Well Read, Then Dead

Today we have an interview with Terrie Farley Moran, author of Well Read, Then Dead, the first in a new series. If you comment below, you could be entered for a chance to win a copy of Terrie's new book & a little bag signed by Carolyn Hart, Joan Hess, Hank Phillipi Ryan, Kate Carlisle, Cathy Ace and Terrie. AND Terrie is having a book launch party on Facebook tonight from 7-11 EST and 4-8 pm PST and there will be prizes there too. 

Before we get to the interview, here's a little bit about Well Read, Then Dead.

Nestled in the barrier islands of Florida’s Gulf Coast, Fort Myers Beach is home to Mary “Sassy” Cabot and Bridget Mayfield—owners of the bookstore café, Read ‘Em and Eat. But when they’re not dishing about books or serving up scones, Sassy and Bridgy are keeping tabs on hard-boiled murder.

Read ‘Em and Eat is known for its delicious breakfast and lunch treats, along with quite a colorful clientele. If it’s not Rowena Gustavson loudly debating the merits of the current book club selection, it’s Miss Augusta Maddox lecturing tourists on rumors of sunken treasure among the islands. It’s no wonder Sassy’s favorite is Delia Batson, a regular at the Emily Dickinson table. Augusta’s cousin and best friend Delia is painfully shy—which makes the news of her murder all the more shocking.

No one is more distraught than Augusta, and Sassy wants to help any way she can. But Augusta doesn’t have time for sympathy. She wants Delia’s killer found—and she’s not taking no for an answer. Now Sassy is on the case, and she’d better act fast before there’s any more trouble in paradise.

Sassy and Bridgy take their first solo kayak ride from Bowditch Point Park where the fresh water of the inland streams and rivers meet the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico. 

You mention many other authors in your book. What inspired you to include them and how did you choose?

Well Read, Then Dead is a cozy mystery set in the Read ’Em and Eat, which is both a café and bookstore in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. The owners, Sassy Cabot and Bridgy Mayfield, two twenty-something transplants from Brooklyn, are very creative when it comes to bringing the themes together. They named each dining table for a writer. As an example, one table is named for Robert Frost. Laminated to the table top is a copy of the March 30, 1962 Life Magazine cover featuring Frost with craggy eyes and a boyish smile.  It is surrounded by snippets of Frost’s work, including “The Road Not Taken,” and a copy of the two poems collectively known as the fruit poems—“After Apple-Picking” and “Blueberries.” Those poems are the genesis of the Robert Frost Apple and Blueberry Tartlets, a staple on the Read ’Em and Eat menu. A number of book clubs meet there and the clubbies talk about books and authors all the time. But I get to choose which ones and I generally choose authors whose work I enjoy and appreciate. In the first few pages of Well Read, Then Dead there is a book club conversation about Anya Seton and Daphne du Maurier which leads to Bill Crider in very short order. Authors, authors everywhere.

Where did you get the buttermilk pie recipe that’s in the book? 

Let me just say that cooking and baking are not my areas of expertise. Still, Aunt Ophie’s Buttermilk Pie was so prominent throughout the story that I decided it only fair to include a recipe for any readers who might like to try their hand. I researched nearly a dozen recipes from cookbooks and the internet.  Other than buttermilk, sugar, flour, butter, vanilla and eggs, there was a wide variety of ingredients among the recipes. I decided to eliminate anything I felt was just an add-on and stick with the basic six. Then it became a process of trial and error in terms of amounts and baking temperatures. Fortunately, I have seven grandchildren who all like to hang out in the kitchen to measure and pour and stir and beat. And of course they are the official taste testers of all recipes related to the Read ’Em and Eat. It took five attempts before we developed a recipe that was grandkid approved. You can find it in the back of Well Read, Then Dead.

If your protagonist were actually a real person, would you be friends with them? Why or why not?

I think Mary Sassafras “Sassy” Cabot and I would hit it off rather well. I admire that she is a compassionate person always willing to do the kind thing, commit the decent act, be it trying to find a lost animal or the murderer of a friend.  Of course she is often quite single-minded, some might call her stubborn. But we share a love of reading—that spans all gaps.

Here is grandchild #6—one of my seven walking billboards. Who could resist that smile?

Do you ever have doubts when you are in the middle of the writing process? How do you get past them? 

I never have doubts about the work itself, the story, characters, setting. I am often frustrated by my own inability to get the point across as succinctly and powerfully as I want. That’s what re-writing, re-writing and more re-writing is for, I guess.

When she walked under the Fort Myers Beach pier Sassy overhears a conversation.

Do you ever base characters on people you know?

Never. I did have one friend read a story and say, “That character is really me, right?” And I said, “No.” And she insisted. I let it go but the truth is, the character is nothing like my friend, although apparently the character is a lot like how my friend sees herself.  I have named characters after friends. I have a great deal of respect for a yoga instructor and social activist I know whose name is Maggie. So the yoga instructor in Well Read, Then Dead is named Maggie, different last name and different family circumstances, different personality, but Maggie. And my closest friend, whose maiden name was Cynthia Mays, gave me permission to use that name for the veterinarian. They are both attractive African-American women who love animals but that is where the connection stops. 

Twice short-listed for Best American Mystery Stories, Terrie Farley Moran’s cozy mystery novel, Well Read, Then Dead is the first book in the Read ’Em and Eat Café and Bookstore series. You can find Terrie blogging amid the grand banter of New York writers known as the Women of Mystery.www.womenofmystery.net Terrie tells anyone willing to listen that hanging out with any or all of her seven grandchildren provides life’s grand and joyful moments.

Don't forget to comment below to enter to win the ultra cool zipper bag below and a copy of Terrie's book. US residents only.