Check out Mollie’s website at molliecoxbryan.com

1. SCRAPBOOK OF SECRETS is such a fun book and I’m excited I got to read it before its release. Tell everyone what it’s about.

The book focuses on a group of women in a small southern town who get together to scrapbook, eat, and as it turns out, solve murders. The first book involves the untimely death of a young mother whose empty scrapbooks are left on the curb for the trash collector. Of course, the group rescues the scrapbooks and boxes of paper and photos, wanting to make scrapbooks for her kids. In doing so, they find out that Maggie Rae lived a life of secrets.

2. I’m a TV producer and a quilter – and my two mystery series are set in the world of TV (Kate) and quilting (Someday). How does your background fit into the world you created in SCRAPBOOK OF SECRETS – where Annie, your main character is a former journalist/stay at home mom/ scrapbooker?

I hesitate to call myself a former journalist because I really still am one—though I’ve set aside much of my freelancing to work on my fiction. I still write a food column for my local paper and occasionally pitch and take on other assignments elsewhere. But I was never an investigative journalist, like Annie. (I used to dream about that, though. What fun.) But I did give up working in an office, outside of my home, when I became a mom. So Annie and I have that in common. And as far as scrapbooking goes, I’m no expert, but I love to do it and have a lot of fun with it. Like quilting, it can be a social hobby and there’s a definite subculture. That fascinates me as a writer.

3. You’ve written several successful cookbooks. What made you decide to go from pies to murder?

For me, it’s all about storytelling. My first cookbook was a narrative cookbook—it told the life story of Mrs. Rowe, along with the history of her restaurant and food. The second book, Mrs. Rowe’s Little Book of Southern Pies, wove smaller stories about pie, the family, recipes and so on throughout the book. Many cookbooks tell stories. Food is a great vehicle for it.

So while on the surface, where we like to categorize and label, it doesn’t seem like a cookbook author would be attracted to writing a mystery, it simply feels natural to me. And as a writer, I welcome the challenge to go between fiction and nonfiction and, perhaps even different genres. I simply wanted to stretch a bit, challenge myself. I don’t think readers will hold it against me.

4. As you make the transition into mystery writer, what’s been the biggest surprise? The biggest challenge?

The biggest surprise has been the welcoming community. People are willing to share resources, invite you to sit on panels, and answer difficult questions. I think the biggest challenge is the whole “platform” as a fiction writer thing, which plays into a lot of what’s happening in publishing right now. We find ourselves doing a lot of things that we are not necessarily made for—like doing our own marketing and publicity, wrestling with technologies. Which all leads to getting YOUR book in the hands of readers. What a challenge!

5. Have your friends and family started to worry about your growing interest in poisons and other deadly things? (Mine has)

I have two daughters that think my interest is pretty cool. It’s probably their ages —ten and thirteen. My husband usually just shakes his head. I have had friends worry about my research and computer files. They say things like: You better hope you never are under investigation. But I don’t worry. I write about murder. What better excuse to have computer files on poisonous mushrooms….

6. What are you working on now?

I’m expecting edits for the second book in this series—SCRAPBOOK OF SHADOWS. I’m sort of in the middle of the first draft of the third one. Also, I have a romantic suspense under consideration.

So instead of procrastinating, I am writing. This morning I worked on one, and this afternoon I will work on the other. It’s not really difficult to go back and forth. Not anymore difficult than having brunch with one friend and dinner with another. I don’t usually get people mixed up – real or fictional.

I’m also prepping for a class I’ll be teaching at Story Studio Chicago on February 10th. (Click on “Building a Mystery” at http://www.storystudiochicago.com if you would like to sign up.) It’s about writing a mystery novel. After six completed novels and these two in the early stages, I have a good idea what I will talk about. But now, working on my own books, I’m becoming very aware of whether I’m following the “rules” of writing a mystery – is my first chapter hooking the reader, are my character clearly defined, am I making sure to plan information early on for use later in the mystery? No idea… but I’m hoping.

The good thing, I realize, is that far away deadlines mean I can play with my characters, let them do what they like for a while and see where they take me. I’ll let you know how that goes….

First up is Tony Perona. Tony is the author of a mystery series featuring stay-at-home dad and former investigative reporter Nick Bertetto. He has just finished his second term as Midwest Chapter President of the Mystery Writers of America.  His newest book, The Final Mayan Prophecy, is a stand-alone thriller that deals with the end of the 5,126-year-old Mayan calendar in December of this year and speculates on the question, did the Mayans know something we don’t?

This book is Tony’s first foray into the world of self-publishing. It’s intrigued me, because it offers more control and potentially more income than the traditional publishers. But there are drawbacks, and Tony’s guest blog addresses the biggest one authors worry about…

 
What makes a book legitimate?

by Tony Perona
I’m asking because, just between you and me, my new book comes with an asterisk. You know the asterisk, it follows around those major league home run hitters who achieved their records by using steroids. Makes the record seem … suspect. Not that I was using steroids when I wrote THE FINAL MAYAN PROPHECY. No, the book has an asterisk because: it’s self-published.
I’m one of those guys who usually plays by the rules. When television producer Paul Skorich hired me to write the screenplay for this thing, we both hoped it would be a film. (One film producer who read the script told Paul, “You do realize this is a $300 million dollar movie?”) Next, when we turned it into a novel, we hoped a publisher would buy it. But its path to agents and editors felt at times like the plot of a screwball comedy. (By the time one agent got it, he told me, “It’s good, but I don’t need the pressure of having to sell this thing in six months.”) You see, the book reaches its climax with the end of the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012. By December of 2010, with traditional publishers needing at least a year to get it out and then a year for sales, my hopes were shot. In despair, I let the manuscript sit in a drawer through most of 2011, and then … well, I did IT.
Because in my heart I believe it’s a really good story, and that it deserves to be out there. I know that self-publishing allows some books into the world that shouldn’t be there. My inner Woody Allen is afraid I’ll be lumped in with those. I want people to think instead of the successes of John Locke and Amanda Hocking, or the legitimacy spearheaded by the Joe Konraths and Barry Eislers of the world.
What I need is a big, bold, defiant Barry Eisler asterisk.
Or maybe steroids.
Anybody know where Barry Eisler keeps his asterisks?