Monday, September 3, 2012

My Morning Chat with Molly MacRae

Grab a cup of coffee and join Molly MacRae as we talk about her new book Last Wool and Testement. You wont want to miss this!

Isn't that cover Wonderful!!! How can you resist!

Good Morning Molly, so glad you can visit with us , I am excited about your new book coming out Sept. 4th!

Tell us a little about yourself.

I performed my senior ballet recital wearing swim fins instead of toe shoes. I wrote my first series of mystery stories in French (the stories were mediocre, the French passable). I can sing Old MacDonald in Scottish Gaelic. I like everything about books and stories – selling them (once upon a time as manager of an independent bookstore in Johnson City, Tennessee), lending them (currently in the children’s department of the public library in Champaign, Illinois), reading them (everywhere), and writing them (in a snug room under the eaves at home).

How did Kath Rutledge come about and what inspired you to write Last wool and Testament?


The inspiration came from any writer’s dream-sequence-come-true. An agent contacted me and asked if I’d like to work on a project with her. I said sure. She contacted an editor at Penguin. The editor asked if I could write a light paranormal series, maybe with a fiber or textile element. I said sure. “Sure” is the toned down version of my answers to the agent and the editor. Kath, the Haunted Yarn Shop mysteries, and the small town of Blue Plum, Tennessee, are the results.

Why Kath? She’s a fish out of water and I like the storylines that kind of character presents. Why a town in the hills and hollows of east Tennessee? That’s where my heart is. If you haven’t ever been to the Blue Ridge or the Smoky Mountains, you should go, and while you’re there say hey for me.

Can you tell us what you are working on and what is next for this series?

I just finished the second book in the series and am jumping into writing the third. The second, tentatively titled Dyeing Wishes, has Kath and the members of TGIF (Thank Goodness It’s Fiber) involved with large sheep, dyeing, and of course someone dying. The third, tentatively called Spinning in her Grave, takes place during the town’s annual heritage festival called Blue Plum Preserves. As the books go along, we’ll watch Kath adjust to her new situation and learn more about the depressed ghost she’s been saddled with.

Is there anything in your book based on real life experiences or purely imagination?


The force of wool runs strong in my family. My mother’s mother had a shop called the Little Wool Shop. She was a professional knitter (I’m not really sure what that means). My mother was a weaver, spinner, and dyer and for a short time had a little shop called the Weaver’s Cat (though it wasn’t a yarn shop). Both my sisters knit and crochet and one of them weaves.

My contribution is to admire my relatives and to take strands from each of them and spin them together into a story. Kath, her grandmother, and the other characters in the series come from the women in my family who work magic with fibers.

None of them are haunted or kill each other, though, so I made those parts up.

What are the first 5 books in your to be read pile?

The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make us Human by Jonathan Gottschall
Summer at Forsaken Lake by Michael D. Beil (juvenile mystery)
Death by Cashmere: a Seaside Knitters Mystery by Sally Goldenbaum
The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred by Samantha R. Vamos
Art & Max by David Wiesner
(The last two are for a program at work – I need to write three questions from the content of each book for a battle of the books competition between a bunch of very bright, cut-throat 1st and 2nd graders.)


 Molly MacRae writes the Haunted Yarn Shop mysteries for NAL/Obsidian, making its debut with Last Wool and Testament. In a review, the Boston Globe said Molly writes “Murder with a dose of drollery.” Molly’s stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine since 1990. She spent twenty years in upper east Tennessee, the setting for her stories, short and long. She lives in Champaign, Illinois. You can visit Molly at www.mollymacrae.com and www.killercharacters.com.

Hey everyone , for those who leave a comment for Molly she is giving away a signed copy of Last Wool and Testement to one lucky person So lets show Molly some love and leave her some comments!!!!!!!  

 

27 comments:

  1. I can't wait to read this book!!!! I've already preordered it for my kindle fire. It will be another new series for me to begin. Some day I'll learn to read slower so I don't have to wait for so long for the next installment in a series......well maybe ;)

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  2. I love that cover! Great interview and am trying to figure out that ballet recital in flippers.

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  3. Don't enter me, but I love the interview.

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  4. Thank you, Sue! Someday I'd like to learn to write faster! The second book should be out next summer, but I know what you mean about waiting. I am not patient when it comes to a good book!

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  5. Didn't I luck out with the pretty cover, Helen? I love it, too. The flippers? Let's just say I'll never forget that experience. I was a lobster.

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  6. Thanks, Dru! It's weird being in several places at once today. Good thing I have a day off.

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  7. Molly, you sound like a great deal of fun to hang out with. :) Best of luck on your latest release!

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  8. I am looking forward to reading this book! It sounds like it is full of fun and excitement! Can't wait :)

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  9. Swim fins, huh? Is there film?

    Looking forward to reading ALL the books!

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  10. You haven't danced ballet until you've danced ballet in swim fins, Kate. Maybe not as graceful as toe shoes, flapping across the stage in swim fins, but more exciting.

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  11. Another book that sounds fun and added to my 'list' Looking forward to it.
    Alicia

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  12. They have a way of piling up, don't they, Alicia?

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  13. Hi, Molly,

    It's great learning more about you. I enjoyed the interview. Congrats on the new novel!

    Best always.

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  14. Hi, Jacquie,

    Thank you! The Gaelic and swim fins tend to surprise people. Thanks for stopping by.

    Best,
    Molly

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  15. I love crafting mysteries and am an avid crocheter. Here's to many more books to come!

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  16. Hiya Molly what a great list of comments! Im so glad people are stopping by to say hi and getting to know you. CONGRATULATIONS on your New book!!!! Im so excited for you!

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    1. It's been absolutely my pleasure to be here, Shelley. Your questions were fun to answer and your readers are warm and welcoming. Thank you for having me here!

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  17. Art & Max by Wiesner is awesome. I look forward to reading your book!

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    1. Art & Max IS awesome. Wiesner continues to turn out surprising and wonderful books. Thanks for stopping by, Claire.

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    2. Claire you are the winner send me your email address please!!!!!!!

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  18. I know they say don't judge a book by it's cover, but I love this one and would love to read it...I've not read any of your books Molly.

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    1. I'm very luck to have that cover, Diane. We aren't supposed to judge books by them but we do all the time. I hope, if you get the chance to read this or any of my books, that they live up to their covers!

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