🍴 Sunday Brunch with Jaffareadstoo ~ Joanna Carns

On this quiet Sunday morning why don't you put the kettle on, make your favourite breakfast and settle down for Sunday Brunch with Jaffareadstoo

🍴I'm delighted to welcome, author, Joanna Carns to our Sunday Brunch today. What favourite food are you bringing to Sunday brunch? 

I would have said a heart-stopping cheesy egg and sausage casserole, but I decided to go vegan at the start of the year, so now it would have to be something regrettably boring like fruit salad. 

🍴Would you like a pot of English breakfast tea, a strong Americano, or a glass of Bucks Fizz? 

Coffee for sure. Can’t live without it and wouldn’t want to. 

🍴Where shall we eat brunch – around the kitchen table, in the formal dining room, or outside on the patio? 

Definitely outside on the patio, preferably in the shade, with a light breeze, and overlooking a lovely vista. 

🍴Shall we have music playing in the background? And if so will you share with us a favourite song or piece of music that makes you happy?

I love jazz music and the fabulous Nina Simone. 

🍴Which of your literary heroes (dead or alive) are joining us for Sunday Brunch today? 

Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen would be lovely, but I would also love to meet M.C. Beaton as her Agatha Raisin series is what started me on my cozy mystery journey. 

🍴Which favourite book will you bring to Sunday Brunch? 

Pride and Prejudice 

🍴When you are writing do you still find time to read for pleasure? And is there a book you would like to read but haven’t had time for …yet! 

Yes, I definitely still read for pleasure. In nonfiction, I have been reading books related to the Black Lives Matter movement and confronting white supremacy in America. So many people have recommended Caste by Isabel Wilkerson to me and it’s definitely on my to-read list. For fiction, I am looking forward to the Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman and The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton. 

🍴What’s the oldest book on your book shelf? 

I have a very old copy of Alice and Wonderland that I love. 

🍴Where do you find the inspiration for your novels? 

The basis for my current series is a lovely bit of earth called Burt Lake outside Indian River, MI. My friends and I spent several vacations there at one of my friend’s family’s cabin. It was just heavenly. And at the time, there was a local controversy about a big development coming in to put in a race track. It got me thinking about what if someone wanted the deal to go through enough to murder for it…and Whispering Lake was born. 

🍴Have you a favourite place to settle down to write and do you find it easier to write in winter or summer? 

I write whenever I can find the time. I have a very active toddler and so I have been mostly writing in five minute spurts whenever I can. 

🍴Give us four essential items that a writer absolutely needs? 

(1) Inspiration, (2) time, (3) self-confidence, and (4) a support system. For me, inspiration was never a problem. But as an adult with a full-time job and a toddler, there never seems to be enough time. And one of the biggest barriers to my own writing is simply to have the self-confidence to put something out in the world and say, there! I wrote that. And be satisfied with it. 

🍴What can you tell us about your latest novel or your current work in progress? 

Of course! My debut novel is called Death at Whispering Lake. Here is the teaser paragraph: Harley Kennedy has a serious case of the post-holiday blues: her love life is in the dumps, she lives downstairs to her overbearing mother, and her estranged uncle has recently died, leaving her to handle the estate in the Michigan hinterlands in the dead of January. The more she learns about her uncle’s death, the more suspicious she is that it’s related to an upcoming city council vote on a development deal. The only problem is the small-town policeman can’t be bothered to investigate. Harley has to find the answers herself, but her efforts are hindered by the arrival of her mother and the distraction of a certain handsome restaurant owner. As the time ticks down to the council vote, Harley has to rush to find her uncle’s killer - before the killer finds her. 

🍴Joanna, where can we follow you on social media? 🍴

Facebook page: @joannacarnscozymysteryauthor 

🍴More about Joanna🍴

I am a Buckeye transplant to the Pacific Northwest, meaning that I like small towns, apple pie, and verdant rainy days filled with the scent of pine trees. When I'm not writing, you can probably find me being chased by a toddler in a dinosaur costume who also sometimes moonlights as a pretend kitty. My husband and I also enjoy walks with our two dogs, Buckeye and Beau. 

Thank you for taking part in Sunday Brunch with Jaffareadstoo. 

Thank you!!

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