Why I Write Mysteries by Cate Conte

Jenn McKinlay: One of the blogs that we Reds love is The Wicked  Wicked Good Mysteries, and I am so pleased that we have one of them here with us today to tell us all about her latest! Please welcome Cate Conte, aka Liz Mugavero.  

 

Cate Conte:

Readers often ask me how I started writing mysteries. I think sometimes the real question they want to ask me is, why are you so obsessed with crime and murder, but regardless, it’s a valid question. 

 

In any event, I never really thought about it much at the beginning. I loved mysteries, had always (to my parents’ chagrin) been fascinated with serial killers and other high profile murders, and that was really as far as it went. But when I started writing the Cat Cafe Mysteries and my protagonist Maddie’s Grandpa Leo was born, I had to rethink that answer. 

 

In the books, Grandpa Leo is the former police chief of Daybreak Harbor, retired for a few years and still unwilling to let go of his job. He’s an integral character from the beginning, and the main reason why Maddie decides to return to her hometown. Through a series of events (some unfortunate) in the first book, Maddie not only ends up returning home but also decided to move into Grandpa Leo’s house, where she actually spent the first few years of her childhood. Her grandpa is her favorite person, she often says. 

 

Readers seemed to really like Leo, and as the series went on it became obvious that he was Maddie’s true sidekick. She has her animal rescue friends, her lifelong best friend, her business partner, her sisters, and some men in her life, but no one is better at looking at the murders that keep popping up in front of her and helping her figure them out than her grandpa. Yeah, his former job has a lot to do with it—not to mention his current job, the PI firm he opened to keep his head in the investigative game—but also it’s the way they each approach things, how well they bounce ideas off one another, get on each others’ nerves, and ultimately come together to put things to rights. 

 

So back to me and my twisted obsessions with murder. At some point on this journey, I realized I didn’t get there on my own. That my love of crime, mysteries and even storytelling is courtesy of my own grandpa. Like Leo, he was a cop at heart - a detective, not a chief - and took great pride in his work. Unlike Leo, he worked days as a mason and nights as a cop. Like Leo, he had a full head of white hair up until the day he died at 85. Also like Leo, he had a particular fondness for his granddaughter (that would be me).

 

 

My grandpa was my favorite person. He was funny, patient, brilliant, modest, hardworking. He loved to watch me practice piano and try out new dance moves - those never made it out of the basement - and he taught me and my brother how to play 45s, a card game that was unique to our particular area of New England. Those card games got pretty lively for sure. He had a great sense of humor and was super loyal to my grandma. They were married for 60 years. 

 

 

But most of all, he was a storyteller. I never thought of it that way until much later, when I’d started writing my own books. I mean, he never wrote anything. But he loved to literally tell stories. Tales from his police beat, tales about the characters he came across in his other life, stories about him and my grandmother from their early years together. He loved to captivate people with his words. Make them laugh. Make them care.

 

I hope all these years later I’ve done him justice in my own storytelling. And these days, when a reader asks where I picked up my crime writing habit, I tell them I got it from my grandpa - the best storyteller in the family. 

 

What about you, Reds and Readers, who was the storyteller in your family?

 

The latest Cat Cafe Mystery, Claws for Alarm, is out on July 27. 

Here’s a blurb:

 

It’s the heart of the busy season, and JJ’s House of Purrs is booming―until a killer is let off the leash.

 

Maddie James has finally given in to her friend Katrina’s pleas to open up her cat cafe to more than ten felines: they’re now up to fifteen purring friends. In fact, JJ’s House of Purrs is making such a splash that she’s getting national attention. The East Coast Animal Rescue League is quite interested in the cafe, and so Maddie accepts a request to meet with Jillian Allen  the executive director. Jillian shows up at the cafe and asks Maddie if they can partner on a fundraiser to support the local rescue efforts―and she offers up her celebrity endorser and her celebrity cat to sweeten the deal. Maddie, caught up in the prospect, offers up her sister Val to help plan the event.

 

But when Val shows up for a site visit at the venue, she finds Jillian strangled with a fancy cat leash―a piece of swag they were intending to use for the fundraiser―leaving Maddie with a lot of questions to answer. Was her death a tragic one-off event, or is there something more sinister going on? Maddie has to figure it out fast, before anyone else in the rescue community is jeopardized.

 

 

Cate Conte writes the Cat Cafe Mysteries and the new Full Moon Mysteries. As Liz Mugavero, she writes the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, the first of which was an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel. She lives in Connecticut with her rescue pals.  

Wicked Inspiration

LUCY BURDETTE: Three of our pals from the Wicked Authors blog are celebrating book releases on June 30--and that means we should celebrate too!

Cate Conte (my Connecticut neighbor Liz Mugavero) is releasing Witch Hunt, the first in her new Full Moon Mystery series about a young shop-owner in a Connecticut harbor town (hmm…) who’s about to discover a mysterious power that runs in her family.

Maddie Day (frequent Reds commenter Edith Maxwell) brings us Nacho Average Murder, the seventh book in her Country Store Mystery series. In this book Maddie takes the girl out of South Lick, Indiana bound for the west coast. I wonder if murder will follow?

Barbara Ross (my Key West neighbor) contributes Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody. Released as a Barnes & Noble exclusive last year, this first in series is now available from all retailers in mass market paperback, ebook and audiobook, worldwide.

Take it away, Wickeds

Lately we’ve been talking about inspiration. Not the giant concepts we choose to explore in story, but the little flashes, the anecdotes that stay with us and provide ideas, sometimes foundational ideas, for our books.

Barb: I wish I could remember which friend told me the story about her parents, the bottomline of which was, “Retirement communities are exactly like high school. You have all the cliques-- the popular kids, the jocks, the artists and the troublemakers. You have the established couples, the flirters and the singles, the secret sex. And the poor little people eating all alone.” This story stuck with me for a long time and forms the basis for Walden Spring, the lifecare community for people 55 and over that is the main setting for my mystery, Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody. 

Edith/Maddie: That’s such a great description, Barb. My Country Store Mysteries protagonist, Robbie Jordan, is from Santa Barbara, and she’s in her late twenties. For book seven, I wanted to get her out of South Lick, Indiana. My own fiftieth high school reunion was on the near horizon (scheduled for this September but they’re postponing it until next spring). I’d been thinking about the one girl who was mean to me for no reason and wondering if she’d be there. Then I thought about high school rivalries that might still be active only ten years later. I packed Robbie off for her tenth reunion in Santa Barbara, and included a mean girl, of course. The research trip was pretty nice, too.

Liz/Cate: I love that, Barb - and it’s so true! I remember the one high school reunion I went to and it was exactly the same as being in the cafeteria all those years prior. I developed my new series, The Full Moon Mysteries, out of my desire to be able to literally flick my wrist and change things I didn’t like in my life. (And some of those high school girls would’ve totally become toads.) My protag, Violet Mooney, is a witch who doesn’t know she’s a witch until her world falls apart and she gets an unexpected visit from her long-lost mother, who is one of the most powerful witches in her sphere. I’ve always loved witches and magic and the paranormal, and the inspiration for this series has always been about finding magic every day and using it to make the world better. 

Barb: That’s so funny how you two have completely different takes on reunions. I’ve never made it to any of mine. They’re always the same weekend as Malice, so I probably won’t for the foreseeable. I would so love to be able to flick my wrist and change things I don’t like in my life.

Edith: And I was really looking forward to going! We can certainly all use some magic everyday.

You know what we’re talking about right? Those little anecdotes or visuals that stick in your mind forever? Readers, tell us one of yours. Writers, have you ever used an anecdote or visual that stuck with you as an important element in a book?

All three of today's authors are giving away a copy of their new release--leave a comment to enter! (US only this time)

Three Authors, Three Milestones @BarbaraRoss @CateConte @maddieday

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm tickled pink to host three wonderful writers today--we've known these ladies since their books were only stars in their eyes and are thrilled with how far they've come as published authors! Take it away Edith/Maddie, Cate/Liz, and Barb!

Edith/Maddie: Thanks so much for hosting us, Roberta/Lucy! You know we love all the Jungle Reds authors, and for me, anyway, it’s the second blog I read every morning (sorry, our Wicked Authors blog comes first).

My blogmates Cate Conte (aka Liz Mugavero), Barbara Ross, and I (wearing my Maddie Day author hat) are delighted to have shared a release date last week. Barb’s Mrs. Darrowfield Professional Busybody is the first in a new series. Cate’s Tell Tail Heart is the third in her Cate Café series. And my Strangled Eggs and Ham is my sixth in the Country Store Mysteries. But Barb and Cate – writing as Liz – have also had sixth books, and we’ve all had more than one first book.

So we thought we’d share with the Jungle Reds and your fabulous blog community some of our thoughts and experiences about the first, third, and sixth book in a series! We would love to give away a special package of a Wicked Authors bag, a Kensington notebook, and each of our new books to a commenter here today.

First

Barb: Since there are seven Maine Clambake Mysteries out in the wild and an eighth back at Kensington in final production, it’s been an interesting journey to get back to book one in a series with Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busbody. So much scene setting to do! So much to learn about the “regular” series characters. Honestly, authors of standalones have my undying admiration. You really go through this every single time?

Maddie/Edith: You mean, like Hallie does? I know the feeling, Barb. In a way it’s fun to set up a brand-new world, as I recently did for my Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, with a cozy mystery book club, a fictional town on Cape Cod, and a bike-shop-owning, neat freak-bordering-on-obsessed amateur sleuth with an African Gray Parrot. But you’re right, there’s so much to keep track of. 

Cate/Liz: I hear you all too well! I’m back to a first book in a new series too with Witch Hunt, the first in the Full Moon Mysteries and it’s got magical components, so it’s kind of building two worlds - one on the human plane and one that’s, well, not. It’s been really challenging. Plus all the character work, like figuring out who has magical powers and what they are. It’s fun, when I’m not feeling like I’ve suddenly lost my ability to be imaginative.

Edith/Maddie: Ugh - I hope that doesn’t happen too often, Liz!

Third

Cate/Liz: And then there’s the whole dilemma of book three. Usually these series come in three-book contracts, so by the time you get to the third book there’s always the question of, Will this continue?And since you likely won’t know until the book is long written and turned in, you have to decide how much to wrap up and how much to leave hanging in the event you’re renewed. How do you guys handle that?

Maddie/Edith: Agree, that is so tricky, Liz. Sometimes book two isn’t even out yet when you’re writing book three, so there’s no way to predict its success. I’ll be coming up to that when I start writing my third Cozy Capers Book Group mystery this winter but at least Murder on Cape Cod, book one, has been doing spectacularly well so far. The way I handled the situation with my fifth Local Foods mystery was to tidy up any series loose ends and bring all the regular characters together at the farm in the last scene. If Kensington didn’t renew my contract, I (and my readers) would be fine, but I didn’t burn any bridges, either. As it turned out, Mulch Ado About Murder was the final book, and I was able to move on without angst.

Barb: I’m laughing because Musseled Out, the third book in the Maine Clambake Mysteries, has two endings, one that brings resolution to everything, and one that opens things up to new stories. My plan was to rip the second one out during copy-edits if the series was ending, though I guess it’s fine if readers imagine the characters going on with their lives after the series has ended.

Sixth

Maddie/Edith: Those of us with long-running series (most of the Reds, for example) start to have other issues and joys by book six, which Strangled Eggs and Ham is in my Country Store Mysteries. For one thing, it becomes clear how important it is to write down everything you know about ongoing characters as you go. By book six you have no effing idea what color the detective’s eyes are or what kind of car her bestie drives. If the series has been renewed for that long, though, you also have a dedicated following, an enthusiastic fan base. Sure, readers might start suggesting the direction they want the protagonist’s love life to go or an exciting new plot, but they Can Not Wait for the next book. And the next and the next. That’s very gratifying.

Barb: I know, Edith. I thought I’d relax once I had that Dedicated Fan Base, but now I’m more anxious than ever about letting readers down. In some ways, there’s less pressure with the first book. No one is invested in the series or the character yet. Anyway, book six was lucky for me. Stowed Away just won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction, the first cozy mystery ever to win and the first mass market paperback to win in any category.

Cate/Liz: That’s so awesome, Barb - major congratulations! I feel the same way - I never want a reader to say one of the later books in the series has run out of steam. My sixth book in the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, Purring Around the Christmas Tree, was definitely one of those books I agonized over. But people seemed to really enjoy it. It was my first Christmas-themed book and it ended up being really fun.

Strangled Eggs and Ham: Tempers run as high as the sticky August heat as a developer’s plans to build a towering luxury resort at one of the most scenic hilltops in Brown County, Indiana infuriate opponents, who concoct protests and road blockades. When tensions boil over and a vocal protester is silenced forever at the resort site, Robbie Jordan ditches the griddle to catch the killer. But if slashed tires are any indication, she’ll need to crack this case before her own aunt gets served something deadly next . . . 

Maddie Day writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. As Edith Maxwell, she writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, and award-winning short crime fiction. With eighteen novels in print and five more in production, Maxwell has been nominated for an Agatha Award six times. She lives north of Boston with her beau and two elderly cats, and gardens and cooks when she isn’t killing people on the page or wasting time on Facebook. Please find her at edithmaxwell.com, at the Wicked Authors blog, and elsewhere.

Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody: Jane Darrowfield is a year into her retirement, and she’s already traveled and planted a garden. She’s organized her photos, her recipes, and her spices. The statistics suggest she has at least a few more decades ahead of her, so she better find something to do . . . Note: Jane Darrowfield is available exclusively in mass market paperback at all brick and mortar Barnes & Nobles and Barnesandnoble.com

Barbara Ross is the author of seven Maine Clambake Mysteries. The eighth, Sealed Off, will be released in December 2019. Barbara’s novellas are included in the anthologies Eggnog Murder, Yule Log Murder, and Haunted House Murder. Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busbody, first in a new series, was released on June 25, 2019. Visit her website at  www.maineclambakemysteries.com and the Wicked Authors blog and Maine Crime Writers blog.

Tell Tail Heart: On Daybreak Island, Maddie James’ grandfather’s house-turned-cat-café is under construction and she’s also scoping out places to open a juice bar on the island. A big-name writer who’s on the island working on a new project winds up floating in the canal on the exact same day an eccentric woman shows up at the cafe claiming Maddie’s cat, JJ, is hers. As the investigation into the dead writer picks up, Maddie realizes that even the neighbors she’s known all her life might be keeping secrets that go deep into the heart of this small seaside town. Meanwhile, a killer remains at-large...and on the prowl.

Cate Conte writes the Cat Cafe Mysteries, which launched in 2017 with Cat About Town, followed by Purrder She Wrote and most recently, Tell Tail Heart. As Liz Mugavero, she writes the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, the first of which was an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and Sisters in Crime New England. She lives in Connecticut with her rescue pals.

Readers: Do you stick with long-running series? Which series have you binge-read (and did you find discontinuities)? What grabs you in a first book?