Today Summer Merriwether is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Once Upon a Seaside Murder, the latest novel in the Beach Reads Mystery series.

Welcome, Summer. Let’s get started, shall we?

Tell us about the novel that you live inside. Is it part of a series? If so, please tell us about the series too.

Yes, it’s the Beach Reads Series. In this book, the book store I run is hosting a cozy mystery author event and one of the books is based on a cold case that happened locally years ago. It’s a case that my deceased mother kept scrapbooks about. It’s a very odd connection…

Does the writer control what happens in the story or do you get a say too? I don’t get a say, at all.

How did you evolve as the main character? I was a bit of a book snob, but a party of my personal story is that I change my attitude.

Do you have any other characters you like sharing the story with? If so, why are you partial to them? I love my cousin Piper—we are like sisters—her daughter Mia, and my Aunt Agatha.

What’s the place like where you find yourself in this story? Brigid’s Island, a small island of the coast of North Carolina. This is where I grew up and where I am now running my mom’s book store—Beach Reads.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers about you and the book? Beach Reads is a fun part of the community—we even have a book club, “the Mermaid Pie” books club, which is full of my mom’s best friends.

Thank you for answering my questions, Summer, and good luck to you and your author, Maggie Blackburn, with Once Upon a Seaside Murder, the latest book in the Beach Reads mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Summer and her author, Maggie Blackburn by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook and Instagram pages. You can also follow her on Twitter.

The novel is available at the following online retailers:

Amazon – B&N – Kobo – IndieBound 

About Maggie Blackburn: Maggie Blackburn is the pen name of Mollie Cox Bryan. She writes cozy mysteries with edge. She’s the author of several bestselling mystery series. She’s recently released a novella mystery series: The Victoria Town Mysteries. Her book, “Goodnight Moo,” has been shortlisted for a Fresh Fiction Reader’s Choice Award. Her books have been selected as finalists for an Agatha Award and a Daphne du Maurier Award and as a Top 10 Beach Reads by Woman’s World. She makes her home at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Shenandoah Valley, Va.