Q&A with Jacklyn Brady

Please join me in welcoming author Jacklyn Brady, author of the Piece of Cake Mystery series. The third book in the series, Arsenic and Old Cake, is in bookshelves this week.

1) Tell us a little about Rita's adventures in the 3rd Piece of Cake Mystery, Arsenic and Old Cake.

Thanks to the tanking economy, business at Zydeco has been going stale and Rita is struggling to keep everyone on staff happy and their wallets full. She has a lot on her plate, but when the blind trumpet player Old Dog Leg Magee asks for a favor, Rita just can’t say no. His brother Monroe disappeared forty years ago without a trace. Now someone has shown up claiming to be him. Old Dog Leg needs someone to be his eyes, so he asks Rita and Gabriel, the sexy Cajun bartender from the Dizzy Duke, to help him. Posing as newlyweds, Rita and Gabriel check into the Love Nest Bed and Breakfast but their weekend turns sour when another guest at the Love Nest winds up dead and it looks like the mysterious Monroe might be a murderer.

2) What made you decide to set your series in New Orleans?

New Orleans is a fascinating city full of rich heritage and diversity. I think it’s the perfect setting for a mystery series. As a recent transplant from the western states to the Gulf Coast area, Rita and I get to explore this wonderful new world together.

3) Are you a baker? Do you have fun testing Rita's recipes?

I wouldn’t consider myself a baker, but I can bake at an amateur level and I do have fun testing Rita’s recipes.

4) I love how the titles of the books in your series are take offs on old movies...how did that come about?

I love clever titles and I really wanted to come up with some good ones for the series. My daughters and I spent most of one evening on the phone tossing out ideas, looking up baking terms, words that were connected to New Orleans, jazz lingo, and anything else we could think of. After several hours of suggesting and rejecting possible titles, we got a little rummy. One of us decided to Google old movie titles and someone, in a fit of giggles, suggested A Sheetcake Named Desire. And that was that.

5) Are you a big mystery reader? Who are your favorite authors?

I’ve always been a lover of mysteries, starting with the very first Nancy Drew book my mother handed me and moving on to Victoria Holt and Phyllis A. Whitney. Thanks to parents who took the time to read to me, I already loved books, and finding the world of mysteries really lit the flame. I enjoy Dorothy Cannell’s Ellie Haskell series, Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone books, Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr books, and Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series to name just a few. Recently, I’ve been reading Victoria Laurie’s Psychic Eye Mysteries and enjoying them. I just read Dorothy Howell’s Tote Bags and Toe Tags and loved it. There are so many authors and so many wonderful books it’s impossible to name them all!

6) What's your favorite way to spend a rainy day?

Reading, of course!

7) Do you have any advice for an aspiring writer?

Teach yourself discipline. Don’t wait for the muse to strike, just write. Write when you want to write. Write when you don’t want to write. Write when the words are flowing and write when every word is painful. Write when life is going well, and write to the best of your ability when it’s not. This is much easier said than done, of course, but it may be the thing that saves your career when you’re under deadline and life hits you with a two-by-four.

And lastly, a question from Tara:

Is Rita ever going to acquire any pets???

 

I have no idea! She might like one, but she’s away from home so much I’m not sure it would be fair to a fictional pet. A cat might survive quite nicely, but Rita seems like more of a dog person to me. Hmmmm. I guess we’ll have to see what happens as the series progresses!