The Wedding Planner: a guest blog by Annette Dashofy

Dress No. 1

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: If you've reached a certain age, you've had some sort of hand in a wedding. You planned you own, or your child's. You stuffed almonds in netting for your sister, or arranged your brother's stag party. You drove to pick up the tuxedos, or the out-of-town guests, or the last minute replacement for a bridesmaid's broken shoe.

The point is, weddings are complicated. And people care a lot about how things are done. Now imagine having to organize a wedding for a couple everyone's been waiting seven years to tie the knot... with hundreds of friends and family members giving their opinion every step of the way. Annette Dashofy doesn't have to imagine it - while writing her brand new, just-out Zoe Chambers mystery, Til Death, she lived it.

I have no children, unless you count my cat, so for me, planning a wedding was limited to my own ceremony many, many, many years ago. And then came the impending nuptials for my two main characters, Zoe Chambers and Pete Adams.

I write murder mysteries, not romances, so in Til Death, I thought I could get away with solving the crime and sending the happy couple off to the church with the ceremony happening off the page. My critique partners disagreed. So did my readers when I polled them. They’d been along for this ride through ten books and five short stories and wanted payoff for their loyalty.

Since I’d been on the other end of the question when one of my critique partners married off his two main characters, I couldn’t argue. It would be like having a wedding and not inviting your closest friends and family.

Dress No. 2

Hence, while plotting out murder and mayhem, I also had to plan Zoe’s wedding. What made it fun was thinking about Zoe’s mother. Kimberly. The mother-of-the-bride-from-hell. She would voice her opinion about every aspect of the day, disapproving of Zoe and Pete’s desire to keep it simple. Insisting they wed on Valentine’s Day because of the decorating and photo ops.

I decided on the venue based on my own wedding. Kimberly had already put her foot down about throwing a much grander reception in St. Petersburg, Florida, following the small, intimate gathering Zoe preferred. 

Dress No. 3

Kimberly also disapproved of every dress Zoe tried on, even though Zoe was in Pennsylvania and Kimberly was in Florida. Video conferencing has its downside. Thanks to Pinterest, I was able to do a little virtual “shopping” with Zoe, imagining her trying on gowns and Kimberly’s reactions to them.

Just for the heck of it, I started posting some of the wedding dress photos on my Facebook fan group, Zoe Chambers Mysteries & Friends. I couldn’t believe the variety of opinions posted in the comments. “Love this one!” “Not for Zoe.” “Zoe would hate this!” “This looks just like Zoe.” And those were all from the same picture! I love how invested my readers have become in Zoe’s life, but one of them commented it was like having dozens of Kimberlys judging Zoe’s choices. So true! 

Dress No. 4

All the make-believe wedding planning was a hoot. Until I got to the vows. I fell into the deep hole of writer’s block where the actual ceremony was concerned. There’s a reason I don’t write romance. I didn’t want to have the straight-up traditional wedding service that everyone knows by heart. BORING. Maybe not when it’s your child’s or grandchild’s wedding, but in a mystery novel? BORING. So I let Pete and Zoe write their own vows. I borrowed from a very simple ceremony I found online, and I (hopefully) provided a look into their hearts and souls while offering a smile or laugh for my readers.

You’ll have to read Til Death to decide if I succeeded.

In the meantime, which dress do you think Zoe selected for her big day? 

JULIA: I like all of them, because none of them are a boring strapless tube! Annette's books are available in all the usual locations, but you can support an indy bookstore and get a signed, personalized copy if you order from Mystery Lover's Bookshop!

 

When one of Chief Pete Adams’ first murder convictions is overturned, he and County Detective Wayne Baronick are assigned to reinvestigate the case. As new theories about the murder surface, Pete begins to question not only the original suspect’s guilt, but his own investigative skills from the days when he first took over the Vance Township Police Department.

Did Pete put his personal feelings ahead of his quest for justice and lock up an innocent man? Or is the defendant as devious as Pete first believed?

Meanwhile, Zoe Chambers, Monongahela County’s new chief deputy coroner, struggles with the turmoil of two mysterious deaths—including someone close to her heart—as she tries to master her new job and plan her upcoming wedding.

But her investigation soon links to Pete’s case, making Zoe the target of a killer determined to keep the truth from getting out. Can Zoe see the danger in time, and get to the church for her wedding…alive?

USA Today bestselling author Annette Dashofy has spent her entire life in rural Pennsylvania surrounded by cattle and horses. When she wasn’t roaming the family’s farm or playing in the barn, she could be found reading or writing. After high school, she spent five years as an EMT on the local ambulance service, dealing with everything from drunks passing out on the sidewalk to mangled bodies in car accidents. These days, she, her husband, and their spoiled cat, Kensi, live on property that was once part of her grandfather’s dairy. Her 5-time Agatha-nominated Zoe Chambers mystery series includes Circle of Influence (also nominated for the David Award for Best Mystery), Lost Legacy, Bridges Burned, With A Vengeance, No Way Home, Uneasy Prey, Cry Wolf, Fair Game, Under the Radar, as well as Til Death.