~ Writers Have Scary Brains ~

Today, let’s welcome awesome author Cathy Perkins. She has a new mystery up for pre-order that she wants to tell you about. She also shares where she gets her ideas and some great writing tips. Read on…

Welcome Cathy, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Thanks so much for letting me visit with you today! I’m a transplanted Southerner, currently living in the state of Washington, the setting of the Holly Price Mystery Series, with my husband, children, several dogs, and the resident deer herd. I love the Pacific Northwest – food, wine, climate, relaxed attitudes and access to the outdoors.

My day job is in the financial industry, so my books tend to have a financial angle. The Holly Price Mysteries feature a smart, sassy CPA amateur sleuth.

When I’m not writing, I love finding other creative outlets. When my children were small, I smocked dresses, made costumes and invented all kinds of crafts for them (and their friends). Now, I’ve started painting again and make fused glass pieces. It’s so fun to have the tangible item to enjoy and give to friends.

Where do you get your ideas?

Someone told me they think an author’s brain is a scary place! We do constantly ask, “What if…?”

Sometimes a day drama offers a story start, but ideas can show up in the strangest places. Inspiration can hit in the strangest places. My husband and I were hiking along the Snake River in a game management area called Big Flats (which happens to feature in my mystery So About The Money) and had to push through some tangled foliage at the shoreline. Being a mystery writer whose mind really can go strange places, I glanced over my shoulder and said, “Wouldn’t this be a great place to find a body?”

That germ of an idea kept growing. Why would the heroine be out at Big Flats to stumble over the body? How did the body end up beside the river in the first place?

The idea for In It For The Money came while I was chatting with a friend’s nephew at a party. He was all excited about designing some bizarre machine called a Rockcrawler. My writer’s brain went, Hmmm…That’s different.

How much research do you have to do?

For my upcoming release In It For The Money, I had to do a lot of research on Rockcrawler events, car and truck suspensions, inventory supply and the fentanyl epidemic. Thank goodness for great friends and a wide network!

The hardest part of research is filtering the necessary information into the story without distracting or boring the reader.

Can you tell us about any other upcoming books, series, or writing plans?

This summer promises to be busy. In It For The Money releases in June and just went up for pre-sale. I love the cover Gwen developed for the story!

In July, the first book in the Christmas Tree Farm series releases. Keri Isles, Holly Price’s half-sister, ended up with the tree farm in her divorce settlement. Since I live on a Christmas tree farm, I’ve had a lot of fun with her misadventures.

On the writing front, I’m currently working on the second book in the Christmas Tree Farm series (fall 2018). The next book will link the two series as Keri and Holly join forces.

Do you have any advice to give to aspiring writers?

I have two pieces of advice—read and write.

A little simplistic, huh? Reading does several things. You become aware of market and genre expectations if you’re reading books similar to ones you’d like to write. You also expand your vocabulary (without those school drills, memorizing word lists) and absorb the basic rhythms of structure and conflict.

Writing? I listened to Steven King’s On Writing earlier this spring and his words scored a direct hit for me. He writes every day. When he goes to his writing space, he doesn’t come out until he’s written at least 1000 words. Some days, he’s done by noon; others, it’s dinnertime.

I’d been in a funk, not writing. Once I parked my butt in the chair and started writing, however, words started flowing again. Plot snags unraveled and the pure enjoyment of creating returned. I usually write first thing in the morning, and most days, I’ve written my thousand words by lunch.

Oh, one more tip—learn all you can about the craft of writing.

Now go have fun and write that story!

In It for the Money by Cathy Perkins

Holly Price traded her professional goals for personal plans when she agreed to leave her high-flying position with the Seattle Mergers and Acquisition team and take over the family accounting practice. Reunited with JC Dimitrak, her former fiancé, she’s already questioning whether she’s ready to flip her condo for marriage and a house in the ‘burbs.

When her cousin Tate needs investors for his innovative car suspension, Holly works her business matchmaking skills and connects him with a client. The Rockcrawler showcasing the new part crashes at its debut event, however, and the driver dies. Framed for the sabotage, Tate turns to Holly when the local cops—including JC—are ready to haul him to jail. Holly soon finds her cousin and client embroiled in multiple criminal schemes. She’s drawn into the investigation, a position that threatens her life, her family and her already shaky relationship with JC.