Victoria Hamilton, author of Thanks for Muffin, the latest novel in the Merry Muffin mysteries series, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today.

Welcome, Victoria.

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

Thanks for Muffin is Merry Muffin Mysteries #8. A long-standing storyline I have developed in this series about a woman (Merry Wynter) who inherited a real castle in Western New York from the Wynter branch of her family, concerns her figuring out how to make enough money to keep the castle. Merry and her friend, Pish Lincoln, have been developing it into a performing arts center, and in Thanks for Muffin it is finally the grand gala opening weekend for the Wynter Woods Center for the Performing Arts. She has gathered together a group of folks who will be staying over the long Thanksgiving Weekend after the gala. Of course, this being a murder mystery, there is a body involved and a murder to investigate!

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

You know, there is such a huge trend in social media and the media period for a kind of sabotage story; bloggers, influencers and podcasters try to find a dark or seedy ‘angle’ to any event. I started with that idea, but it evolved over time and soon it became evident to me that there was more to the death in the story; there was a connecting thread to some of the people gathered together. Kind of an Agatha Christie twist! There was nothing Dame Agatha liked better than having a secret connection among suspects in the murder mystery, and that’s what Thanks for Muffin became!

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

In a sense there is a theme. There’s an old saying that I once used as a title for an (unpublished) mystery I wrote a long time ago. Old Sins Have Long Shadows. Meaning… some awful things from the past linger and come back to haunt people.

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

Variety, so they say, is the spice of life. In a mystery series I like to create a cast of characters with diversity, differences in life experience, outlook, and more. Among my favorite characters in the Merry Muffin Mysteries is Hannah Moore, the wheelchair bound local librarian in Autumn Vale. As I’ve gotten to know her over the series arc, I appreciate her outlook on life, her sense of humor, and her refusal to let her challenges define her.

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

I’ve had great fun writing about the two towns of Autumn Vale and Ridley Ridge in the Merry Muffin Mysteries. Autumn Vale is sunny and sweet, with fun people, moving with the times and very progressive. Ridley Ridge is, as Merry puts it, the place where fun goes to die. I picture a gloomy place, where the citizens are morose and complaining, stuck in a time warp, everything worn down and troublesome. Even the diner waitresses keep leaving town!

I’m not sure where the idea for this dichotomy came from. It was like a contrast between goodness and light, and darkness and depression. The two places embody the theme of acceptance and rejection; Merry has been desperately trying for years to gain acceptance in her community. In Thanks for Muffin she thinks she’s finally made it, but has she? There are still dark Ridley Ridge forces out to destroy what she is trying to create!

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

There is always research for any novel, no matter what kind. In the Merry Muffin Mysteries I’ve spent a lot of time researching opera, which has led to me learning to appreciate it very much! I’m not knowledgeable, but I do enjoy it and include it in every book. I’ll be publishing a playlist to go along with Thanks for Muffin, of not just opera, but jazz and American standards, too, so watch for that on my social media pages!

But also for the last couple of books in the series I had to research dome theaters… fascinating stuff! They provide a perfect atmosphere for performance space because the sight lines are excellent; no columns or structural beams!

It’s a good thing I love research of almost any kind.

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

If you’re looking for an atmospheric fallish vibe, something to go along with the season, Thanks for Muffin, set over the long American Thanksgiving weekend is perfect! I hope readers will enjoy it and drop me a line to tell me what they think! Looking forward to hearing from readers.

Thank you for answering my questions, Victoria, and good luck with Thanks for Muffin, the latest book in the Merry Muffin mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Victoria Hamilton by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook, Instagram and Goodreads pages. You can also follow her on BlueSky.

The novel is available at the following online retailers:

Amazon.com – Amazon.ca – Barnes & Noble – Kobo – Smashwords

About Victoria Hamilton: Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the bestselling author of three mystery series, the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, and the Merry Muffin Mysteries. She also writes a Regency-set historical mystery series, starting with A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder.