Ruth J Hartman, author of Murder at the Painted Wings Cafe, the latest novel in the Seneca James mysteries series, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today.

Welcome, Ruth.

Tell us about your novel. Is it part of a series? If so, please tell us about the series too.

Murder at the Painted Wings Café is book two in the Seneca James Mysteries, which takes place in rural Indiana at a butterfly farm.

Where did the idea for the mystery that is central to the story come from?

I’ve always loved butterflies, and thought a murder happening at a monarch butterfly farm would be unique. My husband and I have even planted milkweed on our property to entice monarchs to our yard.

Is there a theme or subject that underlies the story? If so, what prompted you to write about it? 

There are several themes, but the one I like the best is friendship. Seneca’s best friend is Cody, the town sheriff, and her cousin, Evie, is a close friend as well. Seneca also has relationships with the customers who come into the café.

How do you create your characters? Do you have favourite ones? If so, why are you partial to them?

I use characteristics from people I’ve met to build my characters, and I also use my imagination to fill in pieces of the puzzle, too. My favorite character is Winifred the cat, who follows Seneca around the farm, wearing tiny butterfly costumes with wings that complement her orange fur.

How do you bring to life the place you are writing about?

I like to incorporate personalities into creatures aside from humans, giving Winifred the cat, certain expressions and actions, as well as describing the way the butterflies float and twirl as they fly.

What research do you do to provide background information to help you write the novel?

I had fun researching butterfly farms, as well as Monarch butterflies, their life cycles, and how they sustain their lives with milkweed to eat, and to lay their eggs on.

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

If you like quirky characters, interesting mysteries, butterflies, and cats, you’ll love Murder at the Painted Wings Café!

Thank you for answering my questions, Ruth, and good luck with Murder at the Painted Wings Cafe, the latest book in the Seneca James mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Ruth J Hartman by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook page. You can also follow her on X/Twitter.

The novel is available at  Amazon

About Ruth J. Hartman: Ruth spends her days herding cats and her nights spinning mysterious tales. She, her husband, and their cats love to spend time curled up in their recliners watching old Cary Grant movies. Well, the cats sit in the people’s recliners. Not that the cats couldn’t get their own furniture. They just choose to shed on someone else’s.

Ruth, a left-handed, cat-herding, farmhouse-dwelling writer uses her sense of humor as she writes tales of lovable, klutzy women who seem to find trouble without even trying.

Ruth’s husband and best friend, Garry, reads her manuscripts, rolls his eyes at her weird story ideas, and loves her despite her insistence all of her books have at least one cat in them.