LKBR: Thank you
for joining us today, Christin.
CB: Thanks
so much for having me!
LKBR: Please
tell us a bit about 15 Minutes
of Flame.
CB: In
Stella Wright’s latest case in the Nantucket Candle Maker Mysteries, she is on
the trail of two murders, one from the past and one from the present, all while
helping the island’s Girl Scouts prepare for their Halloween Haunts fundraiser.
LKBR: What are
you plans for this series?
CB: At
this point in the series, Stella is finding her way in life as well as through
murders, and I’m enjoying her journey.
Because of her cases, her relationship with her mother has evolved, her
ambitions with her business are growing, and even her love life has been
touched. It’s amazing how finding and
honing a new skill can change you, and I’m as excited about Stella’s future
cases as I am about how they influence her choices in life.
LKBR: Are you
working on any new projects?
CB: I’m
working on Stella’s next adventures! I
also have enjoyed smaller writing projects with the goal of staying connected
with readers during these uncertain times in which we live right now. For example, last spring I reached out to the
readers on FB to stay connected, creative and cozy. Readers sent me words to challenge me, and I
included all of them in a short story called Don’t Wine, which you can find at https://christinbrecher.com/connected-cozy-creative/. It was a group project we all enjoyed!
LKBR: When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
CB: I was
a mom of young children when I first ventured into writing. We were living in London for a couple of
years, and I decided to try something out of my comfort zone, something I might
not have tried during my busy life back home.
I actually have been thinking of those days lately, because our
stay-at-home life last spring was similar.
In the same spirit of taking up a new challenge, I’ve started playing
golf, a sport which, for me, has made writing look easy!
LKBR: Was getting
your first book published everything you thought it would be? The feelings? The
process?
CB: The most
exciting moment of having my first book published was the launch party we had
at my neighborhood book store in NYC, the Corner Bookstore. I’ve been going to that store since it opened
in the 1978. Back then, my parents
opened a house account and I experienced the wonderful freedom of choosing a
new book and heading home with it after school.
When my first book launched there, I felt old and young all at once, in
the best of ways.
LKBR: How did
you handle it when changes were made to your first manuscript? I don’t have a
thick skin, so I know how I would have felt.
CB: I
remember when I joined my first writing class at the local Y and my classmates
read my work. I had a mini panic attack
that I wasn’t expecting. I’d worked in
the corporate world for years where there was a lot of pressure to perform, but
something about the intimacy of reading my work was much more emotional. For any aspiring writer reading this,
however, I’d say to push through that first moment of fear. Now, I’m not satisfied unless I see red marks
all over the page.
LKBR: What is your favorite part of
being a writer?
CB: For
me, writing a novel has many different stages and I love them all for different
reasons. At first, I spend time
imagining – how fun is that? I have a
job where I need to sit around imagining worlds and people and stories! The second stage for me is the hard part: Roughing
through a first draft. To keep myself
energized, I often work in cafes in my neighborhood where I know I’ll see
friends. Sometimes I bounce ideas off of
them, which I love. And when the draft
is finished, I feel like I’ve reached the peak of a mountain. The final stage is editing, and I hole myself
up for days for a more surgical approach to the words. I feel like a sleuth solving my own mystery
at that point as I comb through the story and characters.
LKBR: Have you ever read
a book that has stayed with you long after reading it?
CB: Mysteries in
general give me tremendous comfort. I
spent my childhood summers on Nantucket, visiting Mitchell’s Book Corner on
Main Street, tucked in the children’s section, checking out the Nancy Drew and
Hardy Boys selections. As an adult, when
we were living in London, I poured through every Agatha Christie novel in a
cozy living room that looked over a quintessential London garden. The list goes on! I love solving the riddles of each case along
with the characters, but I also love how the genre as a whole conjures memories
of special moments in my life.
LKBR: Why are
reviews, good or bad, so important to authors?
CB: A
good review is always good for business, but a bad review can be constructive
criticism if you’re willing to take it that way.
LKBR: On what
sites do you recommend readers leave their reviews?
CB: Thank
you for asking. I’m still new to the
business, but I’ve quickly learned that leaving a review on Amazon and Barnes
& Noble is REALLY helpful in supporting an author. That said, cozy readers are part of a real
community, so when they leave a comment on FB or IG with even a little “loved
it!” other readers listen. That sort of
grassroots support is really special.
LKBR: If you
could spend one hour with a reader, what would you want to talk about?
CB: A very timely
question! I actually spent two hours
last weekend with an amazing book club from Dallas, the Cozies and Coffee
group, and I just love talking to readers.
I loved hearing about what worked for them, along with what didn’t! I welcomed their input on what they’d love to
see in future novels – and was delighted that many of their thoughts aligned
with seeds I was trying to plant in the current books for future stories. And I also loved hearing about some of the
readers’ aspirations to write.
LKBR: Thank you
so much, Christin for letting us get to know you better!
CB: It’s been a pleasure! Thanks for the opportunity to get to know
your community better. Stay well,
everyone!
