Welcome to this week's Coffee Chat!
My guest is cozy mystery author Sandra Carey Cody. So nice to have you visit us, Sandy. How do you take your coffee?
SCC: I have a favorite hazelnut-blend, which I drink black, not too strong and with a spoonful of sugar. “Not-too-strong” probably alerts you I’m not a die-hard coffee drinker. About half the time, I opt for tea - also with a spoonful of sugar. Coffee is my wake-up-and-get going drink, tea my break-time choice.
Ally: Just to make sure you're wide awake to talk with us, we'll get you that hazelnut-blend. Lol. While I fix it, please introduce yourself to readers.
Bio:
I spent the first years of my life within a stone’s throw of Old Man River, aka the Mississippi River. I was born in St. Louis, grew up in that city and the surrounding area. I attended Washington University, where I met the love of my life when I cut an algebra class to go ice skating (some things are just meant to be). Not too long after that, we were married (as I said, meant to be). A few years later, job transfers took us and our two sons further down the Mississippi, first to Memphis, then to Baton Rouge. Another transfer took us “up north” to a picture-perfect small town near Philadelphia, where we finally stayed put. After my sons started school full time, I worked as a legal secretary. So much for ancient history. Now I’m retired and concentrate on writing mysteries. (By the way, working in a law office is excellent training for plotting a murder.) I also spend a fair amount of time in volunteer activities, usually things that involve children or books, sometimes a happy combination of the two.
Author Links:
My website: http://www.sandracareycody.com
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/xfU969
Twitter: http://bit.ly/y08dKt
I spent the first years of my life within a stone’s throw of Old Man River, aka the Mississippi River. I was born in St. Louis, grew up in that city and the surrounding area. I attended Washington University, where I met the love of my life when I cut an algebra class to go ice skating (some things are just meant to be). Not too long after that, we were married (as I said, meant to be). A few years later, job transfers took us and our two sons further down the Mississippi, first to Memphis, then to Baton Rouge. Another transfer took us “up north” to a picture-perfect small town near Philadelphia, where we finally stayed put. After my sons started school full time, I worked as a legal secretary. So much for ancient history. Now I’m retired and concentrate on writing mysteries. (By the way, working in a law office is excellent training for plotting a murder.) I also spend a fair amount of time in volunteer activities, usually things that involve children or books, sometimes a happy combination of the two.
Author Links:
My website: http://www.sandracareycody.com
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/xfU969
Twitter: http://bit.ly/y08dKt
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Let's start by talking about the genre of the books you write.
SCC: I write cozies, very traditional, with a romantic heat rating of zero (maybe 1 or 2 if you have a vivid imagination). The Jennie Connors mysteries are set in a retirement community where the residents are mobile, alert, and not adverse to helping Jennie solve the occasional murder. Lately, I’ve branched out to a new protagonist and a new series. The Peace Morrow books are set in a small town in Pennsylvania. Yes, it’s the town where I now live. My friends and neighbors love seeing their favorite shop or restaurant in a book and forgive the small liberties I take to make the plot work.
Ally: Who is your main character, and what makes her appealing?
SCC: Peace Morrow was abandoned as an infant during Folk Festival weekend at a small-town museum. She was discovered and adopted by a Quaker woman who gave her a childhood as nearly perfect as is possible. Peace knows this and is grateful, but can’t help feeling that a piece of her is missing. This missing piece, plus her Quaker upbringing, gives her a natural sympathy with the underdog. She’s strong and confident, but wishes she knew why the woman who gave birth to her didn’t want her. When LOVE AND NOT DESTROY begins, Peace has recently graduated from Temple and is working in the museum where she was abandoned. In its sequel, AN UNCERTAIN PATH, she knows who her birth parents are and is about to meet them. She’s excited about this, but worries how the Virginia aristocrats and the Pennsylvania Quakers will get along. Add to this a mysterious death and you can see Peace has her hands full.
Ally: How do you choose your characters and name them?
SCC: It’s not always the same. Since we’ve been talking about Peace Morrow, I’ll tell you about her. Actually, I didn’t choose her. She chose me and she came pre-named. That small town and the museum where she was abandoned and eventually went to work are real and are the town where I’ve lived more than half my life. The Folk Fest is real, though the events in the books are not. Part of the museum is a lean-to shed filled with antique carriages. The main museum is a beautiful castle-like building, with nooks and crannies that send the imagination soaring. The shed is a dusty place with corners that are dark and forbidding. Not so nice, but, again, a place where imagination takes wing. That’s where I met Peace. I was strolling the grounds near the carriage shed. Its dark corners drew me in. How could a mystery writer resist? What might its shadows be hiding? I immediately thought of a baby in a basket. A picture of the infant took shape in my head. She was asleep. Her bed was a laundry basket; her clothing was as much a contrast to her humble surroundings as was the dirty shed to the gleaming castle. She was wearing a fine linen Christening gown and a delicate lace cap. There was a tiny pillow with the words “Peace Be With You” embroidered on it. A Quaker woman, responding to a dog barking nearby, found the child and fell in love with her. There was no doubt in her mind (or mine) that the baby was meant for her and that her name was Peace.
Not all characters and their names come to me this way, but the main characters in my books usually do. Others are created to interact with her/him and to help the plot unfold. Once I have a character, I try to find a name that fits, one that suits her/his age, personality and station in life. Sometimes I’ll stand in front of a bookcase, look at the titles and come up with a variation of a title and an author or someone in the book itself. One example: a favorite character of mine is Nathaniel Pynchon, named after the Pynchon family in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables. I try to include ethnic variety and avoid stereotypes. A little quirk: my sons’ names are Peter and David, so I’ll never give a killer those names. Nor will I let anything bad happen to a Peter or a David.
Ally: Let's start by talking about the genre of the books you write.
SCC: I write cozies, very traditional, with a romantic heat rating of zero (maybe 1 or 2 if you have a vivid imagination). The Jennie Connors mysteries are set in a retirement community where the residents are mobile, alert, and not adverse to helping Jennie solve the occasional murder. Lately, I’ve branched out to a new protagonist and a new series. The Peace Morrow books are set in a small town in Pennsylvania. Yes, it’s the town where I now live. My friends and neighbors love seeing their favorite shop or restaurant in a book and forgive the small liberties I take to make the plot work.
Ally: Who is your main character, and what makes her appealing?
SCC: Peace Morrow was abandoned as an infant during Folk Festival weekend at a small-town museum. She was discovered and adopted by a Quaker woman who gave her a childhood as nearly perfect as is possible. Peace knows this and is grateful, but can’t help feeling that a piece of her is missing. This missing piece, plus her Quaker upbringing, gives her a natural sympathy with the underdog. She’s strong and confident, but wishes she knew why the woman who gave birth to her didn’t want her. When LOVE AND NOT DESTROY begins, Peace has recently graduated from Temple and is working in the museum where she was abandoned. In its sequel, AN UNCERTAIN PATH, she knows who her birth parents are and is about to meet them. She’s excited about this, but worries how the Virginia aristocrats and the Pennsylvania Quakers will get along. Add to this a mysterious death and you can see Peace has her hands full.
Ally: How do you choose your characters and name them?
SCC: It’s not always the same. Since we’ve been talking about Peace Morrow, I’ll tell you about her. Actually, I didn’t choose her. She chose me and she came pre-named. That small town and the museum where she was abandoned and eventually went to work are real and are the town where I’ve lived more than half my life. The Folk Fest is real, though the events in the books are not. Part of the museum is a lean-to shed filled with antique carriages. The main museum is a beautiful castle-like building, with nooks and crannies that send the imagination soaring. The shed is a dusty place with corners that are dark and forbidding. Not so nice, but, again, a place where imagination takes wing. That’s where I met Peace. I was strolling the grounds near the carriage shed. Its dark corners drew me in. How could a mystery writer resist? What might its shadows be hiding? I immediately thought of a baby in a basket. A picture of the infant took shape in my head. She was asleep. Her bed was a laundry basket; her clothing was as much a contrast to her humble surroundings as was the dirty shed to the gleaming castle. She was wearing a fine linen Christening gown and a delicate lace cap. There was a tiny pillow with the words “Peace Be With You” embroidered on it. A Quaker woman, responding to a dog barking nearby, found the child and fell in love with her. There was no doubt in her mind (or mine) that the baby was meant for her and that her name was Peace.
Not all characters and their names come to me this way, but the main characters in my books usually do. Others are created to interact with her/him and to help the plot unfold. Once I have a character, I try to find a name that fits, one that suits her/his age, personality and station in life. Sometimes I’ll stand in front of a bookcase, look at the titles and come up with a variation of a title and an author or someone in the book itself. One example: a favorite character of mine is Nathaniel Pynchon, named after the Pynchon family in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables. I try to include ethnic variety and avoid stereotypes. A little quirk: my sons’ names are Peter and David, so I’ll never give a killer those names. Nor will I let anything bad happen to a Peter or a David.
Ally: What is your favorite non-writing activity?
SCC: Easy - quilting. There’s more similarity between writing and quilting than you might think. Both involve a love of the components that go into the makeup of the finished product. A book begins as a tangle of ideas with only the glint of a story shining through. A quilt begins with a mishmash of fabrics with colors and patterns that clash. Both the writer and the quilter begin by examining their components, testing different ways of combining them, seeking an arrangement that will blend the conflicting parts into a harmonious whole. Both as a writer and a quilter, I find this part of the process pure pleasure. When I finish a project, either writing or quilting, I feel an enormous sense of pride, but following that initial high, there’s a letdown - a hole that needs to be filled. If I don’t know how to start with the next book, I work on a quilt - and vice versa. In short, my two obsessions feed each other.
Ally: Do you include animals into your plots?
SCC: Oh, yes! Remember the tiny infant asleep in the laundry basket? A large, black dog discovered her and began to bark. A discouraged peace activist heard him and went to check. This story has been told and re-told to Peace Morrow all her life and, in honor of her rescuer, she’s always had a dog. A Black Lab named Henry is her current pet - her constant companion, trusted friend, and keeper of her deepest secrets.
Ally: What is your current WIP?
SCC: I’m working on another book in the Jennie Connors series. It’s fun to be back with Jennie and the residents of the retirement community. These stories are set in a fictional county just north of Memphis. If you’re going to set a series in Memphis, eventually you have to write about Elvis Presley. LOVE ME DEADLY is my tribute. One of the retirement community residents is performing as an Elvis Impersonator (they prefer the term Elvis Tribute Artist) in a benefit to raise funds to send the clients of a sheltered workshop to Disney World. When Jennie and some of the other residents go to a dress rehearsal, they run head-on into trouble. The King is dead. Yes, believe it not, someone murdered Elvis - at least one of him. Maybe a rival Elvis? The police don’t think so. The evidence points to a mentally challenged young man. Jennie refuses to believe he’s guilty and, along with her feisty seniors, steps in to prove him innocent. I hope to have it finished, edited, and ready for release by the end of this year.
Ally: These short answers questions are about you.
SCC: Easy - quilting. There’s more similarity between writing and quilting than you might think. Both involve a love of the components that go into the makeup of the finished product. A book begins as a tangle of ideas with only the glint of a story shining through. A quilt begins with a mishmash of fabrics with colors and patterns that clash. Both the writer and the quilter begin by examining their components, testing different ways of combining them, seeking an arrangement that will blend the conflicting parts into a harmonious whole. Both as a writer and a quilter, I find this part of the process pure pleasure. When I finish a project, either writing or quilting, I feel an enormous sense of pride, but following that initial high, there’s a letdown - a hole that needs to be filled. If I don’t know how to start with the next book, I work on a quilt - and vice versa. In short, my two obsessions feed each other.
Ally: Do you include animals into your plots?
SCC: Oh, yes! Remember the tiny infant asleep in the laundry basket? A large, black dog discovered her and began to bark. A discouraged peace activist heard him and went to check. This story has been told and re-told to Peace Morrow all her life and, in honor of her rescuer, she’s always had a dog. A Black Lab named Henry is her current pet - her constant companion, trusted friend, and keeper of her deepest secrets.
Ally: What is your current WIP?
SCC: I’m working on another book in the Jennie Connors series. It’s fun to be back with Jennie and the residents of the retirement community. These stories are set in a fictional county just north of Memphis. If you’re going to set a series in Memphis, eventually you have to write about Elvis Presley. LOVE ME DEADLY is my tribute. One of the retirement community residents is performing as an Elvis Impersonator (they prefer the term Elvis Tribute Artist) in a benefit to raise funds to send the clients of a sheltered workshop to Disney World. When Jennie and some of the other residents go to a dress rehearsal, they run head-on into trouble. The King is dead. Yes, believe it not, someone murdered Elvis - at least one of him. Maybe a rival Elvis? The police don’t think so. The evidence points to a mentally challenged young man. Jennie refuses to believe he’s guilty and, along with her feisty seniors, steps in to prove him innocent. I hope to have it finished, edited, and ready for release by the end of this year.
Ally: These short answers questions are about you.
- a. Book you're currently reading: IN THIS GRAVE HOUR by Jacqueline Winspear
- b. Favorite accessory: Scarves - love the color and texture they add to an outfit
- c. Do you believe in love at first sight? Absolutely! See Bio above.
- d. Last book that made you laugh: THE ALL-GIRL FILLING STATION’S LAST REUNION by Fannie Flagg
- e. Your pets: Only one now - a gray tabby cat named Miss McGee (usually called Missy)
AN UNCERTAIN PATH
(A Peace Morrow Novel)
Genre: cozy mystery
BLURB:
A tragic accident links the lives of two young women, unrelated, unknown to one another, causing each to question things she thought were certain. Peace Morrow, is about to meet the birth family she’s always longed to know. Raised as a Pennsylvania Quaker, she wonders what her Virginia aristocrat family will think of her. What happens when a careless action by one of them takes the family to the brink of disaster? Rachel Woodard, determined to break out of the safe world she’s always known, takes a drastic step that results in the death of a young man and sets off a chain of events that swirls outward like a pebble dropped in a pool. Two uncertain paths destined to converge.
Buy link: amzn.to/2vhDkz4
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