Mystery Author of the Month: Cindy Sample

Author, Cindy Sample

Cindy Sample is the Mystery Author of the Month. I'm a big fan of her very humorous Laurel McKay mystery series. I've read all of her books to date and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Patricia: Cindy, when did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

Cindy: When I was in the third grade, I took my spelling assignment and turned it into Nancy Drew and the Haunted Mansion. It was sixteen pages long and the teacher gave me an A+. I knew that day that I wanted to be a mystery author when I grew up. I just didn’t expect it to take a half a century before my next literary masterpiece was released.

Patricia: Wow! That sounds a lot like my career path. The first thing I had published was a poem in my Sunday school magazine when I was ten years old and, like you, it was half a century before my first mystery novel was published. Have you ever considered this? If, for some reason, you couldn’t be a writer, what profession would you choose?

Cindy: Since I’m as klutzy as my protagonist, I would never make it as a police detective although I love being an armchair detective. With a background in the mortgage industry, I think it would be fun to become a forensic accountant. Probably not most people’s choice of a fun career, but it would be intriguing to sift through the numbers and discover fraud. My second passion would be to become a chocolate taster. Preferably in Belgium.

Patricia: I’ll admit I can’t relate to the forensic accountant job (I’m terrible at math) but the chocolate taster position appeals to me too. So, tell us, do you have a bucket list, things you still want to do and/or places you want to visit?

Cindy: I have a very long bucket list including multiple stories I want to share with the world either in book form or screenplays. I’ve traveled a fair amount, but I still want to visit South America, New Zealand and as much of Asia as possible. And I’d like to write and produce a Broadway musical. It’s my bucket list, so why not? I guess I should add “win Powerball” to my bucket list!

Patricia: Interesting. Win Powerball is on my bucket list too. :)

Cindy Sample is a former corporate CEO who decided plotting murder was more entertaining than plodding through paperwork. Her national bestselling mystery series, described as Erma Bombeck meets Agatha Christie, features single soccer mom, Laurel McKay. The series, set in the California Gold Country, includes Dying for a Date, Dying for a Dance, Dying for a Daiquiri, Dying for a Dude and Dying for a Donut. Cindy is a four-time nominee for the LEFTY Award for Best Humorous Mystery and winner of the NCPA Best Fiction Award. Cindy describes Dying for a Donut as a lip-smacking mystery. It definitely involved the most dangerous research! 

 

Overview of the series: 

Laurel McKay is a multi-tasking mocha-drinking single mom whose size nine feet manage to stumble over one dead body after another. Whether she’s at her office at Hangtown Bank, located in the Gold Country of Northern California, or on vacation in Hawaii or the Caribbean, Laurel’s life is never dull.

Although her initial encounter with Detective Tom Hunter, AKA Detective Hunk, was less than amicable due to her being his # 1 suspect in Dying for a Date, their romance has slowly progressed from simmering to sizzling.

Check out Laurel’s humorous and chocolate-filled adventures, but beware - you may die laughing.

"Once again Sample presents a very entertaining mystery featuring a relatable and likable heroine. The family interactions with the McKay women are a delight, as their love for one another always overrides their frustrations. The characters are the reason readers will return to this series, and the twisty plot surprises and fun dialogue will engage new fans."
-Cynthia Chow, Kings River Life Magazine

To learn more about Cindy and her books:  

Visit her author’s page:

https://www.amazon.com/Cindy-Sample/e/B003RXILIK/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1470779674&sr=8-1

Her website: 

http://cindysamplebooks.com/ 

And her newsletter subscriber page:

http://cindysamplebooks.com/mailing-list/

www.facebook.com/cindysampleauthor 

www.twitter.com/cindysample1 

DYING FOR A DIAMOND will be released in January, 2017.

Cindy is giving away a $10 Starbucks giftcard to someone who leaves a comment on this post. The winner will be announced Saturday.

Spanning the Generations

One of the questions writers are frequently asked is: What is the audience for your book/s? Recently, when I was interviewed on another author’s blog, I was asked that question. I have to admit it was a tough one for me to answer because I’ve had both male and female readers from age ten on up.

That’s right. A ten year old. A couple of years ago, I was selling my first three books at a local festival when a little girl came running up to my booth. Her whole face lit up when she saw my Malone mysteries. I felt kind of bad because I figured she thought the books were for kids. But, when her mother arrived a few minutes later and I explained they weren’t, I got a surprising response. “My daughter has been reading novels since she was five years old. She knows what parts to skip over.” And she bought all three!

But my books are primarily intended to appeal to adult women. The main character is a female in her thirties and, although I keep the language clean, the subjects in my books are more suitable for adults. A serial killer, a child abduction, a murder and (spoiler alert) a stalker.

So, although most of my readers are adult women, my books include both male and female characters and they span the generations. The youngest is six-year-old, Davey, and the oldest is seventy-nine year old, Olivia. But that’s just in the first three books. In Mistaken Identity, I have another senior, Clara, and in my WIP (work in progress), Marnie Malone, yet another, Tallulah (Lu) Grover.

So why the wide age range in my characters? I think the best explanation is the fact that, in real life, I’ve learned (and continued to learn) so much from people of all ages. They say the elderly possess wisdom, which is often true, but everyone we meet can give us a new perspective, some helpful hints and/or story ideas - no matter how old or young they are. If we listen.