That's a good question. I'm still writing but health and family issues have left little time for anything else the past year. I'm not certain when or if I'll resume the author interviews, but I will keep you posted. Speaking of posting, I have migrated to Bluesky and rarely check my old twitter accounts. You can find me at ​JL Buck @Bluesky.
Have a terrific holiday!

​Welcome to Matter of Inquiry!

Please join me in welcoming guest author Kate Michaelson, featuring her debut mystery novel, HIDDEN ROOMS.
It's nice to meet you Kate. Please tell us something about yourself.

Bio: Kate Michaelson’s first novel, HIDDEN ROOMS, won the 2022 Hugh Holton Award for best unpublished mystery by a Midwest writer, and it was published by CamCat books in April 2024. She holds an MFA in poetry and a PhD in Educational Psychology and has published articles, short stories, and poetry in journals such as The Laurel Review and River Teeth. In her free time, she loves anything that takes her outdoors and away from her laptop. She lives in Toledo, Ohio with her husband and their pets.

Something unusual/unique about you: "I inherited my love of books from my mom. Some of my favorite memories are of her reading to me before bed and then taking me to the library. I remember being almost overwhelmed by the selection of books at the library, and she told me to try a mystery. Little did she know what she was starting!"

Author Contacts: 
Email: kate.michaelson.writer@gmail.com
Instagram: @katemichaelsonwriter
Twitter: @katemichaelson3
Website: www.katemichaelson.om

​INTERVIEW:
JLB: What inspired your featured book or series?
KM:  Many of my own experiences inspired Hidden Rooms. After years of working to find a diagnosis and treatment for my own chronic illness, I realized that dealing with a poorly understood condition is a lot like solving a mystery. This experience and my love of writing inspired me to write a mystery in which the protagonist investigates a murder while looking for answers to her own bewildering symptoms. My hope was to write a page-turner that also validates the real-life experiences of people struggling with undiagnosed or hard-to-treat chronic conditions.
 
JLB: What is the easiest—or the hardest—part of writing for you?
 
KM:  The hardest part of writing for me is going from a very rough draft to a coherent second draft. My first draft is such a mess that I have to overcome my shame at having written it, all while trying to summon confidence in my ability to make it better. The easier part comes later on when the plot is fairly well set, and I can really dig into the language and details.
 
JLB:  Do you use beta readers prior to submitting you manuscript to a publisher? How do you select them? What do you expect them to tell you?
 
KM: I do use beta readers. As a relatively new writer, it’s difficult for me to know if a story is working until I learn how a reader responds to it. I realize that readers’ responses are subjective, but if I hear the same feedback from multiple readers, I know I need to listen. I’m a member of a mystery book club and was lucky to have a few readers volunteer from there. I asked them to point out issues with logic and places where they felt bored, but I welcomed any feedback.
 
JLB: As a reader, where do you go to find a new book to read? A friend, google search, browsing a brick-and-mortar bookstore?
 
KM: I’m in a few book clubs and always get recommendations from my other writing friends, so I never find myself without something waiting for me on my to-be-read list. I also try to read mysteries that have been nominated for awards like the Edgars and Agathas. Reading books by some of the best writers in my genre inspires me and reminds me how much I have to learn.
 
JLB: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
 
KM: My next book is called Resting Sad Face. It follows a professional mourner working in Sarasota, Florida who gets drawn into the suspicious death of a powerful real estate developer. I’m also working on a sequel to Hidden Rooms called In the Bones. It begins with the discovery of skeletal remains in a farm field and centers on Riley’s search for a childhood friend who disappeared long ago.
 
JLB:  Which of the trivia questions did you pick to answer?
 
 KM: See below -
 

• Memorable book you’ve read: The Violin Conspiracy
• An author (living or dead) you'd love to chat with: Tana French
• Favorite accessory (jewelry, scarves, shoes, etc.): I feel incomplete without my smartwatch.
• Best time of day for you to write: I write best in the morning when the caffeine from my coffee is still in my system.
• Favorite childhood book: Anne of Green Gables

 
JLB:  I have enjoyed chatting with you, Kate. As we finish up, please tell us about your book!

HIDDEN ROOMS
Genre: traditional mystery
 
 You can run fast. You can run far. But you can’t outrun family.
 Long-distance runner, Riley, has been fighting various bewildering symptoms for months, from vertigo to fainting spells. Worse, her doctors can’t tell her what’s wrong, leaving her to wonder if it’s stress or something more threatening. But when her brother’s fiancée is killed—and he becomes the prime suspect—Riley must prove his innocence, despite the toll on her health.
As she reacquaints herself with the familiar houses and wild woods of her childhood, the secrets she uncovers take her on a trail to the real killer that leads right back to the very people she knows best and loves most.
 
Buy links: Amazon, Gathering Volumes, and Bookshop.org
 

Excerpt from Hidden Rooms:
Late September 2022
I grew up inside a lightning bolt, in a family of pure momentum. My siblings and I were young, stupid, and fearless in our white gingerbread house, surrounded by dark earth, green shoots, and wild woods—untamed beasts running loose from morning to night. We snarled and bucked, more a pack than a family.

Born less than a year apart, my brother Ethan and I spent most of our lives scrapping after the same few things, pinching each other where we knew it would hurt the most. But we also protected each other. When Trevor Paltree shoved Ethan off the metal slide the first day of preschool, I kicked Trevor’s little ass, and I’d do it again.

Only, now, I didn’t know what protecting my brother looked like, though I felt fairly certain that kicking his fiancée’s ass was not it. Besides, I couldn’t even say what exactly Beth was up to, which (admittedly) undermined my argument. Putting my head down and going along with the wedding might feel cowardly, but it also seemed like the least destructive path forward.

So, that’s how I found myself pulling up to Ethan and Beth’s house to pick up my puce monstrosity of a bridesmaid’s dress with Beth’s recent words still replaying in my mind. “Riley, you know I’d never do anything to hurt Ethan.” The problem was that she also once said with a wink and a smile that what Ethan didn’t know couldn’t hurt him.

I parked in the shade of a low-limbed oak and got out, lifting my hair off my neck to catch the breeze. The autumn sun had built throughout the afternoon into the kind of fleetingly gorgeous day that makes up for Ohio’s multitude of weather sins: one last warm postscript to summer. Rain loomed in the low shelf of clouds to the north. I crossed my fingers that it would hold off until I could get home to walk Bruno. Maybe I could even get a run in if my energy held out.

My phone buzzed, and I knew without looking it would be Audra. She called most days and knew that the previous night, I’d finally worked up the nerve to talk with Ethan about Beth. She would want the details. I was amazed she had waited this long.

“How’d it go with Ethan?” Her melodious voice skipped along briskly. People usually went with what she said simply because they were so swept with how she said it. As her sister, I was an exception.

“Hello to you too.” I continued toward the house but slowed my pace. “I’ll give you one guess.”

“Hello, dearest Riley. I guess he got mad.”

“Not just mad. He guilt-tripped me. I asked if he’d noticed anything wrong with Beth and he acted all injured about it. He told me, ‘she thinks you’re her friend.’” I mimicked Ethan’s self-righteous tone. The jab still stung. “I told him I think of her as a friend too, which is how I know she’s hiding something.” Admittedly, I couldn’t untangle what it was. It was something I sensed more than saw—a shift in posture or flicker behind an expression. The past few weeks she’d become more self-contained than ever, which was saying something for her.

“Yeah, but can you really be friends with someone who has no personality? It’s like being friends with a mannequin. I don’t know how you can tell if she’s hiding something when she never shares—”

“Look, I can’t talk about it now.” I lowered my voice as I neared the house. “I’m at their place getting my dress. Call you later.”

As I climbed the porch steps, the front of their house looked so Instagram-perfect that I wondered whether I’d been seeing problems that weren’t there. The afternoon light slanted across pumpkins and yellow chrysanthemums that Beth had arranged just so. Dried bundles of corn rattled in the breeze.

Careful not to disturb a precarious wreath of orange berries, I knocked on the door and tapped my foot, ready to grab my puffy dress and go. When no one answered, I rapped once more and tried the handle. Unlocked. This was not unusual in a town where nobody locked their doors, but Beth wasn’t from here. She’d moved to North Haven her senior year of high school and, thus, hadn’t lived here long enough for people to think of her as a local. But, to be fair, that usually took a lifetime.

{End of excerpt}

​England, summer of 1813.
 
Lady Anne Ashburn and her father are at Seaford, a seaside resort, recovering from her mother’s death. When the earl is called to Parliament in London, Anne becomes bored and explores nearby Singing Cave. Her maid is telling her tales of smugglers and the ghost who haunts the cave when they discover the body of a dead woman. By the time authorities go there, the body is gone, and no one believes Lady Anne. When her own attempts to discover the woman’s identity are hindered by the local magistrate’s disparaging remarks, she reaches out to Lord Ware.
 
Lucien, Viscount Ware, and his fellow agent Andrew Sherbourne are engaged in a secret inquiry for the Crown, hunting for a kidnapped young woman whose father is being forced to spy for France to keep her alive. Lucien would have gone to Seaford just to see Anne, but he and Sherbourne find it an odd coincidence that she has found a young woman…and they are looking for one.
 
What Lucien learns in Seaford nearly gets him killed and leads him and Lady Anne back to London. Another murder, a bounty on Lucien’s head, a perilous ride in the park, an ambush, a mysterious note, and a very slippery French spy keep Lucien and Lady Anne busy searching for answers—and determined to catch a traitorous murderer before he gets away.

Previous titles in this series (available now):
​The Dead Betray None (A Viscount Ware Mystery #1)
The Dead Cannot Hide (A Viscount Ware Mystery #2)
The Dead Came Calling (A Viscount Ware Mystery #3

Welcome to Matter of Inquiry!
 
This week’s guest is S.A. Kazlo, the author of the Samantha Davies cozy mystery series.
 
Good morning, Syrl! Let us begin with some information about your background.

About the Author:

Syrl, a retired teacher, lives in upstate New York with her husband and two lively dachshunds. She writes the Samantha Davies Mystery series, featuring Samantha Davies and her loveable dachshund, Porkchop. When not writing she is busy hooking, rug hooking that is, and enjoying her family. Her newest book, number five in the series is, Chilled to the Dog Bone.

Author links:
FB- S A Kazlo
Twitter- @sakazlo
Instagram-@sakazlo
LInkedin-sakazlo
website- Home |Samantha Davies Mystery www.sakazlo.com 

INTERVIEW:
 
JLB: What is the hardest part of writing for you?
SAK: Like a lot of authors, it is the marketing. Wouldn't it be lovely if all an author had to do was pen their fabulous works and people would flock to buy them? Guess I can always dream.
 
JLB:  Do people you know ever sneak into your writing?
SAK:  Oh, my yes. I go to the gym a few mornings a week and a gentleman I know said while I was on the recumbent bike that his wife really liked my series. I was very flattered and asked him if she'd like to be in my next novel. He beamed and said. "Yes." I asked, "As the victim or murderer?" His reply, "She's put up with me all these years, definitely the murderer." So, murderer she will be. She's not the only one who's asked to be the murderer in one of my books. You never know what someone's wildest fantasies are or maybe I should be wary of the friends I keep.
 
JLB: Do you write with or without an outline?
SAK:  My first book, Kibbles and Death, I wrote from an outline, but now my characters have taken over my imagination and won't let go so they pour forth their two cents onto my computer whether I like it or not.
 
JLB: Authors live or die by reviews, but do you read them?
SAK:  Yes, I do read reviews of my books. I am honored to have someone write a review and feel I should take the time and read them. Luckily, most of them have been particularly good and encouraging. On the few occasions some one has left one not so stellar I've learned from them, too. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
 
JLB:  What is your next book, and how soon can readers get it?
SAK: My next writing project is Mistletoe, Mutts and Murder, book 6 in my Samantha Davies Mystery series. This one is set at Christmas time. Sam's parents have flown North from sunny Florida to spend the holidays with her.  Unfortunately, murder has come to town, too. I expect it to be released in November 2024.
 
JLB:  Which of the trivia questions did you chose?
SAK: Here they are--

• A movie I'll always remember- Dirty Dancing  The dancing takes my breath away.
• Nail polish I have on—Silver Sparkly. Love the blinginess of it.
• Favorite accessory—A gold heart neckless my husband gave me when we'd been dating 6 months. That was over 50 years ago. I wear it every day.
• Favorite comfort food- For me it is dark chocolate, Every time I sit down to write I munch on a square of it and a handful of walnuts. Afterall, medicine says it's good for a person's brain. Who am I to doubt the science?
• Best time of day to write- Morning! I like to put in two hours of writing in the morning before my grandkids come over. At night I just want to veg out on the sofa with a good mystery.

 
JLB: It’s been a pleasure to talk with you, Syrl. Before we wind up this interview, we are all eager to hear about Chilled to the Dog Bone!

Chilled to the Dog Bone (Samantha Davies Mystery #5)
Genre: cozy mystery
 
It's Saint Patrick's Day weekend in chilly upstate New York, and Samantha Davies, children's picture book author and sometime sleuth, is excited to attend the annual outdoors games put on by the local Wings Falls fire company. It will be a weekend filled with fun activities such as a skillet toss, four-wheeler race, and the ever-popular decorated wooden outhouse race across the ice. Sam is looking forward to dancing the night away with her beau, police detective Hank Johnson at the Firefighter's Ball. Sam's rug hooking group, the Loopy Ladies is sponsoring one of the outhouses and their senior member, Gladys O'Malley, will have the honor of riding on the "throne" to the finish line.

Only not all goes as planned when the neighboring fire company's chief is found in Gladys' place—frozen solid and dead as a doornail! To make matters worse, both Gladys' and Sam's fingerprints are all over the evidence at the murder scene, taking them from attendees to suspects. Now it's up to Sam to clear their names and get to the truth. The only problem is the victim had disagreements with almost everyone in town, from the Wings Falls fire chief to a sexy blonde named Sunny Foxx—with two xx's—and a slew of other suspects. Can Sam find the killer before the Luck of the Irish runs out for her? Or will she become chilled to the bone when the killer catches up to her...
 
Buy Links: 
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Chilled-Bone-Samantha-Davies-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0CP8P9R37

Excerpt:

CHAPTER ONE
​
"How do I look? Should I wear a crown?" Gladys O'Malley, the senior member of my rug hooking group, the Loopy Ladies, sat on her "throne" in the outhouse we were sponsoring. The outhouse race would take place on Sunday morning. This weekend, the Firemen's Convention was being held at the Civic Center in Lake George, a resort town in upstate New York. My local fire company, Wings Falls Fire Department, was the host. It was held annually as close to Saint Patrick's Day as possible. Fun and green beer abounded. All the local fire companies who attended entered a homemade outhouse, decorated by a local group, like the Loopy Ladies, who'd volunteered to sponsor this year's outhouse for our hometown fire company. We often lent our services and talents to worthy causes. This past fall, we sold small rugs we hooked to raise money for Camp Adirondack, a summer camp that invites kids from the inner city for two weeks of fun in the fresh mountain air.

I stomped my feet. Even though I wore my warmest fleece-lined boots and a pair of heavy wool socks, cold seeped through from the cement floor of my garage. A space heater blasted out warm air but barely made a dent in the freezing March air flowing into the drafty garage. I glanced at my cousin, Candie, and noticed her tugging a purple wool cap over her ears to stave off the cold air. I envied my dachshund, Porkchop, Candie's calico cat, Dixie, and the newest member of her family, Annie, a small dog of indeterminate breed, snuggled on the rug next to the fireplace in my living room.

Helen Garber poked at the bright-orange glasses sliding down her nose. "Haul your skinny old butt out of there and help us finish hanging the rugs we hooked on the wall of the outhouse, so we can get out of this blooming cold."

I rolled my eyes towards the rafters of my garage. Leave it to Helen to pick a fight with Gladys. She was the most outspoken member of the group. Her tongue knew no boundaries. She often said she "told it like it is." Not only did her tongue know no boundaries, but neither did her wardrobe choice. The louder and bolder the color, the better. Today her ample figure sported a lemon yellow jacket she paired with hot pink pull-on polyester slacks.
​
I walked over to the outhouse and admired our handiwork. We had painted green shamrocks over a white background in honor of Saint Patrick's Day on the outside walls.

Candie stood next to me. "Not a bad painting job, don't y'all think?"

I smiled. My cousin had moved north over fifteen years ago from Hainted Holler, Tennessee, and you could still cut her thick southern accent with a knife.

"We Loopy Ladies are a multi-talented group. Not only can we hook with the best of them, but we wield a mean paintbrush, too." I turned to the six of us who were gathered in my garage. "Don't you agree, ladies? Our outhouse will leave the others in the dust."

Cheers erupted from my fellow hookers. There are usually twelve of us who gather every Monday morning at our friend Lucy Foster's rug hooking studio. Although our absent members were busy elsewhere, everyone had contributed a rug to decorate the outhouse.

Susan Mayfield clapped her hands to get our attention. "We'd better finish hanging our rugs. Hank, Mark, and Brian will be here shortly to lift the outhouse onto the back of Brian's truck. They need to drive it to the staging area for the race on Sunday morning."

Susan and her husband, Brian, own Momma Mia's, which I believe is the best Italian restaurant this side of the Big Apple. Brian had volunteered his truck for transporting our outhouse to the race's starting area, a park next to the Civic Center. 

Watch for Lucien and Lady Anne's next adventure, The Dead Sang Off Key, in time for your summer read! Lady Anne has a big role to play this time. I'll post the cover as soon as I see it!

​Welcome to Matter of Inquiry!

This week we're spotlighting a Romantic Paranormal Suspense novel by Mary McFarland. Lila's Ghostly Obsession is a brand new release!
​

Lila’s Ghostly Obsession
Genre: Romantic Suspense/Paranormal
 PG-13
 
Even in death, I feel Link’s love.  Achingly sweet and intense.  “It’s for keeps,” I used to tell him, my lips as close to his—as my soul was to eternity, although I’d no idea just how close.  “It’s forever.”
So when I awaken dead, I’ve no choice: I must haunt him.  That, or watch from my grave while Marin Vegas steals Link.
But  first, acceptance: I’m a ghost.  While my murder seems cruel, I’m no longer that young girl in love and running toward my fate—but from it.  Yet fading into black eternity spurs me to a level of courage I never dreamed I had while alive.  So, in this foreboding world I now inhabit, my fight to hold on to the love that Link and I promised each other and now leads me straight to the thugs who put me here—and to a truth we’d planned to share.  It’s a truth I hold onto tight: Love never dies.
Can my plan to keep Link’s love succeed from the grave?  Can we hook up one last bittersweet time?
 
Maybe.  But only if the dead can speak to the living.
So: how do I do that?
If Edgar Allan Poe were to rewrite Annabel Lee as a novel, it would read like Lila’s Ghostly Obsession.  It’s darkly poignant, a perfect read for fans of ghost thrillers and paranormal romance novels like Wendy Webb’s The Haunting of Brynn Wilder, Julia Ash’s Mystified, and Stacy McKitrick’s Ghostly Liaison.
 
Amazon buy link:  https://www.amazon.com/Lilas-Ghostly-Obsession-Never-Thriller/dp/B0CKPHPCWS/

About the Author:

A thriller author and techpreneur, I live insanely—by choice—in both worlds.  I started writing as a girl, when Mom shooed me outside with some sidewalk chalk and said, “Go do something!”  I did.  A Romance Writers of America Golden Pen award winner (romantic suspense), I’m published in both the novel and short story form.  I write fulltime at my beloved Mucky Manor, an organic herb farm in southern Ohio, and I also serve as CEO of Red Girl Digital Media LLC, a tech startup designing apps and educational media serving authors.  A recent honor, of which I’m proud, includes presenting a master class on book marketing at Killer Nashville, where I’m on the faculty and also write articles for the Killer Nashville Magazine.
I’m a member of Ohio Writer’s Association, West Virginia Writers, and River Valley Writers (RVW).

Something Unique/Unusual Not in My Regular Bio:  “I’m a wine vintner specializing in making tomato wine, and I collect antique wine recipes from all over the world.  Yes, I like a glass or two now and then.”
 
You can find me at:
www.marymcfarlandbooks.com
www.redgirldigitalmedia.com
www.facebook.com/authormarymcfarland.author

​Matter of Inquiry is taking the week off, but don't miss the interview on my fantasy blog with Kath Boyd Marsh's middle grade characters, Bubbles and Smush. They're talking about their anthology of adventures for those 9-12 (and others young of heart!).
​
Link to their character interview: 
allyshields.com/blog/character-interview-from-mg-fantasy-by-kath-boyd-marsh

MISadventures of Bubbles and Smush
Genre: middle grade (9-12)
 
Bubbles and Smush were never supposed to be perfect heroes, but after all, it’s the MISadventures that make life so exciting…
While life seems peaceful on River Wiz Tech, when Cl’rnce the Dr’gon Co-Primus doesn’t show up for his visit, Bubbles overhears that Cl’rnce may be in trouble and the two Barforami cousins are off and running, or waddling, or swimming very fast to the Wizard Technological School and Knights Academy for adventure after adventure.
No more lazy floating. Each new day seems to bring a new adventure—from finding closet monsters, foiling a poisoning, dealing with pirates, learning to fly, to helping a baby dr’gon get a banshee to give her singing lessons.
Not that any of those adventures go smoothly! Featuring 5 brand new stories, Bubbles and Smush, once again, will bumble their way to success…or will they?
Here is the list of stories, the first three were previously published as ebooks.
 
1.      Closet Monsters
2.      Trick or Treats
3.      Dragon Rescue 
4.      Hungry Pirates 
5.      Dr’gon-Sitting Fetch 
6.      Dr’gon Twin 
7.      When Barforami Fly 
8.      Banshee Singing Lessons 

Buy Link:   https://amzn.to/3ZbKwMK

​Welcome to Matter of Inquiry!

This week's guest author is Jessica Dale, alter ego of mystery writer Kassandra Lamb.

Good morning, Jessica. Before we get started on the questions, please tell us something about yourself.

BIO:

​Jessica Dale is the alter ego of retired psychotherapist turned mystery writer, Kassandra Lamb. She has been a human resources administrator, counselor, business owner and college professor. Now she enjoys writing romantic suspense stories with a psychological twist (and the occasional ghost). She is the author of the Unintended Consequences trilogy, the Binding Love duet, and the romantic thriller, Bartered Innocence.

​Tidbit not in the bio: Kassandra tries to keep me suppressed most of the time because I’m the impish part of her. I tend to say, and sometimes do, things that get us in trouble.
 
You can connect with Jessica/Kassandra at:
 
WEBSITE: https://kassandralamb.com/jessica-dales-books/
FACEBOOK:  https://www.facebook.com/kassandralambauthor~ https://www.facebook.com/JessicaDaleAuthor/
INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/kasslamb/
BOOKBUB PROFILE:  https://www.bookbub.com/profile/kassandra-lamb ~ https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jessica-dale
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: http://www.amazon.com/Kassandra-Lamb/e/B006NB5WAI/ ~ https://www.amazon.com/Jessica-Dale/author/B071HTX5S9/

​INTERVIEW with Jessica Dale:
 
JLB: Do you write full time or do you have a day job?
 
JD:  Kassandra writes full-time. She has a retirement income so she can afford to do that. Unfortunately, she only lets me out to write every once in awhile, so I write part-time.
 
JLB:  What book/author has influenced you the most? In what way?
 
JD:  I would have to say Kassandra. Before retiring, she was a psychotherapist and then taught psychology. So a lot of psychological stuff sneaks into my stories. I hate to admit it, but I think that influence from her does make my writing better.
 
JLB:  What inspired your featured book or series?
 
JD:  Kassandra woke up one morning with a complete story laid out in her head, only it wasn’t her typical mystery and it had nothing to do with either of her two mystery series. It was the story of James Fitzgerald, whose closest friends are murdered in his own house.
 
Originally she published it as a stand-alone mystery/horror story for Halloween. Then she had another story pop into her head full-blown. It was a steamy romantic thriller. At that point she figured she needed a separate pen name for these stories that were rather different from her usual mysteries. So I was born.
 
We added a love interest to James’s story and republished it as a romantic suspense and the first book in the Unintended Consequences trilogy. Then I started wrestling with her for writing time so I could finish the trilogy, and also a couple of other steamy thrillers my muse insisted I write. I now have six books out.
 
JLB:  What is the easiest—or the hardest—part of writing for you?
 
JD:  The easiest parts for me are the love scenes. Kassandra has romantic subplots in her mystery series, so we already knew how to write a good love/sex scene.
 
The harder part is exploring all the intricacies of a budding relationship. I use multiple points of views, so the reader and I are inside the heads of both characters, listening in on their thoughts, feelings, and most of all their fears.
 
The other challenge with romantic suspense is balancing the romance with the mystery. You’re supposed to give them close to equal time on the page. But you also have to maintain a suspenseful pace. These two expectations with romantic suspense are rather contradictory. It’s tough achieving both of them.
 
JLB:  Have you killed off a recurring character? If not, would you do so?
 
JD:  It’s really difficult for me (and Kassandra) to kill off one of the good guys or gals. But it’s hard to have a murder mystery without murders.
 
Kass killed off a recurring but likeable minor character in Book 4 of her Kate Huntington series, and she got some grief from readers about it. It took her cousin months to forgive her.
 
And I started off killing a supporting character in Backfire but couldn’t quite make myself do it. Instead, the character was seriously injured. (And I’m not telling whether they end up dying or not.)
 
I think that’s how ghosts started sneaking into Kass’s and my writing. It was a way to keep a murdered likeable character alive, at least for a while. In the first few books of the Kate Huntington series, Kate talks to her dead husband in her head, and he talks back. Neither Kate nor the reader (nor Kass, for that matter) is ever quite sure if he’s really a ghost or just a figment of her imagination.
 
There are two ghosts in the Unintended Consequences trilogy. One is James’s murdered friend, who mainly communicates with laughter, which sounds like wind chimes in a gentle breeze (unless she’s angry or trying to warn James or Carrie of danger; then it might sound more like wind chimes in a storm).
 
I actually think Annaleise makes a more interesting character as a ghost than she might have if I’d let her live!
 
JLB:  How do you feel about the banning of books from libraries? What criteria would you use?
 
JD:  I don’t think any books should be banned from libraries, for the most part. Banning topics that are controversial is not protecting anyone from those controversies. Kids are dealing with them already. They’re hearing about them on TV, social media, from friends and family, or maybe even living with them themselves.

Keeping them from information that might help them better understand and cope with these issues is just exacerbating whatever they may be struggling with. And since teens are already highly emotional and vulnerable to depression and suicide, this ignorance can become deadly.
 
Okay, I’ll step down off my psychologist soapbox now and say that there is one exception—erotica. Certainly, it doesn’t belong in elementary or middle school libraries, and maybe not even in high school (I certainly don’t want my teenage grandson reading some of the stuff I’ve written...lol.)
 
JLB:  Which of the short answer questions did you pick to answer?
 
JD:
 

• An author (living or dead) you'd love to chat with?  Maya Angelou
• Favorite comfort food?  Grilled cheese and tomato sandwich 
• Your worst job ever? Selling encyclopedias door to door in college; I lasted a week.
• If you couldn't write anymore, what would you do?  Travel and read more.
• A beer at the bar or a book on the deck? Definitely a book on the deck (with a chilled glass of white wine)

 
JLB:  Thanks for visiting with us today, Jessica. As we finish here, can you show us your featured series?
 
JD:  Of course, but before I go, I just want to say, thank you for making Kassandra let me out to do this interview...I may not go home right away. Maybe I’ll go find a coffee shop first. There’s a mocha latte out there with my name on it!

SERIES BLURB:
 
One autumn afternoon changed everything! James Fitzgerald is looking forward to a relaxing weekend with friends. Instead he walks into a blood bath, and a cryptic message points to him as the killer.
 
The Unintended Consequences Trilogy follows James and his budding romance with his neighbor, Carrie through three complete mysteries. In Payback, both James and Carrie are fighting their attraction to each other, while trying to solve the murder of James’s best friend and her husband, and stop the killer from taking more lives.
 
In Backlash, Carrie’s teenage son tracks her down and leads her abusive estranged husband right to her, along with some other deadly baggage.
 
In Backfire, when James and Carrie’s shy friend, Mary starts dating again after a messy divorce, she’s assaulted by a masked man who smells of her first date’s aftershave. As James tries to help her identify and find her attacker, he struggles with the legacy of the murder of his best friend—a rescuer complex that threatens to drive a permanent wedge between himself and Carrie.

Links to purchase the trilogy can be found at:
 
Payback:  https://misteriopress.com/bookstore/payback/
Backlash:  https://misteriopress.com/bookstore/backlash/
Backfire:  https://misteriopress.com/bookstore/backfire/

​EXCERPT from Backlash, Book 2 in the Unintended Consequences Romantic Suspense Trilogy
 
CHAPTER ONE
Carrie
For the half-second before the dog reacted, I assumed the person ringing the doorbell was James, arriving for dinner.
Then Ginger went ballistic.
Heart pounding, I power-walked into the living room, trying to convince myself that Greg hadn’t found me, that it wasn’t him at the door.
I really had to get a handle on my fear. This was no way to live.
The doorbell rang again and Ginger raced ahead of me to sniff the crack at the bottom of the door. Another burst of ear-splitting barks bounced off the walls.
Definitely not James. He only rang the bell once before using his own key.
My chest so tight I could hardly breathe, I looked through the door’s peephole. My hand flew to my mouth to stifle a scream.
Wait! Greg’s features, yes, and brown hair like his, but… The face was younger, with dark stubble on boyish cheeks and wide eyes staring back at me—the same sky blue as my own.
I fumbled with the locks and threw the door open. “Philly!”
He grinned, then ducked his head a little. “Hi, Mom.”
***
James
My mind was elsewhere, on the auditions I had lined up over the next week. It was always nerve-racking to be between plays. I rounded the front corner of the old farmhouse and stopped cold, trying to process the scene before me.
Carrie didn’t know any local men well enough to be hugging them. Therefore, this man was from her past, which did not bode well, despite the hug.
My stomach hollowed out.
Was this Greg? Was she the type of woman who ran back into her ex’s arms the minute he was kind to her?
I felt nauseous.
Ginger shoved past Carrie’s leg and trotted over to me. I absently patted the golden retriever’s head as I watched Carrie and the man step apart.
No, more a boy. My insides unknotted some, but my heart hammered harder. Not Greg, but still not good.
“Look at you,” Carrie said to the boy, a big smile on her face.
I stepped up onto the end of the long front porch, my footsteps dull thuds on the wooden floorboards.
The kid startled and pivoted to put himself between me and Carrie, a reflexive move that should not be instinctive in a teenage boy.
He was almost as tall as me, already five-ten, but slender. His blue eyes, so like Carrie’s, were wide in a boy-man face.
Carrie waved for me to approach. “James, this is my son. Phillip, this is my neighbor and friend, James Fitzgerald.”
The son, at this point, didn’t surprise me, but the friend did a little. We were a hell of a lot more than friends.
But hey, it’s her kid. I’ll follow her lead. I stuck out my hand. “Pleased to meet you, Phillip.”
I used the handshake to turn him toward the open front door and began herding them inside. “Best not to be standing around out here,” I said without thinking.
Carrie’s delighted expression deflated like a popped balloon, and I felt like a heel. I could’ve let her enjoy her reunion with her son a few minutes longer before reminding her of the threat that reunion represented.
Once we were all inside, Carrie laid a palm against Phillip’s cheek. “I can’t believe it. You’re shaving.”
His cheeks turned pink under the smattering of dark hairs. “This started a few weeks ago…” He trailed off, his expression part pleased, part sheepish.
“Hey,” I said, “you two catch up for a few minutes.” I slipped back outside, locking the door behind me.
I scanned the stretches of grass on either side of the gravel lane leading down to Carrie’s and my houses. They were beginning to green up after a long winter.
Then I moved my gaze to the woods up by the main road. No signs of movement and no sounds that didn’t belong. A cool breeze carried the scent of damp earth. I headed across our lawns to my own front porch.
A few minutes later, carrying a small paper bag of shaving supplies, I let myself in Carrie’s door with my key.
She and Phillip were sitting in the middle of the living room sofa, their heads bent together. The boy was chattering away—something about school—his voice cracking a bit.
She looked so damned happy that I couldn’t help smiling, even though the implications of his presence were terrifying.

About the Author:
​
Winona Kent is an award-winning author who was born in London, England and grew up in Saskatchewan, where she completed her BA in English at the University of Regina. After moving to Vancouver, she graduated from UBC with an MFA in Creative Writing and received her diploma in Writing for Screen and TV from Vancouver Film School. Winona has been a temporary secretary, a travel agent, a screenwriter, the Managing Editor of a literary magazine and a Program Assistant at the University of British Columbia. She's currently the BC/Yukon Representative and Vice Chair of the Crime Writers of Canada and is an active member of Sisters in Crime - Canada West. She lives in New Westminster, where she is happily embracing life as a full-time author.
 
Something not in your usual bio: “When I was 12 I ran a fan club for The Monkees 😊 And many years ago, I ran a semi-official website for the British actor Sean Bean 😊 I stopped updating it in 2012, but I kept it online because of the wealth of information that it contains. I originated the “Death by Cow” list – which details all of the ways Sean dies in his films.  http://www.compleatseanbean.com “
 
Author Contacts:
 
Twitter (X):  @winonakent 
Instagram:  @winonakent 
Facebook:  @Winonakentauthor 
Threads:  @winonakent 
Website:  http://www.winonakent.com

​INTERVIEW:
 
JLB:  Do you write full-time, or do you have a “day” job?
WK:  I used to write and have a full-time day job. I worked from 8.30am until 4.30pm at the University of British Columbia. I had an hour-long commute in both directions. And then I’d come home and have a 2 to 3 hour nap, and I’d write from about 9pm until 1am. I also wrote on weekends and during vacations. I got 8 novels written that way, and then, in 2019, I was finally able to retire and become what I’d always longed to be—a full-time writer. The pandemic forced everyone to stay indoors—which I loved—and two more novels came out of that. But now that we’re trying to get back to the way we were, I find it really difficult organizing my writing time and my free time. A writerly friend gave me some good advice. She said, you’re used to binge writing and confining your writing to your spare time. Perhaps that’s what you need to do again!
 
JLB:  Are you self-published or traditionally published? How did you make the decision?
WK:  I have been traditionally published in the past. My first novel, Skywatcher, was a finalist in the last-ever Seal Book First Novel Award back in the 1980s. I got a very lucrative publishing deal out of that, with a huge advance. Then the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War ended, and the bottom fell out of the espionage market. My book was a tongue-in-cheek spy novel, and unfortunately it didn’t sell well. My agent decided to get out of the business and Seal/Bantam decided they didn’t want to extend my contract…so I published the next book (The Cilla Rose Affair) myself. It was right at the start of indie publishing, in the early 2000’s. I also self-published my next novel, Cold Play. I still sent out queries, though, and my fourth novel, Persistence of Memory, landed with a small press that looked promising. Unfortunately, they went out of business soon after they published my book. I kept writing, and querying, and my fifth novel, In Loving Memory, ended up with a New York company which also wanted to republish my four previous books. Alas, I didn’t make enough sales to justify them publishing my next book, Marianne’s Memory. So, once again, I turned to self-publishing. And then, that New York company went out of the fiction business altogether. So I negotiated my rights back for the five novels, and self-published those as well. And that’s when I decided to start writing my Jason Davey mystery series. I was already a seasoned veteran of the indie publishing scene, so I decided to just stick to self-publishing. My reasoning was that I could spend the better part of a year querying agents and publishers. But even if I did land an agent, it could take up to a further year (or more) to actually place the book with a publisher, and then a further year to two years for the publisher to bring that book out. And, as I was in my mid-60s, I just didn’t have the patience to wait. One of the huge advantages to self-publishing is that you, as the author, control everything. Which is what allowed me to bring out this new anthology of short stories very quickly, and in a way that really worked for me as an indie author.
 
 
JLB:  Do you write from an outline?
WK:  Back at the beginning of my career, I didn’t work from an outline at all. And because I was working at an unrelated job at the same time, I often found myself thrashing about, struggling, trying to keep my thoughts organized while I constantly lost track of where I was in the story, in the plot, in the entire process. After that, I spent a lot of time creating index cards that always told me where I’d been…but never where I was going. That all changed when I went to film school in 2003-4. There, I learned how to write screenplays, starting with a beat sheet, progressing to an outline, then a treatment, then finally, the full script. I realized that I could easily adapt those techniques to novel-writing, and it worked! Those skills made it easy for me to continue working and writing and, most importantly, I never again lost track of where I was going with the story. I invested in some excellent outlining software (Plottr), which adapts easily to my visual learning style and works with my individual quirks and demands. And, of course, the outline that I start out with is never, ever, what I end up with at the end of the story. There’s nothing in the rules that says you have to stick with what you’ve first created.
 
JLB:  How many drafts (revision passes) do you do on a typical book before submission to your editor/publisher?
WK:  Usually about six drafts. The first draft is like a scriptwriting beat sheet—everything in bulleted point form with as many notes as I can think of to enhance the story. In the second draft, I turn those bulleted points into fiction. That probably takes the longest amount of time. The third draft builds on the second draft—that’s where I think more, add more, go off on tangents, cut stuff out, maybe change the ending or alter a character’s trajectory. The fourth draft is where I get ruthless. Descriptions are finessed, or shortened or cut out altogether. I hunt for better words. Storylines are tightened. Draft five is what I always think will be the final draft, but I’m wise to that deception now, and I put the manscript away for a couple of weeks and go and do something else. Then I tackle draft six, which is the final pass. Proofreading, spellchecking, grammar checking, punctuation, and also I keep an eye out for things which poke out and really need to be smoothed down (for want of a better description). And only then is it ready to go to print.
 
 
JLB:  What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
WK:  I’m working on the fifth novel in my Jason Davey mysteries. It’s called Bad Boy and it has a rather shocking beginning—my main character witnesses a suicide which has a profound effect on him. The plot then goes on to involve a stolen package of music manuscripts composed by Sir Edward Elgar. For various reasons, this book has been fighting me all the way since its inception. But I think I’m through the worst of it now, and I’m anticipating a March 2024 release.
 
JLB:  Which of the trivia questions did you select to answers?
WK:  See below.

• An author (living or dead) you'd love to chat with:  My favourite author, Monica Dickens. She was Charles Dickens’ great-granddaughter and a novelist in her own right.
• What type of music do you prefer?  Late 1950s Rockabilly and 1960s British Invasion bands
• Your worst job ever:  Typing invoices for the installation of cookers and fridges at the South Eastern Gas Board in London, England, when I was a temp working for Brook Street Bureau in 1973. I lasted a week.
• Your pets:  I don’t have pets anymore. But in the past, I had a series of ordinary, indeterminate breed rescue cats from the SPCA. Their names were Winnifer Pushkin, Sweeney, Purrface, Kinkle, JR Mewing, Cat Stevens and Motor Purr.
• Your hobbies:  I’m heavily into family tree research on Ancestry. I’m trying to track down my mysterious great-grandfather. I know all about him from about 1897 onwards. But I can’t find his birth record or who his family really was, or even if his last name is what he was born with. I also knit (mostly berets – I have quite a collection).

 
JLB:  Thanks for visiting with us this week, Winona. Before we finish, show us your anthology. 

TEN STORIES THAT WORRIED MY MOTHER
Genre: Short Story Anthology (including mystery, time travel, espionage and mainstream fiction)

A collection of ten short stories featuring four prize-winners, three mysteries, two previously unpublished works and one where the hero manages to spare-change John Lennon at the premiere of A Hard Day's Night in 1964.
 
And yes…they really did worry Winona’s mother.
 
"At times Winona almost flies under the radar as an unsung hero on the Canadian fiction scene… I’ll simply suggest this – find a comfy chair, sit back, relax, and take some time to go on a fast-paced and fun jaunt into Winona Kent’s imagination."
- A.J. Devlin, author of the “Hammerhead” Jed crime fiction series
 
Universal Buy Link:
https://books2read.com/Ten-Stories

Synopsis of Stories:

1. Tower of Power. One night in the life of a rock and roll radio newsman. Winona’s first published story, winner of the Flare Fiction Competition, originally published in Flare magazine in September 1982.
 
2. Dietrich's Ash. Inspired by an unfortunate situation that arose from a disputed property line between Winona’s house and her neighbour’s house when she was growing up in Saskatchewan. Okanagan Short Fiction Award winner. Originally published in Canadian Author & Bookman. Winter 1985 and anthologized in Pure Fiction: The Okanagan Short Story Award Winners. (Fitzhenry & Whiteside) 1986. Also broadcast on CBC Radio, Ambience. 1982
 
3. True Confessions. A Temp with nothing much to do, a tea lady named Mrs. Thatcher, and a rooftop garden overlooking a builder's yard. Originally published in Green's Magazine, a small Canadian literary journal, Volume XII, Number 4, Summer 1984.
 
4. Creatures from Greek Mythology. A student with a crush on his Social Studies teacher. A high school dance. A fine arts student who paints rainbows around her eyes. (Second Prize Winner, WQ Editors Prize). Originally published in Cross-Canada Writers Quarterly. Vol 6, No. 1, 1984.
 
5. The Man in the Grey Eldorado. The first draft of this was written roundabout 1977 or 1978, after Winona had spent a glorious few weeks at the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts at Fort San (a former TB sanitorium). Inspired by The Man from UNCLE, this is one of only two previously unpublished stories in the collection.
 
6. Herd Maintenance. Winona wrote this in 1981 while she was working as a Temp at a federal government office on the Canadian prairies. This is the second unpublished story in the collection, although it did enjoy a brief life as a short, unproduced film script while she was at Vancouver Film School in 2003-4. The typewritten letters in the story are real. The names have been removed to protect the innocent.
 
7. Perhaps an Angel. An adventure involving the two main characters from Winona’s time travel romances, Charlie Duran and Shaun Deeley. Originally published in Carnival, a collection of short stories by Fable Press authors, in 2013.
 
8. Easy When You Know How. Another Charlie Duran/Shaun Deeley short story, in which Mr. Deeley manages to spare change John Lennon at the premiere of A Hard Day’s Night, and snag one of his plectrums (ie guitar picks). The story is also included at the end of Winona’s time travel romance novel, In Loving Memory.
 
9. Salty Dog Blues. Jason Davey, Winona’s professional musician / amateur sleuth, was originally featured in a standalone novel, Cold Play (2012), working as an entertainer on board an Alaska-bound cruise ship. In Salty Dog Blues, Winona took Jason back to that nautical setting, and gave him a very tongue-in-cheek mystery to solve. Salty Dog Blues was specifically written for and originally appeared in the short story anthology Crime Wave, published by Sisters in Crime-Canada West in November 2020. The story was a finalist in the Crime Writers of Canada's 2021 Awards of Excellence for Best Crime Novella.
 
10. Blue Devil Blues. This is a short story that was originally written for the anthology Last Shot: Four Tales of Murder, Mystery and Suspense, published in June 2021 with stories by Alice Bienia, Dwayne Clayden, Peter Kingsmill and Winona. It tells the tale of how Jason got his permanent gig at the Blue Devil jazz club in London's Soho, and also manages to include Winona’s obsession with the London Underground.