Wendy Watson Returns With More Mystery Ice Cream!

interview with Suzanne

Wendy Lyn Watson writes deliciously funny cozy mysteries with a dollop of romance.  Her Mysteries a la Mode (I Scream, You Scream (October, 2009) and Scoop to Kill (September 7, 2010)) feature amateur sleuth Tallulah Jones, who solves murders in between scooping sundaes.  While she does not commit--or solve--murders in real life, Wendy can kill a pint of ice cream in nothing flat.  She's also passionately devoted to 80s music, Asian horror films, and reality TV.  (www.wendylynwatson.com)

Suz: Welcome back to the Bandit Lair, Wendy, and congratulations on the upcoming release of your second book, Scoop To Kill, in your cozy mystery series Mystery A La Mode! We so enjoyed having you with us last year. Pull up a chair, Sven brought us a pitcher of cool Mojitos to share while we chat, and tell us what you've been up to the past year.

Wendy: Thanks for the cocktail, Sven! And thank you, Suz, for inviting me back to the Lair.

It's been a busy year, Chez Wendy. I've been so busy promoting my Mysteries a la Mode, going to conferences and book festivals, talking to writing and reading groups . . . I think I've traveled more this year than in the five years before. And, of course, I've been writing, both the second and third Mysteries a la Mode and developing a few other projects (both cozy and dark). Stay tuned!


Suz: So, book 2 is titled Scoop To Kill (I love these titles) and has the same heroine as in the first book, I Scream, You Scream, Tallulah Jones. What trouble does she get into this time?



Wendy: This time around, Tally's neice Alice, who is a student at the local college, stumbles over the body of a murdered graduate student. When Alice's favorite teacher looks like Suspect #1, Alice rushes in to prove her innocence, and Tally is not far behind ... trying to protect Alice. Together, they uncover all sorts of Ivy League shenanigans.


Suz: I see her old boyfriend Finn is back for book 2. Without giving away details, want to fill us in on their relationship?

Wendy: Oh, yes. Finn. Tally and Finn are still trying to work out their relationship, how to know each other as the adults they are now and not the kids they were when they dated in high school. But the sparks are flying . . . and in Scoop to Kill, Finn has some competition for Tally's affection.



Suz: Your secondary cast of characters are a hoot. Did you base them on people you know? And how important of a role do you think they fill in cozy mysteries?

Wendy: I sometimes borrow bits and pieces of people--physical characteristics, quirks, turns of phrase--for my secondary characters, but I never take anyone wholesale. Honest.

Secondary characters are critical to cozies. To sustain a series with the same core group of characters, they all have to pull their weight; you can't rely solely on your heroine to keep things interesting. A lot of secondary characters end up with a very important role: suspect. Those people have to be complex, even if they're only in a few scenes. They have to be capable of murder, but not downright evil. Developing characters to the point that readers can say, "yes, pushed in just the right way, I can imagine this person committing the ultimate crime," that takes a little effort.

Suz: Last time you gave away a great ice cream sauce recipe in your book. Any special items for your readers this time?

Wendy: Absolutely! This time around, there's a great recipe for Peanut Butter `Smores Ice Cream Cake and an interesting milkshake recipe. It involves a Dr Pepper reduction . . . but you have to trust me, it's delish.

Suz: Peanut Butter 'Smores Ice Cream Cake? Girl, you are trying to kill me. (Sven, quick copy down that recipe!) Ahem, so, Wendy, when can we expect the next book in this series? (Please don't tell me one a year? I really can't take it!)

Wendy: Not quite a year ... Book Three (tentatively entitled "A Parfait Murder") is due out in June of 2011.

Suz: Have you thought about writing in another sub genre?



Wendy: I have! I love cozies--the humor, the whimsy, the heartfelt emotion--but I've got a project in the works that's straight suspense. It's been a trip, exploring my darker side. (People who know me might be surprised to find out I have a darker side ... but somewhere beneath the homemade cookies and giggles, I've got a real edge.) The real trick is balancing the two, moving between light and dark. Light comes naturally; I have to do some mental gymnastics to get into that frame of mind.

Wendy: So, since we were talking about secondary characters, Bree is Tally's cousin and also her side-kick. She is so much fun that she even gets her own fan mail. Do you have any favorite sidekicks in books? Who are they and what do you like about them? I'll be giving away a signed copy of to one lucky commenter.Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/cozy%20mysteries
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Murder Most Foul

by Caren Crane

Recently, my family and I watched a short series produced by the BBC called, Murder Rooms - The Dark Beginnings Of Sherlock Holmes. I borrowed this set and several other British mystery series from a dear "uncle" of my best friend. It features a fictional Dr. Doyle - as in , Sir Arthur Conan - and his mentor, Dr. Joseph Bell. We all loved this series. It was dark, brooding, Victorian (!) and full of Holmesian goodness. Plus it's chock-full of British and Scottish accents. What's not to love?

It reminded me of the first mysteries I read and loved. As a kid, I saw a mystery that firmly shaped my future reading habits and my love affair with British mysteries. It was the film version of Agatha Christie's Murder On the Orient Express. I was 9 when it came out, so I'm not sure why my mother let me see it. It was either that taking us kids was the only way she got to see it, or no one was paying attention when someone else took me. In any case, I was hooked. When Death On the Nile came out when I was 13, I demanded to be taken. I was. By my 18-year-old oldest sister. I remember that she totally hacked me off by guessing who did it long before the end.

I was an Agatha Christie fan from the get-go, but it took a while for me to give Miss Marple a go, since I was a devotee of Hercule Poirot. I raced through piles of Christie's novels and then...I discovered Dr. A. Conan Doyle, better known as Sir Arthur. Ah, these were darker tales, rife with human foibles and plenty of betrayal. The Hound Of the Baskervilles haunted me. Literally. I had nightmares about that one. For some reason, Doyle's eerie tales and Holmes's infallible logic won me over even harder than dear Agatha and Poirot.

I think the reason I adore these keenly-plotted mysteries is because I have no ability to do it myself. I can apply logic as well as the next person and maybe better than some. But plotting logically?? Impossible! (It's better if you give it a French accent like Hercule: am-pos-SI-bluh!)

I would love, more than anything, to write the sort of intricate, oh-so-logical stories that people like, oh...KATE CARLISLE write. Alas, the logical plotting fairy never stops by. I am CLUELESS (much like the adorable Cher in the movie, only without the good legs and general cuteness). *le sigh* That is the real reason I got so hacked off at my oldest (and most beloved!) sister. She could obviously plot mysteries, but she doesn't write. She's an artist in many media. Another talent I don't possess. Pfffft!

I suppose I will have to content myself watching Sherlock Holmes when he hits the big screen this season. And it stars one of my favorite odd-ducks ever: Robert Downey, Jr.! And his sidekick, Watson, is none other than the luscious Jude Law! Even if it's completely silly, it should be imminently watchable from a hunk perspective. Wa-ha!

What about you? Do British mysteries hold you spellbound? Does the new Sherlock make you itch to see it? And who is your favorite novel detective of all time? Holmes and I would love to know!Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/cozy%20mysteries
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WENDY LYN WATSON DELIVERS A COOL MYSTERY TO THE LAIR

Interview with Suzanne

Suz: Welcome to the Bandit, Lair, Wendy. Pull up a barstool and we'll have one of the cabana boys fetch us a margarita. So congratulations on the debut of I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, the first in your cozy mystery series. Please tell everyone what the book is about.

Wendy: Cocktails! Fantastic! Had I known we were having snacks, I would have brought along some of Tally's avocado gelato. Maybe next time ...

I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM is about Tally Jones, proprietor of Dalliance, Texas's ice cream parlor, Remember the A-la-mode. With a struggling business, a crumbling historic home, and a motley assortment of family members depending on her, Tally swallows her pride and agrees to provide ice cream for her ex-husband's company luau. But when her ex's arm-candy girlfriend drops dead, Tally finds herself scooping for her life, hoping to find a murderer before she finds herself locked in the hoosegow.

Thankfully, Tally's cousin Bree, Bree's daughter Alice, and Tally's high school beau Finn Harper are all on hand to help her out.

Suz: I've been looking forward to this book since you first announced it at one of our chapter meetings. How did you come up with the concept?

Wendy: Funny you should ask. Normally, I start with a very vivid scene, and the characters and plot flow from that. For I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, though, I started with the hook: ice cream. My agent and I had a brainstorming session, trying to think of ideas for a cozy series, something that I knew about and was passionate about and that people would find relatable. Well, friends, this girl knows food. Cooking it, eating it, reading about it, dreaming about it ... I {puffy heart} food. And the mother of all foods, in my opinion, is ice cream.

As soon as I said the words aloud, Kim and I knew it was the perfect hook for me. And it has been. My husband jokes that he can always tell when I've been writing "ice cream procedural," the passages where Tally is making or eating ice cream, because I get all keyed up and he can't drag me away from the computer.


Suz: Tallulah, "Tally" Jones is the star of this series. She has a lot to overcome, but doesn't come off perfect. How did she first make her appearance to you?

Wendy: Ice cream equals indulgence. It's sensual and luscious and fattening as heck. I wanted a character whose life was the opposite of that. And thus Tally Jones was born. She's all about duty and responsibility and being a good girl and not making a scene. At least on the outside. She's got ice cream in her soul, though, and getting down to that vibrant, raw, passionate person is going to be tons of fun.

Suz: The secondary characters in I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM are a hoot. How do they play a part in Tally's life?

Wendy: Wow. You get right to the heart of the matter, huh?

That's a big theme in the book, how we define ourselves relative to the people around us. My extended family lives in a small town, and everyone is defined by their relationships to one another: "Roberta's boy," or "Junior's ex." We moved around a lot when I was growing up, so for me, those sorts of relationships were largely impermanent; I didn't have a place in some vast interpersonal web, but was mostly floating free. As a result, that small town feel intrigues me.

In this book, I play a lot with that notion of being defined by the people around you, both your relationships to them and their expectations of you. On the one hand, I find that sort of belonging seductive. On the other, I can see how it could be stifling, oppressive. For Tally, it's both.

Gee. Didn't mean to get all heavy, but you really touched on one of the more emotional themes of the book. And while I love to laugh--and hopefully make others laugh, too--I want Tally's story to touch people's hearts, too.

Suz: Speaking of Finn Harper, is there a future romance in the works between him and Tally?

Wendy: LOL! Yes, one of the most delicious threads of the story (to me) is Tally's struggle to define her relationship with her high school boyfriend Finn. When the book begins, she hasn't seen him in nearly two decades, not since she broke his heart in the Tasty-Swirl parking lot on the eve of their high school graduation. When he comes back to town and into her life, he stirs up all sorts of feelings she'd rather not examine too closely.

Do they have a future? Hmmmm. Maybe. Finn and Tally have a lot of past to overcome before they can start thinking about happily ever after. And, well, there might be a competitor for Tally's affections just around the corner .....

Suz: So what's next in the MYSTERY A LA MODE series?

Wendy: SCOOP TO KILL is slated for a July 2010 release. Tally's precocious niece Alice is finishing up her first year at Dickerson College, and when the annual Honor's Day festivities turn bloody, Alice enlists her Aunt Tally's help in solving an ivory tower murder.

Suz: At the end of I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM you have a delicious recipe for "Tally's Tropical Sundaes", which sounds delicious by the way, is this going to be something you do with each book? If so, I can see one dear husband wanting me to buy more books!

Wendy: Trust me, that ginger-lime-coconut sauce is highly addictive (great for dressing up carrot cake, too!). There will be recipes for ice cream goodies in every book, all using store-bought ice cream and all designed so even "can't boil water" cooks can craft something company-worthy.

So dear readers, what is your favorite ice cream and/or toppings? Wendy is going to give away a signed copy of I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM to one lucky commenter.Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/cozy%20mysteries
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