This week's cozy mystery author in residence in our Cozy Mystery Book Explorer Facebook group is Hillary Avis.

Hillary will be taking over the group from Friday 11th January until Friday 18th January, when we'll be joined by a new cozy mystery author in residence. This is a brilliant opportunity for cozy mystery fans to get up close and personal with the author and to ask them any questions you like, about the characters, series, life as an author, and inspiration behind the books, so please don't be shy. ​

Hi! 
I write cozy culinary mysteries and I’m so pleased to be the guest author this week.

A little about me—I live in Eugene, Oregon, with my husband and two daughters, ages almost-13 and just-turned-6. You can imagine the noise levels...especially when you add in two dogs, two cats, and five chickens that just started laying (OMG the egg songs they sing). The fish doesn’t make much noise, luckily.

Oh, and we just signed an adoption contract for a 95-pound Great Pyrenees rescue dog. You know, because we don’t have enough going on.

I’ve been a reader and a writer as long as I can remember. My childhood was full of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie (and some Narnia and dragon books, too), so I guess I’ve always liked books full of sprawling old mansions with secret rooms and rusty keys that open hidden doors and plucky women who go down into the basement to investigate the strange noise.

In the past, I’ve written historical and fantasy novels, but they’ve never seen the light of day. It wasn’t until I tried my hand at a mystery that I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I started publishing cozy mysteries last spring and I haven’t looked back—once I discovered the genre, it was like everything clicked and I knew what I wanted to BE. It only took me until I turned 40, ha ha. Well, my mom always said our family was full of late bloomers. The real joke here is that my former job was as a career counselor.

Let me tell you a bit about my books. I have two series right now, the Neela Durante farm mysteries and the Death du Jour culinary mysteries.

Neela is the character that I’ll always love the most, because she’s the sleuth who showed me I am a mystery writer at heart. I also drew from my personal experience to write her; I earned my undergraduate degree in biology, and Neela is an geneticist who works for a big corporate seed company. Not the typical cozy profession! But she uses her paycheck to support her family’s small organic farm, including her four sisters. Of course, things aren’t very easy for her in the first book, Kernel of Doubt…her colleague is murdered, her sleuthing jeopardizes her job right when her family needs the money the most, her husband files for divorce, and her sweet beagle, Molly, refuses to use the dog door! Luckily, Neela has some allies to help her solve her many problems, including the quirky tech guy at work and her soon-to-be-ex husband who happens to work in law enforcement, as well as her own PhD-level smarts.

I’ve only written one book in that series so far, but I’m looking forward to writing another one this spring/summer! I already have a story idea and a cover, so it’s definitely going to happen.

The Death du Jour mysteries are a culinary series that follows an aspiring chef as she works toward owning her own restaurant. Her quirky friends are also in the restaurant industry—her best friend and roommate is a sous chef at a French restaurant, and another character runs a bakery called the Honor Roll. “On a roll,” get it? I do love puns. The book titles in this series are all puns based around types of soup…and let me tell you, I have a LOOONG list of punny soups stashed away. I could write this series for YEARS and never run out of titles. #authorproblems

Book 2 in the Death du Jour series, Rest in Split Peas, actually released today!

(If you’d like a taste of soup and suspense by the sea, along with some yummy soup recipes, you can grab it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KYDQ4NG)

To celebrate, Crime Chowder (A Death du Jour Mystery #1) is FREEEEEE today and tomorrow! 
https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Chowder-Death-Jou…/…/B07K4VPLPM
​
So…if you've made it to the bottom of this encyclopedia entry, any questions about what it’s like writing culinary or farm mysteries? Or maybe you have advice about how to introduce a giant dog named Bruno to a houseful of sassy small pets?

As part of our 'New Year, New You' cozy mystery collection, I thought I would share some gluten free and nutritionally rich cozy mysteries to help you along with those New year's resolutions!

Christmas would not be complete without a selection of nuts for the nibbling. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire and all that. So here we go with a nutty selection of cozy mystery books, just perfect for the festive season. 

​If you love audiobooks and Whispersync, you can often get the heavily discounted audiobook format, once you already own the Kindle book, so look out for the prompt at the Amazon checkout if you want both versions.

More festive feel books for our Christmas cozy mystery collection, just in case you need more books to read. Counting down to the holidays!!

​Download the free Kindle app: US  UK  CA  DE  AU  IT  IN  FR  ES  NL  MX  JA
Treat yourself to a Kindle, this is the one that I have.   

​If you love audiobooks and Whispersync, you can often get the heavily discounted audiobook format, once you already own the Kindle book, so look out for the prompt at the Amazon checkout if you want both versions.

It wouldn't be a proper Christmas without some mulled wine and mince pies, so we just have to add these cozy mystery books to our Christmas collection!

Christmas would simply not be complete without Christmas Pudding of some sort - figgy pudding, plum pudding, or something more traditional and a dash of brandy sauce! So it seems only right to include some Christmas pudding themed cozy mysteries in our Christmas collection.    

​If you love audiobooks or use the Whispersync for Kindle facility, then you can often download the audiobook versions of the free books for a huge discount once you have the Kindle book, even when you get the Kindle book for free. Below are the audiobook versions of this week's free Kindle books. Amazon will generally ask you if you want to add the audiobook version once you get to the checkout. 

As part of this month's Cozy Mystery Christmas Collection, we'll be exploring cozies with an eggnog theme today. Sadly not much of a tradition here in the UK, but I know it's very popular in Canada and the USA as well as in Trinidad and Venezuela. According to Wikipedia, Eggnog probably derived from a Medieval Britain drink known as 'posset' that was made from milk curdled with wine or ale and flavoured with spices. Sometimes other things were also added, like egg whites, and ambergris - whale vomit!! Lovely!! However you celebrate Christmas, I hope that your eggnog is a delicious one!  

What better way to celebrate National Gingerbread Cookie day, than with a cozy mystery book or two! Here is just a small collection of books and audiobooks for you, but if you want to see more cozy mysteries on offer, check out the Gingerbread Cookie Day Cozy Mystery Book board on Pinterest. If you love free cozy mystery books then check out the Thanksgiving collection here and the free books collection here.  

If you love audiobooks and Whispersync, then you can often add the audio version of the book for a hugely discounted price when you buy the Kindle book first. Usually around £2.99 instead of £20 or more. You can also get the book for free as part of an Audible subscription or 30 day free trial, so it's worth checking those out if you love audiobooks. 

To celebrate my birthday and the launch of Isla Britannica Books this weekend, there will be 100 limited edition, signed copies of my first book 'Dead on Doughnuts' available to order between now and midnight PDT on the 1st December. This book was previously published on Amazon but is being relaunched after some re-writing, editing, and a brand new cover which will be finished in December. It has done very well on Amazon previously, gaining mainly 4-5 stars, especially considering it was my first book and I couldn't afford an editor.  So now it will be relaunched on the 1st February 2019, but 100 copies will be shipped worldwide in early January as soon as the first copies come back from the printer for folks who wish to keep these as special collector's editions.

Each book will be signed by myself, numbered from 1-100 on a first come, first served basis, and I won't be signing any more copies of 'Dead on Doughnuts' after this, so it really will be a limited edition just for collectors. There are 50 copies of the paperback available (£15 or local currency), 50 copies of the hardcover version available (£25 or local currency), and 50 copies of the book box containing both  the  paperback and hardcover together (£35 or local currency). 

The price includes shipping worldwide, and the book will be available as a paperback, hardcover, or book box bundle.  Books can be signed to individuals, along with a message if required.  

NB. THE COVER DESIGN IS JUST A PLACEHOLDER AS A NEW COVER IS BEING DESIGNED RIGHT NOW!!

All of the books you might want in your collection for National Pickle Day (14th November). Follow the Pickle themed Cozy Mystery Book board on Pinterest here for even more suggestions!