Today Terry Ambrose is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Secrets of the Treasure King, his latest novel in the Seaside Cove Bed and Breakfast mystery series.
Welcome, Terry. Let’s get started, shall we?
Tell us about your novel. Is it part of a series? If so, please tell us about the series too.
Secrets of the Treasure King is the fourth Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mystery. Like many cozy mysteries, the book is set in a small town with plenty of murders. In this case, the arrival of an arrogant sea captain and his band of treasure hunters sets everyone on edge. Part of the problem is that the captain claims to have a map to the San Mañuel, a 400-year-old sunken Spanish galleon.
The ten-word or less description for the book is “secrets can be a deadly affair.” In fact, there are plenty of secrets revealed in this book. The question my amateur sleuths must answer is, did the map the captain claims to have result in his murder? Or was the motive something else altogether?
The overarching theme in the Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mystery series is the hunt for the San Mañuel. Treasure hunting is a cutthroat business—that hasn’t changed much through the ages thanks to good old-fashioned greed. All I can say is, God bless greed. It makes great material for a mystery!
Where did the idea for the mystery that is central to the story come from?
In one sense, Secrets of the Treasure King is a continuation of the hunt for the San Mañuel. When I was first working out the concept for this series, I was having a problem finding a really good hook, something that could be carried over from book to book, develop over time, and feel new for each installment. My wife made a comment while I was struggling with this idea. She said, “Everybody loves a good treasure hunt.” My reaction was immediate—a treasure hunt was exactly what I had been searching for. In each book, the hunt for the San Mañuel and its millions of dollars of bounty intensifies and I get to explore a different aspect of the dirty business of treasure hunting.
Is there a theme or subject that underlies the story? If so, what prompted you to write about it?
Believe in yourself. It’s such a simple concept, yet so many people are plagued by self-doubts, especially those growing up. The main characters in this series are Rick Atwood and his eleven-year-old daughter. They make the perfect team to deal with this issue and to show that not only are kids affected by self-doubts, but so are adults.
How do you create your characters? Do you have favourite ones? If so, why are you partial to them?
I’ve come up with a rather convoluted process to create characters. Step 1: Select an approximate age and gender for the character. That’s where my subjective input ends. Step 2: use a random date generator to pick a day of the year. Step 3) Find the astrological sign for the character and go to a website that describes the characteristics of each sign. Step 4) Close my eyes and highlight some text. Those characteristics form the underlying traits of the character. The thing I like most about this process, is it means I’m meeting new people all the time!
I do the same thing with the occupations for characters. I have a list with something like 1500 job titles and, using a random number generator, select the line and occupation for a character. It’s how I wound up with a narrow weaver in Secrets of the Treasure King. Prior to writing this book, I’d never even heard of a narrow weaver.
As for a favorite character, it’s usually the one I’m writing at the time. Each one offers something different. For instance, Rick cares deeply about his daughter and, like many parents, will do anything to protect her. Alex is daring, precocious, and impetuous. The other main character in this series is Marquetta, who is the B&B’s cook and Rick’s love interest. Marquetta is the yin to Rick’s yang.
How do you bring to life the place you are writing about?
I’m always attempting to find new ways to describe a setting. I’m also a photographer, and I believe that just as photographers frame a photo, the writer must frame their setting. The nice thing about writing is it allows me to bring in all five senses, everything from the pinks and grays of a beautiful sunset to the soft caress of an ocean breeze on your cheek to the smell of salt in the air.
What research do you do to provide background information to help you write the novel?
For the Seaside Cove series, I was fortunate to connect with a man who had studied the Manila galleons (of which the San Mañuel) is one). The joke many writers like to tell is that because of their research, they’re worried the FBI might show up at their door. My research is less about explosives and ways to kill people than it is about history and how we got here. In Seaside Cove, the history of 16th century Spanish trade is brought to life by the characters looking for those riches today. In my McKenna Trouble in Paradise series, I try to bring aspects of island history and how that affects people today. With that said, none of my research is there to provide a history lesson, it’s there to provide context and flavor the story.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers about the book?
Secrets of the Treasure King is more than just a cozy mystery about finding sunken treasure. It’s about secrets, lies, finding love, fulfilling your dreams, and believing in yourself.
Thanks for answering my questions, Terry, and good luck with Secrets of the Treasure King, the latest book in the Seaside Cove Bed and Breakfast mystery series.
Readers can learn more about Terry and his writing by visiting his website and his Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram and LinkedIn pages. You can also follow him on Twitter.
The novel is available online at Amazon
About Terry Ambrose: Terry has written and published fourteen mysteries. His Seaside Cove Mystery series new releases have risen to the Amazon genre Top 100. In 2014, Con Game, Terry’s second thriller in the License to Lie series received the San Diego Book Awards Best Mystery/Thriller award. Terry also writes the McKenna Trouble in Paradise mysteries and organized an anthology written by bestselling mystery writers to benefit a literacy nonprofit in Hawaii.
Tired of sitting surveillance on insurance fraud, apprentice PI Eve Apple Egret gets her first big case, one where the outcome is important and personal. Eve’s best friend Madeleine has few relatives, so her Uncle Shamus is special, but someone is determined to kill him and has tried several times. Eve is certain she can identify who is after him, but this time she may have taken on more than even our self-confident Eve can handle. Coping with a growing toddler and a teenager, devoting time to the consignment shop and finding someone who can go undercover in a sexual harassment case all vie for Eve’s attention. Eve knows she cannot fail Madeleine. This is more than her favorite uncle’s life. His death would mean devastating loss for Madeleine and call into question Eve’s commitment as a friend and her ability as a PI.
About Lesley A. Diehl: Cows, Lesley learned as a child growing up on a farm, have a twisted sense of humor. They chased her when she went to the field to herd them in for milking, and one ate the lovely red mitten her grandmother knitted for her. Determining that agriculture wasn’t her career path, she took a job as a stripper, book cover stripper for a publishing company, that is. Now after many years as a college professor and university administrator, she has returned to the world of books and uses her country roots and her training to concoct stories designed to make people laugh in the face of murder. “A good chuckle,” says Lesley,” keeps us emotionally well-oiled long into our old age.”
Fireworks, A Firecracker & Foul Play is a cozy mystery that starts off with a bang. Anna’s fiancé gets arrested for murder just two weeks before their wedding. No way is Anna letting a false accusation ruin her July 4th wedding. Instead, she’s off to uncover the actual murderer.
About D.E. Haggerty: She is actually just plain old Dena, but she thinks using initials makes her sound sophisticated and maybe even grown up. She was born and raised in the U.S. but considers herself a Dutchie and not only because it sounds way cooler. After a stint in the U.S. Army, she escaped the US to join her husband in Holland. She fled Holland over ten years ago when she couldn’t stand the idea of being a lawyer for one single second more. Turns out Bed & Breakfast owner in Germany didn’t do it for her either. When the hubby got a job in Istanbul, she jumped ship and decided to give this whole writer thing a go. She’s now back in Holland, which she considers home.
We inside the story try to let Abby dictate what’s going on, but **whispering, cupped hand up to mouth** she doesn’t always get it right. At those times we have to give her a hand. Like she tried to put me in a romantic relationship with another character, but I’ve got too much work to do to get my shop up and running for that. She does help to keep Maisie and Riya (last names Solomon and Amacarelli, respectively, my best friends) calm.
About Abby Collette: Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author Abby Collette loves a good mystery. Born and raised in Cleveland, it’s even a mystery to her why she has yet to move to a warmer place. Author of the two Southern cozy mystery series Logan Dickerson Mysteries featuring a second-generation archaeologist and a nonagenarian who is always digging up trouble, and the Romaine Wilder Mysteries, set in East Texas, it pairs a medical examiner and her feisty auntie who owns a funeral home and is always ready to solve a whodunnit. Abby spends her time writing, facilitating writing workshops at local libraries and spending time with her grandchildren, each of which are her favorite.
Today Chef Charlie Cooke is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Mousse and Murder, the first novel in the Alaskan Diner mystery series.
MOUSSE AND MURDER is my first adventure, kicking off The Alaska Diner Mysteries. The cozy series follows me, Charlie Cooke, owner and manager of The Bear Claw Diner as I juggle the responsibilities of running a diner and going about the occasional criminal investigation. I live at the center of the tourist trade in the great 49th state of Alaska. Tourists come from all over to see and maybe climb the world’s tallest North American mountain, Denali, and to view the spectacular aurora borealis. My job is to feed them and help them on their way to arctic splendor. Unfortunately, there’s usually trouble brewing and I’m called (or not) to help out our understaffed law enforcement community. So far in the series (Mousse and Murder, May 5, 2020) and Fishing for Trouble (due November 2020)), my team and I have solved two homicides, and lived to talk about it!
I haven’t evolved—I’m still me, exploring the world, taking any opportunity I can to travel. But my relationships with my family have definitely evolved.
About A. R. Kennedy: She lives in Long Beach, New York, with her two pups. She works hard to put food on the floor for them. As her favorite T-shirt says, ‘I work so my dog can have a better life’. She’s an avid traveler. But don’t worry. While she’s away, her parents dote on their grand-puppies even more than she does. Her writing is a combination of her love of travel, animals, and the journey we all take to find ourselves.
Tell us about a defining moment in your life.
About Larissa Reinhart: A Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Larissa writes the Cherry Tucker Mystery, Maizie Albright Star Detective, and Finley Goodhart Crime Caper series as well as romantic comedies and women’s fiction. She loves to tell funny stories about Southern women looking for love (and sometimes dead bodies) in all the wrong places. You might have seen Larissa and family with their little dog, Biscuit, on HGTV’s House Hunters International “Living for the Weekend in Nagoya” episode, but they’re back in Georgia now.
I believe in adhering to the facts as much as possible. I began with Internet research, and because there is so much misinformation on the web, I stayed with university sites, historical societies, and non-profits formed to preserve Irish history. I watched documentaries and contacted historians, archaeologists, and university professors. I also visited the sites mentioned in the book, from Dublin Castle, where the first casualty occurred, to the General Post Office, where Patrick Pearse read the proclamation of independence and to Saint Stephen’s Green, where the British fired down upon the rebels that had dug in there. I also stood in the courtyard where the leaders were executed by firing squad and where bullet holes can still be seen to this day in the wall behind where they stood—and in James Connolly’s case, where he was strapped to a chair because he was unable to stand. I also toured the cells where the men were incarcerated.
About p.m.terrell: p. m. terrell is the pen name for Patricia McClelland Terrell, the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than 24 books in multiple genres, including contemporary suspense, historical suspense, computer instructional, non-fiction and children’s books.
I’m not sure exactly what gave me the idea for the murder in This Magick Marmot, but I can let you in on my thoughts at the time. Some of the plots in the earlier books in the series had a wider focus, and I wanted to narrow that focus down again in this last book. I needed a plot that would impact Kailyn in a deeply personal way. Given these parameters, my brain churned out the idea of a murder at her high school reunion that leads to a new look into another death ten years earlier.
About Sharon Pape: Sharon describes her writing career as having two stages. Back in the dark ages, before computers were in every household, she had three paranormal books published. The first one was condensed by Redbook Magazine, the first paperback original they had ever condensed. Around the same time, Redbook published her first short story.
dianneascroft.com 