Q: What are you working on next?
A: This year (2025) appears to be the year of the cozy mysteries. Right now the plan is to have 2 Charlie Kingsley Mystery series, and 2-4 The Redemption Detective Agency books. (I have a couple of Christmas books planned along with Books 2 and 3 in the main series.) The Redemption Detective Agency series is a spin-off from the Charlie Kingsley Mysteries, and one of the Christmas ideas is to do a cross-over project with both series. I’m excited to see how it works out.
Once I get those projects completed, I’ll shift back to the psychological thriller world with The Mysteries of Redemption, which is a spin-off to Secrets of Redemption. Like Secrets, it will be a psychological thriller series blended with romance and the supernatural.
Part of the reason why I’m putting Mysteries on hold is because I’m finding it a little too difficult to switch back and forth between series as quickly as I have been. Rather than doing one cozy, then one psych thriller, etc. it feels like it would be more efficient for me (and, more importantly, more enjoyable for YOU, the reader) if I focus on one series, get a few books done and published, then switched to the other one.
Plus I was really struggling with Mysteries, so I felt like I needed a break.
So, hopefully my new plan will do the trick, but if it doesn’t, I shall make additional adjustments.
Q: Are there more books planned after that for the Secrets of Redemption series?
A: Book 9, What Wasn’t Forgotten, will be the last. However, Becca, Daniel, Mia, Daphne and the rest of the gang will be making cameos in the spin-off series The Mysteries of Redemption.
Q: Do you have to read the Secrets of Redemption series in order?
A: I would highly recommend it. The order is:
It Began With a Lie
This Happened to Jessica
The Evil That Was Done
The Summoning
The Reckoning
The Girl Who Wasn’t There
The Room at the Top of the Stairs
The Search
What Wasn’t Forgotten
HOWEVER, you can also read it in this order:
The Summoning
The Reckoning
It Began With a Lie
This Happened to Jessica
The Evil That Was Done
The Girl Who Wasn’t There
The Room at the Top of the Stairs
The Search
What Wasn’t Forgotten
(There is also a prequel novella called The Secret Diary of Helen Blackstone you can read for free right here.)
Q: How does The Third Nanny fit into the Secrets of Redemption series?
A: The Third Nanny is a standalone psychological thriller/domestic thriller set in the Redemption/Riverview universe. It has a separate set of characters and a complete storyline.
Q: How does The Charlie Kingsley Mysteries series fit in time wise with the Secrets of Redemption series?
A: I get it that the timeline can be a little confusing especially if you’re new to the series, so here’s how the two series fit together chronologically:
The Summoning (Book 4 of the Secrets of Redemption series) 1987
The Reckoning (Book 5 of the Secrets of Redemption series) 1987
All The Charlie Kingsley Mysteries books (which can be read as standalones) 1990’s
It Began with a Lie (Book 1 of the Secrets of Redemption series) 2019
This Happened to Jessica (Book 2 of the Secrets of Redemption series) 2019
The Evil That Was Done (Book 3 of the Secrets of Redemption series) 2019
The Girl Who Wasn’t There (Book 6 of the Secrets of Redemption series) 2022
The Room at the Top of The Stairs (Book 7 of the Secrets of Redemption series) 2022
The Search (Book 8 of the Secrets of Redemption series) 2022
What Wasn’t Forgotten (Book 9 of the Secrets of Redemption series) 2022
For more on how the two series fit together, check out this post.
Q: Do you need to read the Secrets of Redemption series before you read The Charlie Kingsley Mysteries?
A: No. If you love cozies and just want to focus on the cozy mysteries, you can just read The Charlie Kingsley Mysteries.
However, if you want the completely backstory of Redemption, I would recommend reading the full series and starting with It Began With a Lie.
Q: Is there an order to The Charlie Kingsley Mysteries?
A: While it’s true you can read the books as standalones, it would be better for the series and character arcs to read in order, which is:
The Murder Before Christmas
Ice Cold Murder
Murder Next Door
Murder Among Friends
The Murder of Sleepy Hollow
Red Hot Murder
A Cornucopia of Murder
In addition to the main series, there is also a Charlie Kingsley cozy novella series. These are also standalone, but you can also read them in order, which is:
A Grave Error
Loch Ness Murder
A Wedding to Murder For
Three French Hens and a Murder
A Room for Murder
Q: What about The Riverview Mysteries? Is there an order to those books?
A: At this point, each book is completely separate.
Q: Are all the series related?
A: Yes, all three series are interconnected. For more on the Redemption/Riverview universe, start here.
Q: What awards had you won?
A: It Began With a Lie AND the complete Secrets of Redemption series won an award from the Paranormal Romance Guild. (It Began With a Lie won first place and the series won second.) The Summoning also won first place for best book in 2020 from PRG.
BUT these books are NOT paranormal romances. PRG reviews books in all sorts of genres. My books are a mix of psychological thriller, mystery, supernatural, and romance.
January LaVoy, my super talented narrator who narrated the Secrets of Redemption books, won a 2020 Voice Arts Awards Best Mystery Audiobook Narration for her work on It Began With a Lie.
In addition, this series was also featured in USA Today’s book blog.
The Charlie Kingsley Mysteries series also has won several awards from PRG for both the series and separate books, plus one of the books in the series was on the USA Today Bestseller list.
The first fiction award I ever won was a National Scholastic Award in high school for humor.
Q: Do you have book club discussion questions for your books?
A: I do. In fact, I have a number of articles and resources to help if you’re in a book club that you can find here.
If you want book club questions that are specific for cozy mysteries, go here. (Includes an easy, printable sheet you can download and take with you to meetings as well.)
If you want book club questions that are specific for psychological thrillers, mysteries or supernatural books, go here. (Also includes a printable sheet.)
Generic book club questions can be found here.
Q: How are you able to find the time to do all the writing you do?
A: The short answer is I don’t have kids (which helps).
The long answer is that this is who I am. I’m a writer. I taught myself to read when I was three years old because I wanted to write stories so badly.
Now, that doesn’t mean the writing journey has always been easy for me (in fact, I struggled with my fiction side for years—you can read more about that here). And I did have to learn how to balance all the different types of writing that I am called in my soul to do.
What helped me a ton is adopting the 15-minute rule, which is something my friend Samantha Bennett writes about in her “Get It Done: From Procrastination to Creative Genius in 15 Minutes a Day” book. When I decided to recommit myself to writing books, I committed to working on my book for at least 15 minutes every day.
I know that doesn’t seem like a lot—or like you could EVER finish a book dedicating only 15 minutes a day to it.
But, it’s remarkable how much you ARE able to accomplish.
Even if you’re skeptical, I’d invite you to give it a try. (What’s the worst that could happen? You don’t get as much done as you’d like? Well, how much are you getting done now?)
Q: How are you able to switch between writing fiction, nonfiction, copywriting, etc.?
A: I like to think of it as a dance. Some days, writing fiction is the priority. Other days, I have to get a blog post done or a copy project completed.
I let the projects dictate how I plan my days with a couple of exceptions. (One of those exceptions is I must spend at least 15 minutes on my current fiction project. This is non-negotiable.)
Rather than focusing on how much I get done in a day, I try and look at my week. If I’m more or less on track over a week, I’m good. (I’ll never be completely caught up as there will ALWAYS be something else to write, which is also why I try to use the weekly “Am I on track?” self-check-in method for staying on top of things.)
Q: How do you come up with your fiction ideas?
A: I read a lot. And I read a lot of books that are outside of my preferred genre of writing. I also like combining different ideas that, on the surface, don’t seem to go together to see if I can turn them into a coherent story.
(But, quite honestly, that’s likely just my ego intervening, as if I have a say in coming up with ideas. I suspect a closer truth is that the “muse fairy” periodically visits me, and for that I’m very grateful.)
Q: How can you be taken seriously as a fiction author?
A: This exact question actually kept me from pursuing my fiction goals for years—this fear that, if I was open about writing fiction, it would somehow hurt my chances of being a successful copywriter, blogger, and nonfiction author.
Honestly, I haven’t found that to be the case. Most people are quite intrigued by the fact I write fiction.
Probably my biggest challenge is balancing all my brands and keeping everything clear in the marketplace, but this is an inherent challenge for anyone who is trying to grow more than one business or brand.
Q: How do you become a successful author in different genres?
A: First, you have to be able to write in different genres successfully. I would highly encourage you to work on mastering your craft, so you can create a high-quality product.
Second, you have to commit to marketing yourself. And, if you write in different genres, you have to commit to marketing those different genres.
There’s no question it’s more work. However, on the flip side, it can also make you more stable as an author. If you have multiple businesses and multiple genres, you have multiple ways of making money. So, if one genre tanks for whatever reason, you can rely on other genres to keep money flowing in the door.
Q: What are some ways you can market yourself as an author?
A: Blogs are an excellent way of marketing yourself as a writer. I would also recommend building an email list of readers as well as setting up a budget to regularly advertise your books in places like Amazon and Facebook.
Q: Where can I find more information about your nonfiction books?
A: At LoveBasedPublishing.com.