If you write for a traditional publisher, you get paid twice a year. That payment covers a period that’s up to twelve months prior to the date of the check. The sales are lumped together in various line items, some illuminating (e.g. Canadian e-book sales), some… less so (I’m looking at you “Additional Earnings” line item). So yeah, you may be wondering what LSD-dosing psychopath invented such an arcane business model. And you may find yourself asking why any self-respecting literary artiste such as moi would put herself through it all. Maybe for the fame and fortune? BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH ..read more

Those familiar with Game of Thrones will recognize the hallmarks of “grimdark” storytelling. In a grimdark world, morals are flexible. Dark aesthetics and gritty details dominate. Today’s hero could be tomorrow’s villain, if external circumstances change. Given the headlines of the past few years, the moral uncertainty of such stories has a “ripped from the headlines” feel that seems appropriate for our chaotic era. On their face, grimdarks are everything cozy mysteries are not. Grimdarks are gritty and explicit where cozies are saccharine and romanticized. Cozies are fluffy and esc ..read more

Thank you to Dru’s Book Musings for including Six Feet Deep Dish in the “What Did Women Like in 2022” year-end list! The book is in some *very* illustrious company. Here’s a literal sneak peek… Click here to see what other books made the list ..read more

You ask people about their cupcake preferences, and they probably have thoughts. Chocolate or vanilla, fancy boutique flavors or made straight from the Duncan Hines box, unadorned or topped with edible sugar tchotchkes. These are legitimate opinions, and a variety of taste preferences is generally accepted. Ask people about their favorite pizza, though, and emotions start running hot. Foldable New York by-the-slice? The pleasingly solid rectangle of a Detroit-style pie? Or a simple, quick-baking Neapolitan? Choose your weapon, because this is a shooting war. For a chance to win one of three co ..read more

You’ve written a great first novel. There’s buzz! There’s praise! The book is flying off bookstore shelves. Even the notoriously finicky and hot-blooded reviewers on Goodreads adore it. They’re throwing stars at you like henchmen in a ninja movie. Your publisher loves the book so much in fact, that they want you to write another one. Pronto. Welcome to the Land of the Sophomore Slump. Many writers spend years crafting their first book in a headspace that’s blissfully free from deadlines, contracts, and fan expectations. Then, when their debut novel is (miracle of miracles!) successful, they’re ..read more

My favorite kind of reader feedback is when someone tells me they laughed out loud at something I wrote and scared their dog/spit their soda/made fellow passengers on the subway doubt their sanity. LOLs are my love language. So I was especially heartened when Holly Adams, the awesomely talented narrator of my Mount Moriah Mysteries and my Deep Dish Mysteries, sent me this outtake of her recording a scene from Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust. For reference, the dialogue in question involves sous chef Sonya talking to her uncle Avi, an attorney who has come to Geneva Bay to help a friend caught i ..read more

The Quigley clan traveled to England over Christmas to see my husband’s family, so our miniature Schnauzer spent the holidays with my parents. She had a fantastic time and gained a mind-boggling amount of weight. Like three pounds in six weeks. That’s about 15-20% of her body mass. Was she running an IV drip of bacon grease? Did she discover a hidden cache of Egg McMuffins buried under my parents’ garage? There will be a future blog post on America’s pet obesity epidemic. Anyway, when it was time for us to reclaim our dog, my parents kindly offered to meet us halfway between their house and ou ..read more

When I’m thinking up a new character for one of books, I tend to give a lot of thought to how the person talks. In the Deep Dish Mysteries, for example, you know that if someone says, “For Pete’s sake…” that’s Wisconsin farmgirl Melody Schacht. And if a character busts out a witty play on words that makes you laugh and groan at the same time, that’ll be straight from the mouth of sous chef/BFF Sonya. I’m also fascinated by accents, especially unusual ones like the dialect of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, which features heavily in A Death in Duck, from my Mount Moriah Mysteries Series. As I’m i ..read more

A few weeks ago, I sat down on Zoom with the extraordinary actor and performer Holly Adams. Holly has narrated almost 200 audiobooks, including both the Mount Moriah Mysteries and the Deep Dish Mysteries. Holly and I covered a lot of ground during our chat, from the challenges of pronouncing made-up place and character names in epic fantasy novels to ways to subliminally make your audience hold their breath. I “met” Holly in 2014, when I heard her audition tape for the Audible recording of A Murder in Mount Moriah. You can hear an excerpt of her performance here. Her vibrant personality just ..read more

First off, if you don’t understand the title of this post, ask a millennial. I sat down today to do some forward planning for the coming semester and realized with horror and excitement what a crazy hectic travel and event schedule lies ahead of me. Horror because somehow, I still have a day job to do. And, like, kids and a husband and a dog that I’d like to see occasionally. Excitement because Yay! It feels like I’m a real author doing real author things! Here’s a preview of the first half of 2023: January 26th – Cozy Mysteries Once a Month Book Club (virtual) February 11th – Reading at ..read more