Mallory Grayson is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Mummy’s Locket, the first novel in the Mallory Grayson mystery series.

Welcome, Mallory. 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.

My name is Mallory Grayson. I’m an introvert, and the year is 2016. I’m living in an unfamiliar small town attempting to rebuild my life. I opened a vintage shop to sell what’s left of my family’s heirlooms. My housemate is two decades older and claims to be a sometimes psychic. The murdered body of my great-grandmother, missing since the 1930s, was recently discovered. Reluctantly, I’ve become entrenched in trying to find out why with help from unusual places. If I were to sum up what’s being thrust upon me in this story, it could be summed up this way: Cursed love. Family Secrets. Uncommon courage.

Not all my new friends will be part of the Mallory Grayson Mysteries Series, but with my background in historical archeology and recent success in solving this eighty-year-old murder of my great-grandmother, I’m already being pulled into the next mystery: One Deadly Postcard, where the past and present collide even more than they do in Mummy’s Locket.

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

Early on my writer seemed to think the telling of this story was all hers. But in time, she was able to hear my voice, my thoughts, and my ideas. Sometimes, I let her drive alone and sometimes we brainstorm and drive together. But mostly, we’ve come to understand it’s important for her to be in my head and for me to be in hers. I do that in a variety of ways including at night when she wakes up in the middle of the night with a spark of an idea, reaches for the notepad next to her bed, and thinks it came from her.  But just between us, it came from me.

How did you evolve as the main character?

My writer is an introvert and thought it strange that most mysteries don’t have introverted protagonists despite 30% to 50% of the population claiming they are introverts. Given the challenges of amateur sleuths, she thought it would be interesting to add this trait to the protagonist. After several attempts, I showed up and she decided I should be the main character, telling the story from my point of view and in first person.

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

Eventually I realized I couldn’t solve the mystery alone. Since asking for help isn’t an introvert’s strength, those who rallied to support me became important to me. I’m indebted to those characters including: the grandmother who raised me, the sometimes psychic, the town history teacher, a group of middle schoolers, an ex-fiancé, and my out-of-town best friend.

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

I’m in two fictional places: The town I grew up in and where I live now. The small town of Jasper Falls, NY in the Finger Lakes region is where I now reside, and the town where I grew up, Ridge Junction, is where the murder happened. It’s a prosperous town in upstate NY, not far from Saratoga Springs.

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

The story of Mummy’s Locket, where a family locket holds a clue, is a traditional mystery with cozy elements and a lot of heart. I hope you’ll find solving this eighty-year-old old murder as interesting as I did. 

Who are you when you’re not who you thought you were? What really matters in your life? Thrust into a story steeped in secrets and history, I struggled to answer those questions. But I did. And I hope you’ll find this journey with me worth taking.

My writer has a three-book contract. You’ll see me again in book two which will out in 2027. In the meantime, you can learn more at my author’s website: www.nanrussell.com.

Thank you for answering my questions, Mallory, and good luck to you and your author, Nan S. Russell, with Mummy’s Locket, the first book in the Mallory Grayson mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Mallory and her author, Nan S Russell by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest pages. You can also follow her on Twitter/X, Threads, and BlueSky.

The novel is available at the following online retailers:

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About Nan S. Russell: With both a bachelor’s and master’s in psychology, Nan S. Russell was fired from her first professional job. Taking a minimum wage position to pay the rent, sixteen promotions later, she decided to end a successful corporate career as a Vice President of a multibillion-dollar East Coast company, to pursue a life dream to live and write from the Rocky Mountains, first in northwestern Montana and now along the Front Range of Colorado. With a desire to help others live their dreams, too, she turned her real-world experience into writing award winning non-fiction career and business  books and articles, and became a speaker and consultant on leadership, trust, and culture development. But she always knew she wanted to write fiction, too. That point arrived during the pandemic pause which provided the catalyst for rethinking her writing and its purpose, sparking the decision to move towards fiction with more time to study the craft, take online classes, hone skills and work on her first novel. Now, she is living her second dream: Writing mysteries. Mummy’s Locket is her debut novel and the first in her Mallory Grayson series.