Pop Quiz to Celebrate The Mango Murders by Lucy Burdette #giveaway

The quiz contest is now closed and Anna Champagne is the winner!

LUCY BURDETTE: Hurray, hurray! THE MANGO MURDERS is out today!  We’ve prepared a pop quiz to celebrate, and hope you enjoy reading and answering as much as we enjoyed writing it! (Leave your answers and your email in the blog comments to be entered in a drawing for a hardcover copy. Contest will be open until Friday 8/15)

1. In which book did Hayley Snow meet the man who is now her husband? Did you see this coming? Bonus points if you remember when they had their first date.

A. An Appetite for Murder

B. Death in Four Courses

C. Murder with Ganache

D. A Clue in the Crumbs

E. Topped Chef

2. Which sidekick character has gotten the most playtime in the series and why?

A. Lorenzo, the tarot card reader, because he embodies the quirks and kindness of Key West

B. Eric Altman, because he embodies the author’s obsession with psychologists

C. Miss Gloria, because everyone loves a nosy senior sleuth

D. Janet Snow, because a mother is always right.

3. Which of these titles did the author not suggest to her publishing team at Crooked Lane Books for the 15th series?

A. The Mango Murders

B. Last Mango in Paradise

C. Dial Mango for Murder.

D. Mango Madness

E. Mango Mayhem

F. The Case of the Missing Mango

4. What’s the name of the handsome police officer Hayley turns to when she’s in trouble? Who would Lucy ask?

 A. Officer Torrence

B. Detective Branford

C. Chief Brandenburg

D. Deputy Rogers

E. Sheriff Rick Ramsey

5. How did the author prepare to write about food and cooking in this series? Select all that apply.

A. She attended culinary school.

B. She ran a catering business.

C. She steals shamelessly from foodie friends like chef Martha Hubbard.

D. She subjects family and friends to culinary experiments.

E. She and her husband eat out for most meals.

6. Which of the following cats are based on real animals? Which cat actually came from the Florida Keys SPCA?

A. Evinrude

B. Sparky

C. Dinkels

D. T-bone

E. Jack Melendy

7. Match the following cakes to the books they appear in: yellow cake with raspberry cream cheese frosting, Mojito cake, lime cupcakes with lime cream cheese frosting, Eric‘s coconut cake (Almost), one-bowl chocolate cake

A. Made famous by Lucy’s real-life friend

B. This recipe appears twice in the series, once in the Topped Chef contest, and once made for Hayley’s friend Connie’s wedding

C. A recipe not in the books but from Lucy’s grandmother

D. The dessert served by Hayley’s mother Janet in Death on the Menu

E. Hayley makes this cake to try to win over a guy in Fatal Reservations 

Answers (PLEASE don’t look at these until after you’ve commented!)

1 An Appetite for Murder. Detective Bransford interviewed her as a suspect in poisoning by Key lime pie. Their first date was in Topped Chef. It did not go well…

2 always Miss Gloria, for her spunk under pressure

3 E and F. Lucy Really wanted LAST MANGO IN PARADISE, but has come to love THE MANGO MURDERS.

4 Hayley has called on all of these! Lucy would call the chief or the sheriff or Steve Torrence, as they are the only real people in Key West.

5 C and D. Lucy steals and subjects! They eat out a fair amount but not for most meals.

6 Only Sparky is not based on a real cat. Lucy’s cat T-bone came from the Key West shelter. (For further reading on the cats... )

7 A, Eric’s coconut cake, B lime cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, C Nana’s one-bowl chocolate cake (her name was Lucille Burdette), D Mojito cake, E Yellow cake with raspberry cream cheese frosting. ( ALL THESE CAKE RECIPES AND MORE ARE AVAILABLE IN LUCY BURDETTE’S KITCHEN) 

Lucy Burdette Muses About a Long Mystery Series

 

LUCY BURDETTE: Today is the day that the paperback copy of A POISONOUS PALATE, Key West mystery #14, hits bookshelves. The ebook is also on sale through July 11. (And of course, THE MANGO MURDERS is coming on August 12.) Who knew the series would go this long? Not me!

To celebrate this milestone, I decided to share some thoughts about a topic I wrestle with every time I begin a new book: How to keep this long series fresh. I know that series readers (including me!) like to read about familiar characters and places. This can be a comfortable place to retreat when the world feels so scary and unpredictable. But I don’t want to be bored and I sure don’t want to bore you. I have some ideas about what keeps me reading--the sleuth's stake in the mystery, the characters growing and changing, interesting layers in a familiar setting. Here are some examples...

When beginning a book, I start by thinking about Hayley’s stake in getting mixed up in murder. Since she’s a food critic, not a cop, she has no legitimate reason for crime solving—being nosy isn’t enough. So how do I make sure readers find her believable? In the first book, AN APPETITE FOR MURDER, Hayley was the suspect in a death involving a poisoned key lime pie. She had to poke around or end up in jail. (Obviously, she can't be a suspect in every installment.) In the second book, DEATH IN FOUR COURSES, Hayley finds the victim at an important foodie reception and a dear friend of hers is implicated in the murder. She’s very motivated to help clear his name. Ditto with book four, MURDER WITH GANACHE. Her parents are visiting the island for the first time, along with her stepbrother, who disappears into the spring break crowd. They can’t leave him in trouble, so the chase is on. Each book tackles her involvement in a different way.

I also like to watch my characters grow and change, and I love introducing new facets of Key West in each book. For example, THE KEY LIME CRIME, #10 in the series, takes place at Christmas, a magical time in Key West. I had the most fun introducing Hayley’s new mother-in-law Helen to Key West and Hayley, and having the two of them find a body hidden in a Santa suit. (This idea came from an actual decoration that we spotted on someone’s porch.) 

I found inspiration for #12, A DISH TO DIE FOR, when I took a tour of the real Key West Woman’s Club. While there, I was gifted a copy of the second edition of their cookbook. Inside that book, I discovered so many nuggets of history that fired up my imagination. But how would I use this? I decided that Hayley’s mother, Janet, would be hired to cater a murder victim’s memorial service reception at the Woman’s Club, using recipes from their vintage Key West cookbook. Hayley and her octogenarian neighbor, Miss Gloria, sign on to work with her, hoping to cook up some clues by observing the mourners. 

With A POISONOUS PALATE, I experimented with several new things—moving the action north on the Keys to Big Pine Key and flashing back to an old murder from the 1970’s that had never been solved. 

By the way, can you guess which book in the series is less popular than others? 

If you picked A SCONE OF CONTENTION, you're right. Seems that readers who love a certain setting object to the characters going somewhere else.

Red Readers: What keeps you reading a long series, and maybe more important, what makes you stop reading? Do you dislike a series book that moves to a new setting? Leave a comment to be entered in the drawing for a paperback copy of A POISONOUS PALATE.

Lucy Burdette Dishes on Characters

LUCY BURDETTE: (Yes, it’s what we’re writing week and I know you are expecting to see Hallie first. Hallie and I switched days this week because of my schedule, but don’t worry, she’s coming on Thursday!) 

I have lots of balls in the air, including writing the last third of Key West food critic book number 16, preparing the launch of THE MANGO MURDERS (coming August 12), and noodling about a new project while getting ready for vacation. No complaints, but it’s a lot to fit into my pea brain!

Cathy Salustri, publisher of the Gabber newspaper, and author of Florida Spectacular, recently sent me a set of questions about THE MANGO MURDERS. One asked about my habit of including real people as characters in my books. She wondered how people feel about this and whether anyone had asked to be removed. “Not yet!” I said. But that made me think that you might be interested in meeting some of the real characters who will appear in the August book.

This is my friend Ron Augustine, the man on whom LORENZO is based. He is a real tarot card reader, appearing most nights at Mallory Square. Whenever Hayley Snow is stuck, she often turns to Lorenzo. I find him to be lovely and wise and I turn to him too. (Here's a lovely article about him in one of the local papers.)

Dominique the cat man has been a fixture on Mallory Square for years, performing amazing routines with his trained housecats. After the pandemic, his trained cats retired. He still visits most nights at the Sunset Celebration and loves talking to his fans.

This is Key West Police Department Chief Sean Brandenburg. I often give him a cameo and he’s a very good sport about it, even when I mentioned a tattoo that he sports. But don’t mess with him if you’re doing something wrong—he gets very serious then!

John Martini is one of our favorite artists in Key West and a new character. I was a little worried about including him without asking first, but I *think* he’s pleased. 

Now here is a little snippet from the part of the book where Hayley visits John in his studio: 

The interior was a remarkable space, another world from what waited outside. Soaring two stories high, the wooden roof was supported by steel beams. Some of the walls were partially tiled in pale blue with brown designs, and the remainder were plain concrete, like the floor. The entire cavernous space inside was populated with larger-than-life steel figures, ranging from whimsical to grotesque Picasso-like figurines. Tiny bodies with big heads had birds perched on them. They were painted in red and yellow and scattered around the studio. Other body parts constructed of rusty steel waited for assembly. 

The place was downright freaky. I had to wonder what was going on in the mind of the artist when he designed this work.

I can’t think of anything to ask you, but please weigh in with your thoughts about mixing reality with fiction. Or even better, toss out some titles for the next book—they are due this week and I HAVE NOTHING:). Think food, key west, and murder…

If you should wish to pre-order The Mango Murders, the link is right here…

Writing Mistakes I've Made @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Sometimes I feel like I must either know every detail of a real setting, or else make it up entirely. With either approach, I would be much less likely to make mistakes. But alas, that’s not the path I chose when I began writing the Key West mysteries. An early writing friend suggested after reading the first book that maybe I’d be better off using a fictional town so I wouldn’t have to worry about geographical or other errors. (In An Appetite for Murder, for one small example, Olivia St. goes in the wrong direction.) It’s not unusual for a restaurant that Hayley visits in one book to go out of business in real life. Sigh.

I was invited recently to a meeting of the Big Pine Key library book group—the members had all read the book and were ready to discuss. After a lot of friendly conversation, one man said, “we did wonder where you got the ravine.” This made me realize that on an island made of coral, the chances of finding the deep ravine that I described were pretty much zero. I explained that I needed that ravine for the story, and we had a good laugh. 

I won’t spoil it by telling you the details, but you will recognize them when you get there. Here’s what led up to the ravine scene:

“When the camp was cleared out not long after Veronica disappeared, you can imagine the trash that had been left behind. Everything those kids no longer needed they discarded as if the backcountry was a giant dump. Monroe County sent a front loader to scrape some of it into the ravine behind the camp and take the rest of it to the real dump on Stock Island. But that altar, it was back in the trees. I hadn’t remembered it until now.”

“You think it could actually still be there?”

“Could be,” he said, squinting his eyes at me.

My excitement was mounting. “Could you point me in the right direction so I could see if anything’s left?”

I’ve also made character mistakes, urging characters to make choices that really didn’t fit them or do them any favors. When people are about to start the first book in the series, I say in a breezy voice that they need to remember that Hayley Snow improves over the course of the series. That she is a little immature in the first book and makes some poor choices. But that will get better as it does for many of us as we grow up, and that’s one of my favorite parts of writing a long series!

What kinds of errors in books bother you, or are you happy to read past them?

Giveaway from Goodreads for THE MANGO MURDERS through the end of March. 

Also through the end of March, A POISONOUS PALATE ebook is on sale for $2.99. 

If you like to read and review on Netgalley, here’s the link. 

What We’re Writing: Lucy is Scrambling!

LUCY BURDETTE: This time of year, with the two holidays tumbling one after the other and the high season launching in Key West, it’s hard to stay focused. In spite of that, I finished the edits for Key West food critic mystery number 15. It’s up for preorder, and I think it's now called The Mango Murders, though it's still minus cover art. It feels a little naked without a cover, but let me assure you that the words are all there and the rest of it will come.

If you followed the blog post a couple of weeks ago in which Julia begged for tips to keep focused, you might remember that several of us threatened to start a mini group designed to keep our our goals for the next books on track. I always find this helpful. I managed to type out 4300 words the first week, reinventing my thumb and forearm tendinitis in the process. But I’ve got a good start on a new book and have spent some time this past week figuring out what could be happening after a strong opening. (Hopefully you will find it strong!) This isn’t the very very beginning, because I don’t want to give you a spoiler. Deputy Darcy Rogers, who’s been Hayley’s nemesis in the past, arrives at their home with a proposal. Nathan’s gone to fetch her a beer, leaving the two women talking.

“My grandma always said the present moment was a precious gift that often went unappreciated. That present moment is the only moment where we are.”

“Wow,” I said, bringing my rocker to a standstill. “She was deep.”

Darcy Rogers laughed. “She was. I didn’t get my personality from her side of the family.”

Nathan returned and handed her a Stella Artois beer. They chatted for a few minutes about the fentanyl bust that had almost brought Fantasy Fest to a standstill. I watched, wondering what in the world she was really after. She had never, not once, dropped in on us for a friendly chat.

“I’ll get to what I came for, because I can see Hayley is wondering.” She winked at me. “You probably read about Florida's new law, called the Safe Exchange of Minor Children?” 

Nathan nodded. I shook my head no.

  “It’s also called the "Cassie Carli Law", after Cassie Carli, a Florida mother who went missing after a custody exchange. The law requires all Sheriff’s departments to arrange a neutral place with video recording available where parents can safely exchange their children,” she explained to me. “You can’t imagine the horror stories we’ve heard about uncooperative parents fighting like demons. This cuts down on a lot of potential problems.”

My husband’s face was beginning to morph from curious to slightly stony. “This concerns us because?”

Darcy drained the last of her beer and settled it on the table between us. “We’re looking for a civilian who might accompany a young woman on a child custody exchange, and I thought of Hayley.”

LUCY AGAIN: I’ve also been working on the beginning of another project which I’m not going to tell you about for fear of jinxing myself. But I’m confirming what I thought about myself which is it’s hard to work on two things at the same time. I am going to figure this out! 

How about you Reds, do the holidays derail you or are you able to enjoy them as ‘the precious moment where we are’?

ps three of the Key West ebooks are on sale for $1.99 through December!

A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS

A DISH TO DIE FOR

LUCY BURDETTE'S KITCHEN

What We're Writing by Lucy Burdette

LUCY BURDETTE: First, I will say our hearts go out to every single one of you in the path of Milton. So much destruction and fear...we are with you in spirit.

My Key West #15 mystery is in the repair shop. That means the manuscript I blithely sent off in early September has been returned with my fabulous developmental editor’s suggestions. Actually, I didn’t blithely send it off; I knew perfectly well there were weak spots in the plot and a few character issues too. But I also knew all this could be fixed and that’s what I’m in the middle of. Meanwhile, over those two blessed break weeks, I caught up on lots of things that had been neglected, including reading some of my favorite writing and publishing blogs and newsletters like Jane Friedman’s. In a recent edition, I noticed the name Anne Dubuisson, who had written an article about the benefits of writing a book proposal.  (Another project I was tackling!) I recognized her as an editor I’d used before I was published. I named a character after her who became Miss Gloria’s Houseboat Row neighbor and best friend, somewhere along the 14 books in the series. I wrote the real Anne D. a note, thanking her for that long-ago help and telling her about the character, (whose name I had misspelled all these years.) Here’s her reply:

It’s so good to hear from you—thank you for taking note of the blog post. I recall our work well. You were one of my first freelance clients after I made the move from NYC publishing, and when I read your manuscript, I thought, wow, this gig is going to be great, such quality writing! Since then, I’ve been lucky to collaborate with numerous fine writers (and of course, many not as skilled), but your work is still a highlight.

Where might I find my namesake? So honored!

Isn’t that a lovely note? And surely exaggerated:). I wrote her my thanks in return, and sent a snippet about her character namesake in KW #15. 

Anyway, here she is in next year's release where Miss Gloria is taking her daughters in law on a small tour of Houseboat Row:

A few minutes later, she led her relatives back onto the finger of the dock. “Next up, Annie Dubisson’s home.”

This time I did troop along behind because it had been a minute since I’d seen the inside of her best friend’s place. Mrs. Dubisson appeared delighted to show us around. We toured the larger boxy living area, with a faded red Tibetan rug, a multitude of plants, and workmanlike kitchen. I knew the ladies liked playing mahjong here because it felt more spacious and lighter than Miss Gloria’s place.

“We love living here on the water,” Mrs. Dubisson told the guests. “That little bit of wave action at night always makes me feel like I’m being rocked to sleep in my mother’s arms.” She paused. “There are surely drawbacks—it’s damp out here and everything tends to rust, and it’s more trouble to schlep back groceries and what not. This life wouldn’t be for everyone. Maybe someday we’ll retire.” She glanced at Miss Gloria—two weathered old women who would be bored silly without something to do—and they howled with laughter.

Now I must return to the repair shop. But meanwhile, how important are characters’ names to you? Do you have an early mentor in whatever path you took that you remember with gratitude?

A Poisonous Palate is launched! @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I came across this post from 2022 when I was beginning to write A Poisonous Palate. Today, hurray, we’re celebrating launch day! (That’s a long haul from idea to finished product when you think about it.) 

For me, every idea for a new book arrives a little differently—it could be a new character, or an event in Key West, or a crime I spot in one of the Key West newspapers. This one was a gift from a reader. On August 23, 2022, a fan wrote to tell me about her experience camping in the Keys in 1978. For three months, Kathryn and her friend Denise camped communally near the mangroves on Big Pine Key. She ended her email with this:

Eventually the Monroe County Sheriff showed up one night and informed us that we had 48 hours to leave or be arrested.  That started a gypsy caravan to various locations like No Name Key and camping for a while in a cemetery.  We eventually disbanded and ended up staying at the Bahia Honda State Park, where I was offered a job.  We were also offered a job house sitting.  The locals called us Gypsy Trash which we loved.  

Denise in red, Kathryn in denim

It was an unforgettable experience.  We never discovered any dead bodies.  It was a strange time where we were taking chances on strangers that seems reckless now, but we only encountered good people.  We ended up going back to Michigan but wonder what if we had stayed there?

Can’t you imagine how my writer’s brain was racing? What if the friend she came south with disappeared, and never resurfaced? What if this character returned to the Keys in the present day to ask Hayley Snow to help her figure out what happened? I had to tell this story. I had a long chat with the real Kathryn to hear more details, and obtained her permission to use this idea as my starting point. Of course, my story is not her story. Of course, there are dead bodies. And of course, I took the Monroe County Sheriff’s Police Academy over the next six months and corrected my limited knowledge about the MCSO procedures.

I loved writing this book and hope you will enjoy reading it. The photos are from the 1970’s, with Kathryn, Denise and other campers. This is exactly how I imagined it would be.

Lucy with friend Carolyn 1978

If you don’t believe in coincidences, take a look at this photo of me and a friend Carolyn in 1978. We were operating in a parallel universe along with Kathryn and Denise, only in Tennessee. I'm so grateful that Kathryn wrote, directing me to this new book. Can you think of an eerie coincidence in your life that sparked a new path?

I hope you’ll enjoy the story in A Poisonous Palate, which is available now in hardcover, ebook, and audio!

Lucy Burdette's Kitchen Publishes This Week!

LUCY BURDETTE: Long before I imagined I’d write a foodie mystery, I fell in love with Diane Mott Davidson’s series featuring caterer Goldie Schultz. Davidson didn't just dump descriptions onto her pages, food and cooking were woven into the pages to become part of her story. I always finished a book wishing I could have been friends with caterer Goldy, sitting in her kitchen, tasting her food. She and her detective husband Tom believed that serving good food demonstrated comfort and love. Plus, a lot of good detective work occurred while they cooked and ate.

 With fourteen books so far in my Key West series, each with recipes at the back of the book, I've had to do a lot of cooking to keep up with Hayley. I loved the idea of pulling them all together along with snippets from each book. Luckily for me, Crooked Lane Books agreed and LUCY BURDETTE'S KITCHEN will be out this week! To celebrate, I thought I would share the first recipe with you today: Key lime pie.

Key lime pie is the official dessert of the City of Key West, so naturally it makes frequent appearances in these mysteries. In the first book in the series, An Appetite for Murder, food critic Hayley Snow doesn’t actually make this pie but she becomes a suspect when her boss is murdered by key lime pie. She attempts to prove she couldn’t be the culprit. There are traces of pie found on the knife near the murder victim: She would never bake a bilious green colored confection like that.

The celebrated pie also looms large in the 10th book, The Key Lime Crime, when murder strikes down a pastry chef in a pie-baking contest. The trouble begins at the contest:

Off to the left of the stage, I saw a flash of movement. Before my brain could fully register what was coming, Claudette Parker marched to the display table and picked up the pie from the Key Lime Pie Company, the one that had been touted as extra-creamy, with whipped cream piped joyfully around the edges. She slammed it into David Sloan’s face. The pie tin slid off his nose and chin and clattered on the floor in a puddle of filling. Sloan’s eyes blinked like windshield wipers in heavy snow, working holes in the whipped cream. 

The pie pictured above came from the Old Town Bakery, made with whipped cream rather than meringue. Below is my recipe using meringue, but you can switch that out!

Ingredients for the crust

10 sheets of graham crackers, should measure 1 1/4 cups

5 tablespoons butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

Whir the graham crackers in a food processor until they make fine crumbs. Mix in the sugar and the butter. Press the mixture using the back of a spoon into your nine or 10 inch pie plate. Nine is probably better as my pie was a little low. Bake the crust at 350 for 10 minutes until it starts to brown. Remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 325.

Ingredients for the filling

1/2 cup key lime or lime juice, freshly squeezed

Four egg yolks

1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

2 teaspoons grated lime zest

Squeeze the limes until you have 1/2 cup of juice. (4-5 regular limes, more key limes.) Make sure to strain out the seeds. 

Whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and lime zest.  

Add the filling to the pie crust and bake for six minutes. Remove from the oven and set this aside while you make your meringue.

Ingredients for the meringue

Four egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 cup sugar

One half teaspoon vanilla

Using a clean bowl and mixer, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until they hold soft peaks. Gradually beat in the sugar until the egg whites hold stiff peaks and appear shiny but not dry. Beat in the vanilla. 

Attach the meringue to the hot pie, beginning by adding globs all around the edge of the crust and smoothing them into a circle. (That's the  technical culinary term--add globs.) 

Then add remaining meringue to the center and smooth or shape into peaks as desired. Bake the pie for another 20 minutes. Cool on a rack. Refrigerate until serving.

And now serve yourself a nice piece of pie and start reading...

Lucy Burdette's Kitchen will be out in ebook format on Tuesday (July 23), and December in large print hardcover. I'm still working on convincing them we need the paperback! To celebrate, I'm giving away a dish towel printed with Lucy Burdette's roasted shrimp recipe. Leave a comment to be entered in the drawing!

Reds, have you ever made a recipe from the back of a novel? Which one?

What We're Writing: Lucy's Throwing a Party

 LUCY BURDETTE: I’m deep into the first draft of Key West food critic mystery #15, as yet untitled and uncovered. You might remember that the book kicks off with the explosion of a boat off Mallory Square—the craft on which Hayley Snow and her mom and stepfather and many other Key West celebrities and characters are sailing.  Of course you’ll see a lot more about that event, but a second plot line runs alongside: the celebration of Miss Gloria’s 85th birthday. I love writing about parties and food in this series, woven around the murder investigations. I think it gives the reader (and me) a little break from the tragic events and consequences. The hat that Miss Gloria is wearing is like one that I bought for myself for a big birthday. (No it was not 85!)  

For once, my mother wasn’t having to cook all the food. She had insisted on preparing some hors d’oeuvres in advance—non-fussy dishes such as mounds of Key West pink shrimp, her famous cheese wafers, and a fancy Italian cheese, olives, and charcuterie board, so that Martha Hubbard could focus on the main course. Even with her cooking responsibilities minimalized, she’d been at the club house most of the afternoon to make sure the decorations were set up to her liking. The house looked even more stunning than usual, with glorious tropical flowers spilling out of their vases everywhere, amongst photos of Miss Gloria with her family and friends at all stages of life. Tables had been set up in the living room, dressed in white lace with pale pink napkins, good silver, and more flowers. Already the rooms felt alive with chattering guests, even though we’d had to make some hard decisions about the invitation list. Having lived on the island for over thirty years, my neighbor had befriended and was adored by a lot of people.

I found the guest of honor in the parlor, aka formerly the men’s smoking lounge. She looked adorable, positively radiant. We’d spent a lot of time last week trying out hair mousse and then combing her short white pixie so the little peaks stood up to her satisfaction. She pulled a fast one by showing me two different sweatsuits that she pretended to be choosing between, each of them baggy in the knees and elbows, though studded with her favorite rhinestones. In the end, she wore navy silk balloon pants, a white lace top, and a sparkling birthday crown with Birthday Princess written in sequins that I’d ordered for her on Etsy. It had roses and pink tulle scattered all over and glittery gold trim on the points of the crown. Wearing it, Miss Gloria reminded me of all the good fairies I’d imagined in my childhood. I hurried over to squeeze her into a hug and kiss her. 

“You little dickens,” I whispered. “All this time I worried you were wearing a saggy, faded old sweatsuit to your own party.”

“A gal has to have some secrets, even from you,” she said, her eyes sparkling with laughter. “It was fun to tease you and watch you be all careful and considerate of my awful taste.”

“You’re not only a dickens, you’re a little devil,” I said laughing and pulling her into another hug.

Question for readers: Do you enjoy nonstop, pulse-pounding action, or prefer to take a break sometimes with humor and fun?

Meanwhile, you can pre-order Lucy Burdette’s Kitchen (July 23) and A POISONOUS PALATE (August 6.)

What We're Writing: Lucy's Thinking About Mothers

LUCY BURDETTE: since Mother’s Day is coming up soon, I thought I’d write about one of my favorite topics, the mother figures in Hayley Snow’s life. She has quite a few of them by this point in the series! She has developed a wonderful relationship with her own mother, and a good solid relationship with her stepmother, and she is even on steady ground with her mother-in-law. (Not an easy feat!) And of course everyone’s favorite mother-character, Miss Gloria, is planted firmly in Hayley’s world.

Hayley’s mom makes her first appearance in the second installment of the series, DEATH IN FOUR COURSES. Hayley is attending the Key West Loves Literature conference in this book—an event that’s fraught because she is dying to become a food writer and critic of note, and all her foodie idols are in attendance. She’s made what she begins to worry is a big mistake: invited her mother to come with her. Janet Snow is a foodie too, but she lacks confidence and direction and focuses her anxiety on her daughter. This scene takes place during the conference’s opening remarks:

“I know you didn’t come all the way to Key West to listen to me,” Dustin was saying from the stage. “So I am thrilled to introduce our keynote speaker, a man who truly needs no introduction.”

“But you’ll give one anyway,” I muttered.

My mother took my hand and pulled it onto her lap. “Oh, sweetie. Let him have his moment.”

She was right—as usual. But still I rolled my eyes and squeezed her fingers back a little harder than I meant to.

“Jonah Barrows has had four major culinary careers in the time most of us have only managed one. His mother once reported that he had a highly sensitive palate right out of the womb—he would only suckle organic goat’s milk.”

The audience tittered. How completely embarrassing, the kind of thing a mother might say. Mine, in fact, was chuckling loudly. “Remember when you’d only eat strained carrots and your skin turned yellow from too much carotene?”

“Mom, stop,” I hissed.

At this point in my current WIP, Key West food critic mystery #15, Hayley’s relationship with her mom has evolved into something comfortable and healthy. They share a lot in common, but not in a competitive way. Here’s a little snippet that I hope shows a bit of that. The two women were both passengers on the boat that blew up off Mallory Square in the book’s opening:

The ringing came from the landline that Nathan suggested we keep in case the cell towers went down someday. He always wanted to be prepared for future disaster. I snatched up the receiver. My mother’s number scrolled over the small screen, and I punched accept.

“Are you OK?” I asked. At the same time, she said, “how do you feel?” We both laughed.

“Shocked,” she said, “horrified. Disappointed but grateful. I’m physically fine and Sam is too.” She lowered her voice as if someone would listen in. “The cops were here. Asking all kinds of questions. I get the feeling they think we are at the center of what might have been the crime of the year in Key West.” 

“Same,” I said. “I got the bigwigs, my husband, the chief, and Steve Torrence. Looking back, do you think you saw anybody doing anything suspicious?”

“I was so focused on getting the food out and making sure everyone was having a lovely time with something to nibble on and full champagne glasses. I wasn’t watching for criminals.” Her voice sounded sad. This promised to be a showcase for her business as well as my ezine.

“Yes,” I said, “I’m sorry. It was going to be such a lovely party. Plus, you’ve lost a lot of your catering equipment.”

“Insurance will cover it,” she said. “We’re alive and well, that’s all that matters. Did you come up with any leads for them?”

“I mentioned that there were a lot of people from the local food world, and that some of them would not have been happy about my reviews. Nathan made fun of that, and we had a little mini spat.”

“Tension is almost inevitable in a crisis,” she said. “He adores you and he respects what you do. But he feels responsible for a lot of trouble right now, and I know he worries about all of us.” She paused, and I could hear the click of her fingernail on her phone. “I wonder if it would be worth us doing some informal interviews with some folks in the foodie world. People that the police might not necessarily reach out to. Even if they did, they might not ask the right questions because they can never truly understand what drives our passion.”

Lucy again. I adore having had the chance to write about the relationship of Hayley and Janet, to observe it grow and mature. I prefer reading series to standalones because I love following the character development that occurs in the best of these. How about you Reds, series or standalones?

PS: If you haven't yet joined the Jungle Reds private Facebook group called Reds and Readers—launched January 1st—there are live chats, giveaways, and so much more! Join now so you don’t miss out... Leave a comment over at Reds and Readers to be entered in the drawing for DEATH IN FOUR COURSES.

Lucy is Borrowing Bits from Life #amwriting

Lucy and John Mallory Square sunset

 LUCY BURDETTE: I am feeling my way through the 15th Key West mystery, hoping to scribble most of the story on the pages before we drive north for the summer. As always, there have been distractions. Two weeks ago, we had our kids and grandkids visiting—there wasn't much work getting done! But even when not actually writing, I’m always watching and listening, looking for interesting bits of real life to weave into my books. One night we planned to have dinner near Mallory Square at sunset, where the inciting event of the 15th book, an explosion on a boat, occurs.  I took my granddaughter Thea over to see the square while we were waiting for our food. One of the acrobat/performers was there and I introduced him to Thea. Later, he chose her to help him with his act—and that became a snippet of the background in this chapter.

In the scene below, Hayley and her mother return to Mallory Square the day after the explosion, trying to figure out what happened. It's important because not only were they on the ill-fated boat, but they’d also hoped the cruise would bring a boost to their reputations and business. Worst of all, they’ve also just learned that someone on that boat died. They visit their friend, Lorenzo, the tarot card reader, but also talk with a pair of acrobat/jugglers who had been performing that night. 

Tobin and his partner, David, wearing their trademark bright red pants, black shirts, and black shoes, were finishing up their performance. This time they’d included a little girl in pink leggings and a blue shirt with hearts—she stood in the center of the ring holding up giant knives, while the crowd around her chanted “Thea, Thea, Thea!” When he was finished, Tobin thanked her for her assistance and tucked a ten-dollar bill into her fist. Then he thanked the spectators and encouraged them to drop tips into a glass jar. He was drenched with sweat, and looked tired but wound up, too. He was much like Lorenzo in that his work took a lot of concentration and energy, though Lorenzo’s was more mental and Tobin’s physical. 

We waited to approach him until the last of his admirers—the smiling girl who was now holding her father’s hand—moved away. I introduced my mother and explained that we had been on the boat that had blown up the night before. 

The cheery smile fell from his face. “Sorry to hear that, hope you’re okay.”

“Pretty much, just a few post-calamity jitters.” We all laughed, a bit hysterically in my case. “I know it’s unlikely, because you were working hard, but I wondered if you might have seen anything unexpected in the water or on a nearby boat before the fire started and all those emergency vehicles arrived? Apparently, the police haven’t yet come to a conclusion about what caused the accident.” If it was one, I thought but did not say.

Tobin absorbed my question carefully, rasping his knuckles over the stubble on his chin. This made me wonder whether he had pre-game rituals, such as eating certain food or not shaving until after a performance, like some professional athletes did.

 “You’ve probably reviewed all of this with the authorities,” my mother added, “but might it be helpful to talk about what you noticed before the incident occurred?”

He nodded at her. “We were in the middle of one of our shows when all the shouting started and we the heard the boom. A precarious point,” he added, with a small grin, “because I remember bobbling a little on the ladder. I was upside down at that moment, balanced on my partner’s shoulders. Everything looks different from that perspective.”

“Can’t imagine,” my mother murmured, nodding with encouragement.

“Nothing out of the ordinary sticks out that I can think of. It was a pretty good crowd for this time of year. And we’d snagged the cutest kid to help with our act. That always helps with tips.” He winked. “It looked like smooth sailing on the Gulf; I saw nothing that would have caused me to predict trouble. Oh.” He stopped for a minute and rubbed his chin again.

“It’s possible someone dropped off the edge of that boat and swam to a nearby dinghy. It didn’t register at the time, and maybe I’m making the whole thing up, but it’s possible that it happened this way.”

So that’s tiniest bit of real life worked into the story—it amuses me and I hope it amuses the folks I include as well. Have you noticed real life details in the fiction you read?

Not Your Grandmother's Research @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Many eons ago, I did a lot of library research in college, and also graduate school. I studied psychological papers and ran small studies and did data analyses on this work and so on. These days, I do a very different kind of research for my Key West series. Since the books are set in a real place with many real restaurants and people and points of attraction, I like to immerse myself in them during the writing process. (In other words, John and I eat at those restaurants!)

But it’s not only getting the details right that’s important to me. When I am in a place, all kinds of ideas spring up, based on what I’m seeing and hearing. The idea of having to make all of the words up from scratch seems very difficult. I thought you might be interested in some of the experiences, I’ve had while working on Key West Food critic mystery number 15. I will often start a book with an idea, in this case, Hayley Snow and her mother and coworkers are on some kind of a Sunset cruise with important people from Key West. It will go wrong, of course, so I needed to take a boat ride that would go by Mallory Square. John is a very good sport about these kinds of things and this is what we found:

My writing group pal Angelo thought I might get a visit from the FBI when he heard I’d quizzed the captain about ways a boat might blow up.

One of my recurring and very popular characters is Lorenzo, a tarot card reader who works on MALLORY Square. (He is a real person named Ron.) I like to get his take on things, in this case, what sort of person might have been sitting with his fictional tarot card reader character, and what cards would be on his table. We had lunch and he did a reading for my fictional person:

I posted a query on Facebook a couple of weeks ago asking friends and readers What places in Key West they would like to see in the books. One of them mentioned White Crown Pigeon Park, which my sister had also noticed on a previous visit. So I took a ride out there and took pictures and a walk. Until I scared myself, thinking about what might happen here toward the end of this new book…

I’m not sure exactly where this next photo might get worked into a book, but it is an example of the hardships I have to endure: waffles, with fried chicken and sausage gravy at Louies Backyard. (I did walk 4 miles in order to atone for this!)

Miss Gloria has the same weakness for chicken and waffles that I do. Lest you think I’m making all this up, here she’s ordering at the Square Grouper in A POISONOUS PALATE: 

Our waitress came over with menus and water. “Our special

today is fried chicken and waffles.”

“Sold,” said Miss Gloria, slapping the menu on the table.

“Sorry,” she said after the waitress left with our

order. “If you need me to try something, we could call her back.

But that waffle was singing a very powerful siren song.”

Reds, tell us about the kinds of research you’ve either done, or noticed in the books you’ve read!

What We're Writing: Lucy's at the Beginning

 LUCY BURDETTE: Happy New Year and welcome to all Jungle Red Readers, both old and new! I’m at the beginning again, this time of book 15 in the Key West food critic mystery series, tentatively titled LAST MANGO IN PARADISE. That means I’m starting to tackle the questions of how to get both food critic Hayley Snow and her detective husband involved in a mystery, which other beloved characters must be included, and how to find something new and fresh about the setting of Key West to satisfy long-time readers and tempt new ones. 

I realized this isn’t the first time I’ve written about beginnings. Here’s what I said back in 2016 about my writing process: I try to think about the questions a therapist would ask a new patient: Why is this person here now? What drives her and feeds her passions? For an amateur sleuth, why is she getting involved? Usually this ends up having to do with good-hearted Hayley worried about a friend or relative who's landed in big trouble.

In some ways, this is the most amazing phase of writing a book. Anything is possible! Nothing is horrible because it isn't written yet! If I’ve come up with a grand idea, I haven’t had enough time or enough words to realize the many ways it just won’t work. This time around, an idea came from an op-ed in the Keys Weekly by Robert A. Jensen, who’s written a book called Personal Effects, about his life’s work as owner of the world’s largest disaster management company. His opinion piece called for the Key West authorities to prepare better for a possible ship-borne emergency in our port.

Hmmm. That’s exactly the kind of headline that jiggles my writer’s mind into fifth gear. So now I know the book will open at one of Key West’s best-known ports, Mallory Square. There will be many visitors and performers and possible witnesses—though I imagine that most of them have cocktails in hand as they enjoy the chaos, so no one is really watching…For sure, Lorenzo will be there...

Here are the first paragraphs (maybe!) from the new book...

Chapter One

 

Key West’s Sunset Celebration on Mallory Square has been a magnet for visitors to our island since the 1960s. An hour or two before sunset, the square on the waterfront begins to bustle with food and drink carts, performers and buskers of many kinds, a sprinkling of homeless folks, and purveyors of Key West-themed trinkets and tchotchkes. Everyone loves it—except the police tasked with keeping people safe, including my hubby, Nathan Bransford. I tease him that from a police officer’s perspective, it’s all about what could go wrong.

As the sun drops closer to its nighttime resting place in the Gulf of Mexico, the square grows more crowded with chattering tourists, the air ringing with performers call to action (donations to the artists!) and scented with buttered popcorn and sweet mojitos. The water off the square hums with happy revelers on sunset cruises.

I’d visited the scene hundreds of times since I moved to the southernmost point in the Florida Keys, sometimes with out-of-town guests, sometimes to check in with my dear friend and tarot card reader Lorenzo, and sometimes on my way to dinner at a nearby restaurant or a musical or dramatic performance. Tonight was the first time I would be experiencing it from the water, sailing on a cocktail cruise sponsored by my employer, Key Zest—the ezine that aspired to be the go-to source of information on all things Key West for tourists and locals alike. (Everyone knew this truth—if you wanted the real dirt on our island, you went to the locals’ Facebook group.)

Lucy again: Who knows if any of that will still be there when I write The End. But for now, how important are the first few pages of a new book? Do you give a book and its writer time to unspool, or are you impatient to be drawn in? 

PS I’ve just turned in the copyedits for book 14, A POISONOUS PALATE, and you can pre-order that here.

PPS If you didn't catch the promo video I made for this post, here's another version of it, with blooper included!

PPPS: If you haven't yet joined the Jungle Reds new private Facebook group called Reds and Readers—launched January 1st—there will be live chats, giveaways, and so much more! Join now so you don’t miss out! Leave a comment over at Reds and Readers to be entered in the drawing for A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS.