1--What is the title of your latest release?
BEAST OF THE NORTH WOODS
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
A cryptozoologist, accompanied by her trusty dog, investigates the death of a man from a supposedly mythical beast, hoping to prove the beast is real in an effort to exonerate the nephew of her beloved employee because he’s been charged with the man’s murder. Think The X-Files meets Scooby-Doo.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Wisconsin is strangely rich with cryptid lore and the Hodag is such a famous part of Rhinelander, Wisconsin and Wisconsin history. You can hardly turn around in Rhinelander without bumping into a Hodag statue or seeing a Hodag on a sign somewhere. The city has a huge country music festival every year with the Hodag as a centerpiece. You have to love and respect the way the folks in Rhinelander embraced the Hodag as their city mascot rather than getting angry after a con artist duped them all by claiming the creature was real.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Absolutely! Not only does she hunt for cryptids and have the coolest doggo ever, she owns a bookstore that also contains a variety of creepy but intriguing oddities. Morgan Carter would be so much fun to hang with.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Kind, Skeptical, Damaged
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
The topic I learned the most about is one I don’t want to mention because it might give away the plot. I also learned that the kind folks of Rhinelander don’t like the idea of their beloved Hodag being a killer beast.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Both. I edit quite a bit as I go but mostly to get ideas down before I forget them! I do three big edits of the entire manuscript, one around the halfway mark, one at three-quarters, and one after I’ve finished it and set it aside for a few weeks.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Lemon Cream Cheese Spritz cookies. Cheesy potatoes are a close second. Actually, cheesy anything. I live in Wisconsin, after all.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
In the warmer weather, I’m usually on the screened porch attached to my home office, or at my desk, overlooking the river. In the winter, I tend to gravitate to the end of the couch by the fireplace and keep a fire going all day long. My laptop allows me lots of wiggle room.
10--Who is an author you admire?
There are too many to name and I’m afraid of insulting someone because I left them out. I admire and respect any good writer.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
I can’t think of a specific one but books in general shaped my life. I was always the new kid in school and kind of big and gawky. I spent many a wonderful hour losing myself in libraries reading books that let me imagine exciting adventures, visit exotic places, learn about the world around us, and explore the vastness of the universe. I can’t imagine a life without books. Or libraries.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I’ve gotten “the call” a few times but the first one is the most memorable. It was thirty years ago and an agent I’d queried (one of MANY) called me at my home on a Sunday. I didn’t believe for a moment that an agent would call me on a Sunday and was convinced it was a friend playing a joke on me. Let’s just say the call didn’t start out on a very professional footing! Fortunately, the agent had a sense of humor. A couple of months and a few edits later, when she called to tell me she’d sold my first book to HarperCollins, I cried.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Thrillers or anything funny. Make me laugh and I’m all yours.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
There are a few but the one I can never resist watching if I stumble across it is The Princess Bride.
15--What is your favorite season?
Autumn, hands down, followed by Spring. Then Winter. I’m not a fan of hot weather.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
My three sisters and I get together once a year at a beach house in Nags Head, North Carolina. This typically happens in October and often coincides with my birthday. Spending the day laughing with my sisters, sitting on the deck with my dog at my feet, looking out at the ocean is the best birthday celebration ever!
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
For shows, I loved The Diplomat on Netflix, Lioness and Landman on Paramount (Taylor Sheridan can do no wrong for me) and the series All Creatures Great and Small on PBS Masterpiece. Book-wise, I can recommend the Horowitz/Hawthorne novels by Anthony Horowitz (the audiobooks are read by Rory Kinnear who happens to be in The Diplomat!) These books are fun and entertaining (and a couple of his books have been made into streaming shows.). Also, Rachel Maddow’s Ultra podcast was very educational and enlightening.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Italian. I haven’t met a pasta I didn’t love.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Binge watch streaming shows and movies. Travel. Clean my house. I’m trying to get rid of most of the clutter we’ve accumulated over the years so I’m doing the Swedish Death Cleanse.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
Hopefully less clutter—ha-ha. And I’m currently at work on the next Monster Hunter Mystery in which Morgan Carter will be investigating the Beast of Bray Road (which might be a werewolf) in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. More monsters ahead!
Monster Hunter #3
When a local fisherman is mauled to death, it seems like the only possible cause is a mythical creature in the latest puzzling entry in this USA Today bestselling series.
An ice fisherman is savagely mauled to death in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, and an eyewitness claims the man was attacked by a hodag. There's just one problem with that: it's well known that the creature is not real and was created by a local hoaxer. So how could an imaginary creature be chomping on local sportsmen?
The suggestion that a hodag killed someone isn’t well received by the townsfolk because of its beloved ties to the town and the money it generates from tourist dollars. Due to this, people begin to suspect the witness is the real killer, especially when it’s discovered he has a tangled past with the victim.
The witness to the attack happens to be the nephew of Morgan Carter’s bookstore employee, Rita Bosworth, who convinces the professional cryptozoologist to travel to Wisconsin to prove that a hodag not only exists but killed the victim.
Clues may be hard to come by, but one thing's for sure: something killed that man, and that something now has its eyes focused on Morgan.
Mystery [Berkley, On Sale: January 28, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9780593816059 / eISBN: 9780593816073]
The Latest Monster Hunter Mystery Finds Morgan Tracking a Deadly Hodag in the Deep Wisconsin Woods
USA Today Bestselling Author Annelise Ryan is the pseudonym for the author of the Mattie Winston Mysteries and another mystery series. She has written more than 200 published articles, worked as a book reviewer for Barnes & Noble, and is an active member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. She is a retired ER nurse.
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