This fall I had the most fun I’ve ever had with a podcast appearance thanks to LeAnna Shields over at The Cozy Sleuth. She’s the author of the Mystic Ranch Mysteries, a new paranormal cozy series, so we spent much of the interview talking about what elements make great detective fiction for lovers of stories with unique settings and diverse storylines.
Near the end of the interview, she asked me if anything in my series was inspired by real life. Here’s what I had to say:
“Absolutely. The protagonist in the Victoria Justice Series is a court stenographer. And before I became a writer, I spent ten years of my life working as a one. And when you think about it, that’s the perfect occupation for a cozy because it’s a job where you have access to law enforcement and lawmakers without being a direct expert in crime detection. Therefore, like any good amateur sleuth, my protagonist uses her unique perspective of the law but also has to rely—to a large extent—on community ties. So its with both that community feel and working at a courthouse that I start each book…along with a loose interpretation of a real-life trial. Now, upon initial inspection, that opening trial doesn’t appear to correspond with the murder that follows. But over the course of the book, the trial becomes crucial in solving the story’s main blood crime.”
So what do you think? In the comments below, let me know if I’ve piqued your interest. Or if you’re dying to hear the rest of our interview, follow this link to go directly to the podcast.
