A Friend-Blessed Life By Laura Bradford

Jenn McKinlay: I was lucky enough to get an advance look at our guest Laura Bradford's brand new book and it is exceptional!!! Clever, fun, original, and a heck of a mystery. I can't recommend A Plus One for Murder enough! But here's Laura to tell us more about what inspired it.

 

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Laura Bradford: As the granddaughter of Irish immigrants, I grew up on Irish blessings, some by way of pictures and artwork on the walls of my grandparents’ apartment, and some via their thick Irish brogues.

 

While I don’t necessarily remember every single line of every single blessing they ever shared with me, I do remember the feeling of hope they always gave me.

 

These days, I find my thoughts often revisiting one particular line in one particular blessing for both the truth it’s been in my life thus far, as well as the promise it holds for the future. 

 

May good and faithful friends be yours wherever you may roam.

 

As I write this post, I am poised to move for the tenth time. In fact, by the time you’re actually reading this, I’ll be unboxing the physical contents of my life thus far, and finding new places for everything in what will be my forever home. 

 

There will, of course, be the usual suspects. The kitchen gadgetry… The clothes… The board games… The beloved books (quick side bar here: I have built-in book shelves everywhere!)… But there will also be countless pictures and keepsakes from so, so many good and faithful friends I’ve made in my many moves—living, breathing manifestations of that Irish blessing who have claimed a piece of my heart and blessed my life in innumerable ways.

 

May good and faithful friends be yours wherever you many roam.

 

Yes, those words, uttered by my grandparents so many years ago, have proven true time and time again in my life. And I know they will prove true again as I prepare to set down roots in my new home. 

 

I’ve been blessed. I am blessed. And I know I will be blessed again. Because I believe in friendship. I believe in its power to heal, to nurture, to grow, to ground, and, most importantly, to make life infinitely more fun.

 

It’s why, at the core of everything I write—including my new A Friend for Hire Mysteries—you’ll find one common denominator: friendship. Everyone needs it. In some form or another.

 

After all, who else is going to help you bury that body? Or help clear your name when the next door neighbor’s dog digs it back up?

 

 

Jungle Red Question:  Tell us about one of your friends; how did you meet and why you’re blessed to have them in your life?

 

 

***

 

About A Plus One for Murder, the debut book in Laura’s new A Friend for Hire Mysteries:

 

 

Emma Westlake has always wanted to be in business for herself. As a kid, she had her own successful lemonade stand and dog-walking business. And when she entered adulthood, Emma sunk all her cash into her dream job of travel planning. But as her customers became more and more internet savvy, the need for her services declined. At a loss for what to do next, she turns to an elderly friend who suggests she try to get paid for doing something she's really good at--being a paid companion. Emma thinks it's a crazy idea until requests start pouring in. Big Max from down the block wants her to act as his wingman at the local senior center's upcoming dance, nurse practitioner Stephanie needs a workout partner, and writer Brian Hill asks Emma to be his cheering section at an open mic night.

Brian will be reading from his latest work and wants to know someone will clap for him when he's done. When Emma balks at the notion that people wouldn't, he tells her the room will be filled with people he's invited--most of whom will likely want him dead by the time he's done reading. Assuming he's joking, she laughs. But when Brian steps up to the mic and clears his throat to speak, he promptly drops dead. Emma is one of the last people to see him alive, and so she becomes an immediate suspect. Now she'll have to cozy up to a killer to save her skin and her new business.

 

 

 

Bio:

 

While spending a rainy afternoon at a friend’s house as a child, Laura Bradford fell in love with writing over a stack of blank paper, a box of crayons, and a freshly sharpened number-two pencil. From that moment forward, she never wanted to do or be anything else. Today, Laura is the USA Today bestselling author of both mysteries and women’s fiction. 

Her mystery series include: the Amish Mysteries, the Emergency Dessert Squad Mysteries, the Tobi Tobias Mysteries, the Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries (written as Elizabeth Lynn Casey), and the new A Friend for Hire Mysteries. To learn more about Laura and/or her books, visit her website: laurabradford.com.

Let's Talk Book Covers by Laura Bradford

JENN McKINLAY: Yay!!! One of my very favorite author pals is popping in today, and I love her post so much. It's the twisty turny tale of cover art and what it does to authors. Except Laura's story is crazier than most! Here she is to tell it as only Laura can...

LAURA BRADFORD: I can’t speak for all of my fellow writers, but I suspect I speak for many when I describe that moment right before you see your latest cover for the first time as nerve-racking. Because, as we all know, people do, in fact, judge a book by its cover. Granted, different covers speak to different people for different reasons, but they do speak and they speak loudly. 

They can also incite nightmares and trauma, but we’ll get to that…

Next week, my 34^thbook (A Killer Carol) will release, and I have to say that the artist assigned to this particular series hit it out of the ballpark (See: Exhibit A). In fact, when I saw just the black and white sketch at the beginning, my jaw literally went slack for the second time in my career. 

Yep, A Killer Carol’s cover is, in a word, stunning. 

Exhibit A

S-t-u-n-n-i-n-g.

Now, before we move on, I need to say that I have been pretty fortunate in the cover department. The artist that designed A Killer Carol has worked on just about all of my mystery series with Berkley. She listens to my cover suggestions, actually reads the books from what I can tell, and delivers something I’m excited to see out in the wild. 

But that excited-to-see-out-in-the-wild part? That hasn’t always been the case…

Back in late 2004, I was literally on the edge of my seat waiting to see the cover for my very first book, Jury of One. The book had taken me close to five years to write on account of having two little ones at home. But it found a home with a small, (now defunct) independent publisher and was set to come out in spring 2005. Because I’d spent so much time with this book, I had a very specific idea for the cover.

In my mind, I saw a nighttime setting. In the foreground was a beach. On the beach, I envisioned a body—face down—with a shadow looming above. In the background, the lights of a boardwalk beach town (ferris wheel, etc.).

As I would soon learn, that’s not the cover I got. 

To make this more fun, let me set the stage for the day I saw this cover for the very first time. I’d been alerted by my editor that the cover was in the mail and so I was pretty much hanging out by the mailbox waiting. On the day it was supposed to arrive, there was no mail in the mailbox at all.

Zip. Nada.

The next day? Same thing. No mail. Nothing.

About an hour after the mail carrier usually came, we got a knock at the door.

It was the mail carrier.  His mail truck had caught fire the previous day (nope, not joking) and much of the mail was either burned or damaged by the water used to put the fire out. Anything that was salvageable would be delivered on Monday.

Monday came. So, too, did a pile of mail, rubberbanded together, with one of those notes that say something along the lines of due to circumstances beyond our control (yada, yada). But in that moment, all I cared about was the singed envelope, bearing my publisher’s name in the upper left hand corner.

I pulled it out of the pile, carried it into the kitchen, ripped that sucker open, and found this (see Exhibit B)…

Exhibit B 

Felt your jaw go slack, too, didn’t you?

No nighttime scene…

No lifeless body in the foreground…

No shadow…

No boardwalk lights…

I have to admit, that the sound that came out of my mouth at that first sighting was part sob/part laugh. I mean, after the whole fire-on-the-mail-truck thing, it was hard not to look around waiting for Peter Funt of Candid Camera to walk out of my pantry.

But, alas, there was no Peter Funt.

There was just me and my pink cover… A pink cover with a green sun…

 JENN: I have no words and, just so we're clear, that never happens! If "cover stroke" was a thing, I'd have had it.

***

A footnote, for those who are curious: 

1)   I still have the singed envelope.  

2)  Jury of One was picked up by Worldwide Mystery later that year. The new cover, while better, was still nothing I’d pictured.

So, how about it, Reds and Readers, what's your take on book covers? Any horror stories? Any covers that got you to buy a bad book? What do you like to see in a cover?

Laura Bradford is the national bestselling author of An Amish Mystery series, as well as the Emergency Dessert Squad Mysteries, and the Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries (the latter written as Elizabeth Lynn Casey). In addition to her work in mysteries, Laura also pens women’s fiction novels. Her latest, A Daughter’s Truth, released in May and is a Fall 2019 Book Club Pick for Mary Janes Farm Magazine. 

To learn more about Laura and her books, visit her website: www.laurabradford.com.  

On Facebook? So is Laura: https://www.facebook.com/laurabradfordauthor/.