Today Astoria Wright is visiting Ascroft, eh? to tell us about Mysterious Merchandise, her first novel in A Witch’s Thrift Shop mystery series.
Welcome, Astoria. 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.
AW: Mysterious Merchandise is the first book in A Witch’s Thrift Shop mystery series. The story begins when antique shop salesclerk Alice Adelcraft follows a black cat into an alley, which turns out to be an entire hidden street with stores exclusive to witches and wizards. That’s right! There’s a secret magical community in Alice’s college town of Urbana. But that’s not all. Along with A Witch’s Thrift Shop, Alice finds a dead body! Now, she has to find the killer and keep the others from finding out she’s not really a witch, or they’d wipe her memory – all of it!
It’s one mystery after another on Magic Row. Join the fun and intrique by reading Mysterious Merchandise today!
Where did the idea for the mystery that is central to the story come from?
AW: I love thrift shops! You can always find something unusual, rare, or unique. Occassionally, I also find a thing or two that makes me ask: What is this? Maybe it’s something magical. And maybe there are customers out there who know just what to do with these magical items.
My first thoughts were of a character named Alice, working in an antique shop where these strange customers come in looking for those kind of magical items. Then, I thought: What if there was an antique shop, or better yet, a thrift shop with inventory just for those kind of customers – witches and wizards? Thus, A Witch’s Thrift Shop was born.
Is there a theme or subject that underlies the story? If so, what prompted you to write about it?
AW: Yes on both! The theme in all the books I’ve planned for the series is about belonging and connection. We live side by side with others and we don’t connect. I live in a community where I don’t know most of my neighbors. Sure, it’s peaceful and quiet, but that’s not a community. In some cities, connection and community are so rare I’m sure there are hidden communities that we don’t know exist. OK, maybe there’s not one like Magic Row, but who knows?
As to the subject matter – Alice’s identity is in question through each book and that will be a topic underlying the series as a whole.
How do you create your characters? Do you have favourite ones? If so, why are you partial to them?
AW: I don’t know. They just kind of appear on page. I don’t think I can pick a favorite, but I do really like the main character in this series, Alice. She’s down to earth, can be defensive but recognizes that about herself, and is protective of people she sees as vulnerable because she sees herself in them. She has a lot of growing to do and I’m glad to be able to write about that.
How do you bring to life the place you are writing about?
AW: Urbana was a name I made up, because I wanted a cozy mystery about a smaller community within a larger urban setting. The character of Alice I felt like belonged in a city and specifically a college town. But, and here’s the weird part, there is exactly 1 town in the USA named Urbana. And it’s a college town!
I will say that the Urbana in the books is not meant to be the one that exists in real life. Whenever I write a setting, I draw from books I’ve read, movies and shows I watch, but more than anything from my own experiences. I’ve lived in cities, small towns and even in another country for a while. But I’ve never been to the real Urbana and couldn’t describe anything about it accurately. So, the Urbana of A Witch’s Thrift Shop is, for all intents and purposes, a completely fictional place.
What research do you do to provide background information to help you write the novel?
AW: When I first got the idea, I read about witches & wizards, various systems of magic (fictional and real), orphans, and how foster care works to get ideas about the characters. For settings, I use Google Images to help me picture various backgrounds and then I sort of merge images in my mind to create a fictional place. I have to see it in my mind – so, yes, I’ve got a city, the streets, the layouts, etc. in my mind that I can “travel” through as the stories unfold.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers about th: e book?
AW: If you like paranormal cozy mysteries, black cats, witches and wizards, genies, and all things magical, I hope you’ll pick up this book.
Thanks for answering my questions, Astoria, and good luck with Mysterious Merchandise, the first book in A Witch’s Thrift Shop mystery series.
Readers can learn more about Astoria and her writing by visiting her website and blog, and her Facebook, Goodreads, Bookbub and Pinterest pages. You can also follow her on Twitter.
The novel is available at the following online retailers:
Amazon – Barnes and Noble – Kobo – Audible
About Astoria Wright: She is a cozy fantasy author and a poet who is inspired by rainy days, good books, and positive people. She is often found sitting by a window or in her backyard sipping tea or coffee and writing or reading cozy mysteries, fantasy novels, or poetry. Join her mailing list at www.astoriawright.com to see stories, poems, and thoughts that she only shares there.
Roberta is a flawed yet sympathetic character. She is both cynic and romantic, jaded and enthusiastic, willfully ignorant and prescient. My goal was to create an unlikeable character, one who is self-absorbed and angry, and then transform her into someone we can all identify with. To accomplish this, I employed classic fairy tales, which are rich in symbols and archetypes. Insight into the meanings of these tropes and classic roles allows the reader to understand the tales, and therefore life, on a deeper level.
About Phyllis M. Newman: Phyllis is a native southerner. Born in New Orleans, she spent formative years in Florida, Iowa, Mississippi, and on a dairy farm in Ross County, Ohio. After a long career in finance and human resources at The Ohio State University, she turned her attention to writing fiction. She published a noir mystery, “Kat’s Eye” in 2015, a Gothic mystery, “The Vanished Bride of Northfield House” in 2018, and the suspense thriller “Clearing in the Woods” in 2019. Today she lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband and three perpetually unimpressed cats, none of whom venture far from home.
NJC: Easter Hair Hunt is #16 in the Bad Hair Day Mysteries. Hairstylist Marla Vail solves crimes in sultry South Florida in this series that Publishers Weekly calls “fast-paced and jaunty.” Besides the 16 full-length novels, this series includes a short story, novella, and cookbook.
About Nancy J. Cohen: Nancy writes the Bad Hair Day Mysteries featuring South Florida hairstylist Marla Vail. Titles in this series have been named Best Cozy Mystery by Suspense Magazine, won a Readers’ Favorite gold medal and a RONE Award, earned first place in the Chanticleer International Book Awards and third place in the Arizona Literary Awards. Nancy’s instructional guide, Writing the Cozy Mystery, was nominated for an Agatha Award, earned first place in the Royal Palm Literary Awards and the TopShelf Magazine Book Awards, and won a gold medal in the President’s Book Awards. A featured speaker at libraries, conferences, and community events, Nancy is a past president of Florida Romance Writers and Mystery Writers of America Florida Chapter. She is listed in Contemporary Authors, Poets & Writers, and Who’s Who in U.S. Writers, Editors, & Poets. When not busy writing, she enjoys cooking, fine dining, cruising, and visiting Disney World.
I’m Sophie Kimball, a forty-something bookkeeper/accountant, but everyone calls me Phee. I never intended to become an amateur sleuth but what can you expect when you work for an investigative agency in Glendale, Arizona? Most of the time I find myself in my mother’s retirement community of Sun City West, Arizona, tracking down clues for unsolved murders. In DRESSED UP 4 MURDER, my mother’s dog, Streetman, a neurotic little Chiweenie, finds a dead body under the tarp that covered her neighbor’s grill. Needless to say, barbequing is now on hold until the murderer can be caught.
authored the Sophie Kimball Mysteries (Kensington), The Wine Trail Mysteries (Kensington Lyrical Underground), and the Marcie Rayner Mysteries (Camel). In addition, Ann has nine published YA time travel mysteries under her own name.
SE: The series is called The Barking Mad Mystery series because my rescue puppy Bailey insisted on having a starring role, even if he goes undercover and changes his name. The series is about a US Atlanta cop that comes to live in a small English village and becomes a community based police sergeant. He’s expecting lost dogs and bake sales but he’s immediately embroiled in murder and mayhem.
About Scarlett English: She is a crazy cat lady who likes solving mysteries. Or actually, make that a dog lady. Much to her chagrin, the police have never sought to consult her, which is why there seems to be so much unsolved crime. Especially—surprisingly enough—in the small English village where she lives. So, armed with curiosity, a penchant for taking in strays, a love of homemade wine and a good gossip, she puts her detecting talents to good use murdering her imaginary friends and neighbors and solving the cases one story at a time.
At the start of MURDER MAKES SCENTS, Stella points out that her mother, Millie, seeks adventure by travelling world, whereas Nantucket is always enough to keep her on her toes. How right she is!
About Christin Brecher: Christin was born and raised in NYC, where her family and many childhood friends still reside. As such, she feels she is as much of a small-town girl as any. The idea to write the Nantucket Candle Maker series sprang from her life-long connection to the small island off the coast of Massachusetts. Spending summers there as a child, Christin read from her family’s library of mystery novels, after which she began to imagine stories inspired by the island’s whaling heyday, its notoriously foggy nights, and during long bike rides to the beach. After many years in marketing for the publishing industry, followed by years raising her children, Murder’s No Votive Confidence is Christin’s debut novel.
I took over a part of the writer’s brain. I’ve been festering there for a while, but I knew it was time for me to have my say. As for the Kebab Kitchen series, I’ve evolved a lot over the course of the books.
About Tina Kashian: Tina is a bestselling author, an attorney, and a mechanical engineer whose love of reading for pleasure helped her get through years of academia. Tina spent her childhood summers at the Jersey shore building sandcastles, boogie boarding, and riding the boardwalk Ferris wheel. She also grew up in the restaurant business, as her Armenian parents owned a restaurant for thirty years. Tina’s books have been Barnes & Noble top picks, and the first book in her Kebab Kitchen Mediterranean mystery series, Hummus and Homicide, spent six weeks on the B&N bestseller list. Please visit her website at 
This is shocking. Ottawa is one of Canada’s best-kept secrets. It is large enough so that you can partake of any kind of culture from jazz concerts to musicals to university lectures to trivia nights at the pub, but unlike Toronto or Manhattan, it is small enough to be affordable; have much greenery preserved by the government in the middle of the city; as well as beautiful monuments; and a beautiful canal, which in winter, becomes the world’s largest and second-longest skating rink and was initially built on the backs of Irish labor.
About Sigrid Macdonald: Originally from New Jersey, Sigrid Macdonald lived for almost thirty years in Ottawa, Ontario, and currently resides in Weston, Florida. She has been a freelance writer for years. Her works have appeared in The Globe and Mail newspaper; the Women’s Freedom Network Newsletter; the American magazine Justice Denied; The Toastmaster; and the Anxiety Disorders Association of Ontario Newsletter. Her first book, Getting Hip: Recovery from a Total Hip Replacement, was published in 2004. Her second book, Be Your Own Editor, followed in 2010. Although Finding Lisa is written in first person, Macdonald only resembles her character in the sense that she once had a neurotic fixation on her hair, and she has always been called by the wrong name; instead of being called Sigrid, people have called her Susan, Sharon, Astrid, Ingrid and, her personal favorite, Siri.
I went looking for Jolie last year during the Thanksgiving holiday season, and to my surprise, my first interaction with her, she pegged me as a suspect to a murder. I had recently accidentally learned that my dad had family in Leavensport, Ohio. It was shocking, saying the least, to learn I’d had family less than sixty miles from me my entire life.
About Jodi Rath: Moving into her second decade working in education, Jodi Rath has decided to begin a life of crime in her The Cast Iron Skillet Mystery Series. Her passion for both mysteries and education led her to combine the two to create her business MYS ED, where she splits her time between working as an adjunct for Ohio teachers and creating mischief in her fictional writing. She currently resides in a small, cozy village in Ohio with her husband and her seven cats.
My grandfather is wonderful. He’s wise and witty and very sympathetic. Since I’m his only granddaughter among more than a dozen grandsons, I’m his favorite. He’s the head of our family and the family business, which I take no part in.
