Today Marty Golden is visiting Ascroft, eh? from Hit and Mist, to tell us about this latest novel in the Silicon Valley mystery series.
Welcome, Marty. Let’s get started, shall we?
Tell us about the novel that you live inside and the series.
I’m Marty Golden, the hero of HIT AND MIST, the fourth book in the Silicon Valley Mystery series. How cool is that to have four books written about your own life? I don’t own a bakeshop, bookstore, or bed & breakfast place although I do eat, read, and sleep a lot. My friend, Marc Jedel, takes my notes and writes down the parts of my life that turn into murder mysteries. I hate that phrase. It makes me sound like I’m going around killing people, but I don’t hurt anyone. I’m a nice guy with a good sense of humor and an active inner voice that sometimes convinces me to jump in to solve a problem even if I don’t yet have a plan.
Although all these other people keep getting killed or know someone who dies, I’m too busy to get involved. But my parents stressed good etiquette when I was growing up so sometimes I have to help out. After all, it’s poor manners to let your friend’s death go unsolved. Or in the case of HIT AND MIST, I couldn’t let my friend go to a prison for a murder I was sure he didn’t commit.
Does the writer control what happens in the story or do you get a say too?
It’s a little philosophical to ask someone whether they control their own destiny, isn’t it? All I know is when something bad happens around me or I’m in the middle of trouble and struggling to find an escape, I don’t see Marc Jedel, the writer, there helping me out. He tends to sit at his computer typing all day. Although I’ve seen his office and he now has a sit-stand desk so perhaps that midnight requisition that unfolds in HIT AND MIST was based on reality? For the most part, Marc takes my notes and turns what happened to me into a more polished story. Well, actually his copy editor does all the important polishing so I’m not really sure what Marc’s role is.
How did you evolve as the main character?
The story is told in first person so I kind of had to be the main character. Since I’m the guy who seems to encounter these dead bodies and run into these unusual circumstances, it only makes sense for the story to be about me. I mean, you could write a story about my friend Raj because he’s smarter and helps me when he’s not busy at work, but he’s not as funny and doesn’t seem to get into trouble as often. Also, I’m the one with the secret code name alert in the San Jose police department’s computer system. Just don’t ask me what it is.
I once read a summary that the author wrote about me. Marc said, “Marty isn’t exactly hero material. He has a wonderful combination of wit, irreverent humor and sarcasm mixed in with nerdy insecurities, absent-mindedness, and fumbling but effective amateur sleuthing skills. Sometimes, he even succeeds.” I thought that was rude and didn’t talk to him for a while, even though he was probably accurate.
Do you have any other characters you like sharing the story with? If so, why are you partial to them?
I really enjoy sharing the story with my girlfriend, because, well, she’s my girlfriend. She always has clever ideas when I’m stuck and I’m constantly discovering unusual, new skills of hers.
In addition, I like spending time with my nieces. When my own kids were younger, I worked too much and wasn’t the most involved father. So I’m trying to spend more time with my nieces. Besides, they’re young enough that they still enjoy my dad jokes, or at least I still tell them my favorite ones. The best part of being an uncle is that I can have fun with my nieces and then say goodbye when I’m tired, or they’re cranky, or when Skye becomes a teenager.
What’s the place like where you find yourself in this story?
HIT AND MIST, like all the novels so far in the Silicon Valley Mystery series, takes place in Silicon Valley, centered around San Jose, California. This area was once known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight for its scenic beauty, mild climate, and thousands of acres of blooming fruit trees. Today’s traffic and difficult, overcrowded living conditions for so many people now make this a less than ideal place to live. But the weather is still awesome! Silicon Valley often gets portrayed as some weird, geeky place full of startup billionaires in movies. And while all that is true, the movies miss the wonderful mix of people from different backgrounds, most fairly new to the area, the energy, and the scenery where you can go skiing, hiking amongst redwoods, or surfing all within a few hour drive. And, did I mention the weather?
Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers about you and the book?
Well, I think HIT AND MIST is awesome. I mean it’s all about me, my nieces, sister, girlfriend, and friends so why wouldn’t I think it was the best story ever? My friend, Marc Jedel, thinks my adventures will interest readers because it’s rare to find a cozy mystery with a male sleuth who doesn’t have a conventional cozy mystery job, nor live in a typical cozy mystery locale in a small town by the water. Marc once described me as “Monk meets Inspector Gadget meets Pink Panther.” I’m not so sure about all that but I do think he forgot to include “meets James Bond” in that description.
Thanks for answering my questions, Marty, and good luck to you and your author, Marc Jedel with Hit and Mist, the latest book in the Silicon Valley Mystery series.
Readers can learn more about Marc Jedel and his writing by visiting his website and his Facebook, Goodreads, BookBub and LinkedIn pages.
The novel is available at the following online retailers:
Amazon – http://getbook.at/HitMist
About Marc Jedel: For most of his life, he’s been inventing stories. His writing skills were honed in years of marketing leadership positions in Silicon Valley. While his high tech marketing roles involved crafting plenty of fiction, he called these marketing collateral, emails and ads.
The publication of his first novel, Uncle and Ants, gave him permission to claim “author” as his job. And achieving Amazon Best Seller status gave him even better adjectives to use in front of “author.” Like Marty, he lives in Silicon Valley and can’t believe that otherwise normal people would willingly jump out of an airplane and call it fun. Unlike Marty, he has a wonderful wife and a neurotic but sweet, small dog, who is often the first to weigh in on the humor in his writing.
There wasn’t a really strong lesson to the book as it’s simply a clean, twisty mystery, but I do want to portray a really strong sibling bond through this series, as well as the importance of giving shelter dogs a chance.
The most recent book I live in is Murder in the Wine Country, and it’s the sixth book in the Kelly Jackson mystery series. I’m Kelly, an executive administrator with Resorts International. I originally came to the small town of Redwood Cove, located on the coast of northern California, on what was to be a temporary assignment. I took over the Redwood Cove Bed and Breakfast after the manager had what appeared to be an accidental fatal fall from a seaside cliff. It was a straightforward assignment until a crime-solving group of senior citizens, the Silver Sentinels, cried murder. Thus began my adventures in the first book, Murder at Redwood Cove. The type of mysteries I am involved in are often referred to as cozies. My author, Janet Finsilver, prefers to call them safe whodunits. What she means by that is there is no graphic violence and the main characters won’t die. They will always return.
About Janet Finsilver: Janet is the USA TODAY best-selling author of the Kelly Jackson mystery series. She worked in education for many years as a teacher, a program administrator, and a workshop presenter. Janet majored in English and earned a Master’s Degree in Education. She loves animals and has two dogs—Kylie and Ellie. Janet has ridden western style since she was a child and was a member of the National Ski Patrol. One of the highlights of her life was touching whales in the San Ignacio Lagoon. MURDER AT REDWOOD COVE, her debut mystery, was released on October 13, 2015. Five books followed with her most recent release on April 28, 2020, of book six, MURDER IN THE WINE COUNTRY. Janet Finsilver and her husband reside in the San Francisco Bay Area. She enjoys cooking, and a recent attempt to reduce the number of cookbooks in the cupboard wasn’t very successful. She’s an avid reader—of course!
A mystery author has invited Lila to stay in her guest house while doing research, and the idea came about when I was thinking about this author’s backstory, especially as it relates to the mansion where they spend the semester. I imagined what her life had been like when she was younger, who had been a part of it, and how her writing back then could be related to the current situation.
About Cynthia Kuhn: Cynthia writes the Lila Maclean Academic Mysteries: The Semester of Our Discontent, The Art of Vanishing, The Spirit in Question, The Subject of Malice, and The Study of Secrets. Honors for the series include an Agatha Award for best first novel and Lefty Award nominations for best humorous mystery.
My writing hours are in the afternoon, after running errands, answering emails, and peeking at social media. Only once my mind is a relatively clean slate can I drill down into the Dodie O’Dell mystery series and play with the characters of Etonville, New Jersey. Especially Dodie O’Dell, my protagonist sleuth, who always has her hands full solving a mystery, managing the Windjammer restaurant, and supporting her friends at the Etonville Little Theatre.
About Suzanne Trauth: She is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and a former theatre professor at a university. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Dramatists Guild, and League of Professional Theatre Women. When she is not writing, Suzanne coaches actors and serves as a celebrant performing wedding ceremonies. She lives in Woodland Park, New Jersey.
After their mama’s passing, Marygene Brown returned to Peach Cove Island to help her sister Jena Lynn run the family diner, renowned for its homemade peach desserts. But Mama is never too far away—her sassy spirit haunts the island, and more specifically Marygene. Lately Mama has been warning her that the dead will seek her out to solve their murders, an idea Marygene is far from peachy keen on.
About Kate Young: Kate writes Southern mystery novels. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and the Guppy Chapter. Kate lives in a small town in Georgia with her husband, three kids, and Shih Tzu. When she is not writing her own books, she’s reading or cooking.
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.
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.
