Jules Keene is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Christmas Lights and Cat Fights, the latest novel in the Jules Keene Glamping mystery series.

Welcome, Jules. 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.

I’m Jules Keene, and I own the Fern Valley Camping Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Originally a traditional campground, my father and I restored vintage trailers for the glamping (glamorous) camping experience. Recently, my boyfriend, Jake Evans, and I added tiny houses to the resort’s offerings.

Fern Valley is the perfect little town near Charlottesville, Virginia. I shares my cabin with my sidekick, Bijou, the Jack Russell Terrier.

My resort has been featured in three of Heather’s novels, Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers, Film Crews and Rendezvous, and Christmas Lights and Cat Fights.

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

Heather’s the writer. She’s a planner, so she outlines things, but I definitely have a say in telling my story.

How did you evolve as the main character?

I took over my parents’ campground when my father died, and I modernized it for today’s glamorous camping experiences. It’s tough to run a business, especially when you live and work at the same place. I don’t keep regular hours, so I tend to work long hours. I’m also very protective of my property, so when something like a murder happens nearby, I feel I need to ask questions and help solve the crime before it ruins my business.

Do you have any other characters you like sharing the story with? If so, why are you partial to them?

Jake Evans is my boyfriend. I’ve known him since elementary school. He worked on and off at the campground throughout the years. He returned after two Army tours in the Mid-East, and he lives in one of the small cabins on the property. My maintenance man, Lester Branch lives on the property, too. He’s been a fixture here since I was in elementary school. My aunt Roxanne helps me in the office, and the mother-daughter duo of Mel and Crystal Carson cater the meals at the resort. And I can’t forget my sidekick, Bijou, the Jack Russell Terrier. She’s a bundle of energy, and she has helped solve a mystery or two.

What’s the place like where you find yourself in this story?

In Christmas Lights and Cat Fights, the town and I are prepping for our December holiday extravaganza, packed with all kinds of fun. Christmas has come to Fern Valley, and the town’s decked out with enough glitter and sparkle for a month’s worth of celebrations, each more over-the-top than the previous one. The idyllic setting, filled with laughter, carols, and sweet treats, is shattered, along with some of the decorations, when the current wife and the ex-wife of a big-cat showman have a knock-down, drag-out fight in the center of town. I try to keep peace among the guests and with the town council, but it turns into a catastrophe when Tabbi Morris, winds up dead in one of her ex-husband’s tiger cages.

And if the murder wasn’t enough, I discover that some of the big cats are missing, but the owner and his family insists that nothing is wrong.

Curiosity gets the best of me, and I have to solve the murder and figure out if the owner of Cal’s Cats is pussyfooting around or whether it’s something more sinister before it ruins the holiday season and my business.

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

I am so excited to share the adventures of Jules and Bijou with so many wonderful readers, and the adventures will continue in Deadlines and Valentines, Teddy Bears and Ghostly Lairs, and Hazardous Links and Hijinks.

Thank you for answering my questions, Jules, and good luck to you and your author, Heather Weidner, with Christmas Lights and Cat Fights, the latest book in the Jules Keene Glamping mysteries series.

Readers can learn more about Jules and her author, Heather Weidner by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook, Goodreads, Bookbub, Instagram, TikTok, Linktree and Pinterest pages. You can also follow her on Twitter.

The novel is available online at Amazon

About Heather Weidner: Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Pearly Girls Mysteries, the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries.

Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, and Murder by the Glass, and she has non-fiction pieces in Promophobia and The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers’ Cookbook.

She is a member of Sisters in Crime: National, Central Virginia, Chessie, Guppies, and Grand Canyon Writers, International Thriller Writers, and James River Writers, and she blogs regularly with the Writers Who Kill.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.