Cozy Wednesday with Terrie Farley Moran – Author of Well Read, Then Dead (Giveaway too!)

Welcome To Cozy Wednesday!

I am excited to welcome Terrie Farley Moran here today!

She is touring with Great Escapes Book Tours too.
The tour wraps up tomorrow so you still have time to check out all of the stops!!

Get Cozy on Fort Myers Beach

When I think about escaping to a warm place filled with sunshine to set up a chair and umbrella, Fort Myers Beach, Florida is the first place that comes to mind. Today it is a modern town set primarily on Estero Island which is about seven or eight miles long and probably not much more than a mile wide at its widest point. It sits on the Gulf of Mexico coast of south Florida and is one of the most delightful beach communities in the world. From the northern tip at Bowditch Point Park, to the wonderfully named Lovers Key, the west coast of the island is pure, pristine beach front. And you have to love a town that requires that any lights that may disturb the turtles during Sea Turtle season must be turned off or covered all night from May to October, so as not to discourage the baby turtles from finding their way into the Gulf.

And like every community, Fort Myers Beach has a charming, adventuresome history. According to the http://www.fortmyersbeachfl.gov/  town website, the history “spans back over 2,000 years when the Calusa Indians constructed shell mounds along the bayside of our island. As the ruling chiefdom in south Florida, the Calusa resisted Spanish colonization including attempts by the conquistador Ponce de León in 1513 and 1521 (during the latter encounter he was mortally wounded by the Calusa). The Calusa met their demise almost 150 years later due to increasing hostilities, disease, and political and economic upheaval.

From the late seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century the political landscape of southwest Florida was dynamic as the territory changed hands between British and Spanish control. Between times of turmoil, Cuban fishermen established small seasonal fishing villages known as Ranchos throughout southwest Florida, including Estero Island. By the mid to late 1700s, active trade was established between the Ranchos, Cuba, and Creek Indians who displaced the remaining Calusa. As Florida eventually became the 27th state in 1845, many of these families stayed and blended with the new American population.”

It is a vibrant history of a stunning locale. On the island, the oldest structure is the Mound House, built on top of a Calusa Shell Mound that is about two thousand years old. A more modern area is the local “Times Square.” Created around a fifteen foot high square clock, Times Square is a great place for ice cream or snacking or a little touristy shopping.  Is it any wonder that I decided that Fort Myers Beach lends itself as a setting for fiction?

And since we cozy readers love to have our books around us and snacks available for noshing while we read, what better imaginary place could I decide to put in Fort Myers Beach than the Read ’Em and Eat Café? Picture a light and airy café where book clubs meet. The café tables are all named for writers, and the tops of the tables are laminated over snippets of their work. Can you imagine the fun of sitting at Doctor Seuss, or taking the poetic step back into time when you sit at Emily Dickinson? Hungry? How about a Swiss Family Robinson Cheeseburger? Too much food? You want a snack instead? Try some Miss Marple Scones. And don’t forget to have a glass of sweet tea. Refills are free.

My recently released cozy novel, titled Well Read, Then Dead  is set in that very homey café on the main street, Estero Boulevard, of the coziest island imaginable. The café owners are two young women, Sassy Cabot and Bridgy Mayfield, former Brooklyn girls who have been Besties since elementary school. They combined their fortunes and their futures to operate the Read’Em and Eat. Their book club members are an eclectic group, including a newly retired judge, a shop keeper, a pastor’s wife, a teenager along with her yoga instructor mom and two cousins whose family has been in the islands for generations. Unfortunately the café chef breaks his leg and Bridgy’s Aunt Ophelia, she of the impossibly high heels and cinched waist belts, spins through the café door ready to help. Before she can bake so much as one buttermilk pie, a sweet and much beloved book club member is murdered, and well, the chase is on.

The peace and tranquility of the Read ’Em and Eat is shattered but Sassy and Bridgy are determined to put it back together. Sassy is not above using her friendship with local newspaper reporter Cady Stanton or her antagonistic but flirtatious relationship with Lieutenant Frank Anthony to find out anything she thinks will help identify the killer and restore order to the regulars at the Read ’Em and Eat.

I hope you’ll want to stop by for breakfast, lunch, a snack or a book club meeting. As Aunt Ophie would say, “We’d be delighted to see y’all.”
~Terrie

About This Author

Twice short-listed for Best American Mystery Stories, Terrie Farley Moran’s cozy mystery novel, Well Read, Then Dead is the first book in the Read ’Em and Eat Café and Bookstore series. You can find Terrie blogging amid the grand banter of New York writers known as the Women of Mystery. www.womenofmystery.net Terrie tells anyone willing to listen that hanging out with any or all of her seven grandchildren provides life’s grand and joyful moments.

Author Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terrie.moran.9

Blog:  www.womenofmystery.net

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/23186092-terrie-moran

Well Read, Then Dead
(Read Em and Eat Mystery)
New Series
Cozy Mystery
A Berkley Prime Crime Mystery
The Berkley Publishing Company (August 5, 2014)
Published by The Penguin Group
Cover Illustration by S. Micoque
Cover Design by Rita Frangie
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0425270288
E-Book File Size: 1499 KB
ASIN: B00I3N5Z4C

Nestled in the barrier islands of Florida’s Gulf Coast, Fort Myers Beach is home to Mary “Sassy” Cabot and Bridget Mayfield—owners of the bookstore café, Read ’Em and Eat. But when they’re not dishing about books or serving up scones, Sassy and Bridgy are keeping tabs on hard-boiled murder.

Includes a buttermilk pie recipe!

Thanks to the people at Penguin I have 2 copies to give away!

PLUS – Terrie is giving away these beautiful bookie pair of earrings!!

Contest is open to anyone over 18 years old
with a US or Canadian mailing address.

Duplicate entries will be deleted. Void where prohibited.

You do not have to be a follower to enter but I hope you will find
something you like here and become a follower.

Followers Will Receive 2 Bonus Entries For Each Way They Follow.
Plus 2 Bonus Entries For Liking My Facebook Fan Page.

Leave a comment for Terrie for 5 Bonus Entries !

If you publicize the giveaway on Twitter or Facebook or anywhere you will receive
5 Bonus Entries For Each Link.

Contest Will End August 27, 2014 at 11:59 PM CST
Winners Will Be Chosen By Random.org
Winners Will Be Notified By Email
and Will Be Posted Here In The Sidebar.

CLICK HERE FOR ENTRY FORM

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.”