June 13 – My Reading Journeys – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
About the book
Debra Sennefelder whips up cookies and crime in a delicious new cozy series, perfect for fans of Joanne Fluke and Peg Cochran.
Wingate, Connecticut, is famed as one of the top ten shopping destinations in the state, and home to Mallory Monroe’s beloved Cookie Shop—a place where patrons are greeted with the heavenly aroma of freshly baked cookies that are as beautifully decorated as they are insanely delicious.
But things aren’t going so smoothly for Mallory. Her two employees are a disaster in the kitchen, she catches her boyfriend with another woman, and she’s seen having a fierce argument with food blogger Beatrice Wright, who accuses Mallory of stealing her cookie recipe. Then Beatrice turns up dead in her kitchen, flour outlining her body and a bloodied marble rolling pin nearby. Mallory immediately becomes suspect number one, her sales plummet, and she desperately tries to clear her name—but that’s not the only murder the killer is baking up.
Debra Sennefelder has cooked up a perfect recipe—endearing characters, a picture-perfect evocation of small-town life, and a quaint sweets shop. And just when things get a little too comfy, there’s always a murder or two for good measure.
Chat with the author
Hi Debra! Welcome back to the blog!
And thanks for offering an interview for the Great Escapes tour of your newest book!
Get ready for some never before asked qustions. (at least never asked here)
Let's get to it!
Background ...all if a sudden I am just curious about what you did before.
I had a few jobs before I became a full-time author. I worked in pre-hospital care, in retail and customer service. I also had a food blog, which was a hobby for me. It seemed to blend the best of two worlds for me – my love of baking/cooking and my love of writing. I started the blog when blogs were becoming a thing and I reviewed cookbooks and shared my recipes. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time in the day to work a full-time job, write a blog and pursue fiction writing so I made the decision to shut the blog down. That was a couple years before I sold my first book.
2. I know your fans including me are so excited about the new series. I am sure it had been a work of love.
Can you tell it how it originated?
I had an idea for a new series, and I was working with my agent on the proposal. During that process, I was online and discovered a new series that had just released, and it was far too similar to my idea for me to continue. So, we scrapped that idea and then I started brainstorming again. What I came up with was another culinary-themed series featuring a cookie artist who makes beautiful cookie bouquets.
How long did it take you (if you can remember) to 'Pull the Trigger' so to speak and actually take the plunge into a new series?
It had been something I’d been thinking about for a while so when I discussed it with my agent, it only took a few weeks before I had the short outline and first fifty pages written.
This might be an odd question but can you tell us which came first the series plot or the characters?
The characters come before the plot for me. But first I needed to have a world in place and that includes the protagonist and what she does for a living, her friends/family, her town, her enemies and all of their backstory.
4. Pretend your a reader . . .
Who is you favorite character?
I don’t have one. Not even with the books by other authors I read.
5. Speaking of characters. Have you ever thought of including a cast of characters in the book.
My publisher hasn’t mentioned it, so it’s something I haven’t considered.
6. How did your cast evolve into the story? Did you already have an outline and plan on each character? Were there any characters that kind of pushed thier way in?
After I knew Mallory Monroe was going to be the main character, I then set out to surround her with the people she needed in her life. There are her close friends, her family, two lovely ladies who love to share gossip, the thorn in her side and a person from her past. As I wrote the outline for the story, I got to know those characters a lot better. Aspen’s character was probably the one who once she got on the page, I felt like she needed to hang around for a while. And I’m so glad she did. She was a hoot to write.
7. I love that you include recipes. How did you decide which recipes to include?
I usually write the first draft of the manuscript before I decide which recipes is shared within the story and from there I decide which recipes to include at the end of the book. It’s usually the recipes I really want to make as I’m writing the second draft.
8. Do you have a favorite?
My favorite cookie recipe from HOW THE MURDER CRUMBLES is the Oatmeal Raisin cookie recipe.
9. Now that this ones Done/Out of the Oven . . . Can you give us a sneak of maybe what you are working on?
I’m working on the next Food Blogger book. It’s set at Halloween and there’s a haunted house with a legendary ghost that supposedly haunts it and legend has it that every twenty years a woman dies in that house.
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