When in Rome…or Mexico…or Napa with Marla Cooper

JENN: I was lucky enough to meet Marla Cooper at a Left Coast Crime conference in Portland (it was Portland, wasn't it, Marla?) a few years ago. We met in the audience of a cozy-noir panel and bonded over our love of the traditional mystery and our own stellar abilities at cuss words. Marla is sassy and funny and a delight to chat with so when she mentioned she had a book coming out, I offered to read it for an endorsement because I figured it had to be good. I was right because the book was TERROR IN TAFFETA which was nominated for a Lefty for best debut novel! As expected, it was terrific and it kicks off her series about a destination wedding planner (genius!). So, here is Marla to talk more about destinations...

MARLA: One question I get asked a lot — second only to “Where do you get your ideas?” — is: “Do you actually visit the places you write about?”

The short answer? Absolutely! When you’re trying to evoke a sense of place, you owe it to yourself to visit in person, because there are some things you just can’t learn on the internet. And besides: vacation!

See, my heroine is a destination wedding planner, so each book is set in a different location. And instead of creating a fictional small town, like any reasonably sane person writing a series would do, I chose to write about real places that lots of people have actually visited. I know I couldn’t do justice to the settings without going there in person, and readers would totally bust me if I even tried.

I won’t lie: I don’t feel put upon that I “have” to do all that research. And invariably, I learn things that not only go in the book, but actually affect the plot. When it was time to decide where to set the second book in my series, Dying on the Vine, I picked the Napa and Sonoma wine country. And boy, did I ever take my research seriously!

It all started with a visit to Domaine Carneros, which looks like this:

I was there tasting sparkling wine with my husband and my friend Brian (my real-life Brody), and there was a wedding party celebrating on the patio. (Excuse me, terrace. A place this grand doesn’t have a mere patio.) Of course, that immediately got me thinking about my protagonist Kelsey and what would happen if she were to plan a wedding there.

However, Kelsey doesn’t usually book venues that are quite so grand, so that got me thinking about what kind of wedding planner would feel right at home there. She’d probably be a bit of a diva. Larger than life. A little pushy and grandiose herself. And thus was born Babs Norton, the Queen of Wine Country Weddings.

In the book, Babs Norton is a preferred vendor at Higgins Estate, which bears a striking resemblance to Domaine Carneros. (I’m sure they’d like me to insert a disclaimer here that there are absolutely no dangerous goings-on or sinister plots there, and that everything except for the setting is 100% a work of fiction.)

So where would Kelsey like to plan a wedding? I think she’d prefer someplace like Preston Farm & Winery, which by some stroke of coincidence just happens to be my favorite winery. Preston has a 100-year-old farmhouse, picnic tables, cats lolling about in the sun, vegetables for sale from the garden, and of course great wine.

I love Preston so much that I decided to give them an old barn that Kelsey thinks would make a great wedding venue, and thus a subplot was born. Since they don’t actually have a barn, I turned to Pinterest, and … voila! (I love what Kelsey did with the place.)       

But perhaps the most inspiring thing of all were the wine caves. I knew that some wineries had started digging caves into the hillsides for underground wine storage, and some of them even had event rooms. That sounded promising, so I found one and took a tour. The caves are dark, they’re chilly, and they lack cell reception. (Ooooooohhhh…..)

I knew I had to use it in my book. And just in case I needed a sign, well, there was this:

(I’m assuming that’s just cabernet sauvignon, but still, it got my attention.)

After seeing how inextricably my plot and my setting became intertwined, I realized that visiting the locations is about more than just getting the details right. It’s about finding my story.

Also? Pretty much anywhere I travel these days, I’ve got my eye out for the scene of the crime.

So, what about you, Reds? How do you pick your setting? And is it as integral to your story as a character in the book?

ABOUT MARLA: Marla Cooper is the author of TERROR IN TAFFETA, an Agatha and Lefty finalist for Best First Mystery Novel and book one in the Kelsey McKenna Destination Wedding Mysteries. Her second book, DYING ON THE VINE, is set in the California wine country and is now available from Minotaur Press. Originally hailing from Texas, Marla lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and her polydactyl tuxedo cat. Learn more at www.marla-cooper.com.

Marla's latest release is DYING ON THE VINE:

When wedding planner Kelsey McKenna goes to the Wine Country Wedding Faire, the last thing she expects to do is take on new clients. After all, she’s just there to help out her friend Brody and maybe score some free cupcakes. But when a young couple in a pinch asks for her help, she just can't say no.

There’s only one problem: they’d been working with Babs Norton, the self-proclaimed Queen of Wine Country Weddings—and things did not end well. Kelsey wants to make sure there are no hard feelings, but unfortunately she never gets the chance. When she goes to Babs’ office, she finds the wedding planner dead on the floor.

Babs' high-strung assistant Stefan knows exactly who killed Babs: Kelsey. At least, that's what he very publicly accuses her of at Babs' funeral. When Kelsey decides to do a little sleuthing to clear her name, she uncovers a myriad of secrets and lies. And when a second wedding planner is attacked, Kelsey begins to wonder if she might be next.

Weddings To Die For with Maggie McConnon and Marla Cooper

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: In much of the country, it's still cold, wet and wintry, but if you're one of the the 2.5 million couples tying the knot this year, you know it's practically June already - how's your to-do list? Weddings are such a near-universal experience - if you don't get hitched yourself, you've almost certainly been a guest or a member of the bridal party. It's no wonder wedding cozies have proven so popular. Readers are able to enjoy the drama, pageantry, romance and food without having to get dressed up or drop $$$ on an Omega 8006 juicer. 

Maggie McConnon (you may have enjoyed her writing as Maggie Barbieri) and Marla Cooper join us today as art of their 'Weddings to Die For' tour. So pour yourself a glass of champagne, pick the fish or the beef, and settle down to find out how they make the magic happen.

Lovable gourmet-chef-turned-wedding-caterer Belfast McGrath is back to solve another murder in the second book in McConnon’s cozy mystery series, BEL OF THE BRAWL (on sale: March 7, 2017).

Wedding planner turned sleuth, Kelsey McKenna is back this time in beautiful California wine country, a perfect dream wedding spot, in Marla Cooper’s hilarious follow-up DYING ON THE VINE (on sale: April 4, 2017).

JULIA: I have to ask...why weddings?

Maggie: Weddings combine all of the things I love as a writer: drama, food, and family. When you can put all three of those things together in a story, the book practically writes itself. I have never heard about or attended a wedding where there wasn't at least a little bit of drama; even on my own relatively drama-free wedding day, a hurricane swept through an hour before the ceremony, soaking the bottom of my dress and trapping some of my family in their station wagon on the East Side Drive in New York City until the water subsided.

Marla: The simple explanation (that doesn’t make me sound like a terrible person) is that I ghostwrote a nonfiction book with a destination wedding planner and got a crash course in a career that also happened to be perfect for an amateur sleuth. Now, just between you and me — and let’s just keep this between us, okay? — I’m also fascinated by the sheer potential for drama that only a wedding can provide. Heightened emotions, petty (or not so petty) jealousy, long-simmering resentments, all being fueled by champagne toasts and an open bar… everyone’s supposed to be on their best behavior, but they seldom are.

JULIA: Just yesterday, we were talking with Edith Maxwell about the importance of locale in a cozy mystery. How and why did you choose your settings?

Maggie: I'm a native New Yorker so I write what I know. From the Hudson Valley to the Staten Island Ferry, I feel at home. Plus, there's no better place to experiment with new types of food than New York which help me visualize new recipes for Belfast McGrath and new menus for Shamrock Manor.

Marla: [California Wine Country is] such a beautiful area — and it happens to be just over an hour’s drive from my house. I actually attended a wedding up in Sonoma County, and while I was staying up there I took a tour of a winery that included their wine cave. Talk about inspiration! I think I freaked out the tour guide a little while I was asking him how long it would be plausible for someone to be locked in a wine cave and not be discovered. (Oh, and also? Wine.)

JULIA: There's a lot of humor in both of your books. Do you have to work to bring the funny? Or does it come naturally?

Maggie: It is harder for me not to add humor to my work than it is to try to incorporate it into the story. Coming from a big Irish family, humor and storytelling is in my blood. The Irish can take the darkest of situations and find something to laugh about. I'm not sure where that comes from, if it's a byproduct of years of national struggle or something else, but there is nothing funnier than an Irish sense of humor, in my opinion, and I try to bring a bit of humor to even the saddest or darkest parts of any story that I'm working on.

Marla: For me, writing is a form of play, an escape from the everyday world. The best days as a writer are when I’m just having fun with it and make myself laugh without even trying. In fact, trying to be funny rarely works for me. When I read back over it, the humor always falls flat and I end up cutting it. You know what is hard, though? Trying to balance humor in a murder mystery. I should have probably thought of that before I settled on a genre!

JULIA: What are your best wedding stories, dear readers? Ever been part of a celebration you thought might drive you to murder? Two lucky commenters will win either DYING ON THE VINE or BEL OF THE BRAWL!

You can find out more about Maggie McConnon/Maggie Barbieri at her web site. Read an excerpt of BEL OF THE BRAWL, friend her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter as @MaggieBarbieri.

You can talk about books with Marla Cooper on Goodreads. Read an excerpt of DYING ON THE VINE, friend her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter as @kindacozy

Marla Cooper: The Accidental Muse

LUCY BURDETTE: You know by now that I can't resist a debut author. I love hearing the stories about how they began a writing career, and what prompted specific books. Today, please meet our guest Marla Cooper, who will be giving away an advanced copy of her brand new, first ever mystery, TERROR IN TAFFETA. Welcome Marla!

MARLA COOPER: It’s a question writers get asked a lot: "Where do you get your ideas?"

Really, they can come from anywhere—an overheard conversation, a memory from the past, an interesting story in the news. But the idea for my series about a destination wedding planner came to me like a gift from the universe—one that came wrapped in pretty, metallic paper with an expertly tied bow on top.

Several years ago, I got a call from an editor at Chronicle Books who wondered if I'd be interested in ghostwriting a nonfiction book. It seems they'd penned a deal with a destination wedding planner named Alison who was too busy planning fabulous destination weddings to actually write said book.

Of course I said yes, and before long, I was meeting with Alison in her tastefully decorated office so that she could dump the entire contents of her brain into mine. As she told me all about her job, two thoughts occurred to me: 1) Alison might just be the luckiest person I'd ever met, and 2) her job was the perfect setup for a murder mystery.

Here she was, flying off to foreign countries with people she barely knew, and if anything went wrong, everyone looked to her to fix things. Of course, she'd mostly dealt with situations like squabbling bridesmaids or having a string trio show up when they'd hired a quartet, but of course my imagination took it a step further.

I was tempted to ask her what would happen if something really terrible happened. Like, oh, say, everyone hated one of the groomsmen and he ended up being murdered—you know, that kind of thing. But it was our first meeting and I didn't want her to think I was a terrible person.

Besides, I knew what the answer was: She would investigate, of course!

After all, she'd be the one in charge. Besides, wedding planners are typically super resourceful—not to mention really well organized—so if they couldn't get to the bottom of things, who could?

Well, okay, sure, the police. But what if they wrongly suspected one of the wedding party?

Alison and I went on to talk about more mundane matters, like site visits and tent rentals, but when I left, I had a tingly feeling way down deep in my spine. I didn't just have just one book to write. I had a whole series!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Okay, readers, I was going to ask you where you get your ideas, but I'm in the mood to talk about weddings. Have you ever been to a destination wedding? Or have you ever been to a wedding where things went really wrong? One randomly-chosen commenter will win an Advance Reading Copy of TERROR IN TAFFETA, which comes out March 22 from Minotaur Books.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

MARLA COOPER was astonished when she realized people could actually get paid to write things. So she switched her major from business to advertising—much to the relief of her accounting professor—and began her career as an advertising copywriter. After moving to San Francisco, she became a freelancer so she could take advantage of perks like working in her pajamas, and it was while ghostwriting a book on destination weddings that she found inspiration for her first novel, Terror in Taffeta. Originally hailing from Texas, Marla lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and her polydactyl tuxedo cat. Visit her at www.marla-cooper.com.

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TERROR IN TAFFETA is the first book in a new series by Marla Cooper. It will be available in bookstores on March 22, but you can pre-order it now from Amazon, Barnes &Noble, and other fine retailers.

Here's the scoop:

Kelsey McKenna has planned out every detail of her client's destination wedding in San Miguel de Allende. But what she hadn't planned on was a bridesmaid dropping dead in the middle of the ceremony. When the bride's sister is arrested for murder, the mother of the bride demands that Kelsey fix the matter at once. And even though Kelsey is pretty sure investigating a murder isn't in her contract, crossing the well connected Mrs. Abernathy could be a career-killer. Before she can leave Mexico and get back to planning weddings, Kelsey will have to deal with stubborn detectives, late-night death threats—and guests who didn't even RSVP.