The Breakfast Foursome (a quartet of senior citizens who gather at the local diner first thing every morning to gossip) are visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about The Seafarer’s Secret.

Welcome, folks. 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.

Elbert: It’s a murder mystery set along the Outer Banks of North Carolina with a bit of  history and pirates thrown in.

Maxine: That’s the best you can come up with? I thought you were a writer.

Francis: He writes a weekly column for the Eden newspaper. He is a writer.

Maxine: Only because he bullied them until they agreed to let him.

Elbert (ignoring the women): The novel’s a mix of genres, but mostly a cozy mystery. Our author once said it was like a Nicholas Sparks book but without anyone dying.

Herb: It’s a murder mystery. Of course someone dies.

Elbert: I think she meant a main character.  And, yes, it could be expanded into a series.

Francis: Doesn’t Carol Ann already have an outline for the second book?

Maxine:  She does and it’s very detailed. Nothing at all like that nonsense she used to call an outline.

Elbert: I’m not sure we were supposed to say anything about that. Maybe we should go on to the next question.

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

Maxine: We let Carol Ann think she’s in control, but we all know the real truth. If we’d let her control it, she’d have gone with one of those earlier drafts, and that would have been horrible.

Herb: Which one of the early drafts are you talking about?  The one where Eva’s a graduate student or the one where Chief Templeton’s house caught fire?

Francis: I thought it was a motel that burned down?

Elbert:  No, that draft had a fire alarm go off at a motel, but it was done intentionally. There wasn’t a fire.

Maxine:  Any of the earlier drafts would  have been a mistake.

Herb: I’m not sure we answered the question.

Elbert: Trust me.  We did.

How did you evolve as the main character?

Francis:  Can we consider ourselves main characters?   

Herb:  Maybe the four of us together? After all, Eva would have had no idea what was happening if it weren’t for us. Not to mention, Elbert’s the only one of us who has page time separate from the three of us. 

Francis: I’m not sure we evolved. I feel the exact same.

Elbert: Maxine evolved. I knew it when she said the three most wonderful words in the world.

Maxine:  Put a sock in it, Elbert.

Herb: What three words?

Elbert: “I was wrong.”

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

Elbert: I’ve always liked William Templeton. I knew his grandmother and she raised him right. Especially after his parents died. There’s no one I’d rather have serving as Eden’s chief of police.

I don’t know Eva as well, but my granddaughter, Amelia, is good friends with her.  Eva earned my respect with the way she kept her friendship up with both Catherine and William after they separated. That’s a tough place to find yourself.

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

Herb: Except for Elbert, we’re only found in the diner.

Francis: That’s because the diner’s the heart of Eden.

Maxine: Don’t get all  sentimental, Francis. It’s just a building.

Elbert:  The diner is also the one place in the novel that never, not in all two hundred fifty-nine drafts, ever changed.

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

Carol Ann: These guys were so much fun to write and if you look, you’ll find them or someone like them in every city.  I hope you decide to visit these particular four in their Eden diner. They’ll save you a seat at the table.

Thank you for answering my questions, folks, and good luck to you and your author, Carol Ann Collins, with The Seafarer’s Secret. Readers can learn more about the Breakfast Foursome and their author, Carol Ann Collins by visiting the author’s website and her Goodreads and Instagram pages.

The novel is available at the following online retailers:

Amazon – B&N – Bookshop.org – Kobo 

About Carol Ann Collins: Writing allows  Carol Ann Collins to combine two of her favorite things, history and romance. Her work is a combination of historical fact, pure fiction, and a vivid imagination. Though she is an introvert who had no problem staying inside during quarantine, she enjoys traveling with her husband and two adult children. In her spare time, she is an avid book collector and bargain shopper who loves to combine the two. To date, her favorite find is an 1869 edition of Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain purchased for $10.