1--What is the title of your latest release?
ISABEL PUDDLES ABROAD
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Isabel travels to the UK to visit her friend (and potential love interest) Teddy Mansfield, a famous mystery writer. When Teddy’s unpopular neighbor, Hyacinth Amesbury, is found planted in her own garden, Isabel is drawn into the investigation helping a neophyte detective sort through which of her enemies had the strongest motive for murder.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I love the UK and travel there fairly frequently, so I wanted to take Isabel there. I chose to set the story in Cornwall for its beauty, and because it shares a similar country charm with Gull Harbor, Isabel’s hometown, and surrounds in Michigan. I chose the village of Mousehole because it’s a harbor village – also similar to Gull Harbor – and because I fell in love with it when I visited. And because I love the name!
4--Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life?
Absolutely!
5--What are three words that describe your sleuth?
Tenacious. Kind. Fair.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned a great deal about Cornish culture in general, and their food in particular. My previous knowledge didn’t extend beyond their famous hens until I traveled there to do research for the book in the spring of 2021, immediately following my Covid shots. I had the most delicious scones I had ever tasted in my life, and I may have eaten my weight in pasties. So delicious!
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I edit as I go along, typically chapter by chapter. I know writers who power through their first draft and then go back and edit, but for me, it just makes more sense to edit and tweak while that part of the story is still fresh. But I do go back after I’ve finished and edited the manuscript in its entirety. It’s not always easy to hit send when it’s finally time for the book to go to my editor because I know there’s always room for improvement. If it were not for deadlines, I’d probably still be making changes to my first book.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I have never met a pastry I didn’t love. And I count ice cream as a food group.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I either sit on my couch with a lap desk and my laptop or I sit at my dining room table. I do have an office/guest room, but I rarely use it. It feels too confining and with the bed, too tempting to take naps.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Of living authors, I would have to say John Irving. He is such a master of storytelling and character development, and he can evoke emotion from readers, or at least this reader, in unexpected ways. Of late authors, there are so many I admire, but Charles Dickens’ work never ceases to amaze me. I’ve read Great Expectations and David Copperfield each probably three times and each time it’s a different experience. I think that has to do with how rich his stories and characters are, but also where you happen to be in life when you read his books for the second or third time.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
I wouldn’t say there was one book that changed my life, no. That said, there are many books that changed my outlook on life and nurtured my love for literature. I think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was the first book I ever read that I wasn’t assigned to read, and I can still remember what a joy that experience was. Catcher in the Rye, Confederacy of Dunces, and A Moveable Feast all pop to mind as books that I still think about and have read repeatedly. The World According to Garp, Cider House Rules, and A Prayer for Owen Meany (all John Irving books of course) each made a huge impact on me. And Jaws changed my life dramatically in that I have never been swimming in the sea since without being on high alert for sharks. I wish I’d never read it.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)
While I was still lying in NYC I got an email from John, my editor at Kensington, inviting me to lunch. I had sent the manuscript to him a couple of months before, so I had been anxiously waiting for his verdict and feeling cautiously optimistic. I thought a lunch invitation was a promising sign, but I also thought maybe he just wants to let me down gently over an expensive meal. I was of course thrilled when he told me he really liked the book and wanted to buy it. Then I immediately felt overwhelmed when he asked me to write two more!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I don’t really have a favorite genre. One genre I have no interest in though is science fiction, but I’m open to pretty much anything else. Biographies and contemporary fiction are probably what I read most often.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Answer: Harold & Maude. I have seen it probably a dozen times. There are three old movies that I’ve seen as many times as possible that I also love - The Heiress, Hobson’s Choice, and Sunset Boulevard. Classics!
15--What is your favorite season?
I live in California again so I’m missing the seasons, but I would have to say that when I’m back east, it’s autumn. In Palm Springs where I spend most of my time now, I would say any season but summer. The desert heat is brutal. Not fit for human habitation!
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I just had one and it was very low-key. Just dinner out with a few friends at one of my favorite restaurants. Occasionally, I’ll treat myself to a trip that coincides with my birthday as a present to myself if I feel like I deserve it. But generally speaking, birthdays just aren’t what they used to be.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
There is so much good TV these days! One series I highly recommend is “Derry Girls” on Netflix, about a group of Catholic girls in Ireland during “the troubles.” Season three was just released and I can’t wait to watch it! So good! I also just finished a book called, “The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared” written by a Swedish author named Jonas Jonasson. Very entertaining!
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Mexican, followed by Italian, with Thai a very close third.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I catch up with friends, read, cook, go for hikes, binge TV series, and travel if I have enough free time.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I’m not actually sure! I’m working on an idea for a new cozy series and waiting to see if I’m going to be invited to write more Isabel Puddles books. I’m also working on another novel that is quite a departure from the cozy genre, but it’s been slow going. In the meantime, I’m writing podcasts and still doing some TV writing.
A Mitten State Mystery #3
Feisty senior sleuth Isabel Puddles—Lake Michigan’s answer to Miss Marple—strikes out for new territory across the pond in a cozy mystery full of charm, rich storytelling, and mellow humor, sure to delight fans of Jessica Fletcher and Lee Hollis’s Poppy Harmon series.
Merry old England has a murderous surprise in store . . .
Isabel has crafted a life she loves in her Lake Michigan hometown, but she’s eager to use her golden years to make up for missed opportunities. That’s why she’s traveling to England for the first time to visit her pen pal, Teddy Mansfield, an acclaimed mystery writer who lives just outside the village of Mousehole, Cornwall. First impressions are charming—Isabel is staying in the guest cottage on the grounds of Teddy’s beautiful country manor, and Mousehole is home to an assortment of characters as colorful as any in Teddy’s books.
Teddy’s housekeeper, Tuppence, is a dab hand at baking—her scones are regularly runner-up in the village bake-off, and this year she’s determined to scoop top prize. But it appears that other, possibly more dangerous rivalries have been brewing in Mousehole. And when a resident is found pushing up daisies in a flowerbed, Isabel is drawn into an investigation that will require all of her newly honed skills to solve—and to survive . . .
Mystery Cozy | Mystery Amateur Sleuth [Kensington Cozies, On Sale: November 29, 2022, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781496728357 / eISBN: 9781496728364]
M.V. Byrne was born and raised in Lansing, and much like the heroine of his Mitten State Mystery Series, his family has had a home on Lake Michigan for nearly 100 years. He has an extensive career in television, first working at NBC on shows including Today, The David Letterman Show and Saturday Night Live, and later writing for Mysteries & Scandals on E! Entertainment, Behind the Music at Vh1, The Tyra Banks Show, Good Morning America and Nancy Grace, to name a few. He currently lives in Los Angeles, where he continues to work as a writer/producer in unscripted television, but still goes back to his home state of Michigan every summer.
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