A Cover For Murder by Sue Minix Book 4 The Bookstore Mysteries
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Meet Sue Minix, author of The Bookstore Mysteries
Buy Sue's new book: A Cover For Murder by Sue Minix - released January 18, 2024 by Avon https://amzn.to/42felgC
Author Chat Questions
0:00 Intro
0:22 Do you want to tell us a little bit about you and about your book?
1:46 Tell us about book #4.Who gets murdered? Who's doing the slew thing? And what kind of bookstore is this?
3:51 How is this different than books one through 4?
4:22 Can readers pick this up without reading books one through 4?
4:42 What do readers need to know to, like, bring them up to speed?
6:45 Is it a normal bookstore? Is there nothing strange like elephants inside?
7:50 Do we ever, do you put snippets of the main character's book into this book or she just kind of talks about the book in general?
8:54 Book 4 is this Book five and six are coming out this year, right?
9:20 How do you help protagonist balance being a writer, owning a bookstore, and also solving crimes on the side?
10:25 How did you end up choosing that South Carolina any other state in the country?
11:19 What do you like about writing for South Carolina that you maybe missed that you could have possibly written now that you've lived in New Mexico?
12:50 What's the dog like in the book and how does she come to have Savannah?
14:00 Is there anything unique about the German Shepherd that you kind of show as a personality for Savannah in the book?
15:09 Jen's sidekicks were just friends that she had in the area when she was writing only and didn't own the bookstore right?
17:23 Does she have a romantic love interest in this series?
18:31 Why don't you tell us a little about you and your writing plans for the rest of this year?
Listen Now [Audio Only]
A Cover For Murder by Sue Minix Book 4 The Bookstore Mysteries
Feb 15, 2024
20 min 43 sec
This transcript was generated automatically by Spotify. Its accuracy may vary.
0:01
Hi, everyone.Welcome to the Cozy Mystery Mingle.We're here today with Sue Minix.Hi, Sue.Hi.And did I see that right?Is it Minix?Minix Yes.Oh, wow, Look at that.All right, cool.Good job.We're going to talk about her latest book, which is Book #4A Cover for Murder in the Bookstore Mysteries.
0:22
So do you want to tell us a little bit about you and about your book?Well, I've been writing off and on for most of my life, but I didn't get serious about it until a few years ago, when I suddenly realized during one of my annual, you know, recollections on what have you done with your life this year that I had never really finished anything?
0:46
And the only thing that I had left that I could finish was the book that I wrote 2023 years ago now.And so I decided that I was going to finish that and put it, put it, make it as good as I possibly could.
1:02
Sorry.And then see what happened.And I got lucky and I found an agent and a publisher, and that became Murder at the Bookstore, which is the first book in the series.And so now, now we're on #4, and there's two more coming out this year.
1:20
Wow.Wow.Two more this year.Yeah, they've put me on this nightmare schedule of three books a year.Well.Clearly you were able to do it, so that probably just means next year you'll do five books for the year.Oh no, no, no.
1:37
I won't sign that contract.But actually, I don't know if there's going to be any next year or not.That's entirely up to the publisher whether they want to continue the series.Or not.Well, tell us about book #4.Who gets murdered?Who's doing the slew thing?And what kind of bookstore is this?OK, Will, in Book #4, Jen's life kind of falls apart in about two hours on a Saturday afternoon.
2:07
When you ask about the bookstore, do you mean her bookstore, the one that Yes.OK, Jen owns the local bookstore in a very small, in a very small town of Littleton, South Carolina.And she hears a rumor that someone else is opening up another competing bookstore.
2:26
Well, Riddleton's only got about 400 people that actually live in the town.You know, there's more people living in the surrounding areas, etcetera.So there's no way that there's any room for another bookstore.So she goes over to talk to the person who's opening it, and they disagree.
2:42
They have an argument and then she goes and has lunch with her boyfriend, the local police detective, and after lunch she goes back to the other lady's bookstore and finds her dead.So Needless to say, all eyes are on Jen.
3:03
I'm getting an error message here that says something failed.Oh yeah, you can ignore that.It's just it's trying to multicast to Facebook and sometimes the connection gets lost OK.Yeah, not that I don't enjoy chatting with you, but, you know, so anyway, and at the same time, she finds out that the contest that has been funding the the bookstore that she owns is going bankrupt, so she's not going to get any more payments.
3:31
So it's like her whole life just fell apart.So now she's struggling with all of these issues and she has to find out who really murdered the owner of the other bookstore because she's been arrested for it.So it's it's a challenge for her, but she's up to it.
3:50
OK, and then so how is this different than books one through 4?In books one through 4, this is this is the first time that Jen has actually been the prime suspect.OK, other other things have happened where she's been kind of on the fringes of it and suspected of it, or people that she cares about have been arrested for it and she feels like she has to help them.
4:16
But this is the first time that all eyes are on her.OK.And.So can readers pick this up without reading books one through 4?Yes, OK.I mean, there'll be, there'll be some references to the previous books, you know, or previous activities in her life and but it really doesn't have any effect on the readability.
4:38
The story runs from start to finish.OK, And so let's just help bring readers up to speed in case they just want to pick up this book.Or, you know how sometimes you go to check a book out at the library and one of them's available and the other ones aren't?What do they need to know to, like, bring them up to speed?
4:54
Like, how did she get the bookstore?What kind of is it?All books?Is it on the ocean?Like what?What else do we want to know?OK, well, she gets the bookstore in book one.She's struggling to write the second book in her series because Jen is also a writer, and she spends a lot of time at the local bookstore drinking coffee and staring out the window, and she becomes good friends with the owner.
5:19
Well, the owner is murdered.And The upshot, You know, by the end she leaves the bookstore to Jen because she trusts her to run it the way she wants it to be run.So that's how Jen ends up with the bookstore.Riddleton is a teeny tiny town between 2 fictional towns, 2 fictional cities in South Carolina which are basically in real life.
5:48
Columbia and Lexington.I don't know if you know anything about South Carolina, but I I renamed them.I renamed them so that I could have some more flexibility what we can do and and geographic anomalies and things like that because if you if you base in real life then you're stuck with what is actually there.
6:08
So, but those are the cities that they're based on and Riddleton started out as a Stagecoach rest stop in the 18th in the 1800s.And then it grew from there into a town.And then when they dammed Lake Gester, which is Lake Murray, it grew because people have wanted to go to the lake or live near the lake and things like that.
6:34
So.And that happened in 1930.Wow.Very historic.A lot of research.Yeah, clearly so.All right, so this bookstore, it sells everything.It's just a normal bookstore.There's nothing strange like elephants inside or and I don't know.
6:52
No, no.A little dust, a few dust bunnies, but no elephants, yeah.OK, very cool.All right, so before she inherited the bookstore, she was a writer, just writing.And she writes crime, right?Right.She's also a mystery writer.
7:09
All right, and.She had go.Ahead.She had a wildly successful first book and so she ended up with a two book contract.And then she couldn't write the second book, and so that's why she spent so much time drinking coffee and staring out the window.
7:25
And she is also the first book was It's young Adults, right?Well, not really, no.It's the the main characters of her book were were teenage twins and they were they were on their way to college.
7:40
They were high school seniors.So I really it It's just a regular cozy mystery type.OK, that's true.So do we ever, do you put snippets of the main character's book into this book or she just kind of talks about the book in general?
8:00
The first book had a lot, and then I've kind of been cutting that back a little bit because I got mixed responses to that.My editor loved it and wanted me to put more in, but the readers found it distracting and confusing and some of them liked it, so every book has a few less in there.
8:23
All right.Yeah.I mean, it could go either way.Some people probably love it and some people are maybe like I just want to get to the main part or something.Right.You know, I mean, and it was interesting and they were kind of fun to write, but you know, now I'm juggling 2 books.I'm having enough trouble writing one.
8:42
Yeah, do you want to give us a sink?So when?So book 5 and books.So the next two books after this is book five.So the next book this.Is book four the one we're?Talking about this is book four, Sorry about math.Book 4 is this Book five and six are coming out this year, right?
8:57
Right.All right.So people, if you're watching, if you really like this series, there are tons of books in there.So book five and six, are those staggered throughout the year like May and December or do you?Have Book 5 comes out in May, It's called Sentenced to Murder, and then Book six will come out in September, and it's called The Murderous Plot.
9:16
OK, very cool.All right.And then so this amateur sleuth, it's not really YA and we don't see a lot of the Twins stories, but she's going to continue.She's still like how I guess as our protagonist, how do you help her balance being a writer, owning a bookstore, and also solving crimes on the side?
9:38
Badly.OK.Usually what ends up happening now, she does have some some excellent help at the bookstore.Two of the characters that were introduced in the first book, Lacey and Charlie, volunteered to help her at the bookstore when she inherited it because she knew absolutely nothing about running the bookstore.
10:01
So they basically run the store and she goes over there and, you know, sticks her nose in when she can.But the books primarily.She spends her time investigating whatever the the crime is.She does a little bit of writing when she has time, and then she spends some time at the bookstore.
10:19
But mostly, she's out running around getting in trouble.OK, Well, good.That's what we wanted to do.And she's running around.So let's go back.There's a lot of history and research you did for South Carolina.How did you end up choosing that versus any other state in the country?
10:36
It's where I was living at the time when I wrote the first book.Oh, OK.And so I sat on that book for 20 years until it hatched, and by then I was living in here in New Mexico.
10:53
OK, but now I'm stuck with it because that's the second book.Books.Yeah, I guess it's probably hard to move an entire bookstore to a new location.Yeah, it is.Or, you know, I guess we could have her sell that bookstore and move someplace else, but that it actually says in my contract that the books have to be set.
11:13
In South Carolina.In Riddleton, Yeah, OK.All right.That's OK.So I guess for you, what do you like about writing for South Carolina that you maybe missed that you could have possibly written now that you've lived in New Mexico?
11:32
Honestly, I enjoyed living in South Carolina and the weather wasn't too bad and you know, things like lakes everywhere that if you wanted to go and, you know, hang out by the lake and things like that and the people were, you know, that whole Southern hospitality thing, so.
11:57
Right.Sorry, am I?Yeah, that's totally fine.I feel blind sometimes.So South Carolina, everyone's friendly, love the weather.Do you feel like it's kind of the same now that you're in New Mexico, or does it have a different vibe or feeling to it?
12:13
It's a very different culture.New Mexico was obviously was part of Mexico until we we took it.And so I'm not very familiar with the Hispanic culture and but I'm learning, you know, and so in a way, it's good for me to to be exposed to to something that I'm not used to and I'm learning new things.
12:42
Clearly you're really great at research, yeah.Google is my friend.Yeah.For sure.All right, cool.So let's talk about the furry friend Savannah, who's the German Shepherd in the book.So what's the dog like in the book and how does she come to have Savannah?
13:01
In the first book, Jen is attacked and almost drowned in the Savannah River, and so she finally gets herself out of the river and she's laying on the dock and the German shepherd comes at her.And that German Shepherd had just had puppies, and the owner of the German Shepherd felt sorry for Jen.
13:22
Felt like she needed help.So she gave her one of the puppies.And that's how she ended up with Savannah.And that's how Savannah got her name.OK.And then are you yourself, a German Shepherd owner?I am not.I had a German Shepherd when I was a kid, but at the moment I'm going to wake up my Norfolk Terrier Chihuahua mix.
13:42
Here.So cute.She doesn't like being woken up.She's like, what's going on?I'm sorry I had to show you off, lay back down.So.But she's my sidekick.She's my writing buddy.All right, cute.So is there anything unique?
14:00
I've never had a German Shepherd.Is there anything unique about the German Shepherd that you kind of show as a personality for Savannah in the book?Well, they're highly intelligent.Oh, see, now she wants her.She wants her 15 minutes of fame she likes.They're highly intelligent.They're very protective.
14:18
Although Savannah hasn't quite gotten there yet.She's still fucking and that takes a while.It just seemed like a good dog for Jen.She needed something big and something solid.All right.And so Jen, our main character, is Jen, a little like you?
14:35
Are you like a mini Jen?Jen is the me I wish I had been at her age.OK, and how so?Like is she more outgoing or is she like faster, better running?She's She has a better understanding of herself and her place in the world, and she's not afraid.
15:00
I'm not afraid to take chances.She stands up for herself, things like that.All right, good.And so Jen's sidekicks, let's talk about those people again.These were just friends that she had in the area when she was writing only and didn't own the bookstore right?
15:18
I'm sorry, you were kind of breaking.Up.Oh, sorry.Her sidekick friends.Uh huh.So can we go through each of those?Yeah, Whether their personalities like and what did they do at the bookstore?OK, well, Brittany is Jen's best friend, has been since kindergarten, and she's the town librarian, so she really doesn't do anything at the bookstore, but she's she's Jen's sidekick and running buddy and they get into trouble together.
15:47
Lacey, she met when her friend Eric, the who's the police detective in a cover for murder, was actually the the local cop.And they became friends.And he talked her into taking up running with his group that meets once a week to help her with her writer's block.
16:08
And she does that.And Laci was one of the Riddleton runners, and they became friends that way.And Charlie was her downstairs neighbor who is a little weird.Oh, and Laci is running the bookstore.
16:25
He's the bookstore manager.She offered to help Chanel and she had been helping Aretha, the original owner, So she just kind of stepped in to that role.And Charlie is Jen's downstairs neighbor who thinks that life is a live action role play.
16:44
He likes to dress in all kinds of weird outfits.And he also offered to help Jen.He is the barista at the bookstore and he spent most of his time when they first met trying to convince Jen that, you know, he was her soul mate and she, she had to go out with him and he was constantly harassing her and she couldn't stand him.
17:09
He kind of made her skin crawl.So that was.He's not the romantic love interest in this book series.No, OK, actually they're good friends now.OK, yeah, I forgot to ask that.Does she have a romantic love interest in this series?
17:26
Well, she did in the first book.OK.And that didn't work out.And I'm not going to say why.OK, that's too big a spoiler, OK?And she does now.She and Eric started out as friends, and then their relationship kind of grows throughout the course of the series.
17:46
OK.And Eric is.The police?The cop.OK, the cop and does he like her investigating or does he get annoyed that she doesn't?He's kind of half and half on that.He doesn't like it because she always gets into all these trouble troubling situations but he also helps her too when he can and but it she kind of puts him between a rock and a hard place because his bosses don't like it that she's doing this but he wants to help her.
18:20
He cares about her but he can't without getting into trouble at work So it's it's kind of a dynamic there got.It All right.So that's a wrap in the book.So why don't you tell us a little about you and your writing plans for the rest of this year?
18:39
Well, since I don't know if there's going to be any more books in the series, I actually have another series in mind that will be set here in New Mexico.So I'm going to kind of going to kind of prep Book 7, get it ready to write in case they decide they want to continue the series.And then when I'm done with that, I'll start working on that on the other series, see where that goes.
19:01
And so where can readers find you if they want to connect with you offline?Are you on Facebook or Instagram?Oh, all of the above.Wow.Suman X author is my handle everywhere, including my website.OK, so cool.
19:17
And you're active on all of them.That's a lot of work.Well, I don't know if that's that active.I go through spurts.I do pay attention.You know, I go on there every day.But I'm not like, I don't walk around scrolling through my phone all day kind of thing.
19:33
I do try to keep in contact with people, and if somebody contacts me, I will respond.Unless I think that they're a digital marketer trying to, I get.This we can find you 10,000 followers, right?
19:51
Well, I get the ones that start this whole conversation pretending that they're interested in getting to know me.Oh, like they're like going back and forth.How are you checking?It starts with hello.So I write that hello.How are you?Fine.Give me a break.
20:08
Yeah.I guess that's a good sales technique.No, I think it's more annoying than anything.Well, it is to me anyway.I I could say that.All right.So that's where readers can find you.You're on all the socials and you have your website, so I'll leave that information in the description.
20:24
And thank you so much for being on here and telling us all about your book and your series.Oh well, thank you for having me.I I I've enjoyed it.Awesome.Hopefully I didn't fumble and bumble too much.Yeah.You were awesome.All right.
20:40
Bye everyone.
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