Who wanted Butch Oldham dead? The list was as long as your arm, but who actually killed him?
Butch Oldham didn’t have an honest bone in his body. So, the question wasn’t who wanted him dead. The question was, who didn’t. Mermaid Swimwear sales exec Holly Schlivnik finds colleague Queenie Levine standing over Mermaid CEO Butch Oldham’s bloody corpse nailed to a fabric cutting table with a big honkin’ pair of cutting shears plunged deep into his chest.
When the cops discover Queenie’s blood-soaked sweater, learn about her stormy relationship with the victim, and her public threats to make Butch pay for destroying Mermaid Swimwear by stealing it blind, Holly’s colleague shoots to the top of the suspect list. When Queenie is arrested, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to flesh out the real killer. But the trail has more twists and turns than a slinky, and nothing turns out the way Holly thinks it will as she tangles with a clever killer hellbent for revenge.
Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple but now calls sunny Southern California home. Like the protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry experiences in humorous mysteries.
She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect.
Avis: Welcome to another Your Next Favorite Author interview! Today’s guest is Susie Black, and I know many of you already know her from her fabulous Holly Swimsuit Series! I’m so glad to see so many books in your series now, and I’m delighted to talk with you about one of your latest releases! Your fans must be delighted, and new readers just finding you are in for quite a treat!
So, let’s get started! This isn’t your first time on YNFA, but still we have so many questions! Here’s our first one:
What are common traps for aspiring writers?
SUSIE: The art of writing is a skill as well as a craft with techniques that must be learned. Like anything else, writing well takes practice to become proficient. Most aspiring authors don’t take the time to learn how to craft a story properly.
Avis: I’ve heard that writing is like any kind of professional activity such as pro-baseball or pro-football, to use a sports metaphor! You need years of practice and coaching, and lots of training of that writing muscle to prepare for writing a publishable draft. 😊
That brings us to question number two!
Does a big ego help or hurt writers?
SUSIE: I come from the world of sales where to be successful you must learn that you are selling confidence in your ability to put the right product at the right time into the buyer’s store. In essence, you’re not selling a product, you’re selling yourself. So, if you don’t come across as someone who believes in themself, how do you expect anyone else to? I’ve discovered that writing and selling share a lot of commonalities.
In both you’re telling a story that has a beginning, middle, end, and most of all A POINT OF VIEW. In my opinion, if you don’t have a big ego and exude that “can do confidence,” your writing is going to show it and fall flat with no emotion and the reader will not respond to a story that has all the excitement of reading the New York telephone book.
Avis: Just a moment, everyone, I’m taking notes! Exude confidence, got it! It’s easier said than done for many of us, but your words are so inspiring and true! This is something I’m constantly working on. Thanks!
On to our next question.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
SUSIE: I have two: Overusing certain words. Using cliches that can make the stories unintentionally dated.
Avis: I have so many echoes in my early drafts! I don’t even see them! Thank heavens for my critique groups!
Ready for our last question?
If you could tell your younger writing-self anything, what would it be?
SUSIE: Believe in yourself, trust your gut, keep writing no matter what, never let anyone step on your dreams, and most of all, don’t be afraid to fail. You will learn more from your failures than you ever will from your successes.
Avis: I love your response to this question! As hard as it is to hear, it is the failures that teach us the most!
That’s our last question everyone, and thanks for joining us for YNFA’s interview with Susie Black! For more information on Susie please see her social links below, and please scroll down for a review of Death by Cutting Table!
Contact Susie at:
Website: www.authorsusieblack.com
E-mail: mysteries_@authorsusieblack.com
Review by Avis M. Adams
Susie Black fans rejoice! Another addition to the Holly Swimsuit Mystery, Death by Cutting Table, is coming soon. This one stars our favorite sleuth, Holly Schlivnik, of course, and she has burst out laughing on the second page because, yes you guessed it, someone’s been murdered!
This time it is Mermaid Swimwear CEO Butch Oldham, and whoever killed him took the time to pin him like a butterfly from his coveted collection to the cutting table where Queenie Levine found him with cutting shears protruding from his chest.
Queenie becomes the prime suspect in the murder, and Holly begins her quest to find the true murderer because there is no way, no how that her best friend murdered their boss, even if she was his spurned lover.
But who done it? Kelly, his soon to be ex-wife, whose short marriage to the fashion mogul will leave her penniless because of the prenup agreement? Or was it David, the demoted CEO, who lost his job to Butch, or Dick Green’s wife Mariana who hated Butch for putting her husband in prison?
With a cast of characters rich in murderous potential, Holly begins her search, much to the chagrin of Detective Josiah Jones, who needs someone tampering with his crime scene like he needs another murder to solve.
Holly enlists her best friend and Assistant Medical Examiner, Sophia Cutler, MD, also known as Snip. Both women know Jones will go ballistic if he catches them working on the case, but Holly insists, and Snip cannot resist helping her friend or aiding in proving Queenie’s innocence.
When Holly finds herself in car trouble, then houseboat trouble, and not the kind that happens because something wears out but the kind meant to hurt her, she knows she’s on the right track. Soon threatening notes begin to arrive, but nothing can dissuade our hero. However, when the killer decides to get up close and personal, can Holly save her own neck, let alone Queenie’s?
This fast-paced summer read will delight Susie Black fans, cozy mystery lovers, and readers looking for a hilarious romp through LA and the swimsuit industry. Susie Black has done it again with another fabulously entertaining five-star cozy!
Avis M. Adams 