What We're Writing #bookgiveaway @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I have so much going on that I hardly knew what to write today. A DEADLY FEAST (food critic mystery #9) comes out on May 7, the new trade paperback edition of DEATH ON THE MENU comes out today (it's gorgeous, I can't help saying,) and yesterday I sent a completed manuscript for the happiness book to my agent. Whew! (As for how book ten in the series is coming along, don't even ask.)

With eight books published in the Key West series, soon to be nine, Miss Gloria has become the character I probably hear most about. At first I envisioned her as an old lady living on houseboat row. I needed her as a throwaway character who would get bashed on the head and propel the plot along. Here, I’m a little embarrassed to admit, is Miss Gloria in the first book, AN APPETITE FOR MURDER. Hayley is a murder suspect in a case of poisoned key lime pie and is living up the dock from Miss Gloria. This is Hayley talking:

Two boats in along the wooden finger and more often than not one season ahead of the rest of the world, Miss Gloria had strung Christmas lights on her porch. They winked a cheerful welcome. She was watching the news in her living room, one eye on the dock. I waved and called hello through the screen.

“Your place looks fantastic,” I told her.

She smiled modestly and ducked down to stroke her feline, a slim black cat named Sparky. “How’s Evinrude settling in?”

“He’ll never be a sailor,” I said with a laugh, “but we’re surviving.” Then, since Miss Gloria hardly ever left her boat, it occurred to me to wonder if she’d be able to vouch for me with the police. I hopped over onto her porch, her boat rocking almost imperceptibly under the change in weight. “Did you happen to notice that I was here this morning working?”

“This morning?” she asked, looking puzzled. “I don’t know, were you? That nice young policeman came by, though. He’s got such a strong chin.”

“I know,” I said glumly. Her touch of dee-mentia, as she called it, wasn’t going to help me in this situation.

Only as the books evolved, it became clear to me and everyone else that Miss Gloria Does Not Have Dementia. Reviewer Phil Jason had this to say about her in DEATH ON THE MENU (from the FLORIDA WEEKLY):  "Miss Gloria is also a comic character, an older woman who doesn’t take her limitations seriously and becomes a kind of role model for senior citizens."

I love that so much! So here she is in the ninth book, A DEADLY FEAST:

Miss Gloria had been clucking and exclaiming during the whole phone conversation. It was hard to tell who was in trouble and in what way, but I’d hear soon enough.

She hung up and ran her fingers through her white hair until it stood up in little whipped-cream peaks. “You’re not going to believe this one,” she said.

“Do tell.” I grinned. She’d tell me anyway, even if I didn’t ask.

 “You know how I’m supposed to cover the nine thirty–to– eleven thirty shift tomorrow at the Friends of the Library book sale, right?” The Friends of the Library organization raises funds to support the Key West Library, and Miss Gloria was a stalwart volunteer.

“Right,” I said. “You and Mrs. Dubisson sit at the front table near the bake sale and sample all the cookies. You’ve got the winning record for selling canvas Friends’ totes and hard-cover mysteries to customers who thought they were done shopping.”

She looked delighted. She loves when people pay attention to what she’s told them—and honestly, who doesn’t? “That’s it. But now, Marsha—she’s the president of the Friends’ board of directors—called, and they’re desperate for help setting up at seven thirty am because the stomach flu appears to have felled half our volunteer force.” She shook her head. “Old folks. Sometimes they are just too fragile to rely on.”

I looked up from my phone to see if she was kidding. People who don’t know my roommate well tend to dismiss her as a frail elderly woman. Before Miss Gloria roared into my life with more energy than most of my peers, I would have thought that too. Now she was positively vibrating and grinning like a monkey.

LUCY AGAIN: In order to celebrate everything going on, I would love to give away a copy of the new paperback of DEATH ON THE MENU. You will be entered if you leave a comment (and your email, which will help me find you!) What book characters have become role models for you?

Read more about Lucy and the Key West mysteries on her website, or Facebook, or Instagram, or Bookbub...


The winner of a copy of CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR is Flora Church. Flora, please email Hallie (Hallie “at” HallieEphron dot com) with your mailing address.