My recent release, The Taming of the Stew, gave me the wonderful opportunity to merge two of my greatest passions: the works of William Shakespeare and the bizarre, wonderful world of historical English culinary traditions. Setting a mystery at a revived Shakespeare Festival meant that my characters weren’t baking their usual cakes and biscuits; instead,…
A question that pops up in my inbox is how I manage to balance the lighter, mouth-watering elements of baking with the inherently dark business of writing a murder mystery. It’s a delicate tightrope walk. If a book is too dark, it loses that comforting cozy warmth that readers crave; if it’s too sugary, the…
If there’s one thing that defines a quintessentially British cozy mystery, it’s the presence of a steaming pot of tea. But in a culinary mystery, the afternoon tea table is more than just a comforting pitstop between interviews; it’s a tactical minefield. As a writer, I’m endlessly fascinated by how the polite social rituals of…
As a culinary cozy mystery author, my kitchen is just as important as my writing desk. For me, the two are inextricably linked. I include recipes at the end of my books, but what people don’t often see is the rigorous (and delicious) recipe testing that goes on beforehand. It is a brilliant excuse to…
There is a common misconception that mystery authors spend their evenings exclusively with a magnifying glass and a stack of Golden Age detective novels. While I do love a classic whodunit, a significant portion of my life is spent reading far outside my own genre. If you were to peer at my current bedside table,…
Authors are frequently asked where they get their ideas. People often look for a singular moment of divine inspiration—a sudden bolt of lightning or a dream that provides a fully formed plot. For me, it isn’t quite like that. It’s far slower and subtler than that, and it’s infinitely more satisfying. Once I decide to…
After telling you about the inspiring places around it, it’s time to look at Hebden Bridge itself. While it doesn’t have historic literary stars like Haworth and Heptonstall, it has something perhaps more vibrant: a living, breathing community of writers, poets, and avid readers. A Sanctuary for Stories For decades, Hebden Bridge has been a…
I recently had the immense pleasure of attending Stockport Noir, a fantastic crime fiction event held at the Masonic Guildhall. There was something undeniably delicious about sitting in a room decorated with ornate Masonic symbols while discussing the finer points of fictional murder and the darker side of human nature! Hiding in Plain Sight Freemasonry…
To finish our tour of the inspirations behind the Parchment Paper Mysteries, we have to step out of the cobbled streets of Haworth and Hebden Bridge and climb upward. Above the towns lies the true heart of the North: The Moors. For my friends across the pond in the US, the moors are a landscape…
If Haworth (see last week’s post) is the brooding soul of my Parchment Paper Mysteries, then Hebden Bridge is undoubtedly its beating, creative heart. Just a few miles over the tops from the Brontë Parsonage, Hebden Bridge offers a completely different—yet equally captivating—inspiration for my writing. Known as the ‘coolest’ town in the North, it’s…