Let's Have A Cozy Day

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Alrighty then. It’s now 8:08 on Wednesday, and by the time this post goes up early Thursday morning, who knows where we’ll all be. But we might as well stay cozy.



Before we introduce today's special guest, remember yesterday, we decided to focus on beauty a bit? Well, whoo, as a result, darling FOR Gigi Norwood sent flowers....

and fab FOR Judy Singer sent some, too!

Photos  of flowers, I mean, from Gigi’s garden and Judy’s birthday. Let’s hope this is simply the beginning of the celebration.  Thank you SO much!

And we can also celebrate the books we love, right? That's why we are also so happy to welcome the wonderful Becky Clark. Who, brave woman,  had the,  um, experience of launching a new book in a pandemic and on election day.  SO let’s celebrate her with applause and cheers!  

(And additions to our TBR piles. See below for a GIVEAWAY!) 

Cozy Quirks



by Becky Clark

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that people love to read cozy mysteries because of the quirky places they’re set and the all-too-human—and therefore often wacky—characters that inhabit them.




Yes, of course, cozy readers appreciate the lack of sex and violence throughout, and the vindication of seeing the villain get well-deserved comeuppance at the end, but there’s just something so satisfying about those quirks that make you want to live with those people in those places.




I’d love to hang out in Ellen Byron’s fictional Pelican, Louisiana where her voodoo priestess is treated with the same respect as the town’s priest. Wouldn’t it have been fun to go to Cynthia Kuhn’s Stonedale University with its stodgy outer layer covering up some crackling fun secrets? I’m trying to figure out how to plan a vacation that includes a week at Catriona McPherson’s Last Ditch Motel, another week on the 29th floor of Gretchen Archer’s Bellissimo Resort and Casino with Davis Way and her band of merry miscreants, and a final week in Libby Klein’s Cape May, NJ to see what kind of shenanigans Aunt Ginny and I could get into.






If you’ve read any of those books—or a zillion others—you’ve been immersed in some quirky places, the hallmark of a fun cozy.






When I was in the very early stages of sketching out PUZZLING INK (the first in my Crossword Mysteries which just launched November 3rd … squee!), I was lamenting all of its deficiencies, as one does, to my dear friend and sounding board, the delightful and clever Cynthia Kuhn, of the previously mentioned Lila Maclean academic mysteries. She listened while I whined, then gave me one of her trademark pffts and a wave of her hand. “You just haven’t sprinkled the cozy dust on it yet.”




She was absolutely right.




By the time I sprinkled my cozy dust, the fictional town of Chestnut Station, Colorado—out on the eastern plains—was ready for its quirky close-up.




For one thing, there’s not a chestnut tree to be found anywhere near town, but in the 1950s some mystery artist began erecting chestnut statues all over the place in the dead of night. One particularly productive summer saw more than thirty chestnut statues installed at intersections throughout town; quite remarkable, since there were only about twice that many streets. In the years since, many more had materialized depicting raw chestnuts, shelled chestnuts, chestnuts fuzzy from the tree, and, of course, roasting on an open fire. Made of wood, metal, clay. Large, medium, and small. Loud and proud, hidden and demure. Earth tones and neon. You name it, there was one like it somewhere in town.




The townspeople costume the statues for every holiday—real and imagined—and in FATAL SOLUTIONS, book #3 out next year, we find out why.




Chestnut Station also has town dogs, owned by no one and everyone, each of whom has staked out some real estate of their own. Jethro the bloodhound, for instance, sleeps all day in front of the diner where amateur sleuth/crossword constructor/waitress Quinn Carr works. When they unlock the door, he’s there to perform his security sweep, checking every nook and cranny until he gives the all-clear at the kitchen where he accepts his payment, two strips of crispy bacon.




The other fixture of the Chestnut Diner is a group of elderly men, the Retireds. They spend much of their day hanging out at their favorite table, seeing and being seen, teasing, reminiscing, complaining. There’s literal Herman who seems like he’s hearing everything, no matter how mundane, for the very first time. Gregarious Bob who used to be on the stage and has a story for every situation, or at least thinks he does. Lonely Larry, who is completely gray (except for his hair, which is red) and needs company like an astronaut needs air. Silas is the resident comedian, always ready with a bad joke he’s told a thousand times. And Wilbur their cranky ring-leader, whose every word sounds like it tumbled around a cement mixer first. They give Quinn grief all day, every day.




Luckily Quinn has respite at her parents’ house where her mother Georgeanne loves to bustle around the kitchen. Unfortunately, “bustling” doesn’t always translate to “delicious,” no matter how hard she tries. Everything she makes is technically edible, but only in the broadest sense of the word.




Take her oatmeal, for example.




She’d been making it for her husband Dan’s breakfast every day for thirty-some years. In the beginning it was normal oatmeal, like most people ate. But over the years, Georgeanne increasingly expressed her creativity through her cooking. These days, Dan’s oatmeal was virtually unrecognizable, buried under layers of dried and fresh fruit, nuts, seeds, roasted chickpeas, basil, and tarragon. The pièce de résistance, however, was the artfully arranged spoonful of dill pickle relish on top. This flourish was added after Georgeanne heard a Japanese chef extol the virtues of “eating with your eyes,” something Quinn desperately wanted to learn, if it meant she needn’t use her mouth.




These quirky characters and places—even the food—enrich Quinn’s life and form the backdrop for her sleuthing. I mean, without being fueled by some of her mother’s cumin cupcakes with miso frosting, how could Quinn manage to construct those subliminal crossword clues to deliver that well-deserved comeuppance?




While I have my share of quirkiness in real life, none of it is quite as eccentric as the people, pets, and places that inhabit my fictional world.




Which is exactly the reason I like to visit there.




Readers, what about you? Where are your favorite armchair vacations? Which fictional worlds do you yearn to visit? Are there any places you know better than your actual town? Characters you like better than your actual people? Comment and get a chance to win a digital copy of Puzzling Ink!




HANK: You had me with puzzles! I love to do the NY Times Sunday puzzle, it’s such a treat when I finish it! And what a treat to have some smiles this morning!



AND! An e-book of PUZZLING INK to one lucky commenter!

Award-winning author Becky Clark is
the seventh of eight kids, which explains both her insatiable need for attention and her atrocious table manners. She likes to read funny books so it felt natural to write them too. She surrounds herself with quirky people and pets who end up as characters in her books. Readers say her books are “fast and thoroughly entertaining” with “witty humor and tight writing” and “humor laced with engaging characters” so you should “grab a cocktail and enjoy the ride.” Subscribe to her mailing list to apply to be part of her Review Crew and read her books before they’re published. She writes the Dunne Diehl novels, the Mystery Writers Mysteries, and the Crossword Puzzle Mysteries.




Becky’s website …. https://beckyclarkbooks.com/




Join Becky’s private group on Facebook … https://www.facebook.com/groups/beckysbookbuddies




Follow Becky at BookBub ... https://www.bookbub.com/profile/becky-clark




Follow Becky on Amazon … https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004NQO14I


and at Goodreads … https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4730815.Becky_Clark