It’s Coffee Chat Time!
Pull up your chair, grab your mugs, and settle in for book talk. Today’s guest is cozy mystery author Lisa Preston with her featured book, The Clincher.
Welcome, Lisa! How do you take your coffee?
Lisa: Black, huge, and cooled off enough to be gulp-able!
Ally: Excellent taste. While I pour, tell readers a little about your background.
Bio:
Lisa Preston turned to writing after careers as a fire department paramedic and a city police officer. Experience in her earlier professions enhance the medical and legal passages of her fiction and non-fiction. She is now a full-time writer.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: “Last year, I fulfilled my childhood dream of visiting east Africa. The trip involved a week without a shower in which I walked fifty miles up to the 19,341’ summit of Kilimanjaro.”
Contact Links:
Website: http://www.lisapreston.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Lisa-Preston/e/B0059AK9A2
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.preston.3152
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6079326.Lisa_Preston
Lisa Preston turned to writing after careers as a fire department paramedic and a city police officer. Experience in her earlier professions enhance the medical and legal passages of her fiction and non-fiction. She is now a full-time writer.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: “Last year, I fulfilled my childhood dream of visiting east Africa. The trip involved a week without a shower in which I walked fifty miles up to the 19,341’ summit of Kilimanjaro.”
Contact Links:
Website: http://www.lisapreston.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Lisa-Preston/e/B0059AK9A2
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.preston.3152
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6079326.Lisa_Preston
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Talk about your main characters, Lisa. Are they likable? Do they have off-putting flaws or beliefs? Are they “good” people? Is it important for them to be real or relatable?
LP: The Clincher’s main character, Rainy Dale, is 23 years old, a high school drop-out, somewhat estranged from both of her parents, and deeply bothered by something in her past. She’s funny and likable but needs to finish growing up. Early on, she is refusing to reveal herself fully to a good man who cares for her, and this insecurity can lead her to behave like a bit of a jerk on occasion. Because this is a series, it was important to create plenty of room for Rainy to grow, but readers can have faith—like most of us, Rainy will get there!
Ally: What makes a good villain? What characteristics will make us love to hate him/her?
LP: A good villain is the hero of his own story, who behaves like a real person not a caricature of a bad guy. He holds beliefs or reasons for his actions and choices that seem perfectly valid to him, and he has some truly likeable traits. This conflict can make readers think and struggle with putting the villain in a box.
Ally: If you met authorR.L. Stine, what would you talk about?
LP: My book-clubby standalone novels--Orchids and Stone (2016) and The Measure of the Moon (2017)—sent me on the circuit of Left Coast Crime, Thrillerfest, and Bouchercon, so I’ve hung out with a lot of big deal writers. (Who are all always very genial.) The first time I met Bob, I shared with him my thanks that his novels had helped my niece get through her parents’ divorce. He just about swooned with the compliment.
Ally: Have you written or considered writing in other genres or other forms, such as short stories or screenplays? Why or why not. Would they be easier, harder, or just different?
LP: I’ve done short stories, which I find a wonderful format for making you write tight. My next published story will be in the 2019 anthology, Murder Most Edible, released during Malice Domestic next May. I’ve also been published in nonfiction, mostly books and articles on the care and training of horses and dogs.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
LP: Gutbombs ‘n’ Guinness, my story in the aforementioned Murder Most Edible anthology will be my next published work; it reveals the characters from The Clincher in their very early days together. Dead Blow, the second novel in this new mystery series, will be out in about a year; the first chapter is already included in the back of The Clincher.
Ally: It’s time for some quick answer questions:
Ally: Talk about your main characters, Lisa. Are they likable? Do they have off-putting flaws or beliefs? Are they “good” people? Is it important for them to be real or relatable?
LP: The Clincher’s main character, Rainy Dale, is 23 years old, a high school drop-out, somewhat estranged from both of her parents, and deeply bothered by something in her past. She’s funny and likable but needs to finish growing up. Early on, she is refusing to reveal herself fully to a good man who cares for her, and this insecurity can lead her to behave like a bit of a jerk on occasion. Because this is a series, it was important to create plenty of room for Rainy to grow, but readers can have faith—like most of us, Rainy will get there!
Ally: What makes a good villain? What characteristics will make us love to hate him/her?
LP: A good villain is the hero of his own story, who behaves like a real person not a caricature of a bad guy. He holds beliefs or reasons for his actions and choices that seem perfectly valid to him, and he has some truly likeable traits. This conflict can make readers think and struggle with putting the villain in a box.
Ally: If you met authorR.L. Stine, what would you talk about?
LP: My book-clubby standalone novels--Orchids and Stone (2016) and The Measure of the Moon (2017)—sent me on the circuit of Left Coast Crime, Thrillerfest, and Bouchercon, so I’ve hung out with a lot of big deal writers. (Who are all always very genial.) The first time I met Bob, I shared with him my thanks that his novels had helped my niece get through her parents’ divorce. He just about swooned with the compliment.
Ally: Have you written or considered writing in other genres or other forms, such as short stories or screenplays? Why or why not. Would they be easier, harder, or just different?
LP: I’ve done short stories, which I find a wonderful format for making you write tight. My next published story will be in the 2019 anthology, Murder Most Edible, released during Malice Domestic next May. I’ve also been published in nonfiction, mostly books and articles on the care and training of horses and dogs.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
LP: Gutbombs ‘n’ Guinness, my story in the aforementioned Murder Most Edible anthology will be my next published work; it reveals the characters from The Clincher in their very early days together. Dead Blow, the second novel in this new mystery series, will be out in about a year; the first chapter is already included in the back of The Clincher.
Ally: It’s time for some quick answer questions:
- a. an item on your bucket list. Go to Antarctica—it’s the only continent I’ve never visited.
- b. favorite accessory (jewelry, scarves, shoes, etc.) I always wear earrings and a choker, though the earrings are only lever backs, because I’ve lost too many with less secure closures, and the choker is just to give me a place from which I can hang my sunglasses as needed.
- c. high heels or sneakers: Sneakers, even with a gorgeous Victoria’s Secret silk skirt suit. My police chief used to look at me sideways as I only complied with the detectives’ dress code of “business casual” down to my ankles. On my feet were Brooks Addiction running shoes, but really, how much more needs to be said about that? From the ankles up is a lot of me to be in compliance, and I was certainly not going to wear heels in that job.
- d. something unique in your closet: A sled dog harness. I lived in Alaska for 20 years and ski-joured with my shepherd. We still have his old harness on the top shelf in our bedroom closet, though there’s rarely enough snow to ski-jour now that we live in western Washington.
- e. favorite after five drink: Cabernet Sauvignon, dry, inexpensive. I’m partial to those from Chile and Argentina.
The Clincher: A Horseshoer Mystery
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Clinching is the technique used to bend a driven horseshoe nail to hold the shoe to a hoof.
Rainy Dale is The Clincher, a twenty-something high school-dropout turned farrier (horseshoer) who is haunted by a secret she carries. Estranged from her California d-list actress momma and her ranch hand Texas daddy, she tracked down her childhood horse in small-town Oregon—a land full of cowboys and their horses—then stayed to build a life with her tools, steel, and forge.
She’s sleeping in a garage and trying not to fall for her landlord, the hapless and hopeful chef, Guy, who is determined to create the perfect soufflé while Rainy would prefer to just stuff her mouth with fuel for her physically demanding job.
As the new kid in town, Rainy has an uphill battle to prove herself, especially to her male clients, but when one of her clients turns up dead, Rainy is in over her head as both a suspect and a seeker of the truth.
The Clincher is the first in a series of horseshoer mysteries featuring the irrepressible, irreverent, and irresistible Rainy Dale and her loveable and unlikely side-kick (her culinarily inclined boyfriend, Guy).
Jacket blurbs:
“…this exuberantly quirky series opener…will leave readers breathless and eagerly awaiting Rainy’s next adventure.”—PW starred review
“Preston’s background as a police officer, horse owner, and author of several nonfiction works about horses helps make the actions of her characters authentic and very believable. VERDICT: Fans of light mystery with tough female protagonists and a little romance thrown in will want this book. For those who enjoy both mysteries and horses, it’s a must.” —Library Journal
“A rousing novel. The mystery leaves plenty of open questions for the tough but needy heroine while immersing the reader in all things equine.” —Kirkus Reviews
"Rainy Dale—an engaging character with a unique voice who can shoe horses like nobody’s business!” —J.A. Jance
“Fast-paced, absorbing and fun to boot, The Clincher grabs your attention from the first paragraph and never loosens its grip. Rainy Dale—horseshoer with sass—is one of the freshest and most original sleuths to come along in mystery fiction. May she live on and on!” —Margaret Coel
Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Clincher-Horseshoer-Mystery-ebook/dp/B075X332BD
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-clincher-lisa-preston/1126835283?ean=9781510732728#/
Check her website (http://www.lisapreston.com) for other sellers.
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