I came up with the idea
for Naughty or Dead when my husband and I were getting ready to sell our
house in Connecticut. While packing up Christmas decorations, and feeling
nostalgic about the New England Christmases that I was about to say goodbye to,
the opening scene for the book popped into my head. I’d already decided that I
wanted to write a cozy romantic mystery series and I’d come up with the
setting—the fictitious town of Mulberry Falls—so I had a fairly good idea of
what would happen next.
Here are the details... When Santa turns up dead in his sled during the holiday pageant in the charming Westchester County village of Mulberry Falls, former paralegal Verity Valence reluctantly becomes involved. Newly returned to her hometown after the law firm where she worked blew up in a scandal, Verity has her hands full dealing with her wily Aunt Temperance, her former high school boyfriend, now Detective Ethan Lowell and her own cloudy future. Can she discover who’s trying to take the ho-ho-ho out of the holidays before she finds herself up to her candy cane earrings in not-so-merry mayhem?
What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?
One of my favorite
Christmas traditions is getting together with my daughter, grand-daughter and
friends to bake holiday cookies, including those my mother taught me to
make. Besides all the delicious smells
and tempting treats, I love sharing this time with wonderful, strong women and
passing along the traditions that helped make us that way.
What’s next for you in writing?
Naughty or Dead is the first book in my new cozy romantic series set in the fictitious town of Mulberry Falls. This is a big departure for me after so many years of writing straight-up romance. I’m enjoying every moment of it.
What’s the best writing
tip you’ve learned or been given you’d like to share?
Do a first draft of each
scene or chapter with your inner critic turned off. Just let the inspiration flow. Don’t try to
analyze, second guess or improve anything. You can do all that later. It took
me awhile to learn how to do this and I can still only manage it in bursts of
about fifteen minutes or so. But it’s probably the single best writing
technique I’ve come across.
Writing and publishing are
birds of very different feathers. Whether you’re published through a publishing
house or independently, writers today essentially have to wear two hats—the
creative and the business. Learning how to switch between them can be
challenging but it’s well worth the effort.
Any last words or tips?
Don’t give up. A desire to
write and some degree of talent gets you to the starting line. What happens
after that is a matter of hard work, discipline and persistence.
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