Lorena McCourtney, who is a prolific writer and has published 43 books so far, was kind enough to stop by today as a guest on Cozy in Texas.
Tell us a
little about Dolled Up to Die:
Dolled
Up to Die
is Book #2 in my lighthearted Cate Kinkaid Files mystery series. Book #1 was Dying
to Read, which made it onto a New York Times bestseller list. In that book,
Cate, desperate for a job, became an assistant private investigator in her
Uncle Joe’s Belmont Investigations and was immediately propelled into a murder.
Now, in Book
#2, she receives a frantic call about a triple homicide. But she soon has a new
rule to add to what she’s already learned: always find out if the victims
really have human DNA. But even if these three are definitely short on that
aspect of humanity, another victim who
has plenty of that human DNA soon turns up.
And Cate is
off on another rollicking adventure involving a beautiful trophy wife, a woman
who claims she can reveal your past lives,
a wedding and a wig, and hunky Mitch Berenski. Who is having ever more
doubts about Cate as a PI.
Which authors inspire you?
I can’t say
that I’m inspired by any specific authors, but I’m often inspired by whatever
I’m reading at the time. Reading a
riveting mystery with compelling characters inspires me to want to write
something compelling and riveting too.
Although
sometimes it works in reverse, and the inspiration is that I don’t want my
writing to sound like whatever I’m reading. I don’t want my characters to be
that unlikeable, my plot to be that
mundane, etc.
What are you working on next?
My next book
is Book #3 in the Cate Kinkaid Files, which Revell plans to release in July of
2014. The title is “Death Takes a Ride.”
Tell us a little about you:
I’m a Christian, a wife, mother, grandmother, and writer. With the hope
that in time I’ll be better at all of these! Dolled Up to Die is my 43rd
published book. I wrote a number of romances before turning to mysteries, and I
think I’ve found my real home now in mysteries with a touch of romance.
What's one piece of advice you
would give aspiring authors?
Persistence. Talent is great, but I think it’s persistence that will get
a writer somewhere over the long haul. By this I don’t mean simply
never-give-up persistence in submitting the same manuscript over and over
(though that can be important too). I mean persistence in studying the craft of
writing, in studying the books you like to read to discern what it is that
makes you like them. And persistence finishing
a writing project. Beginnings can be
fun. You feel fresh and excited. But it’s all too easy to drop something when
it gets difficult and go on to the next exciting idea without finishing the
first one. Persistence!
What's your favorite
season/weather?
I like fall best. I like the feeling of closing things down for the
coming winter, getting things finished. A gathering-in time of completion.
Who do you
imagine is your reader?
I see my reader usually in the fifty to sixty-five
age group. Someone who values her independence but has a strong sense of
family. Someone who likes mysteries with a touch of romance and without bad
language or steamy scenes. But I’ve sometimes been surprised by readers who
communicate with me. I’ve heard from
11-year-olds and 90-year-olds. I’ve heard from a reader who says she, her
mother, and her daughter are all enjoying the same book, often one of my Ivy
Malone Mysteries. I hear from a few male readers, and they’re usually surprised
to find they liked what looked like a women’s book.
Where is
“Dolled Up to Die” available?
The print edition is available in many bookstores,
or on the internet at Christianbook.com, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Kobo and
various other internet outlets. The e-book version is available for Kindle,
Nook, Kobo, Sony, etc. Here are a couple of links:
For Barnes
& Noble, print or Nook:
How can readers
find out more about you?
For a little glimpse into Dolled Up to Die read on:
Case
closed!
Until
she’d become an assistant private investigator, Cate Kinkaid had never realized
how satisfying those words were. Gleefully, she threw her hands up and clapped.
She added the time and date to the report and hit the print button.
Okay,
the case didn’t rank up there with capture of a most-wanted serial killer or an
episode of CSI on TV, but she had successfully cleared Ridley Jackson of his
wife’s suspicion that he was cheating on her. Ridley had decided to learn to
play the saxophone, knew his wife would disapprove, and had been practicing
with friends in a barn out in the country. Having heard the sounds emanating
from Ridley’s sax, Cate suspected a barn might be the appropriate setting for
his musical talent. But her job was just to uncover the facts, not to critique
them.
She
changed to jeans worn thin at the knees and a faded sweatshirt for an evening
with Mitch on a cleanup job for the Helping Hands project sponsored by the
church. She and Mitch Berenski had been dating more or less regularly since
they met on her very first case. She was headed for the door when the office
phone rang. She jumped back to answer it. Mitch? No, an unfamiliar name and
number on the caller ID.
“Belmont
Investigations. Assistant Investigator Cate Kinkaid speak—”
“Lucinda,
Marianne, and Toby have been shot!” a breathless voice interrupted. “All of
them! Shot! And—”
“Wait,
wait! If there’s been a shooting, call 911 immediately! They’ll send the police
and an ambulance.”
“I did
call the police. I guess they’re coming, but they don’t seem in any big hurry
to get here.”
Three
shootings, and officers weren’t responding with screaming sirens and screeching
tires? That didn’t sound like the capable and effective Eugene, Oregon, police
force Cate had dealt with. She glanced at the caller ID screen again, J.
Kieferson. Something about the name seemed familiar, but she couldn’t place it.
“Mrs. Kieferson, are you all right?”
“Of
course I’m not all right,” the woman snapped. “I told you, Lucinda, Marianne, and
Toby have been shot! Marianne’s head is gone.”
“A
head gone, shot away? “Are you alone? Could the shooter still be nearby?”
“I
don’t know! I just got home a few minutes ago and found this massacre.”
“Mrs.
Kieferson, you should—” Cate started to tell the woman to lock the doors and
stay inside until the police arrived, but if the killer could still be in the
house, that was hardly good advice. “Can you get to your car?”
“I
guess. Maybe.”
“Then
go to the car and drive away from there. Contact the police again and tell them
where you are. I’d like to help, but violent crime situations are outside our
area of investigation.”
Uncle
Joe had emphasized that when he hired her. Belmont Investigations handled
routine matters only. Background checks, serving subpoenas, insurance
investigations. Although Cate’s very first case had unexpectedly rocketed right
into murder.
“You
need the police,” Cate repeated.
“You
won’t come, then?”
The
woman wasn’t sounding too rational, but her reproachful tone jabbed Cate’s
conscience button. Which immediately shouted, You can’t just ignore this woman and three people shot!
