Interview with Kathleen Delaney, author of "And Murder for Dessert"

I love doing interviews with writers of books I liked. My last book review was of Kathleen Delaney's And Murder for Dessert. She recently sat down for an interview about her writing life. Please meet Kathleen.


Will you introduce yourself to my blog readers? Not all of them may know you.  
My name is Kathleen Delaney.  That is my original name. I use it to write under because my mother asked me to. She wasn’t too fond of my ex-husband. However, we had five children together, and I now have 8 grandchildren, one great grandson and another due any minute. I grew up in Glendale, Ca., and lived all over southern California for many years, finally moved to Paso Robles, on California’s central coast, where I worked as a real estate broker for over twenty years, and bred and showed Arabian horses. After I retired from real estate, my two dogs and I moved to South Carolina where I currently live in a one hundred year old house with a wonderful wrap around porch. I love to cook, write, and of course read.

You like to write about exciting places. Where have you traveled?I love to travel and do so as often as possible. Two of the most exciting places were Egypt and a barge trip down the canals in France, ending in Provence. I went to Egypt because my youngest daughter was at school at the American University of Cairo and because after reading all of the Amelia Peabody mysteries I was fascinated with the idea of visiting there. The trip was wonderful. I don’t like cruises as a rule but the idea of floating through France on a barge, sipping wine as we watched the landscape slip by, stopping in medieval towns along the way, appealed. Especially as I went with family and friends. We took up 2 barges. It was even more fun than I thought. So was Paris and the few days we spent on the Mediterranean.

How did you become a writer?  

I think anyone who reads a lot has a secret, or not so secret, desire to be a writer. I used to scribble stories and hide them in the cedar chest so no one could read them. I really didn’t think I had what it took to be a writer. One day one of my daughters found a bunch of them and pronounced them good. They weren’t, but a couple of other things happened and I decided to try. I wrote an article about my children’s adventures in 4H. I sent it to Family Fun. They bought it, for money, and published it. I was a writer.

Is And Murder for Dessert the 3^rd book in the series? 

Yes

I know you lived in Paso Robles. Before you wrote, did you have any experience making wine? 
The setting is in the Paso Robles wine country, but I have no personal experience with making wine. However, one of my daughters does and I know several of the wine makers in the area. They were all most helpful.

Since this is the third book in your series, can you tell us a little about the others?
The first book is Dying for a Change. It introduces Ellen, a woman in her early forties, who has returned to her hometown after a nasty divorce. She has gotten a real estate license and is determined to have a new life as well. Unfortunately, she finds a dead body, a bashed and bloody body, in the first house she tries to show. She finds Dan Dunham, whom she hasn’t seen since she was in high school. He has returned to their small town, as Chief of Police. Romance looms.  Except Ellen isn’t one bit sure she wants romance. Her first try at it didn’t work out so well. 


Ellen and Dan’s relationship gets a little closer in Give First Place to Murder. The book centers around Arabian horses, horse shows and drug running. While trying to figure out who murdered the highly objectionable trainer, Bryce Ellis, Ellen and her daughter, Susannah, get locked in a horse van and almost end up dead. I threw in a pirate to keep the story interesting. 


And Murder for Dessert is all about temperamental chefs, beds and breakfasts, unwelcome suitors, and, of course, murder. 


The fourth book, Murder Half-Baked, centers on Grace House, a halfway house for women in transition and a bakery. Ellen and Dan are getting married, the wedding is to be on New Year's Eve but nothing is going right.  Ellen has been handed a new client, Grace House. Only it burns down and the residents move in with Dan and Ellen while Dan tries to figure out who set the fire and who killed Dr.Sadler by bashing him on the head with the arm of a cemetery angel. Unfortunately all clues point to someone from Grace House. Only, who? Ellen had better find out before her own house goes up in smoke 

Do you model characters after living people? 
No. Characters just come as the story unravels. In the book I am writing now, Dead in a Manger, two gay guys have appeared. I didn’t plan them. Only, I was writing this scene in a pet shop and they walked in. They’ve stayed in, too.

Your books are available in print and e-book formats. Are you satisfied with your print and e-book sales?

Not my print sales.  The e-books are selling unbelievably well and I’m thrilled, but the print books are moving at a much more leisurely pace.

What do you do to promote your books and yourself?  

Lots of different things. Since I am now “handicapped” I am doing lots more on line than I used to.  Besides, there is more you can do on line. Facebook, blogging, Goodreads, lots of things and while I don’t do them all all the time, I do use that avenue a lot. However, I go wherever anyone will listen to me. Libraries, book clubs, any other kind of club. The book I’m writing has a lot in it about dogs and dog breeding. When it comes out (here is where we cross our fingers that it does come out) I will add dog clubs to my list. 

I belong to the Carolina Conspiracy and we do a lot of different things as a group. Getting on a panel at writers conferences is always good, and just doing book signings at bookstores is great. I’ve done a Christmas bazaar, sharing a booth with 2 other writers, and done book fairs several times. The hardest one is the LA Book fair held every year at UCLA. There are thousands of books there and even more thousands of people wandering around. It’s hard to get noticed, but it can be done. Bookstores are important even if you just drop in and leave information. The booksellers tend to notice and if they like you and/or your book, will hand sell it. I keep lists of people, book stores where I have appeared, libraries, where I’ve made a speech, fans who have emailed me or signed the email list at events, and send them a notice when a new book comes out and follow through. Have a master list of all the libraries that carry the books and they get a notice of a new release as well. And on and on…

What are you writing now?
I am writing a new series, features a woman in her seventies who manages all of the volunteer activities in town. Amazing how bloody volunteer work can get.  I am hoping it will turn into a series as well. The 5^th book in the Ellen McKenzie series needs a serious rewrite before it goes back to Camel Press, who has asked for it. If they like it, Ellen and her Aunt Mary are going to go to Williamsburg, VA. A few ghosts, a little history, and, of course, murder, one that Ellen and Aunt Mary had better solve if they want to get through alive.

Is this book under contract?

No. Camel wants to see it, but I’m not quite ready to send it.

Lastly, what are the last three books you read? 

Hmm. Some one gave me the Runaway Jury by John Grisham, and I read that one. Catherine Coulter's The Cove, that one was my mothers, it was on my shelf. I picked it up and didn’t put it back down until I was done. I am currently reading Kate Atkinson’s Started Early, Took My Dog. She has four different main characters, doing very different things, and they are about to collide. Great book.

Thank you, Kathleen. You've given my readers a very important insight into your writing life and the next books coming out. 

To my readers, if you didn't know Kathleen's books before, you do now. All of her books are available through Amazon.

Book Review: And Murder for Dessert by Kathleen Delaney

I've taken a vacation from reading cozy mysteries for quite a while. I met Kathleen Delaney earlier this month, picked up her And Murder for Dessert, and decided I needed a break from the serious non-fiction reading I've been doing for several weeks. And what a break it was.

Set in the wine country in California, we meet Ellen McKenzie working in real estate and engaged to the local chief of police. When Ellen's sister calls to inform her that her niece, Sabrina, and her husband Mark are coming to live with her, Ellen once again bridles at her sister's presumption, but since the young couple is on its way, she can do nothing but make them welcome. Soon, Sabrina ropes her into helping plan an upscale dinner at the winery where Mark is the wine master.

The guest chef is a nightmare right out of hell's kitchen. He's histrionic, unstable and downright mean. Many readers will cheer when he ends up dead in a vat of wine. The weaving of several secondary story arcs into a  whole keeps the reader wondering who killed the chef. More importantly, readers will want to solve the crime and unravel the secrets themselves.

Kathleen Delaney understands both the wine business and real estate, although real estate doesn't figure in as strongly as it did with her Dying for a Change, available in Kindle version only. Right now, that is. Dying for a Change is scheduled for a new release in print later this year.

I confess. I guessed who the killer was about half-way through. I enjoyed the way the author tied up all the arcs and brought to story to a successful conclusion. Even if you figure it out, too, this is a fun read.

Available in print and on Kindle, it's a read well worth it.

Voices from Beyond

In Ginny Brock's By Morning's Light: The true story of a mother's reconnection with her son in the hereafter, is a warm, sad, happy exploration of how people can connect even after death. When Brock's son Drew died suddenly in November 2008 at 26, she was unprepared to lose her youngest child. No one is, but Brock opened her mind and heart to the possibility that he was trying to connect with her.

Drew asks his mother what happened to him five days after he passed from unknown causes. Her account of guiding him toward the light calms the reader and her son, releasing him to cross over. Over the next year, Drew returns often, arriving in a rush of energy, sometimes materializing, sometimes appearing in thought only. Brock isn't the only one who communicates with her son. His sister and brother do. Many of his friends call to report "Drew sightings."

As the year progresses, Brock moves through deep, almost unfathomable grief to a lightness of being, at one with her beliefs and her son. Because she studied Buddhism, meditation and Native American mind-body-spirit connection, she was open to reconnecting with her son.

Brock belongs to a group of mothers, her earth angels, who belong to a unique club none of us want to join: mothers who have lost their children. Her story recounts how a stranger reached out after learning of Drew's death and offered understanding and a shoulder to lean on. Other earth angels came forward, until the local group grew close. They meet to help survivors overcome the miasma of grief over the loss of a child.

Brock doesn't ask you to believe what she does. She doesn't ask you to change your mind about connecting with people after death. What she asks is, read her story with an open mind. If you change yours, great. If not, she wants readers to know that "We all go on. We don't die. We can reach across dimensions."

Tinker Mountain Wrap Up

I waited a couple of days to organize my thoughts about Tinker Mountain 2012. I kept thinking about the 2011 workshop and how it compared with the 2012 workshop.

At the 2011 workshop, I had to privilege of studying fiction with Fred Leebron, director of the program and one of the leaders of the Queens creative writing program. As with the 2012 workshop, we had almost more people than we could handle, but Fred made sure everyone was critiqued. We had so many fresh voices at many different stages of writing. Some, like Cliff Garstang, already had a book of short stories in print. Others, like me, had been writing for many years but still wanted to improve our grasp of our craft. And, lastly, we had several promising beginners who were just starting on their writing path. 

Fred has such a good grasp of the fundamentals of the craft. He walked us through places where we could improve our manuscripts by employing new techniques. He gave us a lot of writing prompts to help erase writer's block. I've kept in touch with a few of the writers through e-mail and Facebook. 

Dan Mueller's workshop on writing about trauma was a totally different experience. Each of us approached trauma from divergent perspectives. We wrote about genocide, child abuse, divorce, cancer. Each brought to the workshop personal traumatic experiences we wanted to render to readers in personal essay, fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. 

The first night when we received our manuscripts we were all strangers. By the end of the week, we had bonded into a supportive community. Supportive? Yes, we supported each other's writing with solid written critiques and discussion. We supported each other's personal traumas, because it immediately was obvious we couldn't separate the writer from the trauma. We laid ourselves open, exposing our warts and stretch marks, our pain, our stories of deciding to be survivors rather than victims. 

We had so many new voices. I want to read the rewrites, the finished products, of each workshop member. We survived. I came away from the workshop stronger as a writer, more centered as a person, perhaps more compassionate towards those who've survived things I can't imagine.

Dan Mueller is to be commended for guiding us through the depths and emotions of a very intense week. I recommend this workshop to anyone who wants to write about the dark places with compassion and care.

Tinker Mountain -- Day 4 -- Life in a Sorority House

A writers workshop is all about the manuscripts we review, the people we meet, the instructors who bend our minds and challenge us to write better--and living in what feels like a sorority house.

Last year, all of us were housed in a dorm. Big long hallways. Small rooms. No carpeting in the rooms. Quasi-communal showers. This year, that dorm is undergoing HVAC work, so we are housed in an old 1889 house that was converted to be a row house or a sorority house.

It reminds me of my sorority house during undergraduate days. My room is bigger than the dorm room, designed for two residents. I'm too set in my ways for any roommate other than my husband. I'm glad for the privacy where I can read manuscripts and weep as I see fit.

I used to stay in a row house when I'd visit friends at Berkeley or Stanford. Same thing. Communal living at its finest and worst. Showering in large bays separated by thick plastic curtains that never hung properly. Steam made them billow into the next area, leading to curtain fights that were comical. Ever try washing long hair while being attacked by curtains from either side. Eventually, you make peace with the curtains and get on with your business, but at first you really miss your bathroom back home.

This sorority house is air conditioned, at least. Those old row houses had open-window air conditioning, when the windows weren't painted shut.

One thing is missing. Panty raids. Nothing was more embarrassing than having to "buy back" your bras and undies from some frat guy who stole them in a drunken romp through the house.

I miss panty raids.

Tinker Mountain -- Day 3 -- More Readings

Writers workshops come in many different sizes and colors. We have workshops on poetry, fiction, memoir and trauma. Why trauma? Because the subject matter requires sensitive treatment. Writ small, and the story could be just one person's cathartic experience that has little interest or value to a larger readership. Writ large, and the story can be melodramatic. Writ right, and the story moves the reader, demands much of the reader and gives back for that demand.

Yesterday we reviewed and discussed two different types of traumatic events. Both were creative or narrative non-fiction, meaning that they were representations of actual happenings in the author's life.

One poignant story was about a girl breaking free of her family and returning to college on a snowy night. She's done something no one in her family has done before and she's scared. She hears whispered memories from her parents that she's wasting her time and should get a job. Nothing learned in old books can be useful today is her father's opinion. She has to trust a stranger to help her get to college after she misses the last connecting bus. Her internal monologue as she wars between trust and distrust make the piece worth reading a second time.

The other story was about revenge fantasies. A mother wants revenge for the near-rape of her daughter. She buys how-to books on revenge, learns how to shoot, researches poisons, thinks about running the man down with her car. The narrator takes us on her journey with humor that never approaches pathos.

Both stories were solid drafts. Both could be improved. Both evoked strong feelings.

Only one emotional meltdown. That's to be expected. We are treading on toes, pouring acid on open wounds, surfacing memories we'd rather not think about. And today we begin again. I'm equipped with my readings, my trusty green pen and tissues. I've done my homework. I've cried already over two pieces. And I will probably become very emotional over one particular piece. I can't wait to get started.

Tinker Mountain -- Day Two -- Getting Down to Business

Yesterday, my workshop met for the first time. The opening meeting is all about introductions and the beginning of trust. No, no one sang Kumbaya or Getting to Know You. This was more about what motivates us to write about traumatic experiences that happened to us or to someone close to us.

We agreed that we have a passion to tell our stories. Some are painful; some are redemptive. Others are downright terrifying, but all are stories we must tell. I don't think we are going to keep things hidden in this workshop.

While this is not a group therapy session, we will be dealing with stories about the dark places and monsters that don't live under the bed. Some live out in the open. We have stories about disconnected, alcoholic parents. We have a story about a peeping tom turned into rapist. We have stories dreaming about revenge. We have stories about wishing you lived in a different family, that Lucille Ball was your real mother. We have stories about dissociation and wanting to be anywhere but where you are.

We have stories with humor and others utterly devoid of humor. Most of all, we have honest representations of emotion. And that's sometimes hard to read. It's even harder to sleep after reading the next day's materials.

And so today we begin with our first workshop discussions of three stories. I marked them up last night and added lots of marginalia and end notes. I bled green ink all over the stories, underlining what I liked, questioning what I thought didn't work for me.

Bled green ink? Does that make me an alien???