Noelle Cooper is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Campfires & Corpses, the first novel in the Maine Campground mystery series.

Welcome, Noelle. 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 there, my name is Noelle. I live inside the Maine Campground Cozy Mystery series. The first book in the series is Campfires & Corpses, and that’s when I first arrive back in my hometown in Maine. You see, I’ve been living in Nashville, Tennessee for the last eighteen years.

This is my first time back in Maine since I left when I was twenty years old. I really don’t know why I stayed away for so long. I wanted to work in the music industry, and Nashville is the place for that. I never did get my dream job, but I stayed in Nashville anyway. I just love music, something that my writer sprinkles into the story here and there.

In Campfires & Corpses, I come back to Maine as a favor to my parents. They run our family’s campground—camping is a big activity in the summer in Maine, both for tourists and locals—but my parents can’t be there this summer because my mom is getting medical treatment in Boston.

To be honest, I never wanted to run the family campground, which might be another reason I left town all those years ago. But I figure that doing it for one summer while my parents are away is no big deal. And it isn’t, until I find a dead body on my first day back.

There are two other books in the Maine Campground Cozy Mystery series. There’s Freedom & Fosters: A Beagle Rescue Short Story, which is a short story prequel you can read tolearn a little more about me, and my beagle named Corny. And if you enjoy Campfires & Corpses, the next book in the series, Whoopie Pies & Alibis, is coming out in June.

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

Good question. I think it’s a combination. If I wrote the story, I certainly wouldn’t create such challenging circumstances for myself! Like having me butt heads with my ex-boyfriend, the local game warden, the first day I get back to town. Or making me live in a camping trailer (my family always stayed at the big house my grandmother had over on the lakeshore).

But sometimes I get my way. My dad says that I’m headstrong, and I use that trait to push the envelope in my story. Especially when it comes to dealing with State Trooper Thompson. He’s gruff and intimidating and I really just want him to go away, but my writer keeps writing him into scenes. I find ways to deal with him or to get around his mistreatment of me.

How did you evolve as the main character?

Like I said, my writer has written me into some really tight spots. I was already feeling down on my luck when my parents called me to ask if I’d come back to Maine to run the campground. From the moment I arrived back in the tiny, one-intersection town in the woods of Maine, I felt out of my element. Sure, I know the place like the back of my hand (hard not to in a place this small), but most of the other characters are new to me. To them, I’m the outsider, and that’s never a good feeling.

And of course, there’s the whole part where I find the dead body. And not just any dead body. It’s the body of my high school rival. Still, you’d think that being the daughter of the beloved campground owners would earn me the trust of the campers, but at least one of them seems to be pointing the finger at me.

It’s a lot, but I’m managing. In a strange way, I’m leaning into my years as an event planner to help me zero in on the murder and also to hold the campground’s annual bonfire (that’s a whole other story…you’ll have to read the book to find out).

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

Oh, sure. There’s my cousin Mandy. She was just a baby when I left town. She’s a spunky eighteen-year-old now. She’s lived a pretty sheltered life and is just itching for something exciting to happen. She’s right by my side through the whole murder investigation drama. She’s also been working at the campground with my mom for years and I’d be lost without her knowhow.

I also have a beagle named Corny, and I love sharing the story with him. I only adopted him a few weeks before coming back to Maine, so we’re still learning how to be dog and owner, but I already love him so much. Corny was rescued from a research laboratory where he lived his whole life (three years), so he can be skittish around all the new people and dogs at Babbling Brook Campground. Thankfully, we have a whole summer for him to warm up to them.  

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

Babbling Brook Campground sits right on the shores of Mirror Lake in Bluefield, Maine. That’s in western Maine, in the mountains by the New Hampshire border. Picture acres of pine trees, rolling mountains, dirt roads, houses nestled in the trees. In Bluefield, we have an antique store, a convenience store/café/laundromat, an inn, a mechanic, and my cousin Liz’s bakery that she runs out of her house.

The campground is all dirt roads and campsites. You can pitch a tent or drive in with your camping trailer or RV. It’s pretty bare bones, like camping should be. There is no swimming pool or internet; heck, you can’t even send a text on your cell phone. But on a warm, sunny day in June, it’s perfect. It’s like the Maine slogan says: The way life should be.

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

Oh, definitely. First, readers should know that the Maine Campground Cozy Mystery series is a clean cozy series. There is no foul language or anything too graphic. There are no bedroom activities (unless you count the hours that my beagle Corny spends snoozing).

Second, the story is pretty fast paced. And if you like the kind of chapter endings that make you want to flip the page and keep reading, there are a lot of those.

Lastly, you’ll enjoy this book and the series if you like dogs, don’t mind a few song titles being dropped here and there, and enjoy analyzing character alibis and motives.

Thank you for answering my questions, Noelle, and good luck to you and your author, Nikki Weber, with Campfires & Corpses, the first book in the Maine Campground mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Noelle and her author, Nikki Weber by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook, Goodreads, and Instagram pages.

The novel is available at the following online retailers:

Universal Book Link  – Amazon – B&N – Bookshop.org – Kobo

About Nikki Weber: Nikki Weber was born and raised in Maine, and spent her childhood summers camping with her family and their beagle. She loves to read, listen to podcasts, travel, and play tennis. Campfires & Corpses: A Maine Campground Cozy Mystery is her first book, and there are many more in the pipeline.