Interview: Ellen Byron (French Quarter Fright Night) ~ #BookTour

Hello and Welcome All!

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Ellen Byron author of French Quarter Fright Night.

Hi Ellen, thank you for agreeing to this interview.

For those readers not familiar with you, would you please tell us a bit about yourself?
Sure! Before I became a mystery author, I was a playwright and sitcom writer. I wrote for shows like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents. Now I write cozy mystery series, which include the Cajun Country Mysteries, the Catering Hall Mysteries (which I write as Maria DiRico), the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries, and my new series, the Golden Motel Mysteries. I’m thrilled to share that my books have won two Agatha Awards and four Leftys for Best Humorous Mystery!

What do you do when you are not writing?
I read, of course. I do dance classes three times a week and take our darling rescue dog Cammie on a nice long walk at least once a day. And I also do needlepoint. It’s my favorite hobby.

If you could have dinner with any three authors (alive or dead, who would you choose and why?
Agatha Christie and both Emily and Charlotte Bronte. I’d love to get some insight into how Dame Agatha plots her amazing mysteries. As to the Brontes, I’d invite both sisters because even though Wuthering Heights is my favorite of their extraordinary books, I fear Emily wouldn’t be very talkative and I’d get more out of Charlotte. She might even give me a map of the real locations that inspired the fictional ones so I could visit them. Making a pilgrimage to Bronte Country is #1 on my bucket list.

Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?
Little Women. I first read it when I was ten and became obsessed with it. I wanted to be one of the little women, and longed for sisters. (I had two brothers.) My mother bought me the Little Women Madame Alexander dolls. And for years, when a girl I knew turned ten, I gifted her with a copy of the book.

What are some books you have enjoyed recently?
I belong to a blog called Chicks on the Case and every writer on it is wonderful: Becky Clark, Jennifer J. Chow, Vickie Fee, Leslie Karst, Cynthia Kuhn, Lisa Q. Mathews, and Kathy Valenti. Lisa and Cynthia just launched new books in August: The Jig is Up (Lisa) and In the Event of Murder (Cynthia). They’re both great reads.

Is there anything that you would like to say to your readers and fans?
I am happier now than I have ever been in my career and it’s all thanks to you reading me and encouraging me through your enthusiasm for my work. Without you, there would be no books. They would just be files on my computer.

Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to take part in this interview.

French Quarter Fright Night

(Vintage Cookbook Mystery)
Ellen Byron
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – the Garden District of New Orleans
Publisher : Severn House (September 3, 2024)
Hardcover : 256 pages

The third in the fabulous cozy mystery series with a vintage flair from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author Ellen Byron.

Welcome to the Bon Veeevil Festival of Fear! Prepare for the spookiest night of your life . . .

It’s Halloween in New Orleans, and the staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum is setting up a fantastic haunted house tour for their visitors. But when flashy movie star Blaine Taggart and his entourage move into the mansion next door, gift shop proprietor Ricki James-Diaz gets a fright of her own.

While Ricki is excited about the potential business the tours will bring to her vintage cookbook shop, she’s less thrilled by former friend Blaine’s arrival in town. Then Bon Vee’s prop tomb becomes a real tomb for Blaine’s nasty assistant, and suddenly everyone at Bon Vee is a murder suspect. There isn’t a ghost of a chance one of them committed the crime, but with NOPD busy tackling the mischief and mayhem generated by the spooky holiday, it falls on Ricki and her friends
to catch the killer.

As the Big Easy gears up for the Big Scary, it seems everyone has skeletons in their closets. Can Ricki reveal the shadowy killer before someone else becomes part of the Halloween horror show?

Amazon * B&N

Ellen is a USA Today bestselling author, Anthony nominee, and recipient of multiple Agatha and Lefty awards for her Cajun Country Mysteries, Vintage Cookbook Mysteries, and Catering Hall Mysteries (as Maria DiRico). Her new series, The Golden Motel Mysteries, recently debuted. She is also an award-winning playwright and non-award-winning writer of TV hits like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly OddParents, but considers her most impressive achievement working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart. Visit her at Cozy Mysteries | Ellen Byron | Author

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