Sunday, February 14, 2021

What We're Writing: For Batter or Worse

Happy Valentine's Day, Reds and Readers! 

Jenn McKinlay: Appropriately, today I'm writing about my 13th Cupcake Bakery Mystery For Batter or Worse, where the two main protagonists, Mel and Dear Joe, are finally, finally, finally, tying the knot. Here's a little promo film for the book:




For once, I am not hip deep in writing a book. I am in that in between place where the next book isn't due for a while and I'm noodling with ideas for proposals that need to be written. It's some much appreciated down time after skidding sideways into a book deadline and then hammering through revisions on another book in January. 

So, what wordsmithing am I doing? Newsletters, promo pieces, and guest blogs all for the May release of FOR BATTER OR WORSE, the 13th Cupcake Bakery Mystery. Yes, I have achieved my goal of writing a baker's dozen. I really thought the series would end there but I have one more under contract and then we'll see. 

When people ask about my writing style in regards to the mysteries, I always say it's an Agatha Christie/I Love Lucy mash-up and the cupcake bakery series truly exemplifies this to me. I mean when you're mixing cupcakes and murder, it has to have a little sitcom flavor otherwise it's just ridiculous.

Here's a snippet, so you can see what I mean: 

“Shut the front door!” A shout sounded from the front of the bakery and Mel snapped her head at the swinging doors, expecting to see her octogenarian counter help, Marty Zelaznik, appear. He did not. 

     Angie was seated at a stool across the steel work table from her. They were decorating a batch of specialty gender reveal cupcakes so the frosting was half pink and half blue. Inside the cupcakes was a pink center of raspberry cream, because the baby was going to be a girl. They had not done the same thing for Angie because, much to everyone’s chagrin, she and Tate had decided not to find out if Baby Harper was a boy or a girl. 

     “What do you suppose that was about?” Angie asked.

     The swinging doors slammed open and Marty appeared. His bald head was pink and shiny and his navy blue Fairy Tale Cupcakes apron was askew and had a smear of buttercream on the bib.

     “Turn on the TV, channel nine,” he cried. 

     “What?” Mel asked. 

     “Why? Is there a fire?” Angie asked. 

     She was already in motion and pushed off her stool and crossed the kitchen as swiftly as her pregnant belly would allow. She grabbed the remote and switched on the television they kept in the kitchen. It was mounted on the wall as Mel liked to watch old movies when she pulled an all-nighter on a special order.

     Angie flicked through the channels, pausing on channel nine. In seconds, the beaming smile of Oscar Ruiz, former employee of Fairy Tale Cupcakes, was smiling out at them as he demonstrated the proper technique when piping icing out of a pastry bag. 

     Mel felt her mouth drop open. “Oz? That’s our Oz!” 

     “I know! Look at him!” Marty clapped a hand onto his bald head. “He looks like a movie star.”

     “But he said…” Angie paused and bit her lip. She looked at Mel and asked, “He did say he wasn’t interested in doing a cooking show, right? My pregnant brain didn’t make me hallucinate that, did it?”

     “No, that’s what he said,” Mel agreed.

     “Hush, he’s talking,” Marty said. 

     “Then you want to hold the bag at an angle and pipe the frosting in a thick swirl, working from the outside to the center,” Oz instructed.

    “My, you do have a wonderful technique,” Stella, the morning show host, purred as she leaned up against Oz.

    Angie made a low rumble in her throat. “I didn’t know Stella was so handsy.”

     They watched as Oz handed Stella a pastry bag and helped her decorate a cupcake. He was handsome and charming and the camera loved him. When he flashed a smile, two dimples appeared in his cheeks that clearly charmed the socks off Stella. 

     “Hoo boy, look at him,” Marty said. “He’s like the Henry Cavill of cupcake baking.”

     The segment ended with Stella biting into one of Oz’s cupcakes and fake swooning. Oz deftly caught her in his arms and then smiled at the camera. Marty was right. He was one hundred percent movie star Foodie Channel material.

                                    *    *    *

PRE-ORDER

As you can see, humor is important to me in a mystery. How about you readers? Do you need some laughs with your murder or do you prefer it played straight?


Lastly, the Jungle Red Writers visited the Poisoned Pen for Galentine's Day yesterday. Our Hallie couldn't join us this time, but I hear we'll be back. To watch the livestream click: HERE

We recommended some of our favorite reads (here's the list):

 Jenn McKinlay recommends When No One is Watching by 
Alyssa Cole
Julia Spencer Fleming recommends the Mercy Carr series by 
Paula Munier
, starting with A BORROWING OF BONES.
Lucy Burdette recommends 
Amy Pershing
 's A Side of Murder, out February 23
Deborah Crombie recommends One Day in December by 
Josie Silver
Rhys Bowen recommends This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing by 
Jacqueline Winspear
 and Possession by A. S. Byatt
Hank Phillippi Ryan recommends: INVISIBLE GIRL by  THE KINDEST LIE by  HER DARK LIES by  and ETERNAL by 

And eight randomly chosen commenters won books from us!!! Yay!!! So here's yesterday's Poisoned Pen Galentine's Day livestream winners.

Dottie MacKeen - Hank's First to Lie

Pamela Cardone - Rhys's Last Mrs. Summer

Stacy Taylor Black - Julia's Hid From Our Eyes

Lorraine Caprio - Deborah Crombie

Dianne Freeman - Hallie's Careful What You Wish For

Kate Engelke Baxter - Lucy's The Key Lime Crime

Judy Singer - Jenn's Paris is Always a Good Idea

Dru Ann Love - Mr. Impossible

Winners, you can email me jennmck at yahoo dot com and I'll forward your email to your Red so they can get your address and mail your book from the Poisoned Pen. Congratulations!


56 comments:

  1. Had a lot of fun at the event yesterday! (Earlier today? It's still 11:35 for me in So Cal.)

    Great teaser. Really looking forward to this book.

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  2. Happy Valentine’s Day!

    I enjoy well-written mysteries with or without the humor, Jenn, but a chuckle or two is always welcome . . . .
    After reading your snippet from “For Batter or Worse,” I’m sitting here snickering . . . wondering why Oz decided to do a cooking show, after all, and looking forward to reading about the wedding [loved the promo] . . . .

    Thanks for posting the livestream from yesterday since [you guessed it] we had no internet yesterday afternoon/evening.
    ::sigh::

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    1. Thanks, Joan! Sorry to hear about your Internet woes. Technology is great except for when it isn’t.

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  3. The book trailer for For Batter or Worse is great, using parts of the beautiful book cover in those gorgeous colors. And, it’s really hard to read about cupcakes without a mouth-watering reaction.

    The Galentine gathering was lots of fun yesterday. I loved all my he book recommendations in keeping with the holiday, and I appreciate you listing the titles here, Jenn. Congratulations to all the book winners. It’s fun to have the giveaways.

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    1. The Reds will testify, I am all about the giveaway! LOL!

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  4. I don’t know what happened to the second sentence in my second paragraph. It should have just read, “I loved all the book recommendations...

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    1. You had a t go rogue, Kathy! I had it when letters get all uppity like that! LOL.

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  5. REDS: Yes, the Galentine event at the PP was a lot of fun and it was lovely to see friends online in the chat.

    JENN: It depends on my mood whether I want to read a book that I know has a lot of humour or not. A few jokes are fine, but humour (and romance) either works for me or falls flat.

    And thanks for the snippet from the latest Cupcake Bakery mystery. Lucky Baker's Dozen, indeed!

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    1. Agreed! Some books that are promoted as hilarious leave me flat but I try to remember that humor is subjective.

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  6. I love the excerpt, Jenn.

    Congratulations to all the winners!

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  7. Great excerpt! Humor is good, especially when I'm sitting in a snowbank with two more days of snow ahead of us. Enjoyed the Galentine show.

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    1. Oh, my. Yes, you need all the laughs you can get! Stay warm and read it out, Margaret!

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  8. Hi Jenn, what a great event! Thank you very much for your generosity and for that of all the JR Writers. I knew that sooner or later we'd have to discuss that other aspect of romance, the physical one and how every writer approaches it differently. I personally, am more than happy to read a sex scene in a book. Women writers do a much, much better job of writing those scenes. (I think your sex scenes are loads of fun to read and Julia's are amazing, too!) Although I did read some romance novels when I was younger, and love for the characters in books to have romance in their lives, never did I think that I'd be such a fan of that genre as I have become. And, I especially love your take on romance because the humor and the tenderness is in the front of every story.

    I have always loved humor in books and although I agree with Grace that some humor falls flat, I would guess that less falls flat for me than for a lot of other readers. I love to laugh. Humor is one of the things that I have sought out during the past year more than at any other time. So, during the last year, I've read almost every one of your books!

    Wonderful snippet! The cast of characters at the Cupcake Bakery is so lovable and good to one another that you know that all of their concern for Oz is genuine. It's going to be fun to see where all the little plot elements go that you have been building up over the course of a baker's dozen books. Baby boy, baby girl Harper? Is Oz going to become a tv star? Will Mel really tie the knot (at last) with Dear Joe? And of course, who gets to die in this one? My copy is preordered!!

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    1. If you think about it, romance is a genre that women have invented for themselves. Sure, it started out in a writer's ghetto, not even as respected as mysteries and SFF, but women could get published there, and over the years they gained more and more freedom to tell the stories they wanted to tell. There's still plenty of formulaic writing to go around, but lots of stuff that's completely fresh, plus they've elevated the more literary to the women's fiction category. I really enjoy reading it these days. No swarthy pirates or ripped bodices necessary.

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    2. Perfect, Gigi. Yes, of course. I often wonder if Pride and Prejudice and Emma are really the beginnings of romantic literature although they are so very much more. A course concentrating on what women were writing at that time would be so interesting. Just thinking of the difference between Austin and the Brontes, all of it concerned with relationships, but every other aspect so very different.

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    3. Thank you, Judy! Your kind words are much appreciated. The history of romance is fascinating and we’re at such a fabulous point in the evolution of the genre where diversity is being championed - I’m just thrilled to be in the game.

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  9. Yes to some humor and very much looking forward to this book! Loved chatting with Barbara Peters and the Reds--just wish we could have seen those of you on Facebook!

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    1. It would be delightful to be able to see the readers!

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  10. Wonderful bit, Jenn! I adore humor! Even in a 'serious' book a little humor is good. With romance you almost have to have something to laugh about and if you can't make each other laugh, why bother?

    I enjoyed being with all of you yesterday; such fun and I loved getting some new recommendations. Congrats to the winners! But I think we are all winners because we come here everyday and leave better for it.

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    1. Judi, I’d hud the stuffing out of you if I could reach you. What a wonderful thing to say.

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  11. Congratulations on lucky 13, Jenn! Looking forward to a funny and deadly read.

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  12. Murder with a side of McKinlay humour is a sure-fire recipe for a fun read. Congrats on No. 13, Jenn. Wow!

    I caught The Poisoned Pen Galentine's Day chat on replay and loved it, particularly the discussion about sex scenes. So fun to hear everyone's different take. And Julia and Jenn: Please keep writing them!

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    1. I was sorry that time ran out before Julia could explain her theory on sex scenes. Care to expound, Julia?

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    2. I second that request, Gigi. Do tell, Julia.

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    3. It is interesting to me how varied everyone feels about sex scenes. I also find it interesting that graphic sex and graphic violence are lumped together even though it’s a very different (I hope) experience for the character. It really makes you aware of your comfort margins as a reader. And, yes, JULIA chime in!

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    4. Wow. That's a perspicacious insight, Jenn -- about graphic sex and graphic violence being lumped together. I wonder what that says about us as a society????

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  13. Happy Valentine's Day, Reds Family! I really enjoyed the event at Poisoned Pen last night, and am happy to say that I have Jenn's book, plus several of the others listed above, on order. Can't wait.

    And yes, of course I like a little humor mixed in with my mystery. We can't get through life without a laugh or two, particularly when the going gets grim. Even if it's a by-the-book police procedural, any realistic depiction of our dedicated police officers has to include some police humor. Okay, super-realistic police humor can get x-rated pretty quickly, especially if they're talking it over with the EMTs, but you'll laugh.

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    1. Gallows humor is some of my favorite for its sheer inappropriateness but also because you know the characters need to joke about it for their own mental health.

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  14. I truly don’t know how you do it, Jenn! I know how hard you work, and I know how devoted you are, and I know how astonishingly quickly you write. But it all comes out so gloriously joyfully seamlessly hilarious, so much fun to read and so natural. You really are quite amazing! and I think it is extremely difficult to write humor in mysteries – – I have read so many where it is stagey and awkward, and this snippet once again proves how talented you are! Hooray! and now I really want one of those cupcakes…

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    1. Aw, thank you, Hank. That’s lovely of you to say. (Sob). One of the joys of being a Red is having people who “get me”. XO

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  15. I like your promo and your snippet. I’m found of your characters and your humour. I like when a story makes me smile or laugh out loud.
    Even a mystery has not to be grim or dark. I like the light side of cozies.

    As I’m not on Facebook, I couldn’t attend yesterday but I’m always glad to watch it afterward. Thank you.

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  16. Life is funny, if you pay attention, and human beings, with all their flaws and foibles, are sometimes ridiculous. Any book that aims to portray people needs to at least skim close to humor, I think. I love how you incorporate funny in your books, Jenn.

    Our neighbor has a wee girl named Harper, who was the first child I'd ever heard of with that name since Harper Lee.

    Galentine's Day sure was fun! Thanks to Barb at Poisoned Pen, and to all the Reds. You rock.

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    1. I feel the same way, Karen. Life is pretty ridiculous. I tend to think everything is funny which can be annoying to live with - my people are frequently exasperated when I belly laugh at their and my own foibles. Better to laugh than cry, I say.

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  17. Humor is tricky - when it falls flat it's excruciating. But I'm thrilled if I can write something that makes ME laugh. Jenn, you hit it out of the park, over and over.

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    1. Thanks, Hallie! Humor is so subjective but if you're making yourself laugh, you nailed it.

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  18. Jenn,

    Happy Valentine's Day! I love humor in mysteries and your snippet was perfect. We need humor these days.

    Rhys' Lady Georgie mysteries have humor and I love the puns.

    Look forward to reading your Cupcake mystery!

    Diana

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  19. Jenn, I love your video! You're so clever. And how perfect for Valentine's Day. I can't wait to read For Batter or Worse!

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  20. As usually, I arrived late yesterday so thank you for reposting the event, Jenn. It was nice to be able to watch it in it's entirety. Congratulations to everyone on their books.

    It's the timing of humor that can make or break it for me. I think humor, in any writing but especially in mysteries, humor is a great way to "take a breath." Sometimes things can be/get to so intense that a bit of humor, be it gallows or not, is part of the natural progression of life. How often do we remember the funny/happy side of a person or an event in the person's life when they are gone? There are times, I've seen more smiles, heard more laughs during funeral/memorial receptions than some weddings receptions. Yes, we are sad they are gone but we remember more of the happy/good than the things than those things that made us sad/upset with the person during their life.

    Hope you all have nice day, today.

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    1. Very true, Deana. Laughter is always how I've coped so i totally get what you're saying.

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  21. "an Agatha Christie/I Love Lucy mash-up "
    What a brilliant and enticing description!

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  22. Jenn, whether it's cozy mystery, romance, or womens fiction, I always love your writing.

    Given the various horrible accidents that have happened at gender reveal parties, can I hope the victim is poisoned by one of those cupcakes?

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    1. Julia, we were all pretty disappointed (see conversation above) that you were cut off by Barbara just before it was your turn to share about your approach to writing sex scenes.. And, since you are so good at it, well, will you tell us more?

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    2. Thanks, Julia. I like how you think. Gender reveal parties need to stop - at least the explosive ones!

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  23. When did gender reveal become a thing? I love humor in mysteries, Jenn! Keep it up! Yesterday's get together was fun. I just got home from errands: getting my brother to the grocery, changing his dressings, shampooing his hair. He is temporarily disabled from a serious dog bite at work a couple of weeks ago. I'm finally home with a big fat headache waiting for our deep freeze to move in with or without the frozen rain.

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    1. You are such a good sister, Pat. Hope you have a restful rest of the day.

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