After some thirty years writing everything from political
encyclopedias to software manuals, Liz Stauffer retired from corporate life to
write mysteries, travel, and play on the beach. Since that time, she has
traveled extensively throughout the United States and the world. Liz lives in
Hollywood, Florida, with her two dogs where she owns and manages a vacation
rental business. Her second Thursday Morning Breakfast Club mystery is with her
publisher and the third is in the works.
Hello, Liz. This
novel is a cozy mystery. Please
tell us about Thursday Morning
Breakfast Club.
Clare Ballard sports a new
bruise on her right cheek the day after a contentious town meeting, and the
ladies of the Thursday morning breakfast club suspect her husband Roger of abusing
her. But Clare wants to hear none of their suspicions and warns her friends to
be silent on the subject. That same day Hester Franklin, another Thursday
morning breakfast club lady, is called to rescue her grandson Patrick after
he’s arrested for transporting drugs. Proclaiming his innocence, Patrick
threatens that those who set him up will pay. Roger Ballard is high on his
list. But it’s when Lillie Mae Harris, the club’s leader, discovers the body of
the local drug dealer on the nearby hiking trail, that the community is
upended. Roger Ballard, the primary suspect, goes missing, and when his body
turns up in his own back yard, Clare Ballard confesses to his murder and is
arrested. No one believes she did it, but Clare insists she’s guilty and
refuses to talk to her lawyer, the police, or her family and friends. The
Thursday Morning breakfast club ladies vow to find out who she’s protecting and
why.
This is Charlie Warren’s, the town’s homegrown
policeman, first murder case, and he uses unconventional means to solve it.
Collaborating with the Thursday morning breakfast club ladies to draw out the
real criminal, he’s unaware of the potential danger that lurks when he invites
them to help with the investigation. Alice Portman, the matriarch of the
breakfast club, is struck down in her own yard and is sent to the hospital.
Then others in the small community start to disappear –one after the other. As
the ladies get closer to the truth, they get closer to the evil. In a rush
against time, they form a bizarre and perilous plan to capture the true
culprits before someone else is murdered.
Do you get your
ideas from real life experiences?
I have a vacation house in Pen
Mar, Maryland, a mountain village not unlike Mount Penn. And, there is a group
of ladies who have been having breakfast together on Thursday mornings for many
years. That’s the extent of anything real in the book. I did want to introduce
a place like Mount Penn (Pen Mar) to the world, since it really is special.
I love close-knit communities, and
I believe we’re moving away from them in our very busy modern lives.
Relationships in cyberspace have replaced relationships down the street. I’m
guilty of my own complaint. I, too, love having friends all over the world, and
Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter have given me far more pleasure than I ever
dreamed they would. But I miss the small town community I grew up in, and the
city based community where I raised my two sons. I wanted to revisit those
times, so I created a community where friends and family are of first
importance, and technology, although available, is still used infrequently and
inexpertly. I could do this partly because the area is rural, and in the
mountains, and the infrastructure for the technology is still formative.
Mount Penn is the best of all
communities. People still accept and enjoy and love each other, despite their
differences. In fact it’s often their
differences that make them so lovable. The Thursday morning ladies
automatically assume they have most things in common with each other, and they
do. I’d like my readers to feel a part
of this community when they read my book and maybe, yearn to visit it again,
when they finish the last page.
What kind of
research did you have to do for this novel?
Other than walking the trails,
exploring the mountains, and woods, and parks, and looking out my window, not
much for this book. However, I’m working on a historical novel about the area
when it was a grand resort, and I’m doing extensive research for this book.
Who is one of your
favorite characters in this story and what do you love about him or her?
Lillie Mae, a younger, feistier,
Miss Marple sort of character who is just like the small mountain hamlet of
Mount Penn that she lives in, is a favorite of mine. That said, I really love
all my characters. They’re so pure in many ways, and kind, and innocent, and in
my mind, adorable. But Lillie Mae, when she thinks her small mountain village
is threatened by murder and mayhem, becomes even more protective. She believes
her mission is to keep her tight knit community and its residents safe and
intact as the ever-encroaching world, out to disrupt their peaceful status quo,
closes in on them.
Maybe I like Lillie Mae so much is because we share some interests in common,
although we're more different than alike. Lillie Mae is a country lady through
and through, and I belong in a city. We both love to talk; we care about our
friends and family; and, we enjoy meeting new people. We are both outdoorsy,
and like hiking and walking. Lillie Mae would ride her bicycle as much as I do,
if the country roads were easier to navigate. I like the beach, but Lillie Mae
finds it hot and tedious and she has no interest in water. I am a vegetarian;
Lillie Mae eats meat. We both love to cook, just do it in very different ways.
That is so
interesting. Now it’s time to tell us something about the real you that we’ll
never forget.
Let
me think. While I can’t think of anything that is unforgettable, I do have some
quirks. For example, I’d rather drink beer than wine. When I’m out at a formal
event, I’ll ask for it in a fancy glass so I’ll look more elegant. One thing
I’m proud of is that I lift weights and can leg press 100 lbs. Not bad for
someone my age.
Wow! You have some
powerful legs. I wonder if Lillie Mae is that strong, too. Haha. Thank you for
this wonderful interview. I invite everyone to visit Liz Stauffer’s website, Facebook
page, and Twitter.
Thursday Morning Breakfast (and Murder) Club is available on
most e-book sites including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple.
