I'm pleased to welcome Nancy Warren to Cozy Up With Kathy. Nancy writes the Great Witches Baking Show Mystery series.
The Great Witches Baking Show is the first book in the series and was released last month.
Kathy: In
The Great Witches Baking Show Poppy Wilkinson becomes a contestant on The Great British Baking Contest. Are you a baker? If you were on the show, how do you think you'd do?
NW: I love to bake. My Grandmother was ‘in service’ she was a cook like the one in Downton Abbey and was an excellent cook and home baker. She didn’t believe in shortcuts, everything had to be done from scratch, which she passed on to my mother, who passed it on to me. However, I’m not sure I’d do so well on the show. Can you imagine the stress? When I watch the show I am astonished at the works of art these home bakers turn out under pressure with cameras rolling. I do extremely well sitting on my sofa watching and trying to guess who’ll be sent home and who’ll make star baker!
Kathy: I am a HUGE fan of the Great British Bake Off, known here in the USA as the Great British Baking Show. I never thought watching people bake could be so emotional-with moments of on the edge of the seat nail biting! Are you a huge fan as well?
NW: Oh, yes. I’m also a huge fan. I love how sweet they often are too each other. You can tell that it hurts everybody when one of them is sent home. And when they help each other I get all gushy inside. I’ve tried to portray that sense of family in this series because that’s one of the things I love about the show.
Kathy: While Paul can be harsh, the judges here are real witches. How does a supernatural angle effect the contest?
NW: Hahaha. They are! I decided to make the judges witches and for different reasons they are both under scrutiny by the British Witches Council so they are being very careful with their magic, though of course, nothing ever goes to plan. I couldn’t have the contestants be witches because it would end up being like Harry Potter or something where they’re cooking up spells and potions instead of scones and jam tarts. However, my heroine, Poppy, does have some skills and abilities she’s never understood.
Kathy: What first drew you to cozy mysteries?
NW: I love reading cozy mystery. It’s such a fun genre because you have this wonderful world, maybe a small English village, a tea shop, or a gardening club, and these fascinating, eccentric characters who end up solving crimes. I love that a murder messes up this lovely world and when it’s solved harmony is restored.
Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?
NW: I also write romance. That’s where I started and I often end up with a bit of romance in my mysteries.
Kathy: Tell us about your series.
NW: The Great Witches Baking Show is a competitive cooking show that’s televised. It takes place at Broomewode Hall which sits atop an energy vortex in Somerset in the UK, so strange things occur and witches are drawn to the area. During the course of the show, there are murders that must be solved while the baking contest goes on.
I also write the Vampire Knitting Club series set in Oxford. There’s a knitting shop, Cardinal Woolsey’s, owned by a young witch who can’t knit. Beneath the shop are tunnels where a nest of vampires live. They are very old and bored and brilliant knitters who also help solve crimes.
Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?
NW: My favorite character in my own novels is probably Rafe Crosyer. He’s a 500 year old vampire and he’s gorgeous, smart and sarcastic. I adore him. A fact few people know is that Rafe is an actual ancestor of mine who lived in Elizabethan times (though not, as far as I know, a vampire). I found him while researching my family and loved the name so much I made him a character.
Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your series?
NW: Well, obviously GBBO is my inspiration. My series is part spoof and part homage to a show so many of us love. Other than that, this is a bit of a love letter to my grandmother and mother who put so much love into their baking. I remember coming home from school and the house would smell of fresh baking and my mum would have the kettle on.
Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?
NW: I was first published in the early 2000s with traditional publishers. I’d always wanted to be a writer and I’m very proud that I’ve been able to make a living in a notoriously tough industry for twenty years.
Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?
NW: Jane Austen, obviously, Charles Dickens, Stephen King and Agatha Christie. I feel like Stephen would be okay with the fact that the other three guests were all ghosts. I bet the conversation would be amazing. And of course I’d serve them home baking.
Kathy: What are you currently reading?
NW: A wonderful mystery series by Louise Penny, a Canadian crime author. It’s set in Quebec and features Inspector Gamache who is lovely and wise and still solves crimes.
Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?
NW: I do love to bake. I am attempting to get better at knitting but to be honest it’s not going well. I love to hike and I get outdoors with my dog every day. I love traveling and I ski when I can.
Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.
NW: Flour, eggs, butter and milk. There are a lot of things you can make with just those four things and with a few more ingredients, you can bake almost anything.
Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series?
NW: The Great Witches Baking Show is planned as a twelve book series. The Vampire Knitting Club is at book 9 and shows no signs of flagging. I have more stories to tell than time to write them.
Kathy: What's your favorite thing about being an author?
NW: I have the best job in the world. Sometimes I stop and think – complete strangers spend their hard-earned money and give up hours of their time to read something I made up in my head. What an extraordinary thing that is. I try to honor every reader and give them a few hours of pleasure.
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Be sure to come back this Friday, February 14, 2020 when I will share my review.
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The Great Witches Baking Show
by Nancy Warren
on Tour February 1-29, 2019
Synopsis:
A baker with secrets
Witches in trouble
The cameras are rolling
Ready, set, die.
Poppy Wilkinson is thrilled to be chosen as a contestant on
The Great British Baking Contest. As an American with English roots, winning the crown as Britain’s Best Baker would open doors she’s dreamed of. In more ways than one. Appearing on the reality show is her chance to get into Broomewode Hall and uncover the secrets of her past.
But strange things are happening on the show’s set: accusations of sabotage, a black cat that shadows Poppy, suspiciously unsociable residents at Broomewode Hall—and the judges can be real witches.
There are murmurs that Broomewode is an energy vortex. It certainly makes Poppy see and do things that aren’t exactly normal, and seems to draw interesting characters to the neighborhood.
When a fellow contestant dies in mysterious circumstances, Poppy has more to worry about than burned pies and cakes that won’t rise. There’s a murderer on the loose and it’s up to Poppy and her new friends to solve the crime before it becomes a real show-stopper.
From USA Today Bestselling Author Nancy Warren, this delicious series of cozy paranormal mysteries will have you guessing until the end. Includes recipes.
Book Details:
Genre: Culinary Cozy
Published by: Ambleside Publishing
Publication Date: January 15th 2020
Number of Pages: 250
ASIN: B07ZL472PK
Series: Culinary Cozy #1
Purchase Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Read an excerpt:
CHAPTER ONE
As life-changing moments go, getting the call that I’d been chosen to compete in The Great British Baking Contest was right up there. I’d practiced, auditioned and practiced some more. I was a decent home baker, but was I really the best in Britain? Probably not. But I didn’t have to be.
The contest was my way of getting into Broomewode Hall, where the show was filmed. I had my own reasons for going there that had nothing to do with baking.
Still, it hadn’t been easy to be chosen. There were thousands of applicants every year and then an excruciating selection process, where the show’s producers chose twelve from the short list and made us bake on camera. Some people went to pieces; some were just really boring. They randomly selected bakers off the short list and tried out different combinations of personalities, a bit like baking, really, seeing which ingredients created the most interesting results. I quickly learned that the trick was to be a good character, try to be funny, be a good sport, pretend you didn’t notice that cameras were on you and a clock was ticking down the minutes, and still turn out a decent jam tart.
Easy peasy! Not.
One of the reasons they chose me for the show, I think, was that while I was British, I’d grown up in the States, which was kind of fun, as the show had become a huge hit in America. I’d also started life in a bakery. Or, more accurately, in a cardboard box outside a bakery in Norton St. Philip, a charming village near Bath in Somerset.
I like to think my mother, whoever she was, chose the bakery so she knew I’d be warm and, since bakers start work so early, I’d be found. And I was. When Gareth Philpott came to work that morning, he said he looked into the box and found me wide-awake, staring up at him. Not crying, not fussing, just staring as though I’d expected him. They named me Poppy. The Philpotts would have kept me if they could have. They’re a nice family, but they already had three children, and the authorities don’t just give a family a baby because they happened to stumble across one. First they tried to find my mother or any information at all about my origins. When that proved impossible, I was adopted by Agatha and Leland Wilson, and they became my parents.
They were both teachers. They’d tried for years to have their own children, and their delight in getting me was reflected in the way they pretty much turned their lives around to give me the best upbringing they could. They were loving parents, kind and patient. Strict when they had to be. We lived in Bath for the first eight years of my life, and then my dad was offered a teaching job in Seattle.
I grew up there, mostly, lost the British accent, became a typical American teenager, and then when I finished high school, my folks retired and moved back to the UK. I could have stayed in Seattle. I had friends, and I could’ve gone to college there, but I chose to come back to England. I think, deep down, it’s always felt like home. Besides, like a lot of adopted kids, the mystery of my beginnings haunts me.
Soon after returning to England, my folks moved to the south of France to bask in warmer weather, grow lavender and cook gourmet meals. My dad, who taught history, was writing a book. My mom was learning French.
They’d saved up a nice chunk of change for me to go to college but, in spite of having teachers as parents, I never felt the urge. I was always more artistic than intellectual, so I went to an art and design college for two years, and they let me use the rest of the money toward buying a tiny cottage in Norton St. Philip. It’s probably crazy, and nobody even thinks my mother was from there, but I started my life in that village and so it pulled me back. The Philpotts still ran the bakery and were my second family. I guess you’ll always have a bond with the person who picked you up off the street as a newborn. Besides, growing up as an only child, I was fascinated by their sprawling, noisy family.
I became a freelance graphic designer, which allowed me to work from home.
Gina Philpott was my age and my best friend. She was also the only one who knew why I really wanted to get on that show.
It went all the way back to when I was just a baby in that cardboard box. I’d been wrapped in a curious blanket.
I saw my baby blanket one day when I was watching The Great British Baking Contest. They always filmed at Broomewode Hall, a Georgian manor house that wasn’t open to the public. Broomewode Hall was the seat of the Earl of Frome, Robert Champney and his family. During one of the behind-the-scenes segments on the show, Lady Frome, showed them around her home.
As the camera panned around the great dining hall I was instantly transfixed by a woman in an oil painting who seemed to be wearing my baby blanket! I saw now that, in fact, it was a shawl. But the pattern was the same. I was certain of it.
And from that very moment, I began my quest to find out more about Broomewode Hall. Lord and Lady Frome guarded their privacy tenaciously, and it was impossible to get access to them and their family home. Besides, what would I say? “I think one of your ancestors once wore my baby blanket? The best way I could think of to spend time there was to qualify as a baker on The Great British Baking Contest.
I’d done it. Against incredible odds, I’d been chosen as one of twelve bakers. It was one step toward finding how who I really was. All I had to do now was figure out how to get the rest of the way.
***
Excerpt from The Great Witches Baking Show by Nancy Warren. Copyright 2019 by Nancy Warren. Reproduced with permission from Nancy Warren. All rights reserved.
Author Bio:
Nancy Warren is the USA Today bestselling author of more than seventy novels, including the best selling
Vampire Knitting Club series and the Toni Diamond mysteries. She's from Vancouver, though she tends to wander. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa university, appeared on the front page of the New York Times when her book Speed Dating launched the Harlequin/Nascar series. She was also the answer to a clue in a crossword puzzle in Canada's National Post newspaper.
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