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This week, “The Bad Apple Witch” was released into the wild. I organized a release party for myself at Bundok Books, in Puyallup, Saturday August 22. I was there at the bookstore all day. I invited some of my author friends to join me for “shifts.” So I had two other authors come in from 10-12:30 (Alexa Shay and N.C. Barton), then two different authors from 1-3:30 (Julia Lovely and Katie Monohan), then two others from 4-6 (Maia Strong and Rayna Stiner).
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It was a pretty low-key event, hanging out with my author friends and occasionally having customers. I made chocolates for my friends (too many health concerns to provide chocolates to the general public).
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The week before the event, I went all in on decorating books. Here’s a picture of the general Water Witch book setup. The top shelf of the bookcase contains the box sets, with the matching marbled books inside. Then there are the sets of marbled books.
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In addition, a fan of mine made the COOLEST purse charm for me, to celebrate the book release. I’m still in awe.
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As it’s the last week of the month, I get to talk to you about one of my books. I figure this is a great time to talk about “The Bad Apple Witch.”
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In general, I’m a discovery writer. I don’t outline my books before I write them. I may or may not do some world building before I start writing—really depends on the genre as well as the particular novel.
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For mysteries, I’ve figured out that I need three pieces of information before I start to write:
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- the victim
- the killer
- why the killer did the deed
After I know those things, I can generally write the rest into darkness. Since I already know “who dunit” I don’t tend to have a lot of false clues. I talk about giving “pink herrings” instead of “red herrings” for the people solving the crime to follow up on.
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Sometimes in my mysteries, the killer is often identified early on. The rest of the story is more about how to catch them, get them to confess, etc. That isn’t always the case in my mysteries. Sometimes the killer isn’t identified by the good guys until very late in the novel. Just depends.
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In “The Bad Apple Witch” the killer is actually identified relatively early. Then it becomes more of a cat-and-mouse game, trying to stop the killer, while at the same time, protecting themselves from the killer.
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I knew a lot about this book before I started, at least in terms of the plot. I re-read book one in the series before I started writing this book. Since I was approaching this book as kind of the last in the series, I wanted to make sure that all the promises I made in book one are resolved by book last. (It may or may not be the last book. It may just be the end of “season one” as it were, and I’ll start again at some later time with season two.)
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So I tried to make book last a very satisfying read. Many of the characters that are in the previous books either make an appearance in the last book or at least get mentioned.
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You can still read “The Bad Apple Witch” without having read the other books. The editor I used hadn’t read any of the previous novels and had no problem with how the book went.
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I will also state, though, that “The Bad Apple Witch” feels more fantasy than mystery to me. I think that’s in part because the killer was identified so early on, but also because the solution to their problems were magical. However, I was also told that the solution was incredibly satisfying by other readers, so I feel good about it.
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Like always, this book has the same rhythm as all the others in this series, namely:
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That’s part of what made these books so much fun for me to write, because AJ has opinions about everything. And everyone. And yes, if I ever met her in person, she’d probably have opinions about me as well.
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So if you’d like some lighter, cozy paranormal mystery about an older, perimenopausal woman, you might want to give The Water Witch Mysteries a try.
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And yes, book one, “The Witch is Inn,” is on sale for the month of August! Come September, a different book will be on sale.
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Yay! It's here! The next novel in the Water Witch mystery series!
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AJ’s latest vision shows a witch poisoning a man dressed in Renaissance garb. As the troupe of actors coming to put on one of Shakespeare’s plays won’t travel to Milltown until the end of the week, AJ and Roland decide that they can still take their vacation safely.
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Only to discover when AJ and Roland arrive that the troupe hasn’t left the mountain resort town. And that a witch travels with them.
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AJ had hoped that she’d get along with any peers she might meet.
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However, the murderous leader of this coven lacks any remorse.
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And it takes only one bad apple to spoil the entire barrel.
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The Bad Apple Witch—the latest Water Witch Mystery—pits AJ against women with magical powers. Fortunately, AJ has friends (as well as other witches) she can rely on solve not just the current murder, but a whole slew of them. As well as an entire oceanside community full of quirky characters who are also more than willing to help.
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Come enjoy AJ finally finding her place, and maybe, perhaps, a sustainable living situation with Roland, her lover.
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To celebrate the release of book SIX in the Water Witch Mystery series (The Bad Apple Witch) we're putting book one on sale for the month of August.
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A vision comes to AJ just before she leaves her old life, showing her an unknown dead man.
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Great. On top of breaking up with her ex, leaving her job, starting perimenopause, and going to spend the summer with her bratty younger sister, AJ worries that the stress has made her crazy.
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She determinedly goes forward to Milltown anyway, taking a job as a manager at an old inn, while trying to figure out who the dead man is and why pools of water keep glowing when she stares at them.
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The Witch is Inn—a cozy paranormal woman’s mystery—introduces a woman coming into her powers, the quirky characters of the charming small town of Milltown, as well as a ghost who regularly knocks things over when she wants attention, like a particularly annoying cat.
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