The Write Spot: Linda Wiken

Welcome back to The Write Spot, a bi-weekly author series spotlighting the many and varied places where writers write.

My special guest for this twenty-fourth edition is mystery author Linda Wiken, aka Erika Chase. Good to have you with us, Linda!

A former mystery bookstore owner, Linda turned her computer to writing. As Erika Chase, she has penned five Ashton Corners Book Club Mysteries. And these days, under her real name, Linda Wiken, she writes the Dinner Club Mystery series. All are from Berkley Prime Crime.  Linda also writes short stories and is part of The Ladies' Killing Circle, a dangerous gang of dames who have put out seven mystery anthologies. Linda was honoured to be shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award from Crime Writers of Canada for Best Short Story, and for an Agatha Award from Malice Domestic for Best First Novel. She is owned by two Siamese cats who allow her to pursue her passion for chorale singing, and the eating of chocolates!

Linda's Write Spot

What makes this The Write Spot for you?

It’s The Write Spot mainly because it’s a room with a view. :-) I look out at tree tops and morning sun (which sometimes isn’t too helpful when trying to see the screen, I must admit).  

This dedicated office space is on the second floor of my home, a small room with two desks (one for writing; one for other things, such as paying bills and other personal matters), and bookcases along two walls. The room is bright and cheerful no matter what the weather, and that’s a great boost to the writing mind!

Love the leafy view, and I see your gorgeous Siamese cats enjoy the bookcases, too. :-) 

Other than your computer or laptop, what's the one thing you couldn't be without in your Write Spot?

My books! I love being surrounded by books. Many are reference and research books but the majority are for inspiration. Just looking at a cover or picking up a trade paperback gives me such a feeling of well-being and incentive, I could write forever. Or until dinner time, at least.

What are you working on now?

I'm working on the third book in my Dinner Club Mystery series, from Berkley Prime Crime. The first one, Toasting Up Trouble, was released yesterday (yay!) and I handed in the second one, Roux the Day, in May and it will be out next summer. The title of the third is, Marinating in Murder. You heard it here first! I'm having such fun with these characters and especially the cookbooks. I'm a cookbook junkie and this allows me to have my fill.

Thanks for the scoop, Linda! Love the titles. Where can readers find out more about you and your books?

I love to connect with readers. My website is lindawiken.com. I can also be found at my alter ego website, erikachase.com. 

My Twitter handle is @LWiken; also @erika_chase. And, I make regular appearances on two wonderful blogs – Mystery Lovers' Kitchen, and Killer Characters.

Linda's latest, Toasting Up Trouble, from Berkley Prime Crime was released yesterday (July 5, 2016). Get it while it's hot!

A delicious new cozy mystery series featuring the Culinary Capers Dinner Club – who are fearless when it comes to cooking up new dishes and putting the lid on crime...

Event planner Jennifer "J.J." Tanner has a full plate, but that's the way she likes it. First, it's her turn to choose the recipe for the next meeting of the Culinary Capers Dinner Club, a gathering of foodie friends who experiment with entrées for their creative and gastronomical pleasure. Second, she's organizing an Italian princess party for the twenty-one-year-old daughter of a high-tech millionaire.

But one thing J.J. didn’t plan on is that the caterer for the event – hotshot chef Antonio Marcotti – would end up murdered the night of the party. Or that she'd end up being a prime suspect after having had a heated argument with the unscrupulous chef. Now it's up to J.J. – with help from her fellow Club members and a handsome if mysterious private eye – to turn the tables on the real killer...

Amazon.ca  | Amazon.com 

Chapters-Indigo | Barnes and Noble

And don't miss the latest from Erika Chase… 

The author of Book Fair and Foul reconvenes the Ashton Corners book club to solve a murder in their own backyard…

Bob Miller, retired police chief and member of the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society, is stunned by the arrival of his twenty-one-year-old granddaughter, Darla, whom he has never seen. Bob has been estranged from his own daughter for decades and hopes to make up for his absence in Darla's life. But some of the ladies of the book club find their Southern hospitality strained as they question the motives behind this sudden reunion.

After a dead man is found in Molly Mathews's backyard, their concerns grow more serious. Lizzie Turner saw Darla arguing with the stranger the day before, but when the police question her, Darla proves to be an unreliable narrator. It's up to the book club to uncover the real story . . . before another victim is written into the plot.

Amazon.ca | Amazon.com

Chapters-Indigo | Barnes and Noble

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About The Write Spot:
I've always been fascinated by what goes on behind the scenes. Whether it's backstage photos from my favourite play, a peek into the kitchen where a chef is working her culinary magic, or simply a glimpse through an uncurtained window into a stranger's private world, there's an undeniable thrill of discovery, a sense of secrets shared. It's no surprise, then, that I'm immensely curious about where other writers do their work. I've blogged about it before in this post about my own'write spot' and so enjoyed the comments, I was inspired to launch a regular feature here at stillpoint. Watch for The Write Spot every other Wednesday and join me as I discover the many and varied places where writers write.

stillpoint is the blog of Canadian author Cheryl Cooke Harrington

   

The Write Spot: Vicki Delany, Eva Gates

The most difficult thing about hosting The Write Spot is trying to keep my inner fangirl under control when meeting authors who've given me so much reading pleasure. This week, my fangirl is having double the trouble as I welcome "one woman crime wave" Vicki Delany, aka Eva Gates. Vicki is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and the current President of Crime Writers of Canada.

As Eva Gates, she's the author of the Lighthouse Library cozy series from Penguin Obsidian, set in a historic lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, featuring Boston-transplant librarian, and highly reluctant sleuth, Lucy Richardson. By Book or By Crook, the first in the series, was released in February of last year and followed by Booked for Trouble in September. The third book in the series, Reading up a Storm, will be released on April 5, 2016. (And I, for one, can hardly wait to see what Lucy is up to now.)

Vicki Delany began her writing career as a Sunday writer: a single mother of three high-spirited daughters with a full-time job as a computer programmer. Sunday afternoon was often the only time she had to spend all by herself, with a single candle on her desk for a bit of atmosphere, a Bruce Springsteen tape in the tape deck, and a nice cup of tea or perhaps a glass of wine at her elbow.

The years passed and her three grown daughters left home, allowing Vicki more time to devote to her writing.  She completed three novels of suspense, set in Ontario, two of which, Scare the Light Away and Burden of Memory (Delany) were published to critical acclaim by Poisoned Pen Press.

In 2007, Vicki took early retirement from her job as a systems analyst with a major bank and sold her house in Oakville, Ontario.  It was then that In the Shadow of the Glacier (Delany), the first book in the Smith and Winters police procedural series set in the British Columbia Interior was published. After travelling around North America for a year with her dog, Shenzi, Vicki bought a home in bucolic, rural Prince Edward County, Ontario, where she rarely wears a watch and can write whenever she feels like it.

Since settling in Prince Edward County, Vicki has continued with her writing career, publishing books in several different sub-genres as well as a book for adults with low literacy skills. 

Her new series of Year Round Christmas Mysteries (Delany) from Penguin Random House launched in November 2015 with Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen. Book two in this fun, cozy series is coming later this year.

Welcome, Vicki/Eva to the eighteenth edition of The Write Spot, a bi-weekly author series spotlighting the many and varied places where writers write.

Please tell us a bit about your own Write Spot.

Several years ago, I read an article on how bad for you sitting all day is.  And so I decided to give standing up at the computer a try.  And I haven't sat down since.

What makes this spot perfect is the height of the counter. A standing up 'desk' has to be perfect. Too low and you'll strain your back; too high and you'll strain your shoulders.

Not only do I now write standing up for my health, but I also believe it really helps with the creative process. If I need a minute to think, I walk around the living room or stand at the window.

I'll also mention that this is a totally dedicated laptop. I write novels on it, and nothing else. I don't even write blog posts, and I never access the internet or my e-mail from it. That way, I keep my writing separate from all other computer tasks.

Sounds like a great way to avoid distraction. Other than your laptop, what's the one thing you couldn't be without in your Write Spot?

My iPad and Bose Speakers. I play Mozart on the iPad when I write. And a mug of coffee, of course.

Of course! What are you working on now?

The first book in the new Sherlock Homes Bookstore and Emporium series, Elementary She Read (tentative title, but I hope we keep it) for Crooked Lane Books. The book will be out Spring 2017.

Oooh, Sherlock! Picture me rubbing my hands together with glee. (Love the title, too.)

Where can readers find out more about you and your books?

My web page for both Eva Gates and Vicki Delaney is vickidelany.com. Readers can also connect with me on social media:

Facebook: Vicki Delany and Eva Gates (evagatesauthor)

Twitter: @vickidelany and @evagatesauthor

Books by Eva Gates / Vicki Delany:

The national bestselling author of Booked for Trouble returns with another charming mystery set in the most literary lighthouse in North Carolina's Outer Banks. Order now for April 5, 2016 release!
 
Misfortune blows into North Carolina's Outer Banks when a dead body in a boat on the shore leaves local librarian Lucy Richardson racing to solve a strange new mystery....
 
After a successful party at Bodie Island's Lighthouse Library, librarian Lucy Richardson is ready to curl up with her cat, Charles, and a good book. But her R and R is cut short when she notices some mysterious lights leading a small boat to crash into the coast. 
 
The two shipwrecked seafarers survive the ordeal – but one of them shows up dead ashore a few days later. Lucy finds herself again roped into a murder investigation and navigating a sea of suspects, all of whom had motives to deep-six the deceased. And this time, she has a sinking feeling that finding the real killer won’t be so easy...

Amazon US | Amazon CA 

Barnes and Noble | Chapters-Indigo

What would it be like to return to your hometown after twenty-five years in prison for a crime you have maintained you did not commit? And why would you?

Walter Desmond is back in Trafalgar, British Columbia, having been officially exonerated when new evidence showed corruption at worst, incompetence at best, by the Trafalgar City Police conducting the investigation. His pitbull attorney is seeking five million in damages from the provincial government. But Walt has not returned to Trafalgar to pursue money or revenge. He just wants to know the why of it.

The family of the murdered girl, Sophia D'Angelo, is bitterly determined to see Walt returned to prison – or dead. But for Trafalgar's police, including Sergeant John Winters and Constable Molly Smith, the reality is: if Walter didn't kill Sophia, someone else did. 

So, case reopened. It lands on Winters' desk. The records are moldering. One investigating officer is dead, the other is retired – and not talking. The police are instructed to treat Walt as if he'd never been arrested or convicted. Someone else apparently killed Sophia, someone still walking free.

But too many minds remain closed. It's good luck for Walt that a group of women in town for the dragon boat race are staying in the B and B where he's booked, women with no local prejudices. But then a townswoman, then a boat woman, are attacked by a rapist, the media gets active, and tempers dangerously flare. 

Amazon US | Amazon CA

Barnes and Noble | Chapters-Indigo

Coming in November 2016:

A grinch is spoiling the holiday cheer and causing fear in the latest from the author of Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen...

It's Christmastime three hundred sixty-five days a year in Rudolph, New York, and as Christmas Day approaches, shop owner Merry Wilkinson is enjoying a rare evening off at the Yuletide Inn when she runs into owners Grace and Jack Olsen. With Jack's health failing, Merry is relieved to hear that his son Gord will be taking over the day-to-day running of the Inn. 

But then Gord reveals that his new plans have no room for Christmas at the Inn, and Merry and the other shopkeepers start to fret about the effect a bland franchise hotel could have on their livelihoods. 

When Gord is found stabbed to death, there's an entire town of potential suspects – and it's up to Merry to find whoever brought homicide home for the holidays...

Amazon US | Amazon CA

Barnes and Noble | Chapters-Indigo

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About The Write Spot:
I've always been fascinated by what goes on behind the scenes. Whether it's backstage photos from my favourite play, a peek into the kitchen where a chef is working her culinary magic, or simply a glimpse through an uncurtained window into a stranger's private world, there's an undeniable thrill of discovery, a sense of secrets shared. It's no surprise, then, that I'm immensely curious about where other writers do their work. I've blogged about it before in this post about my own 'write spot' and so enjoyed the comments, I was inspired to launch a regular feature here at stillpoint. Watch for The Write Spot every other Wednesday and join me as I discover the many and varied places where writers write.

stillpoint is the blog of Canadian author Cheryl Cooke Harrington