Cozy Mystery Monday: Interview and International Giveaway with Amanda Lee

I'm so pleased to welcome mystery writer Amanda Lee to Book of Secrets!  Amanda is the author of An Embroidery Mystery series.  THREAD RECKONING, the third book of the series, has just been released.  Welcome, Amanda!

Please tell us a little about THREAD RECKONING.

St. Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and residents are in a romantic frame of mind. In fact, one blushing bride has commissioned Marcy to embellish her mother's vintage wedding gown with jewels for her Valentine's Day wedding. Marcy is delighted--until she finds that the worst bridezillas have nothing on this bride-to-be.... But when the bride's future mother-in-law is found stabbed to death outside Marcy's shop, matters go from bad to worse.

What was your source of inspiration behind this book?

One source of inspiration was a group of high school students in my creative writing class. During the first classes where we were getting to know each other, one of the students asked, "Can I be in your book?" I said he could and asked if any of the others wanted to be included. Several hands went up. Those who wanted to be in the book make cameo appearances, and I dedicated the book to all of them.

For readers who are not familiar with your books, please share some background information on your series.

Marcy Singer is a thirty-something entrepreneur who left an accounting job in San Francisco to come to Tallulah Falls, Oregon, and open an embroidery specialty shop called The Seven-Year Stitch. Marcy's mom is a Hollywood costume designer, and Marcy has an Irish wolfhound named Angus. She's a little gun shy about romance at the moment, having been jilted at the altar by her former fiance; but there are two guys who are waiting for her to come around--Detective Ted Nash and pub owner Todd Calloway.

Can you tell readers a little bit about the world building in your book/series? Were there challenges or obstacles you had to overcome?

The embroidery series is set on the Oregon coast, and I live in Virginia. Having never been to Oregon, I had to do some extensive research. I subscribed to an online newspaper for six months, got a lot of travel brochures, and I even lucked out on finding videos on YouTube.

What was one of the most interesting things you learned in researching your book?

I'm constantly learning interesting things, especially about embroidery. For example, in the next book, The Long Stitch Goodnight, it's St. Patrick's Day so I wanted to highlight some form of Irish embroidery. The only truly Irish form of embroidery I could find was Mountmellick. It's beautiful, and I wound up buying a book of the embroidery so I can (hopefully) share a design with my readers.

Why are female amateur sleuths so popular in cozy mysteries?

I think we identify with them because those sleuths are like us--they could be us. They have the day-to-day interactions with work, finances, crochety neighbors, friends, pets--and then, all of a sudden, something happens and they find themselves in the middle of a murder mystery. I believe we'd like to think that, if we found ourselves in a similar situation, we'd come through it just as well as those amateur sleuths.

Where can readers find you on the web?

Please visit me at http://www.gayletrent.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gayle-Trent-and-Amanda-Lee-Cozy-Mystery-Writer/123653074333103. On the site, visit Marcy's virtual shop, where you can learn more about the Oregon coast, Irish wolfhounds, where to adopt your own pet, embroidery retail sites, and free embroidery patterns.

Can you leave readers with a little teaser or excerpt from your book?

Ted's deep blue eyes searched my face as he gave me instructions on where to park. I wanted to tell him I was all right, but I wasn't entirely sure if I was or not. When I got out of the Jeep, he accompanied me to the sidewalk where a portion had been cordoned off with yellow police tape. In my sneakers, I only reached Ted's chest. Part of me wanted to hide my face in his gray oxford shirt, but I knew I had to look.

Crime scene technicians were bending over the body. I couldn't see much...just her shoes. They were black, thick-heeled pumps. One shoe had been knocked off.

Amanda's Giveaway Details:

I'm offering United States readers a signed copy of the mass market paperback of Thread Reckoning to be shipped anywhere in the United States. If you're an international reader, you can win a copy of the Kindle version of Thread Reckoning. Good luck!

{In your comment, please leave your e-mail addy and whether you are entering for the US or International prize. Contest open until 9/16/2011 at 11:59 pm CST.}