Sunday, July 6, 2014

Sunday - My Series - Katherine Miller Mysteries


The series began as one story first titled So We Walk On Eggshells. Somewhere along the way the book was retitled by me called Murder and Mint Tea. I didn't expect this to become a series. Actually, the book was inspired by a neighbor who was not very nice and I wanted to kill her. Knowing this wasn't the thing to do, I planned the book. I sent it out to a few places and ran into a snag. Seems publishers were looking for series and I had no intention of writing one. I put it in a book in the basement and returned to work as a nurse.The neighbor moved and I still didn't like her. I was cleaning the basement and found the book and thought this isn't a bad story but it needs help. The story was told in the first person and I did what a lot of first person writers do. That's going off on tangents that may have much to say about the character ut nothing to do with the book.

I rewrote the book and then found the publishing world had changed so I sent it to an electronic publisher and the book really sold well in the days of floppy discs. It's still selling. Was nominated for an award but didn't win. That's okay since it was a finalists. Garnered a lot of reviews and was made into an audio book. Made a lot of money there.

The book became a series when people kept asking me to write another. So here's a bit about Murder and Mint Tea. The story introduces a number of characters who come into other books of the series but the main one is Robespierre Katherine's Maine Coon cat who was a real cat who lived with this writer for fifteen years.

A trip across the street during a winter snow storm and Katherine misses a curb ending with a broken leg. While she is in the hospital, her son rents the first floor apartment in her house. Katherine lives on the second floor since she can see the Hudson River from there. This tenant, Rachel begins to annoy many of the neighbors who are Katherine's friends. She even puts the make on Katherine's son. When Katherine finds Rachel's body in her yard and sees the weapon, she realizes the fancy knife was a Christmas present from a neighbor to all her near and dear. Katherine removes the weapon and throws it in the river. Then she must discover the murderer and pray it isn't one of her friends or family member.



1 comment:

Sandy said...

Sounds great to me, Janet. It reminds me of Agatha Christie mysteries.