Questions and Answers with Cleo Coyle - Part 2

*Editor's Note: Welcome today to Part 2 of our Q&A with Cleo Coyle, whose Coffeehouse Mysteries and Haunted Bookshop Mysteries (written as Alice Kimberly) are enormous successes with lovers of Cozy Murder Mysteries. Cleo Coyle, by the way, is Alice Alfonsi who collaborates with her husband, Marc Cerasini. So, read and enjoy these answers from a respected veteran in the murder mystery field.

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Now for the Q&A - Part 2:

Question: The Haunted Bookshop mystery series has the ghost of a hardboiled-type PI as one of its central characters. Do you read the older “hardboiled” private detective books to get the flavor?

CLEO/ALICE: Not just to get the flavor. I honestly enjoy reading Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane as well as those old pulp stories from Black Mask magazine. The noir films of the 1940’s and 50’s are a joy to watch, as well. They not only set the scene, they nourish me as a writer. With so many of today’s filmmakers preoccupied with big, epic tales that require green screens for emotional impact, I find it immensely inspiring to go back to a time when the screenwriter was forced to rely solely on story, dialog, and character choices to hold and "wow" an audience.

Question: I love your culinary mysteries and enjoy the information on coffee buying, roasting, grinding, and brewing. I also like that your website is rich with recipes and giveaways, too. Do you find that revealing the culinary side of your character helps to tell Clare’s story, or are the recipes and tips just a nice little added bonus?

CLEO/ALICE: First of all, thank you for the nice words about my mysteries and website—much appreciated! My amateur sleuth, Clare Cosi, makes her living as a professional barista. She’s also a former food writer for a local paper and has a daughter in culinary school. Given Clare’s intense passion for her lifelong occupation, I view the culinary and coffee information in her Coffeehouse Mysteries as an expression of her voice and character—much the same way mystery writer Dick Francis uses information about the world of horse racing as an “added bonus” for those interested in that particular theme and subject, or thriller writer Tom Clancy uses technical information about advanced weaponry as an “added bonus” for those interested in military tech.

I also enjoy using coffee to evoke setting and employ metaphors, although that idea is nothing new. David Lynch uses coffee and coffee drinking to make visual metaphors in his screen and television writing. Director Ridley Scott also did this in his film American Gangster. Nora Ephron uses food talk to great literary effect in her roman a clef Heartburn—and, yes, her witty, insightful novel about a cookbook writer also includes recipes. One of my favorite films in recent years, Sideways, is a superb movie that uses the minutia of wine making and tasting to explore the sweet and sour sides of modern relationships. I can only hope that my books follow the lead of these accomplished storytellers, who are also inspirations.

Likewise, I view the “extras” at the end of the Coffeehouse Mysteries (recipes, tips, and researched culinary information) as an extension of Clare’s fictional world. I created my official author website with the same concept in mind: www.CoffeehouseMystery.com is designed and run as a "virtual" Village Blend coffeehouse.

Some critics have questioned the addition of recipes in culinary-themed books, but it seems quite natural to me (and fun for the reader). After all, fantasy authors have long included maps and genealogies in their front and back matter to cleverly broaden their own fictional worlds. I would liken the recipes in the back of every Coffeehouse Mystery to the appendix in a fantasy author’s work: e.g. a map to the Netherworld of Granthea; blueprints to OutLand's Royal Airship; or a chart showing the extended clan of the warlord Sjard Yarborj. (You get the picture!)

Hey, did you know the writer/director Gurinder Chadha includes an instructional cooking video on the DVD of her wonderful film Bend it Like Beckham? Ms. Chadha’s film tells the tale of a young woman who wants to play professional soccer but her family wants her to follow a traditional path—and this includes cooking traditional food. The "Who Wants to Cook Aloo Gobi?" segment is a joyful little extension of Ms. Chadha's fictional world, and I was delighted see that she included this extra on her DVD. The recipe is delicious, too, by the way! I can only hope my readers feel the same about my Coffeehouse Mystery extras.

Question: What is the hardest part – for you - of writing murder mystery novels? (i.e.: plotting, characterization, etc.) And what is the most difficult part of writing a continuing series?

CLEO/ALICE: There is nothing difficult about writing. I love story. I love writing. I have always loved it. It is my “bliss” as Joseph Campbell described bliss: i.e., when I begin the activity, I lose track of time. I look up from my work and I am astonished how many hours have passed since I started. The difficult part is the business side; the marketing and publicity, which is not unimportant in building a lifelong career.

Writing a continuing series is great fun. I can think of only positive after positive. I love the characters that I write with my husband; coming up with their next adventures; exploring their reactions and choices; contemplating their limits.

Question: I notice you refer to your books as 'light amateur sleuth' mysteries... do you prefer that to 'cozy murder mysteries'? If yes, why? (I know some authors worry that 'cozy' sounds a dismissive or encourages critics to not take them seriously as genre fiction; I read a PW article to that effect. Not sure where you stand on that.)

CLEO/ALICE:: There's an old saying: "You can call me anything, just don't call me late for dinner." That's how I feel about these labels people put on the stories writers tell. I think the various communities that gather around genres sometimes get tripped up by things that don't matter to the reading public. Over a century after Charles Dickens' death, I am still entertained, enlightened, and enlivened by his characters. Ditto for Edgar Allan Poe, Jane Austen, and William Shakespeare. In the end, we are all food for worms and the true test of a story's worth is whether it connects with a new generation of readers. To put it another way: "You can call me anything. If my books are being read, it really doesn't matter."

Finally: For anyone who has his or her own questions for me, I am having an Author Chat for two weeks, starting December 16th at LibraryThing.com. Joining Library Thing is free. Here is the link for the chat: http://www.librarything.com/groups/authorchat

Great questions, Donna, thank you!

~ Cleo Coyle aka Alice Kimberly (Alice Alfonsi)

On the Web:

Join Cleo at her own website, http://www.coffeehousemystery.com/

And join her at the Mystery Lovers Kitchen: http://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/

Questions and Answers with Cleo Coyle - Part 1

*Editor's Note: Welcome today and Friday to Cleo Coyle, whose Coffeehouse Mysteries are an enormous hit with lovers of Cozy Murder Mysteries. Cleo Coyle, by the way, is Alice Alfonsi who collaborates with her husband, Marc Cerasini. So, read and enjoy these answers from a respected veteran in the murder mystery field.

~::~

Now for the Q&A - Part 1:

Question: You write Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse Mysteries and Alice Kimberly’s Haunted Bookshop Mysteries series. Can you tell us a little about both?

CLEO/ALICE: Cleo Coyle is my writing ID for the Coffeehouse Mysteries, a series of light amateur sleuth novels that I began writing in collaboration with my husband in 2002. The first book, On What Grounds, was published by Penguin's Berkley Prime Crime in 2003 and (so far, anyway) the titles have been national bestsellers.

Cleo’s mysteries focus on the misadventures of single-mom, barista, and coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi, a woman who routinely finds herself mixed up in murder. One fan called it Murder She Wrote meets Starbucks—that’s a fair description and a nice one, actually, since I happen to love Murder She Wrote!

There are now nine books in Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse series: On What Grounds, Through the Grinder, Latte Trouble, Murder Most Frothy, Decaffeinated Corpse, French Pressed, Espresso Shot, Holiday Grind, and coming next year, the brand new Coffeehouse Mystery: Roast Mortem. (If the titles make you smile, that’s good; they should. The titles represent the humorous tone of the tales inside. BTW: Did you know the pun was once considered the highest form of humor? William Shakespeare loved them. Not bad company, frankly.)

If you start with book one (On What Grounds) and read the series in order, you’ll see that Clare Cosi moves along on a sort of amateur sleuth learning curve. Your average barista, after all, isn’t going to be ready for a starring role on CSI right out of the starting gate, you know? So during the first novel, an NYPD detective named Mike Quinn becomes one of Clare’s regular coffeehouse customers—not too big a stretch given that cops often down coffee by the gallon during their tours. The more Clare learns from Mike Quinn about detection and crime solving, the better she gets at practicing it.

My second alias is Alice Kimberly. Alice writes the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries (also for Berkley Prime Crime). The amateur sleuth in her series is Penelope Thornton-McClure or “Pen” for short. Pen owns the Rhode Island bookshop of the series title and in the first novel she discovers that her bookshop is haunted by the spirit of a big city private detective named Jack Shepard, who was gunned down on the premises while investigating a murder.

Jack’s ghost is now stuck within the fieldstone walls of Pen’s shop—and, brother, is he bored with his small town afterlife. But then bodies start dropping around Penelope, and Jack livens up. (After all, murder was his business in life.) Jack’s hard-boiled attitude often tries Pen’s patience, but the ghost has a lot more experience with solving homicides than she does. And Pen soon finds the ghost to be an invaluable crime-solving partner, even though he and his license did expire back in 1949.

The Alice Kimberly Haunted Bookshop series was launched in 2004 and there are five titles published thus far: The Ghost and Mrs. McClure; The Ghost and the Dead Deb; The Ghost and the Dead Man’s Library; The Ghost and the Femme Fatale; The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion; and a brand new one coming next year (2010), with more signed up beyond it.

Question: The Coffeehouse Mysteries have a very New York vibe; I find that a very attractive part of the novels. You’re not a native New Yorker; is that a help or hindrance to writing the series?

CLEO/ALICE: Good question. Yes, not being a native New Yorker is a help in writing the series because I can see New York the way Clare Cosi does—with a newcomer’s eyes. This city changes people. It has certain changed me over the years. I have paid attention to those changes and layered these ideas into the series. If you want to know “how” New York changes a person, just pay attention as you read. It's in there.

Question: You live in New York now… does the city help come up with plots?

CLEO/ALICE: Another good question. Yes, it absolutely does. And not just plots. Many of the settings, ideas, and elements in the Coffeehouse Mysteries were triggered by real events that occurred here in the Big Apple. Subway and rooftop suicides; a dancer stalked and murdered; a businessman plotting to kill his partner while making it look like a random crime; a detective charming a confession out of a suspect over a cup of diner coffee; the phenomenon of (illegal) underground restaurants; a killer wielding a chef’s knife taken from a restaurant’s kitchen; a drunken businessman unknowingly racking up tens of thousands of dollars in gentleman's club charges...all of these incidents occurred in New York City in recent years and have inspired fictional counterparts in my Coffeehouse Mysteries. Next year’s title, Roast Mortem, was also developed out of true New York City criminal incidents. More to come soon about that one!

That's all for the moment, but join us back here Friday, November 6th for Part 2 of our Q&A with Cleo Coyle/Alice Kimberley

Cleo Coyle - Coffeehouse Mysteries

Cleo Coyle's wonderful 'Coffeehouse' Mysteries have a fabulous New York feel to them; they're kind of like the coffee Clare Cosi sells at the Village Blend, authentic and tasty, but never gritty or bitter!

Here is a list of the books so far:

On What Grounds, September 2003

Through The Grinder, October 2004

Latte Trouble, August 2005

Murder Most Frothy, August 2006

Decaffeinated Corpse, July 2007

French Pressed, April 2008

Espresso Shot, October 2008

So far I have read French Pressed and I enjoyed it so much, I'm looking forward to catching up with the rest of the series!

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November 3rd will see the release of a brand new Village Blend mystery, Holiday Grind, and Cleo Coyle will be here with a wonderful Question and Answer interview exclusive to Cozy Murder Mysteries.

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Product Description:
There's nothing cozier than a winter evening in Greenwich Village. Streetlights shimmer through icy flakes, cafés glow with welcoming warmth, and a layer of snow dusts historic townhouses like powdered sugar on holiday confections. Murder has no place in such a pretty picture, until now...

Coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi has grown very fond of Alfred Glockner, the part-time comic and genuinely jolly charity Santa who's been using her Village Blend as a place to warm his mittens. When she finds him brutally gunned down in a nearby alley, a few subtle clues convince her that Alfred's death was something more than the tragic result of a random mugging--the conclusion of the police. With Clare's boyfriend, NYPD Detective Mike Quinn, distracted by a cold case of his own, and ex-husband Matt investigating this year's holiday lingerie catalogs (an annual event), Clare charges ahead solo to solve her beloved Santa's slaying. Then someone tries to ice Clare, and she really gets steamed. But she'd better watch out, because if she fails to stop this stone cold killer, she may just get the biggest chill of her life.

This very special holiday entry in Cleo Coyle's nationally bestselling mystery series includes a bonus section of delicious holiday recipes as well as a glossary of coffeehouse terms, instructions on making espressos and lattes without an expensive machine, and tips for creating tasty coffeehouse syrups at home.

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Looking forward to it!!

Taking a short break...

I've certainly had a rip-roaring start here at Cozy Murder Mysteries. 41 posts so far in just a month and a half seems like a lot to me, and the variety of authors... it's going great and I am enjoying myself.

But... (you knew there was a but, didn't you?) I do have a writing career to attend to, and I must get organized! I'm in the middle of so many things, it's driving me slightly bonkers!

Sooooo... I'm going to take a brief... very brief, really... break, less than a week, to allow me time to catch my breath and work uninterrupted.

I will be back October Sixth with a wonderful treat, Margaret Grace also known as Camille Minichino on why writing mysteries is like physics. ?? I know! If you have a perplexed look on your face, good... you'll have to come back next Tuesday, October 6th at 8:01 AM to find out just how writing mysteries is like physics!

Also coming up:

Elizabeth Spann Craig on 'Why I Write Mysteries'

Publisher Spotlight on... Poisoned Pen Press

Author Q&A's on Cleo Coyle and Sue Ann Jaffarian

Marion Moore Hill 'On Touring' - A Mystery author takes her show on the road.

As well as....

More reviews, more author interviews, seasonal reads, and lots more!

Open Call:

I am still looking for: reviewers, opinion pieces, Why I Read Mysteries, Why I Write Mysteries, author profiles. I'm open to suggestion! If you've written a blog piece on some aspect of murder mysteries, especially cozy, and want someone to host it, think of me!

See you Tuesday, October 6th!

Coming Soon...

Just a quick note... I love reading and writing about murder mystery authors, both about their books and the craft of writing them. I have approached several prominent cozy murder mystery authors, and to a woman they have graciously agreed to do Q&A interviews for CMM.

Yesterday I had the brilliant (she says modestly) thought to post on the Murder Must Advertise group list an open call for cozy murder mystery authors to write a blog entry for me, and I have been flooded with wonderful responses.

So, in the coming weeks I will be featuring:

Q&A with the marvelous Cleo Coyle of the Coffeehouse mysteries and as Alice Kimberly of the Haunted Bookstore mysteries.

Q&A with Sue Ann Jaffarian, author of the Odelia Gray (a plus-size heroine!) mystries as well as the Ghost of Granny Apples mysteries.

As well as featuring:

A. R. Grobbo, author of the Gloria Trevisi mysteries.
Stacy Juba, author of Twenty-Five Years Ago Today
&
Marion Moore Hill, author of the Scrappy Librarian series and the Deadly Past mysteries.

...and many many more!!!

I welcome all cozy murder mystery writers, prominent and just starting out, and soon I will be instituting a one day a week 'independent' writer day, devoted to self-published, small press and print on demand novelists!

See you soon!