Victoria Hamilton | My Juggling Act

How do you write three series? That is one of the questions I'm often asked, and, well... I don't think about it often.

Except when I'm panicked in the middle of the night because I have a due date, and can't remember which series it's for. Or when, like yesterday, I'm working on a book and slip in details from another book by mistake, and only catch it later. Hopefully not so much later that it's made it to an editor. That has never happened. Yet.

Or when I have two books out in three months as well as a due date for a book and a couple of proposals due, and blog dates for a tour to promote the books going on. Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed and mess things up, but that doesn't happen very often.

How do you write three series?

I didn't start out with three series; it all kind of came on gradually. First, I found the perfect agent, wrote a proposal, which was accepted by my dream editor. I finally had my perfect job, writing the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime. Glorious. Wonderful! I was so excited. I've been wanting this since I was twelve years old.

So I wrote and wrote and... I can do another series, I thought. I had time. I began planning and had a kind of vision of a castle in the middle of upstate New York, and a woman baking muffins. I knew right away who she was, Merry Wynter, and I knew a lot of her backstory. I can handle this, I thought, as my agent and I went back and forth over some of the details, then presented it to my editor at Berkley.

She loved it, and I had another three book contract for a cozy series, the Merry Muffin Series, with BRAN NEW DEATH, now out, as the first book. I was ecstatic! Life is good.

Then the unthinkable happened. My editor had a wonderful idea for a cozy series and was looking for a writer to write it. It had teapots, and teacups and a tea house! I collect teacups and teapots, love tea, and my favorite days out include lunch at a teahouse. Who could possibly be more perfect to write this than me?

But... three series? How could I manage?

I once promised myself that I would never ever let a great opportunity pass me by. This was a great opportunity. I wrote a proposal and some chapters, the editor loved it and... gulp... I had a third series, the Teapot Collector Mysteries, writing as Amanda Cooper, which has its debut with TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT next June.

I must be mad, but if this is madness it is that special kind of insanity where you live someone else's life, because I swear that little twelve year old girl who read Agatha Christie books and couldn't even imagine being lucky enough to write mysteries for a living never even dreamed this wonderful.

How do I write three series? With a big grin on my face, that's how!

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BRAN NEW DEATH, Book 1 of the Merry Muffin Mystery series by Victoria Hamilton, (Berkley Prime Crime) is out September 3^rd!

BRAN NEW DEATH: When Merry Wynter discovered that she inherited a genuine American Castle in the ‘wilds' of upstate New York, her first reaction was to contact a real estate agent to sell it, sight unseen. Things were a little complicated, what with a lunatic employer making her life miserable. But after losing her job and with the castle not sold, Merry decides to trek to Wynter Castle to see what the problem is.

One barrier to selling is immediately evident; someone is digging giant holes on the property! Merry accuses local Tom Turner of being her late night gopher and warns him to stay off her property, or else, but it happens again. Merry storms out to confront whomever is doing the damage, but doesn't count on finding a dead man at the bottom of the hole.

What is going on at Wynter Castle and in Autumn Vale? How can Merry convince hunky sheriff Virgil Grace that she is not the one who bashed the victim over the head?

Check out BRAN NEW DEATH and Victoria Hamilton's other series, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries.

Victoria Hamilton Mysteries | Facebook | Merry Muffin Facebook Page: | @MysteryVictoria

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Victoria Hamilton, nationally bestselling author of the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series, is the pseudonym of Donna Lea Simpson, bestselling author of romance and historical mystery novels.

Victoria starting reading mystery novels at the age of 12 and devoured Agatha Christie mysteries, as well as those of Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh. She still adores mysteries, especially the cozy mysteries of Janet Bolin, Krista Davis, and others.

She loves to cook, and collects teapots and teacups, as well as vintage kitchen utensils and bowls. She also enjoys crafts, especially cross-stitching and crocheting, and spends summer days in the garden, drinking tea or wine. Besides the Merry Muffin Mystery series (BRAN NEW DEATH - September 3^rd) Victoria writes two other mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime, the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series (Book 3, FREEZER I'LL SHOOT debuts November 5^th) and the Teapot Collector Mystery series which debuts with TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT, out June 3^rd, 2014.