Welcome to another Coffee Chat!
This week’s guest is mystery author Debra H. Goldstein with her featured book (second in a series) Two Bites Too Many.
Good Morning, Debra. What may I get you to drink?
DG: I’ve always been a Coca-Cola drinker, but recently I’ve discovered iced caramel macchiatos and nitro brew with sweet crème.
Ally: While I put the magic pot to work, please introduce yourself to readers.
This week’s guest is mystery author Debra H. Goldstein with her featured book (second in a series) Two Bites Too Many.
Good Morning, Debra. What may I get you to drink?
DG: I’ve always been a Coca-Cola drinker, but recently I’ve discovered iced caramel macchiatos and nitro brew with sweet crème.
Ally: While I put the magic pot to work, please introduce yourself to readers.
Bio:
Judge Debra H. Goldstein writes Kensington’s Sarah Blair mystery series (One Taste Too Many, Two Bites Too Many). She also wrote Should Have Played Poker and IPPY winning Maze in Blue. Her short stories, including Anthony and Agatha nominated The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place, have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies. An active civic volunteer in Birmingham, Alabama, Debra also serves on the national boards of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, and is president of SEMWA and past president of SinC’s Guppy Chapter.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: “I was a Jeopardy contestant.”
Author Contacts:
Website – https://www.DebraHGoldstein.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/DebraHGoldsteinAuthor/
Twitter - @DebraHGoldstein
Instagram – debra.h.goldstein
Bookbub – https://www.bookbub.com/profile/debra-h-goldstein
Judge Debra H. Goldstein writes Kensington’s Sarah Blair mystery series (One Taste Too Many, Two Bites Too Many). She also wrote Should Have Played Poker and IPPY winning Maze in Blue. Her short stories, including Anthony and Agatha nominated The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place, have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies. An active civic volunteer in Birmingham, Alabama, Debra also serves on the national boards of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, and is president of SEMWA and past president of SinC’s Guppy Chapter.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: “I was a Jeopardy contestant.”
Author Contacts:
Website – https://www.DebraHGoldstein.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/DebraHGoldsteinAuthor/
Twitter - @DebraHGoldstein
Instagram – debra.h.goldstein
Bookbub – https://www.bookbub.com/profile/debra-h-goldstein
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Why did you write your featured book?
DG: My first two books, Maze in Blue and Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery, were each going to be a series, but when their respective publishers orphaned them, they became standalones. I decided I wanted to write a cozy mystery, but I ran into a problem. Most cozy mysteries either involve crafts or feature an excellent cook or baker - I don’t do crafts and being in the kitchen petrifies me. The more I thought about it, I realized there must be readers like me out there, so I created a protagonist for whom cooking from scratch is more frightening than murder.
When we pitched the concept to Kensington, they purchased three books. The first, One Taste Too Many, was published in January 2019, while the second, Two Bites Too Many, was released this week. Three Treats Too Many will be out in 2020, and two more books have now been purchased for 2021 and 2022.
Ally: Readers and friends often have plots they are eager for you to write. Have you ever used one?
DG: Never! In fact, when someone tries to pitch me a plot, I either run away immediately or encourage them to write it themselves or hire a professional ghostwriter. I make it clear that I don’t want to hear it for fear it might be so good that I subliminally adopt it – which I would never want to do.
Ally: How did you get that first book or story published?
DG: My first novel, 2012 IPPY award winning Maze in Blue, an academic mystery set on the University of Michigan’s campus in the 1970’s, was published by accident.
In 2010, I moderated a panel of woman writers in front of one hundred and ten women at a meeting of The Women’s Network. Weeks before the panel, I won an Alabama Writers Conclave award for the essay, Maybe I Should Hug You. More Magazine published the essay online. The TWN panel went well until I opened the floor for questions.
The first question asked was to me instead of the panelists. “What are you writing?”
Imagining they were talking about the essay, I touched on it and tried to steer the questions back to the panel. The second question was no better. “Tell us what else you are writing.”
“Well,” I said, “I think I have a mystery ready to see daylight.”
With that, I managed to get the program back on track highlighting the real writers. A few hours later, I received an email from a publisher telling me her friend was in the audience and had contacted her to tell her there was a judge with a mystery and from other things she’d seen, she thought the publisher might be interested in it. Would I like to have her look at it?
I asked if she wanted it sent with a bow or what? She responded an e-mail would suffice. A week later, I received a reply e-mail: “My partner, Joy, and I have read Maze in Blue and would like to offer you a contract.”
Ally: Do you know the book’s ending before you start writing?
DG: Yes and no. I usually begin a book or story based upon a phrase or image I see in my head.
Here are three of my beginnings:
Two Bites Too Many: “I don’t care if you own this house. You aren’t the one in charge!”
Should Have Played Poker: “The first time I thought of killing him, the two of us were having chicken sandwiches at that fast-food place with the oversized rubber bird anchored to its roof…It didn’t seem like the right place to kill him in a place they close on Sundays.”
The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place: “I remember the night they burned Ms. Dixie’s place. The newspapers reported it was an incendiary, but the only hot thing that night was Ms. Dixie.”
From each of these, I knew exactly who the character speaking was talking to and where the tale would end in terms of the character. The problem was I didn’t always know how I’d reach the ending in a way that satisfied both the reader and me. For example, I had no question about how One Taste Too Many needed to end for the protagonist, but after I finished the first draft, I realized the book from the middle to the end was flat. I agonized over what was wrong. Out of the blue, it hit me. I had the wrong murderer. I threw out half the book and rewrote it. The result not only was a tighter story, but the ending I had envisioned for the protagonist was credibly reached.
Ally: Have you written or considered writing in other genres or other forms, such as short stories or screenplays?
DG: Besides novels, I write short stories. I love the fact that I can take a finite tale and tell it in a few paragraphs or pages. Because every word must count, there are times I think the precise editing needed makes it more difficult than writing a novel.
Ally: What three books in your genre would you recommend to fans (after they’ve read your books, of course!).
DG: Any book by Diane Mott Davidson featuring Goldie Schultz; Iced Under by Barbara Ross, and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.
Ally: I’m curious to see which quick answer questions you picked.
DG:
Ally: Why did you write your featured book?
DG: My first two books, Maze in Blue and Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery, were each going to be a series, but when their respective publishers orphaned them, they became standalones. I decided I wanted to write a cozy mystery, but I ran into a problem. Most cozy mysteries either involve crafts or feature an excellent cook or baker - I don’t do crafts and being in the kitchen petrifies me. The more I thought about it, I realized there must be readers like me out there, so I created a protagonist for whom cooking from scratch is more frightening than murder.
When we pitched the concept to Kensington, they purchased three books. The first, One Taste Too Many, was published in January 2019, while the second, Two Bites Too Many, was released this week. Three Treats Too Many will be out in 2020, and two more books have now been purchased for 2021 and 2022.
Ally: Readers and friends often have plots they are eager for you to write. Have you ever used one?
DG: Never! In fact, when someone tries to pitch me a plot, I either run away immediately or encourage them to write it themselves or hire a professional ghostwriter. I make it clear that I don’t want to hear it for fear it might be so good that I subliminally adopt it – which I would never want to do.
Ally: How did you get that first book or story published?
DG: My first novel, 2012 IPPY award winning Maze in Blue, an academic mystery set on the University of Michigan’s campus in the 1970’s, was published by accident.
In 2010, I moderated a panel of woman writers in front of one hundred and ten women at a meeting of The Women’s Network. Weeks before the panel, I won an Alabama Writers Conclave award for the essay, Maybe I Should Hug You. More Magazine published the essay online. The TWN panel went well until I opened the floor for questions.
The first question asked was to me instead of the panelists. “What are you writing?”
Imagining they were talking about the essay, I touched on it and tried to steer the questions back to the panel. The second question was no better. “Tell us what else you are writing.”
“Well,” I said, “I think I have a mystery ready to see daylight.”
With that, I managed to get the program back on track highlighting the real writers. A few hours later, I received an email from a publisher telling me her friend was in the audience and had contacted her to tell her there was a judge with a mystery and from other things she’d seen, she thought the publisher might be interested in it. Would I like to have her look at it?
I asked if she wanted it sent with a bow or what? She responded an e-mail would suffice. A week later, I received a reply e-mail: “My partner, Joy, and I have read Maze in Blue and would like to offer you a contract.”
Ally: Do you know the book’s ending before you start writing?
DG: Yes and no. I usually begin a book or story based upon a phrase or image I see in my head.
Here are three of my beginnings:
Two Bites Too Many: “I don’t care if you own this house. You aren’t the one in charge!”
Should Have Played Poker: “The first time I thought of killing him, the two of us were having chicken sandwiches at that fast-food place with the oversized rubber bird anchored to its roof…It didn’t seem like the right place to kill him in a place they close on Sundays.”
The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place: “I remember the night they burned Ms. Dixie’s place. The newspapers reported it was an incendiary, but the only hot thing that night was Ms. Dixie.”
From each of these, I knew exactly who the character speaking was talking to and where the tale would end in terms of the character. The problem was I didn’t always know how I’d reach the ending in a way that satisfied both the reader and me. For example, I had no question about how One Taste Too Many needed to end for the protagonist, but after I finished the first draft, I realized the book from the middle to the end was flat. I agonized over what was wrong. Out of the blue, it hit me. I had the wrong murderer. I threw out half the book and rewrote it. The result not only was a tighter story, but the ending I had envisioned for the protagonist was credibly reached.
Ally: Have you written or considered writing in other genres or other forms, such as short stories or screenplays?
DG: Besides novels, I write short stories. I love the fact that I can take a finite tale and tell it in a few paragraphs or pages. Because every word must count, there are times I think the precise editing needed makes it more difficult than writing a novel.
Ally: What three books in your genre would you recommend to fans (after they’ve read your books, of course!).
DG: Any book by Diane Mott Davidson featuring Goldie Schultz; Iced Under by Barbara Ross, and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.
Ally: I’m curious to see which quick answer questions you picked.
DG:
- favorite book – Damned If You Do, Damned if You Don’t by Marjorie K. Osterman
- favorite tv show – Perry Mason
- high heels or sneakers - sneakers
- What comes to your first - character or plot? - character
- If you couldn’t write anymore, what would you want to do? Go back on the bench.
- favorite place to write – a big easy chair my mother gave my father for their first anniversary. She had it designed for my father’s long legs (it is two inches deeper than most chairs)
Two Bites Too Many
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating: PG
Far from a domestic goddess, Sarah Blair would rather catch bad guys than slave over a hot stove. But when a dangerous murder boils over in Wheaton, Alabama, catching the killer means leaving her comfort zone . . .
Things are finally looking up for Sarah Blair following her unsavory divorce. Settled into a cozy carriage house with her Siamese cat, RahRah, she has somehow managed to hang on to her law firm receptionist job and – if befriending flea-bitten strays at the local animal shelter counts – lead a thriving social life. For once, Sarah almost has it together more than her enterprising twin, Emily, a professional chef whose efforts to open a gourmet restaurant have hit a real dead end…
When the president of the town bank is murdered after icing Emily’s business plans, all eyes are on the one person who left the scene with blood on her hands – the twins’ sharp-tongued mother, Maybelle. Determined to get her mom off the hook ASAP, Sarah must collect the ingredients of a deadly crime to bring the true culprit to justice. But as neighbors turn against her family, can she pare down the suspects before another victim lands on the chopping block?
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bites-Many-Sarah-Blair-Mystery-ebook/dp/B07MB4779P
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/two-bites-too-many-debra-h-goldstein/1130055243
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating: PG
Far from a domestic goddess, Sarah Blair would rather catch bad guys than slave over a hot stove. But when a dangerous murder boils over in Wheaton, Alabama, catching the killer means leaving her comfort zone . . .
Things are finally looking up for Sarah Blair following her unsavory divorce. Settled into a cozy carriage house with her Siamese cat, RahRah, she has somehow managed to hang on to her law firm receptionist job and – if befriending flea-bitten strays at the local animal shelter counts – lead a thriving social life. For once, Sarah almost has it together more than her enterprising twin, Emily, a professional chef whose efforts to open a gourmet restaurant have hit a real dead end…
When the president of the town bank is murdered after icing Emily’s business plans, all eyes are on the one person who left the scene with blood on her hands – the twins’ sharp-tongued mother, Maybelle. Determined to get her mom off the hook ASAP, Sarah must collect the ingredients of a deadly crime to bring the true culprit to justice. But as neighbors turn against her family, can she pare down the suspects before another victim lands on the chopping block?
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bites-Many-Sarah-Blair-Mystery-ebook/dp/B07MB4779P
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/two-bites-too-many-debra-h-goldstein/1130055243
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