francine Mathews, just like the other Merry Folger books.

Next up for Jennifer is "a scary haunted house book that takes place in the woods. And it has a bog, too!"

Megan told us, "In January 2018, I have a new Young Adult book coming out, and my newest psychological suspense novel which is set in Maine will be out in the summer of 2018." (All of her Young Adult books are published under the name Megan Miranda.)

Mathews told us that she's currently wrapping up a book on Jennie Churchill, Winston Churchill's mother (who is fascinating in her own right).


After another short break, it was time for the third shift: the Cozy authors.

L to R: Paige Shelton, Hannah Dennison, Jenn McKinlay, The Poisoned Pen's John Charles

Before the official start of the last panel, Barbara Peters made an announcement that warmed the cockles of my heart. In September, The Poisoned Pen-- in conjunction with Soho Press-- will have a one-day conference. All the final details have yet to be ironed out, but Craig Johnson will be the luncheon speaker. I told Denis that I'd keep an eye out for those final details so he could see about requesting the day off to join me. I'm really looking forward to it!

When Paige, Hannah, and Jenn got comfy in front of an appreciative audience, John Charles asked them a bit about their road to becoming published.

L to R: Shelton, Dennison. Photo courtesy of Jeff K.

"I decided I was going to be a writer in 1997," Paige Shelton said, "and I was going to be published by the year 2000. My first book was published in 2010. If you're writing-- don't give up!"

Hannah Dennison said, "When I was fifteen, I wrote an article about relationships when I hadn't even had a boyfriend yet, and I sent it to a women's magazine. I wrote obituaries for a local newspaper. I helped someone with a screenplay, and when I moved to California, I decided that that's what I wanted to do: screenplays. I didn't get anywhere with those. Then I tried my hand at mysteries. I've been writing for thirty years now."

Jenn McKinlay can always make us laugh. She started out by telling us, "I really didn't want a day job!" Once the laughter died down, she said, "When I was seven years old, I found my mother's old red portable typewriter, and I became the family court reporter-- which could come in handy when you need some bargaining chips with siblings!"

Jenn McKinlay

John Charles asked the authors about the settings for their series.

"The Library Lovers series is set in Connecticut because that's where I trained as a librarian," Jenn said. "The Hat Shop series is set in London because I wanted a vacation, and the Cupcake Bakery series is set in Scottsdale because I live here." 

Hannah said, "The Honeychurch Hall books are set in Devon where I grew up. It's a quiet place that tends to be fifty years behind the times. After the first book was published, I was told that there actually is a place in England called Honeychurch."

Paige said, "When I was setting out to write the Farmers Market series, I needed a place that could have a year-round farmers market, so I went to South Carolina and chose it for the setting. My family is from the area in Missouri where my Country Cooking School series is set. My Dangerous Type series is set in Utah where I lived for twenty-seven years. As for my Scottish Bookshop series, I wanted to go to Scotland and be able to write it off on my taxes!"

Hannah Dennison

Hannah described her latest, Murderous Mayhem at Honeychurch Hall, as "Downton Abbey meets Midsomer Murder." The main character's mother writes erotic romances. She doesn't believe in computers, and she never makes a copy of her manuscript. The manuscript is posted to her publisher, but it goes missing. When it's found at the local post office, there are six pages missing. There's also an English Civil War angle.

Dennison actually wrote those six missing pages, which will be published in a special e-version because she "thought of it too late for it to be published in the back of the print version." She had us in stitches when she said, "I think I missed my calling as a writer of erotica. I got quite hot writing those pages!"

John Charles wanted to know: Why multiple series?

Hannah: "When I first started, I didn't intend to write series, but I do like having a story arc. And I absolutely have to have [what writers call] a Bible, because readers will remember every tiny detail!"

Paige: "It's really nice to visit with the characters you've created, but following through with all the series commitments makes it difficult to write anything else."

Jenn: "I have a comment to make about readers remembering every detail. In one of my Cupcake Bakery books, I said that Angie's middle name was Marie. In another book, I said it was Lucia. Lots of people noticed. I think I'll get myself out of it by saying she's Italian, and her full name is Angie Marie Lucia DeLaura!"

John Charles then asked if they had any advice for newbie writers.

Paige: "Don't give up!"

Hannah: "Write every day-- even if it's only for fifteen minutes!"

Jenn: "Join writers groups, go to conferences. Don't be afraid of showing your writing to others!" 

What's next for these authors' fans to read?

Hannah told us that the fifth Honeychurch Hall mystery will have a love triangle for Kat, and the featured antique will be a World War I pocket bear. "I also have a proposal for a new series about two sisters who inherit a hotel on the Isle of Scilly." Speculation then ran rampant (a good word for someone who missed her calling as a writer of erotica) that this new series could be called "The Scilly Sisters."

Paige said the third Dangerous Type mystery will be out this coming winter, with the third Scottish Bookshop book following in the spring. "And the fourth Scottish Bookshop mystery takes place at Loch Ness."

"I was asked by my publisher to write a romantic comedy," Jenn said, "so About a Dog will be released on May 17." After the applause died down, she continued. "The second book in the series, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, will be released in September, followed by the next Library Lovers in November which is called Death in the Stacks. It was while I was writing Death in the Stacks that I was told the publisher had decided to end the Hat Shop series. [groans from the audience] Since I was feeling a bit vindictive, the Hat Shop characters are going to show up in Death in the Stacks-- and the cupcake folks will be, too!" 

But wait! There's more!

Jenn's third romantic comedy, Every Dog Has Its Day, will be out in January, "and then I'm out of contract. I may go with a different publisher."

This led to a short discussion about the changes in publishing. Jenn told us that she'd heard that Audible is looking to publish original fiction, since the audiobook market is a rapidly growing percentage of sales.

Barbara Peters, Editor-in-Chief at Poisoned Pen Press, told us that mass market paperbacks are the one form of print books that took the hit from eBook sales. "There have had to be a lot of changes," she said. "When Penguin merged with Random House, two completely different philosophies clashed. Penguin's was to have two or three books from hundreds of authors, while Random House's belief has been lots of books from a handful of authors."

Jenn McKinlay had been visiting her publisher in New York City when she saw a woman crying on her way out of the building. "When I asked why she was crying, I was told that Penguin had had secretaries, but Random House did not, so all the Penguin secretaries had been let go."

The three-hour event ended on a positive note; however, when Jenn told us of libraries-- like one in Mesa, Arizona-- having what they call Maker Space, which is an area in the library where people can find things like 3D printers, sewing machines, and have the capability of checking out rakes, hoes, or seeds. Barbara said, "That sounds like a type of vocational school at your local library."

In this day and age, you have to be flexible and inventive in order to survive.

Now it's time to stop talking and share a few more photos before ending this marathon post! Click on any of the photos if you'd like to see them in their original sizes. They'll automatically open in a new window for you.

Photo courtesy of Jeff K.

The CozyCon authors were the first to use The Poisoned Pen's new Authors' Green Room.

L to R: Mathews, Miranda & McMahon. Photo courtesy of Jeff K.

Jenn McKinlay (with John Charles) making us all laugh. Photo courtesy of Jeff K.

You had to know that I couldn't get out of there without buying something!

I hope you all enjoyed this peek into The Poisoned Pen's CozyCon. Hopefully you can attend one yourself one day!