Food, Fiction, and Felines - Spotlight on Molly MacRae @MysteryMacRae #SpotlightSunday

 

Welcome to “Spotlight Sunday,” where each month a different Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen author steps into the spotlight to tell you more about themselves and their work. This month it’s my turn, so I thought I’d tell you about three recurring themes in my life—food, fiction, and felines. And there’s a giveaway! Keep reading for your chance to answer a question and win a cozy teacup and a stash of tea.

Molly with a cute, miniature cat

Like so many of my Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen mates, I began cooking with a cute, miniature baking set. Little cake pans, a pie plate, boxes of cake mix. I loved it! I branched out from pint-size cooking to full-scale recipes and pans when I was learning to read. Results were mixed (pint-size cooking pun). For instance, when you were six, did you know that confectioner’s sugar was powdered sugar and not a brand name like Domino Sugar? Turns out, substituting granulated sugar for powdered sugar doesn’t always work.

My writing career started in a pint-size way, too. My first short mystery story, “Francois Spagatini, L’Investigateur,” was an exciting adventure involving a red canoe, an escaped circus lion, and an air mattress. I wrote it in French class. Was the story any good? Not by my standards today, but it got an A so I guess the French was good enough. Most important, though, the story had a feline in it and I named the hero Spagatini because it sounded like spaghetti (my mom made awfully good spaghetti). Sadly, no copies of the story exist.

Multiple drafts of "The Marvelous Adventures of Belgravia the Bold and Her Wonderful and Furry Friend Wales the Cat"

My second short mystery story (illustrated!) (poorly!) was “The Marvelous Adventures of Belgravia the Bold and Her Wonderful and Furry Friend Wales the Cat.” In it, Belgravia and Wales the cat invite their prime (and only) suspect for tea (and also offer her whiskey). She declines both, saying she only drinks papaya juice.

I liked Belgravia and Wales and decided to put them in an illustrated cookbook. I only got as far as making a table of contents and writing out half a dozen recipes before realizing I’d better get my homework done.

Fast forward through years of working in various forms of food service, studying anthropology at the University of Illinois, British prehistory at Edinburgh University in Scotland, working in museums, getting married, having two lovely children who grew up to loving to cook, too, and I eventually got back to writing fiction. This time, though, I worked at it—writing and revising and revising again—like learning to cook, it took learning about the ingredients and how they work together.

For my efforts, I have a smorgasbord of stories to offer you. A collection of short stories, most of which were first published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, two stand-alone mysteries, six books in the Haunted Yarn Shop series, five in the Highland Bookshop Mystery series, and five books under my penname, Margaret Welch—two in the Secrets of Castleton Manor Library mystery series, two in the Museum of Mystery series, and one forthcoming in the Whistle Stop Café mystery series (other books in those three series are written by other authors).

What’s next on my plate? More cooking, more cats, and . . . new characters! I’m starting a new series for Kensington. Watch this space for information to come. Or, if you’d like to be among the first to know about exciting developments, drop me a line through my website and ask to sign up for my intermittent newsletter.

Now, for a chance to win this cozy tea mug and an assortment of tea in a cute pint-size bag, tell me this: What’s your favorite treat to eat with a warm beverage? Put your answer in a comment, include your email, and I’ll choose a winner at random on Wednesday around noon. Sorry, U.S. and Canada, only.  

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.