L.E. Rico | Making Mayhem

Welcome to Mayhem, Minnesota where the cats wear sweaters, the local priest dispenses love advice and you can find your fortune in the bottom of a pie plate. Sounds like a pretty strange place, right? Yeah, well that's what I was going for when I created the backdrop for my series of sweet, small town romances called The Whiskey Sisters. Said sisters have inherited their father's pub and are each named after a different liquor—Hennessy, Jameson, Walker and Bailey. I wanted these young women to be strong and independent but also fun and funny. And I needed to give them a hometown so unique that they'd never want to leave. And so was established Mayhem, Minnesota—a tiny hamlet in the region known as the Iron Range—where it gets mighty snowy, and mighty cold. When the town folk collectively adopt a group of cats rescued from a storm-ravaged region in the south, the find out pretty fast that the poor kitties are freezing their furry little butts off. Enter The Knitty Kitty. This business, owned by a very talented knitter by the name of Julie Freddino, caters to the feline population of Mayhem by outfitting them with stylish and functional apparel. Walk around town and you're likely to find Barrack, Michelle and Donald—the cats who live at the Mayhem Gazette, or perhaps Edgar, Alan and Poe from Miss Kelly's Bookstore or even Catty Perry, the four-legged resident of the sporting goods store—all outfitted in the hippest apparel for today's cool cat. And where, by the way, Taylor Swift's cats have been known to appear! But that's not the only quirky corporation within town limits!

The Little Slice of Heaven Pie Shop, while offering up a mouth-watering
assortment of yummy pies, is a popular spot for quite another reason. The
proprietor, Janet Lahti, is known to be something of a mystic and a medium. She
delivers messages and helps people to sort through their problems with the pies
she bakes. From the sweet potato pie that brings Bryan back to his roots, to the
butterfly pie that brings comfort to a TSA officer at the Duluth airport, the
Little Slice of Heaven serves up past, present and future while delivering
messages from the great beyond. Oh, yeah, and they make one helluva peach pie,
by the way!

As for the local houses of worship, by far the most popular is the Basilica of
St. Mary of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mayhem, delivering
messages of hope and faith to the community under the guidance of Grigory
Romanski. Father Romanski—or, "Father Romance" as he's better known—has a knack
for seeing what isn't always obvious and helping his parishioners to navigate
the ways of the world—including, well, romance! He's got a wicked sense of humor
and maybe spends a little more time on a bar stool at O'Halloran's Pub than he
should. But he's a beloved and revered member of the community.

These are just a few of the whacky, wonderful characters you'll encounter when you visit Mayhem, Minnesota. But by far, the biggest draw are the Whiskey Sisters and O'Halloran's. So grab a table, order up a pint and hunker down for a long winter with the crazy cats of Mayhem in BLAME IT ON THE BET, and the latest installment, MISCHIEF AND MAYHEM.

We'll leave the light on for ya!