Cozy Wednesday with Author Kari Lee Townsend (Giveaway too!)

Welcome to Cozy Wednesday!

I love it when Kari drop by for a visit!!

I just learned Trouble in the Tarot has made the Bestseller Lists!
Congratulations Kari!!

Immortalizing Characters

The characters in a series really do make the series. Choosing the perfect ones can be hard. We want them to be three-dimensional and seem like real people. I am always studying people and filing away bits of description, dialogue, habits and quirks. I truly love to people watch, so if you meet me, be careful…some aspect of you just might wind up in my book:) Sometimes we create our characters from people we see on TV or in the newspaper or on our favorite shows and movies. Sometimes they are a combination of character types. And sometimes they are based on real-life people we know.

In book two, Corpse in the Crystal Ball, I introduced a character named Granny Gert. Granny is actually based on my real-life grandmother Gertrude who passed away years ago. She had the same white hair from having scarlet fever at the age of sixteen. She wore the same aprons and baked cookies, storing them in her orange pumpkin cookie jar with the tin foil plate covered lid. And she was as sweet as can be. I admit her personality sometimes is more like my mother Marion: a bit over the top and totally hilarious. My mother is the one who will try any new fad like Granny does in book three, Trouble in the Tarot, in her quest to improve herself.

Yes…I take after my mother 🙂

I think it’s so amazing as an author to be able to immortalize the ones we love through our characters. It’s so much fun revisiting them and having a blast trying to figure out what my grandma would do in this or that situation. It brings back so many fond memories. In fact, my husband has a Grandma Tootsie who is 98 years young, still lives alone, is as sharp as a tack and has so many cute quirks that she would make a perfect new character in book 4, Peril in the Palm. I am going to have her show up at the Inn and become Granny Gert’s new friend 🙂

So tell me, what other types of characters would you like to see introduced in more of my Fortune Teller Books? Do you have any fun family or friend characters you’d love to see or just a certain “type” of person you love to see in your favorite cozies? Inquiring minds would love to know! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this third installment. Be sure to let me know what you think, and if you have a chance, post a review on Amazon, Goodreads, B&N or wherever. It helps readers to know what other people think. Thanks so much for having me, and good luck on winning the giveaway.

~Kari

You are welcome anytime Kari, the blog is always open!!

About This Author

Kari Lee Townsend lives in central New York with her understanding husband, her three busy boys, and her oh-so-dramatic daughter 🙂 She is the National Bestselling Author, Agatha & RT Reviewer’s Choice Award nominee for her Fortune Teller Mystery series. Kari also writes romance under the name Kari Lee Harmon. Small towns, mystical elements, quirky characters and a few chuckles along the way are what her books are all about. To find out more about Kari and all of her books, check out her websites at: www.karileetownsend.com & www.karileeharmon.com

 

Trouble in the Tarot
(A Fortune Teller Mystery)
3rd in Series
Cozy Mystery
A Berkley Prime Mystery (March 5, 2013)
The Berkley Publishing Company
Published by The Penguin Group
Cover Illustration by Lisa French
Cover Design by Leslie Worrell
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0425251973
E-Book File Size: 482 KB
ASIN: B0099CWK0I

For psychic Sunshine Meadows, sometimes fortunes can be deceiving . . .

Sunny agrees to read tarot cards at the annual Summer Solstice Carnival and that’s where she meets Fiona Atwater. Fiona and Granny Gert are bitter enemies and whenever they get near each other a war of words breaks out. When a local baker get run over by a big white Cadillac that just happens to belong to Granny and both she and Fiona are at the crime scene they must cast their differences aside as they find themselves in very close quarters.

Sunny knows she should keep her nose of the investigation and let Mitch handle it but she can’t ignore her visions and leave Granny’s life in fate’s hands.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Each installment to this series is better than the last and the first two were excellent.

In this 3rd Fortune Teller Mystery, Sunny’s cat Morty just steals the show. He is a fantastic feline with very special capabilities that put him in the right place at the right time always looking very fine in his bow ties.

The ongoing feud between Granny and Fiona drives the story. They each try hard to outdo each other is everything from crafts to baking. They are both determined to win the Bake Off at the carnival but a dead body puts the kibosh on both their plans and brings Sunny’s parents for another visit. 

Plus Quincy Turner from the Parks and Recreation Department is not happy that the proceeds from this year’s carnival are not coming to him but instead going to Ozzie Zukerman’s Animal Angels to support his new animal rescue shelter. This creates a riff between this men that boils over to effect things way beyond the local park.

Townsend has created more than one clever mystery with a “murder” and someone sabotaging the carnival. She has also added some colorful new characters and the romance between “Tink” and “Grumpy Pants” hits a few bumps in the road. 

I started this story and could not put it down until I reached the last word. Kari Lee Townsend writes fun mysteries with a feisty psychic protagonist that are destined to be loved cozy readers everywhere! You don’t need to be clairvoyant to see a bright future for this author!

Thanks to the people at Penguin
I have 2 copies to giveaway!!

U.S. and CANADIAN RESIDENTS

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Contest Will End March 27, 2013 at 11:59 PM CST
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and Will Be Posted Here In The Sidebar.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”