Good Morning, Booklovers!
Are you ready for the holidays? Put your feet up and grab a cup of your favorite beverage while we chat with this week’s guest author, Judy Alter, who writes cozy mysteries.
Welcome, Judy. What may I get you to drink?
JA: I am not a coffee drinker. I start my day with a cup of hot tea, decaffeinated per doctor’s orders and flavored with a bit of honey. After that I switch to ice water, except on very cold days I may have an afternoon cuppa
.
Ally: While I prepare a nice, hot cuppa tea, please introduce yourself to readers.
Bio:
After an established career writing historical fiction for adults and young adults, about women of the nineteenth-century American West, Judy Alter turned her attention to contemporary cozy mysteries. Most of her Kelly O’Connell Mysteries and Blue Plate Café Mysteries were published by Turquoise Morning Press and available from Amazon. When her publisher went out of business, she became an indie publisher and never looked back.
Judy is an active member of Sisters in Crime, Guppies, Women Writing the West, and the Texas Institute of Letters. When she is not writing, Judy is busy with seven grandchildren. Born in Chicago, she has made her home in Fort Worth, Texas for over fifty years. Judy is also a proud Scot, a member of Clan MacBean. One trip to the Highlands convinced her that is where her heart is, and she longs to write a novel set in Scotland that would take a second trip for research.
Her western fiction and nonfiction has been recognized with awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame. She has been honored with the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement by WWA and inducted into the WWA Hall of Fame and the Texas Literary Hall of Fame at the Fort Worth Public Library. Some of her western books are available Kindle and a variety of other ebook platforms.
Something about yourself not included in your regular bio: “I am the proud parent of four and grandmother of seven. My four children are all adopted, and I raised them mostly as a single parent. We are a large, rowdy, noisy crew when we get together. Hate that quarantine and the pandemic has ruled out our get-togethers for the time being.”
Contact links:
Website: http://www.judyalter.com
Blogs: http://www.judys-stew.blogspot.com; http://www.gourmetonahotplate.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=judy%20alter&epa=SEARCH_BOX; https://www.facebook.com/Judy-Alter-Author-366948676705857/?ref=br_rs
Twitter: @judyalter
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5446.Judy_Alter
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/judy-alter
After an established career writing historical fiction for adults and young adults, about women of the nineteenth-century American West, Judy Alter turned her attention to contemporary cozy mysteries. Most of her Kelly O’Connell Mysteries and Blue Plate Café Mysteries were published by Turquoise Morning Press and available from Amazon. When her publisher went out of business, she became an indie publisher and never looked back.
Judy is an active member of Sisters in Crime, Guppies, Women Writing the West, and the Texas Institute of Letters. When she is not writing, Judy is busy with seven grandchildren. Born in Chicago, she has made her home in Fort Worth, Texas for over fifty years. Judy is also a proud Scot, a member of Clan MacBean. One trip to the Highlands convinced her that is where her heart is, and she longs to write a novel set in Scotland that would take a second trip for research.
Her western fiction and nonfiction has been recognized with awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame. She has been honored with the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement by WWA and inducted into the WWA Hall of Fame and the Texas Literary Hall of Fame at the Fort Worth Public Library. Some of her western books are available Kindle and a variety of other ebook platforms.
Something about yourself not included in your regular bio: “I am the proud parent of four and grandmother of seven. My four children are all adopted, and I raised them mostly as a single parent. We are a large, rowdy, noisy crew when we get together. Hate that quarantine and the pandemic has ruled out our get-togethers for the time being.”
Contact links:
Website: http://www.judyalter.com
Blogs: http://www.judys-stew.blogspot.com; http://www.gourmetonahotplate.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=judy%20alter&epa=SEARCH_BOX; https://www.facebook.com/Judy-Alter-Author-366948676705857/?ref=br_rs
Twitter: @judyalter
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5446.Judy_Alter
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/judy-alter
INTERVIEW:
Ally: What inspired you to write your featured book?
JA: Saving Irene grew out of my increasing interest in cooking and food writing. I have been known to say that in my next life I’ll be a chef so the book may reflect that, though Irene developed in ways I hadn’t expected and became a diva. I hope I’m not that. The other thread in the book is Chicago. As I grow older, I turn more to my childhood background. Saving Irene is set in Chicago’s historic Hyde Park neighborhood where I grew up.
Ally: Do people you know ever show up in your novels?
JA: People I knew in my teen years show up in Saving Irene. Friends from that period of my life have written me that they recognized this one or that. But the book is an exception. There are few people from my real life in most of my fiction.
Ally: Which of your own books is your personal favorite?
JA: The Gilded Cage, a fictional biography of Bertha Honoré (Cissy) Palmer, wife of hotelier Potter Palmer (The Palmer House) and one of the first women to combine great wealth with philanthropy. The novel is almost a history of Chicago from 1847 through the Great Fire, the Haymarket Riot, and the Columbian Exposition. I think writing that book is what renewed my interest in Chicago.
Ally: What’s the very best compliment you’ve received from a book reader.
JA: A fan once said to me, “I saw Kelly going into the Neighborhood Grill.” Kelly O’Connell, fictional heroine of my Kelly O’Connell mystery series, had become so real to her that she thought she saw her going into one of Kelly’s favorite neighborhood restaurants. Another fan said my characters are just like the people you meet in the grocery. I thought both were great compliments.
Ally: What writing project is on your current To Do list?
JA: Next on my desk is a sequel to Saving Irene. I have the title, Irene in Danger, and the first line “Irene Foxglove was flying across the ocean to ruin my wedding.” Plot ideas are bouncing around in my mind, and it time to get serious at the computer.
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you choose to answer?
JA:
Ally: What inspired you to write your featured book?
JA: Saving Irene grew out of my increasing interest in cooking and food writing. I have been known to say that in my next life I’ll be a chef so the book may reflect that, though Irene developed in ways I hadn’t expected and became a diva. I hope I’m not that. The other thread in the book is Chicago. As I grow older, I turn more to my childhood background. Saving Irene is set in Chicago’s historic Hyde Park neighborhood where I grew up.
Ally: Do people you know ever show up in your novels?
JA: People I knew in my teen years show up in Saving Irene. Friends from that period of my life have written me that they recognized this one or that. But the book is an exception. There are few people from my real life in most of my fiction.
Ally: Which of your own books is your personal favorite?
JA: The Gilded Cage, a fictional biography of Bertha Honoré (Cissy) Palmer, wife of hotelier Potter Palmer (The Palmer House) and one of the first women to combine great wealth with philanthropy. The novel is almost a history of Chicago from 1847 through the Great Fire, the Haymarket Riot, and the Columbian Exposition. I think writing that book is what renewed my interest in Chicago.
Ally: What’s the very best compliment you’ve received from a book reader.
JA: A fan once said to me, “I saw Kelly going into the Neighborhood Grill.” Kelly O’Connell, fictional heroine of my Kelly O’Connell mystery series, had become so real to her that she thought she saw her going into one of Kelly’s favorite neighborhood restaurants. Another fan said my characters are just like the people you meet in the grocery. I thought both were great compliments.
Ally: What writing project is on your current To Do list?
JA: Next on my desk is a sequel to Saving Irene. I have the title, Irene in Danger, and the first line “Irene Foxglove was flying across the ocean to ruin my wedding.” Plot ideas are bouncing around in my mind, and it time to get serious at the computer.
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you choose to answer?
JA:
- a. A writer - living or dead - you wish you could take to lunch: Mystery author Susan Wittig Albert
- b. Your pets: My dog, Sophie, a doodle dog—half miniature poodle, half border collie.
- c. Your hobbies: Cooking.
- d. The best place you ever visited: Edinburgh, Scotland
- e. What you’d do if you could write any more: I’d cook.
Saving Irene (A Culinary Mystery)
Genre: Cozy mystery
Irene Foxglove wishes she were a French chef. Henrietta James, her assistant, know she is nothing more than a small-time TV chef on a local Chicago channel.
And yet when Irene is threatened, Henny tries desperately to save her, wishing always that “Madame” would tell her the truth--about her marriage, her spoiled daughter, her days in France, the man who threatens her.
Henny’s best friend, the gay guy who lives next door, teases her, encourages her—and maybe loves her from afar.
Murder, kidnapping, and some French gossip complicate this mystery, set in Chicago and redolent with the aroma of fine food.
Buy links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08GXB8KP6
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1531206726
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/saving-irene-judy-alter/1137615165;jsessionid=25CDBD588337575DFC7FD06A31F73A63.prodny_store01-atgap04?ean=2940164502515
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/saving-irene
All books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Judy-Alter/e/B001H6NMU6
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