Betty Hechtman, author of Sconed to Death, the latest novel in the Crochet and Crumpets mystery series, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today.
Welcome, Betty.
Tell us about your novel. Is it part of a series? If so, please tell us about the series too.
Sconed to Death is the second book in the Crochet and Crumpets series. Annie Sara Hart inherits an old red school house with a defunct yarn shop in rural Indiana. She leaves Los Angeles to check the place out with the plan to put it up for sale, but then she meets local people who used to hang out at the yarn shop for social crafting. They start hanging out there again and suggest that she add a tea room to make the place more saleable.
It’s a whole different life there than what she used to in Los Angeles where she is caught up people in the entertainment business.
Annie Sara gets attached to the place and the people. She decides she wants whoever buys the school house to use the same local suppliers, particularly Toby Swanson, a teenager with Down syndrome who bakes the scones. While she’s working on a way to make that happen, she gets involved with a murder.
Where did the idea for the mystery that is central to the story come from?
The summer after I graduated from high school, I was a nanny for one branch of a family who owned a resort in Michigan. It was a strange situation being an outsider but in the middle of the family’s business at the same time. There was an au pair girl working for another branch of the family. It was a different situation for her. I was just summer help, but she had been with them longer and was more of a professional than me. I don’t want to give away any of the plot of Sconed to Death, but I kept thinking What if….
Is there a theme or subject that underlies the story? If so, what prompted you to write about it?
I think the key to Annie Sara’s personality is that she is always thinking about other people. Before she came to Indiana, she was working at a high-end children’s boutique in Malibu. It is a continuation of helping out with her talent agent father’s clients. The boutique is owned by an A-list movie star who is his top client. She bought the place as a landing place for her daughter Gray. Annie Sara’s job there was twofold. She worked with customers, but she also looked after Gray. She also had a side hustle of making crochet toys for the high-end customers’ kids. It gives her pleasure to know that she created things that will be snuggled and loved. memory.
Her job of keeping Gray together continues when Gray ends up in Indiana with her.
The people Annie Sara meets in the small town are very different than the me-me-me people in L.A. and she connects with them.
I like to write about people’s generosity of spirit.
How do you create your characters? Do you have favourite ones? If so, why are you partial to them?
The characters just show up in my imagination. I am sure some of it comes from people I’ve observed or thought about. I don’t want to upset them by picking out a favourite. I love all my characters.
How do you bring to life the place you are writing about?
I write about real places. The fictious town in Indiana is based on a place I spent a lot of happy time as a kid. I still get happy whenever I get back there. We had a bare bones summer cottage—no indoor plumbing, no telephone, no television, no radio, or even electricity – though we did finally get that. We lived in a third-floor apartment with no yard in Chicago, so going to Indiana was like getting a gift of the outdoors. Going for walks on a sandy road with butterflies as company was where I made up my first stories.
What research do you do to provide background information to help you write the novel?
Since there is a lot of crochet in the books, I like to make the creations I talk about. In this book, I made the red hen that Annie Sara made. I did a lot of scone tasting and rose tea drinking since they both are mentioned a lot in the book. It’s a lot easier to describe something that you taste first hand. I made sure to go past the red school house that the one in the book is based on. It is a real shop, but doesn’t sell yarn or have a tea room. I am always surprised to see that the interior doesn’t look like the place I imagined
Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers about the book?
I try to keep things light even though there’s a murder. I like to say that there are dead bodies but everybody has a good time.
Thank you for answering my questions, Betty, and good luck with Sconed to Death, the latest book in the Crochet and Crumpets mystery series.
Readers can learn more about Betty Hechtman by visiting the author’s website and blog, and her Facebook page.
Website: https://www.Bettyhechtman.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettyhechtmanauthor
Blog: https://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com
The novel is available at the following online retailers:
About Betty Hechtman: Despite completing a Fine Arts degree, all Betty Hechtman ever wanted to be was a writer. She wrote a weekly column in her college newspaper and later wrote magazine and newspaper pieces, along with short stories and a prize-winning screenplay. She has published over thirty books across four cozy mystery series, all of which have yarn craft. She lives with her family in Southern California.
dianneascroft.com 