BOOK TOUR

I'm happy to be a stop on the blog tour for

MULBERRY MISCHIEF

Book 4 in the Berry Basket Mysteries

by Sharon Farrow

Autumn has arrived on the shores of Lake Michigan, but Marlee Jacob, proprietor of The Berry Basket, is feeling a chill for other reasons …
With the Harvest Health Fair in full swing, Marlee makes sure to stock up on elderberry products for cold and flu season. But this year there's also a run on mulberry when an eccentric customer wants to use the dried berries to ward off evil forces. True, it's almost Halloween, but something else seems to be spooking Leticia the Lake Lady, Oriole Point's oddest resident. She believes someone plans to kill her—and the ghost. Only mulberries can protect them. Marlee doesn't take her fears seriously until a man named Felix Bonaventure arrives in the village, asking questions about a mysterious woman.

The next day, Marlee finds Bonaventure dead on Leticia's property—shot through the heart with an arrow made of mulberry wood. And Leticia has disappeared. Marlee soon learns the Lake Lady has a deadly past that is connected to the famous Sable family who are in town for the health fair. A bunch of clues start to come together—and figuring out what's going on puts Marlee in a real jam …

📚📖📚📖📚

!!!GIVEAWAY!!!

6 lucky readers will win a print copy of

MULBERRY MISCHIEF

Enter using the Rafflecopter form at the end of this post.

Winner will be chosen after September 8 at the end of the tour.

This giveaway is through Great Escape Book Tours, not Lisa Ks Book Reviews.

A CHAT WITH SHARON

LKBR:  Thank you for being here today, Sharon!

SF: Thank you so much for having me.

LKBR: Please tell us a bit about you, and your Berry Basket Mysteries.

SF: While I’ve lived in Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey, most of my life has been spent in Michigan. As a native Detroiter, I wasn’t aware how beautiful the Lake Michigan coastline on the other side of the state was until we discovered it on a short trip. Once we fell in love with Michigan’s Sunset Coast, our visits grew more frequent until we moved here in 2008.

I’d been a published author for a decade, but had never written a cozy mystery, one of my favorite genres. The quaint coastal towns of west Michigan seemed a perfect setting for a cozy so I created Oriole Point, a fictional village based on the lakeshore towns of Saugatuck and South Haven. Since this region is known as Michigan’s Fruit Belt, I knew my cozy would focus on berries. And because The Blueberry Store in South Haven is a favorite of mine, it served as inspiration for The Berry Basket, my heroine’s berry-themed shop.

LKBR: Any hints or spoilers you can give us about your next book?

SF: MULBERRY MISCHIEF takes place in the week leading up to Halloween. Because the head of Oriole Point’s Visitor Center loves to come up with fanciful holiday events, my characters will not only be swept up in Halloween activities, but be drafted to take part in the Halloween Holistic Health Fair. The fair brings fitness and healthy living celebrities to town, some of whom harbor dark secrets. And the health fair turns out to be unhealthy for more than one person.

I also like to choose minor characters mentioned in previous Berry Basket mysteries and give them a little closer scrutiny. In MULBERRY MISCHIEF, I turn the spotlight on a town eccentric referred to in earlier books as Leticia the Lake Lady. For the first time, I let a former background character take center stage . . .with startling results.

LKBR: Have you ever written a scene that you loved but had to remove it for the sake of the story?

SF: I sold my first book in 1997. Given that I was such a newbie, the editor needed it trimmed by 20,000 words! During a long phone call, she suggested which scenes could be cut. It was a master class in editing and I have always been grateful to her for showing me how to view a manuscript with complete objectivity. The deleted scenes did not affect the impact of the book, which went on to win an award. But I still regret the loss of two particular scenes in the manuscript. If that book ever goes into print again, those scenes will go back in. Authors never forget their literary “babies”.

LKBR: Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Just find it hard to get into reading because you are so into your writing?

SF: I’ve never had reader’s block. On the contrary, I find it restorative to read other books while I work on my own. I often choose books in a different genre, too. However, as deadline approaches I have no opportunity to read anything except what I’m writing. 

LKBR: Are there any magazines/publications that as a writer you subscribe to? Are these or others something readers could also benefit from?

: Writers Digest, for obvious reasons. It’s a great resource for beginners and pros. Because I have a degree in historical archaeology, I subscribe to Archaeology Magazine and HISTORY Magazine. And I subscribe to several history podcasts; I’m especially fond of the ones which focus on British history since I also write a mystery series set in 1913 Britain.

In addition, I am a longtime subscriber to Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. A recent article about a nefarious fellow in The New Yorker inspired the backstory of a character in the mystery I’m currently writing. And more than one Vanity Fair piece has given me ideas about the crimes and misdemeanors my own unsavory characters might commit. Especially the wealthy ones.

LKBR: Is there anything you would give up if you thought it would make you an even better writer?

SF: I can’t imagine what I would give up. I devote hours each week to both my writing and promoting my books. And time is the most precious commodity there is. As much as I love writing, I believe it’s just as important to spend time with family, friends, and things that give me pleasure, such as photographing the beautiful area I live in. The only time I give up these pleasures is during that final race to deadline when all my focus is on the book. Creative people need to reflect, dream, and observe the life around them. That can’t happen if you spend most of your waking hours staring at a computer screen. Enjoy life. Have fun. Your writing will be all the better for it. And so will you.

LKBR: Any new projects in the works?

Later in the year, I will again be joining forces with my friend Meg Mims. Under the pen name D.E. Ireland, we co-author the  Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins Mysteries and we’ve already begun to plot the fifth installment in our Agatha nominated series.

LKBR: If you could ask your readers 3 questions, what would they be?

SF: What do you enjoy most about cozy mysteries?

Do you ever make the recipes I include in my books?

How important is a romantic element in a cozy series?

LKBR: Where can readers go to learn more about you and your books?

SF: Website: www.sharonfarrowauthor.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SharonFarrowAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sharonfarrowbb

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sharon-farrow?utm_content=recommendation_education&utm_source=social_email

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sharonfarrowauthor/

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/lakesharon/

LKBR: Thank you so much, Sharon, for letting us get to know you better!

 SF: Thank you so much for having me!

About Sharon Farrow

Sharon Farrow is the latest pen name of award-winning author Sharon Pisacreta. A freelance writer since her twenties, she has been published in mystery, fantasy, and romance. Sharon currently writes The Berry Basket cozy mystery series for Kensington. The series debuted in 2016 and is set along the beautiful Lake Michigan shoreline where she now lives. She is also one half of the writing team D.E. Ireland, who co-author the Agatha nominated Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins mysteries.

Author Links 

WEB PAGE http://sharonfarrowauthor.com/

FACEBOOK @SharonFarrowAuthor 

  TWITTER @SharonFarrowBB 

  BOOKBUB @SharonFarrow 

Purchase Links

 Amazon      B&N      Kobo      Google Play      IndieBound

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

TOUR PARTICIPANTS

August 26 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW
August 26 – I Read what You Write – SPOTLIGHT
August 27 – StoreyBook Reviews – REVIEW
August 27 – I'm All About Books – SPOTLIGHT, RECIPE
August 28 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT
August 28 – Cassidy's Bookshelves – GUEST POST
August 28 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT
August 29 – Curling Up by The Fire – REVIEW
August 29 – Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
August 30 – The Avid Reader – READER
August 30 – eBook Addicts – SPOTLIGHT, RECIPE
August 31 – Socrates Book Reviews – REVIEW
August 31 – Babs Book Bistro – SPOTLIGHT
September 1 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW September 1 – LibriAmoriMiei – REVIEW
September 2 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW
September 2 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
September 3 – Laura's Interests – REVIEW
September 4 – Baroness' Book Trove – REVIEW
September 4 – A Wytch's Book Review Blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
September 5 – Cinnamon, Sugar, and a Little Bit of Murder – REVIEW, RECIPE
September 5 – Celticlady's Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
September 6 – The Book's the Thing – REVIEW
September 6 – Teresa Trent Author Blog – SPOTLIGHT
September 7 – Teresa Watson’s Blog – REVIEW
September 7 – Brooke Blogs – SPOTLIGHT
September 8 – Melina's Book Blog – REVIEW