Book Title: A TWINKLE OF TROUBLE, the 5th Fairy Garden Mystery
Character Name: Courtney Kelly, owner of Open Your Imagination, a fairy garden shop
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
My mother and I were best friends. She and I played in the garden and chatted with fairies. Sadly, when she died, I was ten and I lost my ability to see fairies. After that, my father raised me. He did the best he could. He doesn’t have much of an imagination, but he is kind and stalwart. Although at one time he was on the police force, an injury sidelined him. Now he is a master gardener and owns a landscaping company. It is because of him that I became a gardener.
What is your greatest talent?
I make fairy gardens and inspire others to do the same.
Significant other?
Brady Chase is a restaurateur in Carmel-by-the-Sea. He and I have been dating for a short while. We met each other in high school and took photography classes together and played hoops, but at the time I had a boyfriend, so we never connected. It wasn’t until Brady bought Hideaway Café, which is across the street from my fairy garden shop, that we reconnected. The attraction was instant. I love his sense of humor, and boy, can he cook!
Biggest challenge in relationships?
Finding time to spend together when both of us are running our businesses, but we’re making it work.
Where do you live?
Carmel-by-the-Sea is a charming town on the coast of California near Monterey. I rent a cottage that my neighbor owns. It’s the perfect size for me. I love tending my garden. And I’m only a few blocks from Carmel Bay so I can take long walks and runs.
Do you have any enemies?
I did a short while ago. Tish Waterman was against me because I opened Open Your Imagination. Why? Because she felt the ability to see fairies was fanciful, but when my sleuth fairy Fiona helped find Tish missing adult daughter, she saw the error of her judgment and has embraced me. And FYI, Tish can see fairies, too. She just didn’t want to admit it at first. Now she embraces the gift.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I love Carmel. I wouldn’t live anywhere else. And I will continue to run Open Your Imagination as long as I can. I love teaching the art of fairy gardening to so many. This work keeps me young and vital. I must admit, however, that stumbling over the occasional dead body has been daunting, but I suppose every town, large or small, faces its fair share of crime.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
I have a Ragdoll cat named Pixie who loves Fiona. She comes to the shop with me every day and enjoys playing with any children who happen in.
What do you do for a living?
As I said, I own a fairy garden shop. I sell fairy gardens and fairy figurines, I teach classes, and I stock the main shop with fun gift items like windchimes and specialty china and books about fairies. I would be lost without my right-hand assistant, Joss Timberlake, an elfin sized woman with a huge heart and a head for numbers.
Greatest disappointment?
Losing my mother. I was crushed. I have managed to continue on. I have a couple of her things including a locket with, of all things, a fairy etched on it and the word Believe. I also have the dollhouse her father made for her when she was a girl. I have fond memories of playing dolls with her and having imaginary tea.
Greatest source of joy?
Communing with fairies and inspiring others to open their hearts to the possibility.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
When not working, I love to take hikes and do some macro photography, that’s the art of taking close-ups. My mother taught me how to do it. Now I’m teaching Brady, who is great at seeing the big picture, but is open to seeing the smaller things in life.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
I care too much. That might not sound like a failing or even a flaw, but it makes me get involved in situations that I ought not to—like murder. But how can I step back if any of my friends or family, are suffering or accused wrongly? I can’t. That’s all there is to it.
What keeps you awake at night?
What might need to be done at the shop. Taxes. Insurance. Solving a new crime, heaven forbid.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
The Summer Blooms Festival is coming to town, and we will have a presence there, selling items in a booth. It’s one of the most beautiful festivals of the year. Flower companies come from all over California to participate. But it means splitting my time between the shop and the festival. Plus carting all our items over there. Plus . . . Well, you get the idea.
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
I do wish my father would admit that fairies could be real. For Brady, I wish him the ability to see a fairy soon. He wants to. He believes. He has become adept at making fairy doors. He did that as a lark to earn my affection. How sweet is that! Now, he wants to make his first fairy garden. It’s only a matter of time before he sees the fairy that dwells in the vines on the patio of his café. As for Dad . . . time will tell.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
Well, for my father, like I said, he can be stubborn. When my mother died, he shut down emotionally. He was warm to me, but only me. Recently, however, now twenty years later, he has decided to date, and lo and behold, the woman is my best friend’s mother. They really click. I think she’ll open his heart to the possibility of seeing fairies.
Fairy Garden Mystery #5
Carmel-by-the-Sea garden shop owner Courtney Kelly sees things others can’t—like fairies, and hidden motives for murder . . .
Courtney is delighted when her tiny friend Fiona returns from the fairy realm, appearing at the base of a Cypress tree. When her Ragdoll cat, Pixie, emerges from her own portal—aka the cat door—the three set off for a busy day. Busier than usual, since Courtney has rented a small plot of land at the Flower Farm, where she hopes to grow her own supplies for her fairy-garden business. Plus, the annual Summer Blooms Festival is coming up, and Courtney has booked a booth . . .
But the murder of Courtney’s friend, Genevieve, casts a pall over the festival. Ever since Genevieve sold her floral business, she’d been building a career as an influencer. She was perennially opinionated—but in her new role she’d become surprisingly vicious, dissing local entrepreneurs with nasty posts and unwarranted bad reviews. That’s landed a couple of Courtney’s other friends on the suspect list—including Flower Farm owner Daphne Flores. And when a second victim is discovered, seeds of doubt about Daphne’s innocence sprout in Courtney’s mind. With only a germ of a clue, Courtney will have to overturn every rock to get the dirt on the real killer . . .
Mystery Cozy | Mystery Paranormal [Kensington Cozies, On Sale: April 23, 2024, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781496744937 / eISBN: 9781496744944]
An enchanting cozy story that I couldn't put down
Agatha Award-winning author Daryl Wood Gerber is best known for her nationally bestselling mysteries, including the Fairy Garden Mysteries and Cookbook Nook Mysteries. As Avery Aames, she penned the popular Cheese Shop Mysteries. In addition, Daryl writes suspense including the well received The Son’s Secret, Girl on the Run, and the popular Aspen Adams series. And now Daryl, who loves a challenge, has published a Christmas romance, Hope for the Holidays. Fun Tidbit: as an actress, Daryl appeared in “Murder, She Wrote.” She loves to cook, garden, read, and walk her frisky Goldendoodle. Also she has been known to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.
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