I just got an e-mail from Laura Childs with this very good news for all Cozy Mystery lovers. I sure hope that this is yet another sign that the Cozy Mystery Genre is getting the respect and recognition it deserves!
“PRESS RELEASE: March 22, 2010
Author Laura Childs hits
New York Times Bestseller List with
cozy mystery, The Teaberry Strangler!
With hard-boiled thrillers continually dominating the New York Times Bestseller List, how did Laura Childs manage to squeak on?
“I prayed, I promoted, I burned incense and chanted,” said Childs. “I gave up chocolate for Lent and did everything but offer up my first born.”
And why exactly is she so ecstatic?
“Because, according to my editor at Berkley Prime Crime, cozies generally do not make it to the New York Times Bestseller List,” says Childs. “That list tends to be reserved for the ‘big dogs,’ like Dan Brown, Stephen King, James Patterson, and Danielle Steel.”
Actually, all those authors are on the list right now. Right there along with Laura Childs. And Childs, a former “ad guy” and CEO of Mission Critical Marketing, must be doing something right, because this is her third cozy mystery in the past year to make it.
“I just try to write ‘em fast and good,” says Childs. “I try to create believable characters and fun dialogue, keep up a breakneck pace, and give my readers that proverbial dead body in the first chapter.”
How’s she going to celebrate her good fortune?
“Well, I’m way behind on my next book, Scones & Bones, so I have to scribble out at least another 75 pages. But then I’m going to have my husband take me out to a very elegant dinner.”
The Teaberry Strangler, Berkley Prime Crime, $24.95, March 3, 2010 release,
ISBN 978-0-425-23245-3
Laura Childs is the New York Times Bestselling Author of the Tea Shop Mysteries, Scrapbooking Mysteries, and Cackleberry Club Mysteries.”
Now, I ask you, isn’t that great!
Here are some fun Arizona facts: