Fertile Ground for Murder follows a podcaster who returns to her hometown to investigate the mysterious death of a childhood friend. Where did the idea for this novel come from?

Well, the idea actually evolved during my writing process. I wanted to create cozy mystery with a more unique flare to it. When I was a late teenager I had a friend who lived in a small town. Everybody knew everybody. The grapevine was a major source of information. Small towns rarely get any big-time news and I thought a small town could use the attention. The cozy mystery required an amateur sleuth. Big city crime podcaster seemed unique enough. As the idea evolved, the podcaster became a former resident of the small town. In the end, instead of a cozy mystery, I ended up with a psychological thriller. It was quite fun writing this one.

How did the mystery develop for this story? Did you plan it before writing or did it develop organically?

Like I said, the mystery evolved during the entire writing process. Yes, I had a rough idea where I was going, but the in between portion kept changing. Dare I say I went through 10 drafts of the manuscript before I had the published version of the story? My beta readers had a lot of influence with their ideas and 10 drafts later, I had Fertile Ground for Murder.

What was the inspiration for Samantha’s traits and dialogue?

It was the small-town mentality that drove it. Of course, she picked up some big-city lingo while she lived in Chicago and podcast there.

Can we look forward to more mysteries from you soon? YES!

What are you currently working on? I am just finishing up Act 1 of a SciFi/Dystopian mystery with Lyam Lockwood; 30 more chapters to go! Lyam is handling the SciFi aspect of the story and I am working on the mystery. Hard to put a date on completion, but I suspect we will be finished before the end of the year… we hope!

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