Well, now that the month of madness (called
Month-of-Recipes) is over, we can move onto other things and get back to our
usual once a week post. During the teeth of the Month-of-Eggs, I attended one
of my favorite conferences, Left Coast Crime.
Left Coast Crime is a readers’ conference, but there are lots
of authors there, too. That’s so the
readers can meet their favorite writers. The panels are geared toward a reader
audience, not a writer one. As a result, as a writer, I listen to what is said and
translate that into what I need to do in my books. Sometimes it is a convoluted
transcription and other times it is very straight forward.
The panel I was on, “Serving Up Murder”, included five
culinary mystery writers, one as moderator. I met some wonderful new-to-me
authors and even featured
a recipe from one during A Month-of-Eggs. I’m the one in
the apron!
These are seriously good writers! If you are in the mood for
some new culinary authors to read, check out:
Kathy Aarons
Ellie Alexander
Leslie Budewitz
Carlene O’Neil
Clearly Carlene and I didn’t get the memo about making your
last name an early-in-the-alphabet one!
Sorry for the poor picture quality of some. I didn't have jpegs, just the Amazon photos.
Kathy Aarons writes the chocolate shop series. She is friends
with a master chocolatier who provides her recipes. Lavender truffles? Yummers!
You can find her at http://www.kathyaarons.com/
Her website says:
Kathy Aarons is
the author of Death is Like a Box of Chocolates, the first in the CHOCOLATE
COVERED MYSTERY series by Berkley Prime Crime.
Research for the series was such a hardship: sampling chocolate, making
chocolate, sampling more chocolate, and hanging out in bookstores.
Kathy grew up in rural Pennsylvania, attended Carnegie Mellon University,
and moved to New York City where she built her career in public relations and
met her husband. They relocated to California where she became one of “those”
moms: running the PTA, fundraising for school foundations, helping with a high
school writers conference, creating costumes for youth theater, building
puppets, and cheering on her daughters in hundreds of swim meets and soccer and
basketball games.
She began writing when her youngest daughter attended school five days a
week and pursued publishing more seriously when her oldest daughter went off to
college.
She now lives in San Diego with her husband and two daughters where she
wakes up far too early, and is currently obsessed with the Broadway Idiot
documentary, finding the perfect cup of coffee, and
Dallmann’s Sea Salt Caramels.
You can follow Kathy on
Facebook or
Twitter
Ellie Alexander writes the bakeshop mysteries and includes many
passed down family favorite recipes in her books. Her small town locale, Ashland, Oregon, is a real place.
You can find her at http://www.bakeshopmystery.com/
Her Amazon author page says:
Ellie Alexander, author of the Bakeshop Mystery Series (St.
Martin's Press), is a Pacific Northwest native who spends ample time testing
pastry recipes in her home kitchen or at one of the many famed coffeehouses
nearby. When she's not coated in flour, you'll find her outside exploring
hiking trails and trying to burn off calories consumed in the name of research.
Find out more about Ellie and her books by visiting her here:
Blog: http://www.bakeshopmystery.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elliealexanderauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BakeshopMystery
Leslie Budewitz writes the spice shop mysteries set in Seattle’s
Pike Place Market.
She says she has learned tons about herbs and spices while writing
the series. Her recipes are for spice blends and recipes using spices. Also
check out her other series’ books.
You can find her at http://www.lesliebudewitz.com/
Her Amazon author page says:
As the Spice Shop Mysteries continue with GUILTY AS CINNAMON
(December 2015, Berkley Prime Crime/Penguin Random House), Pepper Reece knows that
fiery flavors are the spice of life. But when a customer dies of a chili
overdose, she finds herself in hot pursuit of a murderer...
Springtime in Seattle's Pike Place Market means tasty foods and wide-eyed
tourists, and Pepper's Seattle Spice Shop is ready for the crowds. With
flavorful combinations and a fresh approach, she's sure to win over the public.
Even better, she's working with several local restaurants as their chief herb
and spice supplier. Business is cooking, until one of Pepper's potential
clients, a young chef named Tamara Langston, is found dead, her life
extinguished by the dangerously hot ghost chili--a spice Pepper carries in her
shop.
Now stuck in the middle of a heated police investigation, Pepper must use all
her senses to find out who wanted to keep Tamara's new café from
opening--before someone else gets burned...
I
fell in love with Seattle's Pike Place Market as a college student, and still
spends hours prowling its streets and alleys on every visit to the Emerald
City. I'm also the author of the Food Lovers' Village Mysteries, set in
Northwest Montana. DEATH A DENTE won the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First
novel. That followed my 2011 Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction for BOOKS, CROOKS
& COUNSELORS: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law & Courtroom
Procedure, drawing on my thirty years as a lawyer--and making me the first
author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction.
I'm president of Sisters in Crime, and passionate about writers helping other
writers. I love to cook, eat, hike, travel, garden, and paint--not necessarily
in that order. I lives in northwest Montana with my husband Don Beans, a doctor
of natural medicine, and our Burmese cat Ruff, a book cover model and an avid
bird watcher.
For seasonal updates, please visit my website at http://www.LeslieBudewitz.com,
to sign up for emails about new releases, launch parties and other fun
goings-on, and book giveaways.
Find me on Facebook as Leslie Budewitz Author.
Drop by my blog, www.LeslieBudewitz.com/blog, for ways writers of all genres
can use legal issues in their fiction--undue influence, wrongful conviction,
and more.
Carlene O’Neil, our moderator, provided the beverage portion of our panel with
her California wine country series. No recipes provided but food is mentioned—a
lot! And the wines and wine-making are well described.
You can find her at carleneoneil.com
Her Amazon author page says:
National best selling author Carlene O'Neil is a former
television writer, and is currently a commercial real estate broker in the Los
Angeles market. She grew up in the heart of wine country in northern
California, and is accredited by the Wine and Spirits Education Trust.
Currently she lives in Valencia, California. The Cypress Cove Mystery Series is
set along the central California coast, and the similarities between the
fictional town of Cypress Cove and the stunning town of Carmel are no accident.
One Foot in the Grape is the first in the series published by Berkley Prime
Crime. Her second novel, Ripe for Murder, is scheduled for release March 2016.
You can reach Carlene at her website at carleneoneil.com or on Facebook at
facebook.com/CarleneONeilAuthor
