Chatting with Molly MacRae

Hi Molly!  How fun to chat with you today! 
 

Thanks for inviting me!

Let’s start with an easy one--how long have you been writing? 

Writing fiction, about thirty years. Writing fiction seriously, twenty six years. Getting paid for writing fiction, twenty four years.

What inspired you to pick up the pen (or sit down at the computer) one day and create characters that capture the imagination? 

Stories are magic and I’ve always wanted to be a magician.

Are you a fiber and needle artist? If so, which of the needle crafts do you like best? 

If I had more spare time, I’d be more of a fiber and needle artist than I am. Years ago I did a lot of cross stitch. These days I’m more interested in knitting and needle felting and someday I want to make a whole zoo of little tiny felted and knitted animals.

Most people envision an author’s life as being really glamorous. What’s your take on this? 

Well, it’s more glamorous than working in a towel factory or behind the counter at a delicatessen, both of which I’ve done. And if by glamorous they mean getting up at five every morning and writing until it’s time to go to my fulltime day job, writing on my lunch hour, going back to work, then coming home to make supper and write again until it’s time for bed, then yes – my life as an author is extremely glamorous!  The real glamour clincher, though, is that I get to set my own dress code while writing. Blue jeans? Yep. Pajamas with little Scotties all over them? Why not? Not a bad job at all.

Are Larry and Maggie, the kitties from LAST WOOL AND TESTAMENT based on any kitties in your life? 

That’s an interesting question. Larry, yes; Maggie, no. I’ve never met a cat that treated me the way Maggie treats Kath. In fact, that was hard to write because I felt so sorry for Kath. Larry is a combination of three kitties, though. 1) Blackie, who appeared on our back steps half dead and looking as though he’d stuck his paw in an electrical outlet, poor guy. We took him in and he turned into a very handsome, sweet guy. 2) A charming stray gentleman cat we met in California who walked up to me, leapt into my arms, and purred up a storm. Larry gets his moustache from him. My husband snapped a picture and that’s the happy guy in my author photo. 3) Neko, who is sitting in my lap right now. He’s orange, like Larry. He was being “raised” by a fraternity down the street from us. When he decided to relocate to our house he was skin and bones. It took months of cosseting before he could meow. He’s leading a very pampered life now.

You managed an independent book store.  What was the best part of managing and working in a book store?  

Being surrounded by books and people who love them.

I for one wish the trend would change and there would be more independents. 

Me too. I keep hearing they might have a place again in the coming years. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

What is the most glamorous thing you’ve done as an author?

I’ve won a couple of awards for my writing and received them at banquets. That kind of thing blows my mind to the point where I know I don’t look glamorous – more like dorky and stunned – but the occasion and the surroundings feel glamorous.  

If you could be one of the members of “the posse” who would it be and why?

I kind of like being the one who gets to play around with their lives! But if you’re making me choose, I think I’ll have to say Kath – provided she gets her life her life settled down a bit. Do you think that’s likely to happen? 

Looking over the past year, what has been the best moment for you in your writing career?

Hearing from readers who like the book. That is so amazing to me. So very nice.

What do you enjoy doing with your spare time, your non-writing time? 

Try new recipes. I love to cook.

If you could invite any famous person, dead or alive, for lunch, who would it be and what would you eat?

I would invite P.G. Wodehouse and we would have Moroccan sweet potato salad for lunch with gooseberry pie for dessert.

What are you working on now? Can you tell us a little about it?

I just finished the edits for Dyeing Wishes, the sequel to Last Wool and Testament. It has sheep in it and dyeing and, of course, dying. It comes out in July. And now I’m heavily into writing the third book in the series. It’s called (tentatively) Spinning in Her Grave. It takes place during Blue Plum Preserves, which is the town’s heritage festival. In each of the books, Kath learns more about Geneva and there’s a bit of romance developing. With who? Hmm, you’ll have to wait for that answer.

Is there anything you’d like to add?

If you’ve never been to upper east Tennessee, where the series is set, you should go. It’s a gorgeous corner of the world and a great place to visit.

Thank you for taking some time with us today! 

Thank you for having me. Good questions!

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” Molly is the author of Last Wool and Testament, first book in the new Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries from Penguin/NAL, which won the 2013 Lovey Award for Best Paranormal, Sci-fi, or Horror Novel. Dyeing Wishes, second in the series, comes out in July 2013. Molly is also the author Lawn Order and Wilder Rumors, mystery novels set, like the Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries, in the upper east corner of Tennessee. Molly’s short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990. She won the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction in 2000. Molly has been the director of a history museum in Jonesborough, Tennessee’s oldest town, and the manager of an independent bookstore. After twenty years in the beautiful hills and hollows of Tennessee, Molly and her family live in Champaign, Illinois, where you can find her in the children’s department of the public library. You can also find her at Vintage Cookbooks & Crafts on the first Monday each month, at Killer Characters on the 23^rd of each month, on Facebook and Pinterest, or at www.mollymacrae.com.

 

Miss Missy recently interviewed Maggie and Larry, two kitties from the Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery series and Larry is running a contest for a copy of Molly's July release Dyeing Wishes. Stop by and leave a Haiku for Larry and be entered to win! 

http://missyempressoftheuniverse.blogspot.com/2013/02/meow-meow-maggie-and-larry-and-fun.html

LAST WOOL AND TESTAMENT by Molly MacRae

Publisher:   Penguin

Date published:   September 4, 2012

ISBN:  978-045123785-8

Genre:   cozy mystery

Book format: Paperback

Obtained via:  Publisher

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com

Kath McClellan isn’t having the best of days.  She’s driving as fast as she can from Richmond, Virginia to Blue Plum, Tennessee for her beloved grandmother’s funeral. After spending happy times at her grandmother’s yarn shop, Weaver’s Cat, this trip is the end of an era. Making matters worse is getting caught speeding by a less than charming deputy named Clod…I mean Cole Dunbar and a storm brewing over the cemetery. At Granny’s funeral Kath reconnects with and meets a host of mourners as well as meeting up with the Spivey Twins.  Mercy and Shirley Spivey are up to something and it ain’t pretty.  After the funeral life throws a few more ugly turns at Kath beginning with learning her grandmother no longer owned the house Kath felt so at home in.

But all is not lost. A friend of Granny’s has a place Kath can hang her hat in while she makes plans for her future. But the house comes with its own host of problems, not the least of which is a burglar and a ghost and not necessarily in that order. Before Kath can turn around the man who acquired Granny’s house turns up where she least expected him and danger begins to dog her steps.

There is a mystery within a mystery…one around just what her grandmother was hiding, another surrounding her beloved cat, Maggie, yet a third as to why the house Kath is staying in is being burgled and not least of all, just where did her ghost come from. Kath isn’t alone in her sleuthing. There’s her grandmother’s friends and the Spivey twins. Well not the twins so much … or are can they really help Kath unravel the mystery of just what was going on in her grandmother’s house?

I had a fun time reading LAST WOOL AND TESTATMENT by Molly MacRae. I wish we had a place like Weaver’s Cat in my town or at least nearby and that it was populated by people just like the posse who hang out with Kath. Fun, creative and caring people who are there in a pinch no matter what comes up. I particularly liked Joe the burglar. He was a fun character that I hope we readers get to know a bit more.

I was a bit troubled by Kath’s seeming disconnect as to what was going on with her grandmother’s cat, Maggie. As a cat person Maggie would have been the first thing I checked up on when I arrived, but then again, Kath was dealing with the sudden death of the person she loved most in the world.

Geneva was a hoot. I cracked up every time she warbled about her “Darling Em”. Since the series is called the Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery I suspect we’ll be seeing more of Geneva and learning about just what happened to her.

The introduction of Larry towards the end of the story was a nice twist and brought the threads of Granny and Kath’s lives together nicely.

You don’t have to be a fan of needle work or really even cozy mysteries to enjoy LAST WOOL AND TESTAMENT although it may get you hooked on cozies. There are some nice twists in the story that keep you turning the page to find out what happens next. While the interweaving of several mysteries might seem like it would make it hard to keep them straight, Ms. MacRae does a fantastic job of sorting out one after the other, even the ones that weave back into each other.

Check out LAST WOOL AND TESTAMENT.  You’ll be in for a fun read.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.