The Glass House - An Interview and Giveaway

I'm pleased to welcome Nancy Lynn Jarvis to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Nancy writes the PIP Inc.Mystery series. The Glass House is the first book in the series.

Kathy: In The Glass House Pat Pirard loses her job and needs to reinvent herself. Have you ever been forced to make a career switch?

NLJ: Twice, but not directly. The first time I did a career switch was on an icy morning in January. I worked for The San Jose Mercury News and had to drive a treacherous stretch of road up and over a mountain from Santa Cruz, where I had just moved, to San Jose. I hit a patch of black ice and did a three-sixty on the road. Fortunately, I didn’t hit anything, but I turned in my resignation as soon as I got to work. The second time was when I was a Realtor. I had a good career going and switched to a different company. I didn’t close one escrow for a whole year. The broker “suggested” I might want to work elsewhere. I left and closed a record number of escrows the next year.


Kathy: Pat goes to a glass forming class for her 35th birthday in the first PIP Inc. Mystery. For my 40th birthday I went to the Corning Museum of glass where I made a glass flower. Have you ever  been to a glassmaking class?

NLJ: I never have. I leave that to Airbnb guests, several of whom have stayed with me when they attend classes. I did dabble in stained glass many years ago. Does that count?


Kathy: What first drew you to cozy mysteries?

NLJ: I grew up reading my grandmother’s Miss Marple mysteries. My love of them stuck.


Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?

NLJ: I did write a one-off comedy-of-sorts, “Mags and the AARP Gang” about a group of octogenarians who live in a mobile home park that’s about to be foreclosed. They plan to rob the bank that holds the mortgage to pay it off, but things go wrong. I’ve also edited two books, “Cozy Food: 128 Cozy Mystery Writers Share Their Favorite Recipes” and a short story anthology called “Santa Cruz Weird.”


Kathy: Tell us about your series.

NLJ: I have seven books in the Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries series. Regan is a Realtor whose, friends, clients, and associates wind up as victims of or accused of murder and have
just started the first of a planned series of PIP Inc. Mysteries with “The Glass House.” PIP stands for Private Investigator Pat. My protagonist was happily living her life as the Santa Cruz County Law Librarian until she got downsized and reinvented herself as an unlicensed PI.


Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?

NLJ: From my books or in general? From my books I love Mags and Melvin from “Mags and the AARP Gang”. I also like Mrs. Rosemont from “The Death Contingency” and Dave, the one eyed police Officer from the Regan McHenry Real Estates mysteries series because Regan makes him crazy and he responds with “Daveisms” filled with mixed metaphors and malapropisms. My favorites from other writers are Miss Marple, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Amy Tan’s protagonists.


Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your series?

NLJ: I do. I have a real PI Pat who is a friend. I stole her identity and background for the series. She’s going to collaborate with me about how she solves cases and some story lines.


Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?

NLJ: I started writing as a game because I was bored. A friend who always wanted to be a writer and worked at it every day caught me and got upset. “You need to have a mentor, belong to a critique circle, take classes, and suffer for your art,” she said. I finished my first book to show her
that I didn’t. She never finished anything she started because her mentor, critic circle, and others
always distracted her. She was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and said her one regret in life was that she had never finished anything and seen her name in print. I put together a little publishing company and dedicated the book I had written as a game to her. It came out three weeks before she died so she got to see her name in print.


Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?

NLJ: Obviously Agatha Christie, Stephen King, Amy Tan, and possibly Katherine Parr, Henry the Eighth’s sixth wife, the first woman to publish in English under her own name.


Kathy: What are you currently reading?

NLJ: I just finished “The Thin Edge” by Peggy Townsend, a fellow Santa Cruz Woman of Mystery and Sister in Crime.


Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?

NLJ: I do Airbnb in my spare time and love it. I even did a little book called “The Truth About Hosting Airbnb” using notes I kept from my first year.


Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.

NLJ: Almond milk, eggs, a variety of hot sauces and Thai and Chinese ingredients like fish sauce and Hoisin sauce, and mustard.


Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series?

NLJ: Many plans. Book two in the PIP series tentatively called Two Funerals for the Price of One is in the outlining stage. I’d also love to do a series about two retired handymen called Geezers With Tools and something historical about Harvey Girls.


Kathy: What's your favorite thing about being an author?

NLJ: My favorite thing about being an author is all the wonderful people you meet. Other authors are so generous and fans are amazing. I hope to do writer retreats at my house for between one and five writers all plotting and murdering. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

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The Glass House: A PIP Inc. Mystery by Nancy Lynn Jarvis

About The Glass House

 

The Glass House: A PIP Inc. Mystery  

Cozy Mystery 1st in Series  

Good Read Mysteries (July 23, 2019)  

Paperback: 271 pages 

Law Librarian Pat Pirard got an unexpected thirty-fifth birthday present: a pink slip. Now she has nine weeks to reinvent herself before she runs out of money. Her best friend Syda gives her a glass forming class as a birthday present and distraction where Pat again gets a surprise: a murder.

About Nancy Lynn Jarvis

Nancy Lynn Jarvis was a Santa Cruz, California, Realtor® for more than twenty years before she fell in love with writing and let her license lapse. After earning a BA in behavioral science from San Jose State University, she worked in the advertising department of the San Jose Mercury News. A move to Santa Cruz meant a new job as a librarian and later a stint as the business manager for Shakespeare/Santa Cruz at UCSC. Nancy’s work history reflects her philosophy: people should try something radically different every few years, a philosophy she applies to her writing, as well. She has written seven Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries; a stand-alone novel “Mags and the AARP Gang” about a group of octogenarian bank robbers; edited “Cozy Food: 128 Cozy Mystery Writers Share Their Favorite Recipes” and a short story anthology, “Santa Cruz Weird;” and even done a little insider’s book, “The Truth About Hosting Airbnb” about her first year as a host. “The Glass House” is the first book in a planned series of PIP Inc. Mysteries. Now she’s trying to figure out when to work on another series she’d love to do called “Geezers with Tools” about two older handymen who will solve mysteries in the course of doing their work, and setting up writer retreats at her house.  

Author Links:
Website - https://www.nancylynnjarvis.com/  
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn  
GoodReads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2918242.Nancy_Lynn_Jarvis  

Purchase - Amazon

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Nancy Lynn Jarvis has graciously offered one digital copy of The Glass House to a lucky reader. Simply leave a comment on this blog post telling us if you've ever been forced to make a career switch or what most interests you about this book. Leave your comment no later than 11:59 pm on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 in order to qualify. Make sure you leave an e-mail address so that I can contact you should your comment be chosen. Good luck.