1--What is the title of your latest release?
A PROPOSAL TO DIE FOR
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
White Lotus meets Bridesmaids in the story of a proposal planner trapped at a luxury mountain spa with the clients from hell.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I needed an isolated place with the more fun elements of Appalachia, where the wealthy would spend their time. Gatlinburg, TN and the surrounding area sort of embodies that. You’ve got the Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum and multimillion dollar homes all in the same place. And that’s how I envisioned the entirely fictional Chickenhawk Valley, a little kitschy, a little luxury.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Jess is basically me when I’m planning a vacation, but all the time. So, I think we would have a wonderful, if heavily scheduled, relationship. Jess is considerate and funny, and tries to make sure the people around her are having a good time. It stems from her years as a wedding coordinator, and it’s served her well in life.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Organized, snarky, smart.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
The spot patterns on whale sharks are as unique as fingerprints. No two whale sharks look exactly alike. I learned that from the Georgia Aquarium web site. If you read chapter one of PROPOSAL, it will make sense.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I definitely edit as I go. I come from a newspaper background, so the thought of leaving typos in a story intentionally gives me anxiety.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Chocolate. Any kind of chocolate. It is my weakness and the source of my superpowers.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I have an office where I can write, but I really like writing in my den. It’s cozy
10--Who is an author you admire?
Jane Austen. There was every reason for her not to write and not to be published. But she just loved her stories so much, she couldn’t be stopped. They were her whole life and to this day, I don’t think you can beat her gentle humor, her admirable protagonists, her loath-able antagonists and her plot twists.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Stephen King’s The Stand. The horror is so approachable and believable – because the horror is other people. I read it once a year to remind myself of how to write approach huge casts of characters, while keeping each of them memorable and giving them each a meaningful story.
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.
For my first book ever, NICE GIRLS HAVE FANGS, I was driving my employer’s weekly church newsletter to the post office to be sent out. (Yep, I was writing vampire romance at night while working as a church secretary during the day. It’s a totally normal career progression.) My agent called as I was parking the car. When she told me the news, I screamed out in joy and scared the heck out of the people in the next parking spot. Worth it.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I really like reading non-fiction. I learn a lot of weird trivia and I can turn my “editorial brain” off in a way that I can’t when I’m reading genre fiction. I love true crime, which has only led to more interesting mystery elements, in my opinion.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Pride and Prejudice – The 2005 version with Matthew McFayden and Keira Knightley. The music. The comedic timing. The iconic hand flex. I love that the director allowed the characters and settings to be more realistically earthy. I think Gena Malone is one of the best Lydia’s ever cast. (With all due respect to Julia Sawalha.)
15--What is your favorite season?
I’m a winter girl. I grew up in Kentucky, where we rarely got snow. And now that we moved to Michigan, I get to see SO MUCH SNOW. We have a room that is mostly windows and I sit in there while I write so I can feel like I’m in a snow globe.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
My husband makes me a chocolate cake that is pure evil. If you make your wife a birthday cake with less than three sticks of butter – are you even making your wife a birthday cake? We get a nice bottle of champagne and eat cake and watch movies.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I really enjoy Elsbeth on CBS. It’s so interesting because you know who the killer from the opening scene of the episode and despite the spoilers, you’re compelled to keep watching. As a writer, I find that fascinating.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I really love (Americanized) Japanese food. My daughter and I are the only ones in the family who like it, so we sneak away on our own sometimes and devour udon and California rolls.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
My husband and I take a lot of walks around our neighborhood. It’s a good way for us to spend time together and get some steps in. We’ve been together since we were teenagers. He’s honestly one of my favorite people. And he puts up with a lot.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I have an Audible Original, THE WRONG WITCH TO HEX WITH, coming out in the fall, narrated by Amanda Ronconi. It’s the first book in the Moonshadow Cove series, which is a spinoff to the Starfall Point series. The print version of Starfall Point Book 3, NEVER BEEN WITCHED, will be released over the summer. I am working on my second mystery title for Berkley and I’m having a wonderful time playing around in a fictional Prohibition-era murder-y hotel.
A fast-paced, witty, and delightful new mystery about a marriage proposal planner whose biggest job yet is threatened by a dead body (or two).
Jessamine Bricker loves a plan. Contingency plans and pros-and-cons lists are her love language, and because of that, her proposal planning business is thriving. But with rent costs rising at her office building, Jess jumps at the chance to plan a proposal between her snobby high school classmate, Diana, and her very wealthy boyfriend, Trenton Tillard…the Fourth.
Roped into joining Diana’s ”pre-bridal” retreat at the exclusive Golden Ash resort, Jess hopes to fade into the background, get some work done, and maybe find some time to unwind. Their first day is anything but relaxing: Diana is furious about the mountain spa’s lack of cell phone reception, the couple next door argues constantly, and Jess swears she just saw a drug deal go down. To top it all off, she’s warned to stay out of the woods by the gruff and sexy chef, Dean Osbourne. Is this a retreat or a horror movie?
As Jess tries to do her job while placating the bride-to-be and her increasingly over-the-top demands, she spends more and more time with the resort owners, finding herself much more in tune with the laid-back Osbourne family than her social climbing “boss.” Between a meditation garden-related drowning and Jess’s discovery of a body in a sauna, it's clear that deadly secrets abound at the Golden Ash. Now it’s up to Jess to unravel the mysteries here in the mountains—before all her plans are cancelled…permanently.
Romance | Mystery [Berkley, On Sale: April 8, 2025, Trade Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9780593817322 / eISBN: 9780593817339]
Finding a dead body in a spa makes planning a wedding proposal a lot harder.
A former newspaper reporter with far too much snark for one soul, I recently fulfilled a lifelong goal of seilling my first novel- "Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs" - to Pocket Books. The first in a three-book series, "Nice Girls" tells the story of Jane Jameson, a recently fired librarian turned into a vampire after a tragic case of drunk deer-hunting. As Jane adjusts to her new un-life, she must find a way to "come out" to her parents as a vampire and sort out her feelings for her enigmatic sire, Gabriel. Oh, and she's the prime suspect in the lamest murder investigation in history.
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