Welcome back, my fellow creatives! I’m thrilled to continue sharing some lovely indie authors I’ve met in our community–it’s so great to connect with folks again. This month, please welcome the mystery author, Jay Larkin!

As a fellow lover of mystery stories, I have GOT to ask if you’ve visited any hallowed sites of the mystery genre.

Growing up in London, England, I didn’t have to go far to find fascinating places to visit with literary connections. I was actually born in the hospital where Agatha Christie worked in the pharmacy during the Second World War. Also I went to school quite near Baker Street, the home of Sherlock Holmes.

Wow! You have powerful ties indeed to the mystery world I’ve loved most of my life. What first sparked your mystery series Aunt Audrey’s Angels? (Love the Grime-tied titles, by the way!)

I’ve always loved reading mysteries and I particularly like writing short stories. I enjoyed Alexander McCall Smith’s Number One Ladies Detective Agency series, which has a number of standalone mysteries in each book and gave me the idea to do the same. I spent some time thinking of a sleuth who’d get the opportunity to visit all kinds of places in her work. Also, none of the books in my series has murders, as it would be difficult to write a satisfying murder mystery in a few thousand words.

That is a kickin’ premise. I started reading mysteries when I was quite young; in fact, I was reading mysteries more than fantasy while I was in single digits. Do you have a favorite childhood book that isn’t a mystery?

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

Excellent choice. 🙂 What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

When I was quite young, my dad used to read me poetry from A Child’s Garden of Poetry by Robert Louis Stevenson. Here’s a quote.

“The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”
—from Happy Thought

A quote we all need to remember. x

So in looking at mystery authors now, I wonder if there are any mystery authors you disliked at first but then grew into. I tried getting my husband to read John LeCarre’, but alas, he’ll stick with Ian Fleming.

I very rarely change my mind about authors or books. I will put a book down pretty quickly if it doesn’t hold my interest. Life is too short and there are too many wonderful books out there.

There are indeed–including yours! How did publishing your first book Grime Doesn’t Pay change your process of writing?

The positive reactions and feedback I received validated the form of the books in the series and my author voice.

Cozy Mystery writing can be very tricky, as there are tropes readers are looking for, yet you want your stories to stand out from the rest of the genre. Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

My aim is to be authentic and intuitive. I focus on writing stories I enjoy, and they also seem to appeal to others.

Connecting with others inspires me to not give up on my writing, just as it sounds like other folks inspired you to keep going. Does writing energize or exhaust you?

As an introvert, many types of interactions with people exhaust me, but writing is the opposite, it gives me energy.

If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?

Learn how to touch type – I’m very slow so I use dictation.

I have the opposite problem–I type too darn fast that the autocorrect garbles my words! I think I’d rather use dictation and see what the computer makes of my rambling, lol.

Thank you so much for spending time with me to share your work, Jay! Folks be sure to stop by her site to say hello at https://www.jaylarkinbooks.com/.

I’d like to wrap up with a bit of curiosity you sprouted in me with a little memory you once shared online about wanting to experiment with poisons on your family just to see if those fictional murder methods really worked. I hope you can elaborate a little on that!

I’d probably been reading too many Agatha Christies! I liked the challenge of carrying out a murder that no one could solve.

There were trees near where I lived with red berries, a bit like cherries, which I was told were poisonous. I had the idea of baking these in a cake and sending it anonymously to someone. I chose my most elderly relative – sorry Great Uncle Sam!

I planned how to wrap it and send it without leaving fingerprints. I even got as far as working out the disguise I’d wear when I took it to the post office…

Oh my goodness, you DID get far! I hope Great Uncle Sam is okay!

~*~

Coming up, I have an update from Blondie! We’ve also got one last trip to summer camp before school starts, a podcast, a resource spotlight, and more. Stay tuned!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!