Emma Justice is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Weeding Out Lies, the first novel in the Texas Flower Farmer cozy mystery series.

Welcome, Emma. 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.

Hi, I’m Emma Justice. Recently I began my business as the local flower farmer in Lutz, Texas. It’s been my dream for years to be a flower farmer, but I decided to hold down a dependable job until my daughter left for college. Now I get to work with flowers every day. It was pure joy right up until I found the banker’s wife murdered when I took a bundle of flowers to a local merchant. Weeding Out Lies is the first book in A Texas Flower Farmer Cozy Mystery series, and in order to prove my friend isn’t a killer I’ll have to weed out lies from the truth.

I know most of the people in Lutz, Texas. Sophie’s Bakery is owned by my best friend, Sophie Becker. She’s originally from Germany, and years ago I helped her study for her citizenship test. She agrees to help me catch the killer.

One of the owners of Anytime Coffee also jumps in to help me solve the mystery. The police chief is often amazed at what information I can learn from the locals, so he allows me to conduct my own investigation as long as I don’t go too far.

Does the writer control what happens in the story or do you get a say too?

I get a say too. Sometimes Jackie thinks she knows where the plot is going, but I have to alert her that we’re going in a different direction.

How did you evolve as the main character?

When I worked as a pharmacy technician and raised my daughter as a single mom because my husband died, I had no time to solve a mystery. My daughter began college in January of her senior year of high school, and even though I’ve begun a new business, there’s enough flexibility in my life to look for clues and try to solve a murder.

Do you have any other characters you like sharing the story with? If so, why are you partial to them? Don’t tell anyone, but I might have a little crush on Jake Hunter. He appeared one day working at the coffee shop, and he was a big flirt. It turns out he’s a silent owner in my friend’s business. Jake is smart and courageous, and he’s helping me solve the crime. I haven’t dated since my husband died, because there’s not been time, and I haven’t met anyone worth the effort. Jake might be worth the effort. Time will tell.

What’s the place like where you find yourself in this story? Lutz is a small town, but we have antique and vintage fairs and festivals which bring lots of people our way throughout the year. My flower farm is really my big back yard. I researched and discovered I didn’t need lots of land to be a flower farmer. Lutz is small enough that I can walk or ride my bicycle most places, but if I need go some distance, I drive my dependable pickup truck affectionately known as Ms. Daisy.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers about you and the book?

You may wonder why a flower farmer would be any good at solving a mystery. Every day I make decisions about my flowers. What flowers should I grow? What flowers aren’t working to the point I need to eliminate them? Just like I have to distinguish flowers from weeds, I’ll need to distinguish red herrings from truth. I keep a garden journal. If one thing doesn’t work, I’ll try something else. I’ll make a list of suspects and ask enough questions until I can rule a person out so I can focus on the next suspect. 

Thank you for answering my questions, Emma, and good luck to you and your author, Jackie Layton, with Weeding out Lies, the first book in the Texas Flower Farmer cozy mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Emma and her author, Jackie Layton by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook, Goodreads, Bookbub, and Pinterest pages. You can also follow her on Twitter.

The novel is available online at Amazon

About Jackie Layton: Jackie is the author of cozy mysteries with Spunky Southern Sleuths. Her stories are set in Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina. She lives on the coast of South Carolina where she enjoys walks on the beach and golf cart rides around the marsh. Reading, gardening, and traveling are some of her favorite hobbies. She always keeps a notebook handy to write down ideas for future stories. Be careful what you say around her, because it might end up in a book.