❤Author Interview: Mike Martin, Author of 'A Change in Plans' #authorinterview

 

Mike Martin was born in St. John’s, NL on the east coast of Canada and now lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a long-time freelance writer and his articles and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online across Canada as well as in the United States and New Zealand.

He is the award-winning author of the best-selling Sgt. Windflower Mystery series, set in beautiful Grand Bank. There are now 17 books in this light mystery series with the publication of A Change in Plans. 

A Tangled Web was shortlisted in 2017 for the best light mystery of the year, and Darkest Before the Dawn won the 2019 Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award. All That Glitters was shortlisted for the LOLA 2024 Must Read Book of the year award.

Some Sgt. Windflower Mysteries are now available as audiobooks and the latest Darkest Before the Dawn was released as an audiobook in 2024. All audiobooks are available from Audible in Canada and around the world.

Mike is Past Chair of the Board of Crime Writers of Canada, a national organization promoting Canadian crime and mystery writers and a member of the Newfoundland Writers’ Guild and Capital Crime Writers.

Visit Mike’s website at https://sgtwindflowermysteries.com. 

Connect with him on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWalkerOnTheCapeReviewsAndMore 

╰┈➤ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mike54martin 

I am so excited about your new book, A Change in Plans. Why did you choose this particular story to write?

A Change in Plans is the 17^th book in the Sgt. Windflower Mystery series, so it is a continuation of the adventures of Windflower and the gang. But it is also a story about choice and how the ones we make can have so much impact on ourselves and others.

Can you give us a book blurb so others will know what it’s about?

RCMP officer Winston Windflower’s rare afternoon off gets interrupted when a hit and run turns into murder and he must pull together a team of Mounties from Newfoundland to resolve the crime. Following the money and fentanyl— and bodies—Windflower and his team join forces with police officers in southern Ontario to take down an international drug-smuggling ring.

Windflower must face personal doubts and fears when fellow Mountie Fil Romano is kidnapped. While the higher-ups at HQ make plans to give safe passage to the drug lords in return for Romano’s life, Windflower worries Romano will get caught in the crossfire. Windflower again looks to his friends and allies for help in the difficult hours and days ahead. 

Can you tell us a little about the main characters in your book?

 

Sgt. Winston Windflower is a police officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Mounties. He is also a Cree from Northern Alberta who gets stationed in the small town of Grand Bank where he falls in love with the place. His wife is Sheila who is the former Mayor of the town and he has two great friends, Eddie Tizzard, a fellow Mountie and Herb Stoodley, a former Crown Attorney

Where and when does this book take place?

A Change in Plans is set in Grand Bank, Newfoundland, on the easternmost tip of Canada. It is small, fairly isolated with a history of rum running during prohibition and the love of smuggling runs deep. It is the perfect location for a series of mysterious crimes and adventures.

They say all books of fiction have at least one pivotal point where the reader just can’t put the book down. What is one of the pivotal points in one of your books in this series?

There’s a lot of action in the book, but the climax may be when the parties involved arrive at a small airport in the relative middle of nowhere with a police officer taken as hostage.

Does your book carry a message?

Probably to keep your friends close and your enemies closer

What's your next project?

Book 18 in the Sgt. Windflower Mystery series is in the works and will be released in 2027.

Where can we pick up copies of 'A Change in Plans'?

 A Change in Plans is available from Amazon, all over the world.

Is there anything you'd like to tell your readers and fans?

Thank you for your on-going support. Without readers, there would be no writers.

Book Trailer Feature: Fighter Pilot's Daughter by Mary Lawlor #booktrailer

 

Fighter Pilot’s Daughter: Growing Up in the Sixties and the Cold War tells the story of Mary Lawlor’s dramatic, roving life as a warrior’s child. A family biography and a young woman’s vision of the Cold War, Fighter Pilot’s Daughter narrates the more than many transfers the family made from Miami to California to Germany as the Cold War demanded. Each chapter describes the workings of this traveling household in a different place and time. The book’s climax takes us to Paris in May ’68, where Mary—until recently a dutiful military daughter—has joined the legendary student demonstrations against among other things, the Vietnam War. Meanwhile her father is flying missions out of Saigon for that very same war. Though they are on opposite sides of the political divide, a surprising reconciliation comes years later.

⤷Read sample here.

⤷Fighter Pilot’s Daughter is available at Amazon.

╰┈➤Book Details

• Genre: Memoir
• Sub-genre: Women in History / Military Leaders Biography
• Language:English
• Pages: 323
• Paperback ISBN: 978-1442222007
• Kindle ISBN: 978-1442222014
• Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield
• Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook

╰┈➤Here’s What Readers Have To Say!

“Mary Lawlor’s memoir, Fighter Pilot’s Daughter: Growing Up in the Sixties and the Cold War, is terrifically written. The experience of living in a military family is beautifully brought to life. This memoir shows the pressures on families in the sixties, the fears of the Cold War, and also the love that families had that helped them get through those times, with many ups and downs. It’s a story that all of us who are old enough can relate to, whether we were involved or not. The book is so well written. Mary Lawlor shares a story that needs to be written, and she tells it very well.” ―The Jordan Rich Show

“Mary Lawlor, in her brilliantly realized memoir, articulates what accountants would call a soft cost, the cost that dependents of career military personnel pay, which is the feeling of never belonging to the specific piece of real estate called home. . . . [T]he real story is Lawlor and her father, who is ensconced despite their ongoing conflict in Lawlor’s pantheon of Catholic saints and Irish presidents, a perfect metaphor for coming of age at a time when rebelling was all about rebelling against the paternalistic society of Cold War America.” ―Stars and Stripes

 

Mary Lawlor is author of a memoir, Fighter Pilot’s Daughter: Growing Up in the Sixties and the Cold War (Bloomsbury 2015) and two books of cultural criticism, Recalling the Wild: Naturalism and the Closing of the American West (Rutgers UP 2000) and Public Native America (Rutgers UP 2006). She studied at the American University in Paris, the University of Maryland, and New York University. She divides her time between Easton, Pennsylvania and Gaucin, Spain. Her novel, The Translators, is set in 12th century Spain and fictionalizes the experiences of Robert of Ketton, first translator of the Koran into Latin. She hopes to see it out next year. In the meantime, she has started a second novel, The Women’s Hospital, set in 18th century Spain and inspired by the life story of an Irish woman whose family moved to Cádiz, escaping English oppression in their own country.

╰┈➤ You can visit her website at https://www.marylawlor.net/.

Connect with her on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mary.lawlor.186/ 

❤Author Interview: Marie McGaha, Author of 'Your Ghost: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Echoes That Remain' #authorinterview

Marie McGaha is an award-winning writer whose work includes clean historical romances, Christian devotionals, and heartfelt children’s books. A storyteller at her core, she weaves faith, resilience, and gentle humor through every page she writes.

She makes her home in southeast Oklahoma, in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains, where life is anything but quiet. Her days are shared with four spoiled dogs, a crippled rooster with more attitude than feathers, a noisy guinea who believes it runs the place, a couple of flighty hens, and a watchful roo who keeps an eye on everything that moves. This lively little farm—equal parts sanctuary and circus—provides endless inspiration, companionship, and the kind of grounding only God’s creation can offer.

Whether she’s crafting a tender love story, guiding readers through Scripture, or bringing the Bible to life for children through animal characters, Marie writes with a voice shaped by faith, loss, healing, and the stubborn hope that refuses to let go. Her work reflects the heart of a woman who has walked through fire and come out carrying stories worth telling.

You can also join her for daily devotionals on YouTube at @HeReignsChurch, where she shares encouragement, Scripture, and the steady reminder that hope is still alive. You can contact her by email: church.hereigns@gmail.com. 

Marie’s latest book is Your Ghost: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Echoes That Remain.

Visit her blog at authormariemcgaha.blogspot.com. 

Connect with her on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorMarieMcGaha

╰┈➤ LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/mariemcgaha 

Can you tell us about your creative process for writing your new book  Your Ghost: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Echoes That Remain? How did you come up with the idea to turn it into a book? 

My husband died in November 2021 and my world came apart. Over the weeks, months, and years I began writing down all the things I felt and what I was going through. The result was 600 pages of pain, grief, anger, prayers and pure insanity. I began reading it, then editing it, and a book was born.

Which specific chapter or scene was the hardest for you to write, and why? 

 

All of it. I bawled while reading it, while editing it, through the whole process it was reliving the love of my life’s death. Some days I could only work on a couple of pages, and other days, I couldn’t even look at it.

What is the primary emotional truth you want readers to take away?

Losing your spouse, your life partner, the one who made the world make sense is the hardest thing we can go through and even when it feels like you’re not going to survive, you will. One day, one moment, one breath at a time.

 

How has completing this book changed you as a writer or a person?

The book didn’t change me, losing my husband did. The book is just an extension of grief that I hope will help someone else.

 

 

 

How did you decide what secrets or details were too private to share with the world? 

When you’re a writer, there really are no secrets. Even in fiction, you still bare a part of yourself in your work. In this book, I laid my soul bare and hid nothing. It’s raw, it’s personal, and it’s honest.

 

 

Were there any memories you recalled during the writing process that you had completely repressed?

All of it. I bawled through the entire process. It also brought to mind the love we had, the things we shared—like watching a movie of the past 30 years. The pain is still raw and I miss him so much.

 

 

What do you hope readers who are currently trapped in a similar struggle take away from your survival? 

 

Loss is not linear, grief is not linear. It is jumbled, it is up and down, sideways, pear shaped, and can turn you inside out. The stages of grief slam into you one day, pull back on other days, hits you one at a time, or they roll over you all at once and you are at their mercy. There is no pattern in grief. No way to tell someone how to get through it, how to survive it—you just roll with it and try to keep breathing and try to not completely lose yourself. Grief has no middle or ending, it is something you learn to co-exist with. And I hope, if nothing else, readers will at least know they aren’t alone and they aren’t crazy. 

 

Where can we pick up copies of 'Your Ghost: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Echoes That Remain'?

Readers can find Your Ghost: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Echoes That Remain here:

• Amazon: https://a.co/d/0ioxQy4s 

❤Author Interview: Tucker May, Author of 'The Lemon House Murders' #authorinterview

 

 

Tucker May is a writer of mystery novels, whodunit short stories and all kinds of fun, puzzling tales. Murders, crimes, and mysteries abound. He grew up in Missouri then attended Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He’s a diehard fan of the Los Angeles Rams and Geelong Cats. He lives in Pasadena, CA with his wife Barbara and their cat Principal Spittle. He is the author of The Lemon House Murders and Death of a Billionaire. 

╰┈➤ Visit Tucker’s website at www.tuckermay.com. 

Connect with him on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Tucker-May-Mysteries 

╰┈➤ Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/TuckerMayMysteries 

╰┈➤ BlueSky: http://www.bluesky.com/TuckerMayMysteries

╰┈➤ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/58926295.Tucker_May 

I am so excited about your new murder mystery, The Lemon House Murders. Why did you choose this particular story to write?

I like to build stories around a central idea that I think is worth exploring deeply. The Lemon House Murders was born when I noticed how much of our popular media emphasizes the importance of family. We hear it so much that it almost doesn't register any longer: family is everything, blood is thicker than water. We're constantly told that familial relationships are some of the most important ingredients of a happy life. It made me begin to wonder if there might be a downside to this pervasive messaging. What about the people who have no family? How are they meant to feel about all of this? Even more broadly, I wondered if it's healthy to put anything, even something as supposedly good as family, up on a pedestal in that way? This led me toward the topic of addiction, something that I have personal experience with, and I crafted The Lemon House Murders to explore our society's addiction to family and how that might potentially damage a young man's life.

Can you give us a book blurb so others will know what it’s about?

 

A string of mysterious deaths . . . A house full of suspects . . . A secret that will change everything . . .

When residents of a live-in drug rehabilitation facility called Lemon House start dying one by one, no one in the outside world seems to care.

Two Lemon House patients, nicknamed Trip and Gobstopper, are the only ones who can see the truth: these are murders.

Their quest to find the killer will push their budding relationship to the brink, cast suspicion on everyone locked in the house with them, and force them to question their most cherished beliefs.

The Lemon House Murders is the rare murder mystery that will have you guessing at the culprit AND thinking deeply about theology, society’s relationship toward the downtrodden, and the importance of self-determination to a fulfilling life.

Can you tell us a little about the main characters in your book?

At the center of The Lemon House Murders is Francis (nicknamed Trip), a 19-year-old young man who has spent his whole life in a highly sheltered religious environment. A dramatic incident involving his parents gets him shipped off to a drug rehab facility, where new experiences challenge everything he once thought he knew.

While at Lemon House, Trip meets another resident called Gobstopper, a sensitive young man with an artist's soul and a passion for drawing. He and Trip explore their unfolding relationship while also attempting to solve the string of deaths that plagues the house. Will their friendship turn into something more? Will they find the truth behind the deaths? Or will their attempts to solve the mystery ultimately tear them apart?

Where and when does this book take place?

The story is set in 2006 at a live-in drug rehabilitation center in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles. The setting is based directly on a rehab center that I personally spent time in back in 2022 to receive treatment for alcoholism. While the story is fully fictional, the setting is not. Almost all the details about Lemon House shared in this book come from my own personal experience.

They say all books of fiction have at least one pivotal point where the reader just can’t put the book down. What is one of the pivotal points in one of your books in this series?

I would hope that moment comes right away! I put a lot of effort into engaging readers right from the get-go. A later moment that I hope reels people in further is the death of a character who is working hard to turn his life around. It forces our protagonist, Trip, to question his own life path for the first time and spurs the investigation into these mysterious deaths that no one in the outside world seems to care about.

Does your book carry a message?

Absolutely! I hope that The Lemon House Murders encourages readers to think differently about addiction, which is a simple miswiring of feedback mechanisms that are baked into each and every one of our brains. Addiction is not a personal or a moral failure on the part of the struggling individual. The people who suffer from addiction are just as engaging, multi-faceted, and full of promise as anyone else. This story, I believe, can help others recognize these facts. Recovering addicts have much to offer the world and when we write them off as a lost cause, we're hurting them, ourselves, and our society as a whole. 

What's your next project?

I am currently drafting my third novel, The Last Dead Guy in Hell. It's a missing person mystery that explores whether a person can lead a fulfilling and significant life even if they lack the "hustle gene" or the all-encompassing ambition that modern American society promotes to the detriment of our collective mental health. Anyone interested in updates on that work can follow me on social media at the links below or sign up for email updates on www.tuckermay.com. 

Instagram

BlueSky

Facebook

Where can we pick up copies of 'The Lemon House Murders'?

 

Click below for my books on Amazon!

Death of a Billionaire

The Lemon House Murders

Is there anything you’d like to tell your readers and fans?

Thank you so much for supporting indie authors -- and remember that leaving reviews online for independently published books is SOO important. Those reviews are like gold. Keep supporting independent art!