I'd like to welcome Madeline McEwen to the blog today. Madeline pens the Serebral Seniors Mystery series.
Tied Up With Strings is the first book in the series.
Kathy: In
Tied Up With Strings we meet American Betty Grape who is visiting a remote English village at Christmastime. What is the best thing about a village Christmas?
MM: Much depends upon the village in question. In theory a sense of community, togetherness, and mutual interdependence—a little privacy wouldn’t go amiss—but I hope those sentiments are available to everyone whatever their living arrangements.
Kathy: Betty is a curmudgeonly private investigator of a certain age. Why do you think Senior Sleuths are popular? Or do you think that they’re not popular?
MM: That’s a tough one. I imagine it is because we all have someone older in our lives who we have either loved or admired, and long for the chance to spend more time with them—but maybe that’s just me.
Kathy: As an ex-pat from the UK, what is one thing you miss? If you were to move back, what is one thing from the US that you’d miss?
MM: I miss talking about the weather, which is the perfect opening topic to 99% of all conversations with strangers. I do still talk about the weather, but people give me odd looks in reply. Additionally, I love the anonymity of the States. Here, I am just a foreigner, and no one can tell anything about me from what I look like, although as soon as I open my mouth, my speech patterns give me away.
On the other side of the pond, I become extremely defensive of my chosen country. People in the US are so friendly and forthright. On the whole, what you see is what you get.
Kathy: What first drew you to cozy mysteries?
MM: I exhausted the convent’s library [I went to a boarding school] of Agatha Christie’s work, and one of the sisters suggested I try M. C. Beaton—I was hooked by the end of the first page.
Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?
MM: Erotica—there’s so much room for comedy.
Kathy: Tell us about your series.
MM: Betty wears a tough shell to disguise a tender soul and solves mini mysteries that other people overlook.
Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?
MM: Yes, Betty Grape. I adore her because she is a combination of the many clever, elderly, disregarded women I have met and loved.
Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your series?
MM: Yes, my two sons and their many friends, most of whom are autistic.
Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?
MM: I don’t think writers “decide” to publish their work—agents and publishers do
Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?
MM: Dickens because he could spin a yard, in a chronological sequence without so much as a typewriter, like few others.
Sue Townsend because Adrian Mole was my hero.
Colin Cotterill because I idolize his gentle humor.
Terry Pratchett because British humor is a quirky thing.
Kathy: What are you currently reading?
MM: I usually have half a dozen books on-the-go to meet differing needs throughout the day. e.g. the battered paperback in the car to read whilst I’m waiting to pick up whomsoever requires a chauffeur—
Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty.
Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?
MM: Sure. Number one is gardening, and because I live in California now rather than Plymouth, England, this is an all-year-round pastime. I throw pottery—no, I don’t have a temper—but form pots on a wheel. I draw cartoons for my blog and the local writers club’s newsletter, and paint appalling watercolors.
Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.
MM: Cheese, Marmite, dark chocolate, and tea bags.
Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series?
MM: I have another one awaiting editing, and another one in the pipeline. I also have a British protagonist on the brink of publication.
Kathy: What’s your favorite thing about being an author?
MM: Escaping into a private world with my imaginary friends.
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Tied Up with Strings (A Serebral Seniors Mystery)
by Madeline McEwen
About the Book
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Imajin Qwickies, An imprint of Imajin Books (December 11, 2017)
Print Length: 85 pages
An Imajin Qwickies® Mystery/Crime Novella
Big mysteries often come in small packages…
When curmudgeonly private detective Betty Grape visits a young friend, who is housesitting in a remote village in England for Christmas vacation, something seems out of place. Her friend, Catia, is visibly nervous. Is she worried about the young men in the decrepit caravan in next door’s back garden? Or is Catia involved in the disappearance of the homeowner’s invalid wife?
As an American, Betty discovers the locals are full of friendly gossip but taciturn about solid facts. Though they are determined to keep Betty from butting in on their territory, she blunders through the social morass of narrow-minded foreigners and their broad Dorset accents. Can she unravel the tight knots of this mystery? Will she find the perpetrator under thickly thatched rooves or behind floral chintz curtains?
About the Author
Madeline McEwen is an ex-pat from the UK, bi-focaled and technically challenged. She and her Significant Other manage their four offspring, one major and three minors, two autistic, two neurotypical, plus a time-share with Alzheimer's. In her free time, she walks the canines and chases the felines with her nose in a book and her fingers on a keyboard.
Author Links:
Website
http://www.madelinemcewen.c
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00Q41VUFI
Pinterest
https://www.pinterest.com/macmaddy/pins/
Twitter
https://twitter.com/#!/MadMcEwen
Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/madeline.mcewenasker
GoodReads
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9886841.Madeline_McEwen
Blog
http://whittereronautism.com/
Purchase Link:
http://getbook.at/TiedUpwStrings
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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