Guest Post Barbara Jean Coast, author of the Poppy Cove Mystery Series

The Poppy Cove Mystery Series is set in 1950's - 60's Santa Lucia, California, a fictional town loosely based on Santa Barbara.  The two main characters, Daphne Huntington-Smythe, a born and bred fun-loving California blonde is the accessories buyer and Margot Williams, a recent arrival with a contemplative nature, custom designs the store's apparel.  Both in their mid 20's, run and own their two and a half year old atelier Poppy Cove in the centre of town, where Poppy Lane and Cove Street meet, catering to a host of colourful customers.

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Blurb:  It’s the 1950’s in Santa Lucia, California, and the height of the social season.  Time for the new Miss Santa Lucia, Nora Burbank, to display her loveliness at a high society fashion show produced by the city’s own fashionistas--Margot and Daphne, owners of Poppy Cove, the most elegant and “in” little dress shop in the county. 

Nora steals the show in her designer gown and custom-made necklace created by local jeweler Isaac Mendelson, and used on the sly by his apprentice son-in-law, Efrem Goldberg. At the conclusion of the show, the young queen is allowed to keep her dress and a replica of the necklace for her own. But Monday morning, Efrem arrives in a panic at Poppy Cove to beg Margot and Daphne’s assistance in tracking down the real necklace, which he believes was inadvertently switched for the replica backstage. The girls get involved in Efrem’s dilemma and try to help him before Isaac’s any the wiser. But before that can happen, Miss Santa Lucia is found dead in her bed and the necklace is missing. 

Who killed Nora Burbank?  Is it someone jealous of her new royal position and all of its perks?  Or did she just happen to be in the way when a thief attempted to steal her diamond-studded necklace? Did Nora have the real or the fake necklace, and how much did the thief and murderer know about it? But, of course, before the girls can find the killer, they’ll have to create several beautiful ensembles, calm numerous irate clients, and flirt with their ever-so-attentive boyfriends, before solving this mystery. 

The second of the series has just been released – DEATH OF A BEAUTY QUEEN. Miss Santa Lucia, Nora Burbank, appears in the fall fashion show wearing a show stopping beautiful formal gown from Poppy Cove and a diamond necklace from a local jeweller. Poor Nora meets a surprising demise one night shortly thereafter and the gems are also missing. Motives abound – is the tragic murder over her title, beauty, or the diamonds? 

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It’s the follow-up to STRANGLED BY SILK, which begins at the opening ceremony of the new Stearns Academy, an exclusive girls' boarding school, founded by the town doyenne Constance Stearns-Montgomery, who is nowhere to be seen, until the silk scarf tangled in the rose bushes leads to her strangled body. Cozy Cat Press publishes the series. The stories themselves are character driven, revealing the lives and secrets of the residents, how they evolve, change and what they've lived through, rounded out with the Poppy Cove creations and daily workings of the town, with a little murder and mayhem tossed in the mix.

Our names are Andrea Taylor and Heather Shkuratoff.  We’ve been the best of friends since childhood and currently reside in Kelowna, British Columbia.  We spend a great deal of time in the Santa Barbara area, which inspired our tales.  We've had a lot of people asking us about what it's like to collaborate and work together, who contributes what, how do you combine two perspectives to make one cohesive story that flows well and makes sense.

We talk.  Out loud.  A lot.  Sometimes at the same time. We laugh.  A lot.  We find that as we bounce around ideas, a new direction comes into view with a plot twist, and a new scene develops.  Usually when one of us gets stuck, the other spurs on a new situation and it switches all the time.  On the whole, we share the vision for the concept of our series of stories.  We both individually have a great love and passion for the place, the time, the social aspects, the clothes, the community we're creating.  Work shared is work halved and we're discovering sometimes when one of us gets an idea of a group of character traits, mannerisms, attitudes, appearance and runs with it, it becomes one of our beloved characters.  Another time someone else will see in their mind's eye an ensemble that begs to be described or a situation that must be explored with our fine Santa Lucians.  A town gets built, weather and climate described, plot formed.  It gets written out, honed and then incorporated in the story, tossed or set aside for a later date.

The pen name Barbara Jean Coast became this terrific reflection of the time and place.  Once it popped out, it had to stay.  She's a social butterfly, a flirty throwback party girl, fun loving and delightful, without a care in the world.  To her, every problem can be solved with a wink and a smile, all while wearing kitten heels and sipping a cocktail with a fine young man.

Having this lovely alter ego take charge of the process helps us keep focused on telling the tales, living life, not worrying about the small growing steps and stumbles.  Whenever we get too caught up, stressed out or too serious about the whole darn thing, we stop, look at each other and say, "What would Barbara Jean do?"  Then we have a good laugh at ourselves, relax, take a deep breath, maybe pour a glass of wine or two and put our feet up, all the while counting the blessings for the great lives we already do have.

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/BarbaraJCoast
Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/bjcoast/
Amazon Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/Strangled-Silk-Poppy-Cove-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00B8YKKBG/

Guest Post: Cozy Cat Press Publishes Light Mysteries for Niche Market

Cozy Cat Press began business in 2010 with publication of its first two cozy mysteries––founder and publisher Patricia Rockwell’s “Sounds of Murder” and Diane Morlan’s “Too Dead to Dance.”  The small independent publishing company, is located in Aurora, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.  

Cozy Cat Press is devoted to the publication of “cozies” or light mysteries that focus more on characters and plot than on graphic violence or explicit sex.  The “cozy” has a long tradition, starting with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple character, and continuing to the present-day with the television series “Murder She Wrote” starring Angela Lansbury.  Modern cozy fans are typically more interested in reading about amateur detectives and their exploits in solving crimes in their communities.  The genre has become quite popular recently with cozy mystery heroines (most cozy main characters are female) coming from the ranks of school teachers, librarians, shopkeepers, seamstresses, caterers, nurses, babysitters, hairdressers, and various other careers.  Cozies are generally filled with humor, romance, and lots of local color. 

At present, the company has over thirty authors from the United States and Canada in its catalogue with over fifty books published in total. 

Authors (veteran or novice) who are interested in submitting their work to Cozy Cat Press and readers interested in learning about Cozy Cat Press books, can check out the website at:  www.cozycatpress.com.

Here's a sampling from Cozy Cat Press' catalogue...

"Hollywood is in trouble and only one man can save it!

Obsessed actor Joshua Mclintock is not on the "A" list--his last role was playing bad breath in a mouthwash commercial. Assisting him as he struggles to the top is his agent, Robert Bigalow (aka, Biggie), who keeps him busy running to auditions.  Although he’s appeared in numerous films and stage productions, most of Joshua's roles have been dead bodies. But his attitude is unfailingly positive and he knows his big break is just around the corner. His life takes a strange turn, however, when he becomes the prime suspect in a murder case. Of course, any normal person would rush to clear his name. And Joshua would do just that if it weren’t for the fact that an audition beckons. Besides, he believes he can straighten out the misunderstanding by tracking down the real killer, himself.  As his investigation gets a little too close to the truth, his ex wife Randy is captured by a secret organization, and Joshua realizes that there are some things more important than career. He attempts to rescue her, not knowing the deadly consequences awaiting him and the rest of the world's actors.

Will Joshua be able to save his one true-love, Randy? Will he be remembered as the actor who played dead bodies, only to turn up dead himself?

Can he save Hollywood!"

 Retired librarian Carolina Pennsbury is quite content living in a retirement home.   She just wishes that her meal time tablemates felt as she did.  However, all seem to have their own complaints.  But those complaints are put on the back burner when one of the retirement home’s residents is stabbed to death in her apartment and the police arrest one of Carolina’s tablemates, Margie, for the murder.  Carolina, knowing her friend cannot possibly have committed such a deed, sets about to prove Margie’s innocence––a difficult feat for an elderly woman with a cane.  Knowing the real killer is probably still roaming the halls, Carolina uses her wits and her wit to investigate, and ultimately––after a fake fire alarm and a lengthy blackout––manages to ferret out the killer.  But clearing Margie and getting her out of jail is not the end of Carolina’s tasks.  She has work to do for all of her tablemates and she won’t quit until they are all happy.

Jeremiah Milk lived a life filled with emotional extremes. Amniotic band syndrome—a congenital condition—left his fingers and toes malformed. Ridiculed as a child, he became an adolescent hermit. As an adult, Jeremiah’s wounds healed when he landed a position as a park ranger and married a woman who loved him despite his physical appearance. But fate ripped his life to shreds when his wife and infant son died on the same night in separate calamities. Shortly thereafter, the tides turned once more as an act of Jeremiah’s ostensible benevolence translates into a financial boon. The book on Jeremiah’s life closes without mercy when he’s found murdered at Tripping Falls State Park.

Damon Lassard—Hollydale’s loveable civic leader, amateur sleuth, and Jeremiah’s neighbor—springs into action. He’s obstructed by a prickly lieutenant, but wriggles information unknown to the police from a colorful bevy of suspects. Aided by his best friend Rebecca and his reluctant ally Detective Gerry Sloman, Damon engineers a deep dive into Jeremiah’s past to solve the crime. Along the way, Damon strengthens his relationship with the breathtaking Bethany Krims, cracks a local horticultural mystery, and tries in vain to tame his wickedly sarcastic mother.

Join Damon Lassard in his latest adventure, Don’t Cry Over Killed Milk.