I'm pleased to welcome Tina DeBellegarde to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Tina writes the Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery series. Dead Man's Leap is the second book in the series and was released earlier this month.
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Kathy: Winter Witness is the first book in your Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery series. In it a young widow finds herself in the turmoil created when beloved nun is murdered. While I doubt you've been in the center of a murder investigation, have you ever found yourself embroiled in a situation you never intended?
TD: No murder, that’s true, but I have found myself in the middle of a community quarrel over a quarry that reopened in our hamlet. The quarry had been closed for many years and in the interim a residential community developed around the abandoned quarry. One day, with no warning, it started work again and the noise and dust were untenable. Some of my neighbors were outraged, others were just too old or ill to be motivated to do anything. My husband and I found ourselves at the helm of this quandary. We researched the ordinances, the zoning and wetland maps. We attended town meetings to represent the residents’ interests. We drafted rebuttals to quarry permit revision requests and gathered signatures on a petition. All of this happened the year we arrived in our quiet little community. It was not what we intended when we decided to move to a quiet Catskill Mountain village. No murder, but definitely community unrest.
Kathy: Setting plays such an important part in mystery novels. Why did you choose a Catskill Mountain town for your series?
TD: When I thought about writing a novel before I put pen to paper, I daydreamed about writing an amateur sleuth, but the setting wasn’t clear for me. Once we purchased our summer/vacation/future retirement home up here in the Catskills, I started taking walks like Bianca does in my books. Not only were the surroundings beautiful, but I realized just how many ways one could stage a murder in this area. There were waterfalls and deadly cliffs, abandoned quarries and resorts, winding roads with speeding pickups, isolated trails in the woods. The possibilities were endless. When you add that to the sense of community and interesting neighbors, I realized I had found my setting and immediately created the fictitious Batavia-on-Hudson based on all my favorite spots in various towns in this area with a little imagination sprinkled in.
Kathy: You write full length novels, short stories, and even flash fiction. Do you have a preference? Do you find one form easier to write than another?
TD: I think the length, the number of characters, and the complexity of sub-arcs in long fiction has its challenges. Short fiction, on the other hand, has the necessity of weighing every word. This is especially true of flash fiction. In my novel, I weigh my words too, but it’s different. As my editor says, you can luxuriate in the writing of a scene in a novel. In short fiction, there is no luxuriating. Every word packs a punch.
I would have to say that flash fiction is the hardest. I have to accomplish so much in so few words, sometimes only one hundred words. The reader has to come away with some sense of satisfaction, there has to be some evolution. It is daunting. But when I accomplish it, I am particularly proud of myself.
Short stories are the easiest for me. They come to me most naturally. Almost all my pieces are mysteriously about the same length, as if I have some sort of internal rhythm for that structure.
Kathy: What first drew you to mysteries?
TD: I always loved puzzles and I read some Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew as a child. I loved Columbo. But it was when I encountered Martha Grimes that I realized that I had found the type of book that speaks to me as a writer and reader. A character-driven story set I a small village community with themes that speak to me, and of course, a wonderful puzzle to solve.
Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?
TD: At the moment, I have two stand alones on the back burner that would be considered literary fiction. I have also started a memoir-in-flash. All these projects are percolating but I am only seriously writing my series at this time.
Kathy: Tell us about your series.
TD: The books in the Batavia-on-Hudson series are traditional mysteries. Some reviewers consider them cozies, or not-so-cozy cozies. There are two books so far, Winter Witness and the newly released Dead Man’s Leap, and they are centered around a village with an ensemble cast of characters. Bianca St. Denis is my protagonist and she finds herself to be unexpectedly good at sleuthing and helps the handsome Sheriff Mike Riley. She usually finds herself at the right place, at the right time to shed some light on the case. Or as the sheriff would say, she’s at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?
TD: Besides my main characters, Bianca and Mike, I love writing Eugene Wilkins. He owns Stella’s Diner, the heart of the town, where everyone passes through at least once a day. Neighbors gather, gossip, and drink lots of coffee while jazz plays quietly in the background. Eugene is a widower. He and Bianca, a young widow herself, share their grief but are also friends who sleuth well together.
Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your series?
TD: My husband and I are almost twenty years apart and I have often wondered how life would change if he were gone. I made Bianca a widow because I wanted her to be more vulnerable and I wanted her to face some challenges, and if I am truthful, I wanted to work out some of my own concerns on that front. I also always wanted to write an amateur sleuth and I love strong, smart female leads. So, I made my own.
Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?
TD: As solitary a pursuit as writing is, the idea of writing and never being read seems like such a shame. The goal of being published for many of us is about validation. The validation gives us the courage to continue writing.
Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?
TD: Anne Tyler – to pick her brain about character development
Martha Grimes – to discuss the village mystery
Haruki Murakami – to understand what makes this man tick and to get a glimpse into his imagination
Agatha Christie – obviously…
Kathy: What are you currently reading?
I usually read a couple of books at a time – a mystery and something else. I am reading The Killer Sermon, the first book in Kevin Kluesner’s Cole Huebsch series and it looks like it will be a great new series. I’m also reading an Advanced Review Copy of The Widow, The Priest and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life in a Secluded Japanese Island by Amy Chavez. It is due out in May and I am writing a review for the BooksonAsia.net website. It’s a lovely portrait of evolving life and the aging inhabitants of Shiraishi Island in Japan.
Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?
TD: On our hobby farm, my husband and I keep bees and grow shiitake mushrooms. We also keep an enormous garden – way too much for two people. I love to bake and make jam – they are so relaxing. I use to teach some cooking classes and would like to get back to that as well. I am learning Japanese so I can make the most of my visits to my son in Kyoto. I love Japanese literature and writing reviews for these books.
Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.
TD: Garlic, oil, cheese and dark chocolate.
Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series?
TD: Yes! Book 3 of the Batavia-on-Hudson series– Autumn Dispatches is in the works. It has Bianca traveling to Kyoto, Japan. Read Dead Man’s Leap to learn why.
My standalones are on hold for now.
Kathy: What's your favorite thing about being an author?
TD: The fact that reading and writing is something I actually have to do. Sorry, don’t have time to vacuum, I have to finish this book… you get the idea.
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Blurb:
Rushing waters...dead bodies...secrets...
As Bianca St. Denis and her neighbors scour their attics for donations to the charity rummage sale, they unearth secrets as well as prized possessions. Leonard Marshall's historic inn hosts the sale each year, but it is his basement that houses the key to his past. When an enigmatic antiques dealer arrives in town, he upends Leonard's carefully reconstructed life with an impossible choice that harkens back to the past.
Meanwhile, when a storm forces the villagers of Batavia-on-Hudson to seek shelter, the river rises and so do tempers. Close quarters fuel simmering disputes, and Sheriff Mike Riley has his work cut out for him. When the floods wash up a corpse, Bianca once again finds herself teaming up with Sheriff Riley to solve a mystery. Are they investigating an accidental drowning or something more nefarious?
Dead Man's Leap explores the burden of secrets, the relief of renunciation, and the danger of believing we can outpace our past.
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