I’m proud to have author Patricia Deuson as my guest to introduce her new mystery novel, Superior Longing. Please join me in welcoming her.

*

Thanks for the invitation, Kathy! It’s a pretty exciting day for me, and I’m glad to be here. The first book of the Neva Moore series, SUPERIOR LONGING, sees the light of day – or since it’s an ebook – the light of a LCD screen, today, 9/15/11. I’m really happy to have this book published and hope readers will enjoy it. Here’s a brief idea of what happens during Neva’s first outing.

SUPERIOR LONGING is set during the frigid spring on the beautiful and harsh southern shore of Lake Superior. When Neva Moore’s uncle drowns and the details of his death twist and turn, her pursuit of the truth weaves through small town politics, smuggling, and superstition, to end where it all began, back in the family and another death on an icy lake.

As a first book must, Superior Longing introduces the ‘cast’ [which like any ongoing production has regulars and irregulars as well as a host of red shirts] First is Sierra Nevada Moore, known as Neva, who is administrator/accountant/instructor/renovator-in-residence at almost renovated Cooks Inn Cooking School which is scheduled to open shortly. Or will it? This is a question the book asks, and thankfully answers. Next is her boss, Linnea Addams, who doesn’t think it’s her job to make Neva’s job easy. So she never does. Then there is the cast of irregulars, and those red shirts who are surely goners. How and why they all fit together is the tale.

But the story is more than the story of Neva and Neva’s uncle, and a bunch of irregulars. It’s the story of how she comes to terms with his death by finding the justice he can never get for himself, justice for the dead. This is something Neva will carry with her into her next book, which I’m writing now, Collective Instinct, and any book I write about her. She will always be impelled by this sense of obligation. Fortunately for her and me, Neva finds dead people everywhere.

But outside of finding dead people all over the place, what does Neva do? Well, she teaches and she cooks and she has the social life she has time for, which is very little. She likes to cook and was born to do it. During the busy day, classes occupy her time, and meals are communal with the staff taking on the preparation in rotation, and there are rarely left-overs. At night the big kitchen is empty. When she doesn’t have other plans Neva will be back at her workstation making a simple dish for supper, maybe some zucchini and chickpea pancakes, accompanied by a crisp California rosé from one of the vineyards not too far away.

If you want to find out what happens when Neva talks chickpeas, pancakes and more, you find it on the Cooks Inn Blog. Of course, since she is a teacher, you might get a little learning on the side. While there will be few recipes in the books, when she feels like it, Neva blogs. She feels like blogging quite a bit too, although I don’t know where she finds the time.

Superior Longing, published by Echelon Press, is now available, and since it’s digital, will be until the end of time at Amazon.com as a Kindle ebook, at Smashwords, Omilit and as a Barnes & Noble Nook.

http://cooksinn.blogspot.com/

Superior Longing has a blog:

http://superiorlonging.blogspot.com/

and a Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Superior-Longing/130098057083303?sk=wall

As does the writer:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1229310389

who also twitters!

http://twitter.com/#!/pdeuson

Thanks again, Kathy!

*

Thanks, Patricia, for being here on your special day. I look forward to reading SUPERIOR LONGING. Readers, Patricia welcomes your questions and comments.