It’s Fun With Food Week on my blog, and all week long, we’ll be meeting characters who enjoy cooking. Later in the week, we’ll also be sharing great recipes.
To kick things off, I’d like to welcome fellow Sister in Crime Norma Huss. Norma has been writing and publishing short pieces for years, but the mystery, Yesterday’s Body, is her first full-length novel. She’s a wife, mother, and grandmother who, like her protagonist, loves to cook meals from whatever is on hand. Sometimes they don’t turn out well, but one does need a little adventure now and then.
Norma collects cook books and reads mysteries. She and her husband like to travel, and before selling their latest boat, cruised the Chesapeake Bay and beyond.
Don’t miss Norma’s recipe tomorrow for Garlic Chicken with Peanut Sauce, Noodles and Vegetables, along with an excerpt from her book. For now, Jo Durbin, the main character from Yesterday’s Body, will do an interview with Norma to answer the question “What were you doing 25 years ago?”
Norma’s Interview: “I received my first check from something I’d written,” Jo said. “It came from ‘the trues,’ those magazines with stories like, ‘I married my own grandfather.’ A happy day, but eventually I ended up on the street where you first met me.”
“How so?” I asked.
“All too simple. I rewrote a gruesome news story about a woman who got away with murder. The story came out as, ‘How the White Widow Killed Her Husband.’ All in first person, of course, with a byline of The Widow, Mrs. White, writing from an undisclosed location. Then three years ago a former mail clerk published a ‘tell-all’ book, naming names. One of the chapters was, ‘Jo Durbin, the White Widow killer hiding in plain sight.’ The trial lasted eighteen months, all writers included were completely exonerated, but I still see the damn book in libraries.”
“So how, exactly, did you end up on the street?”
“Lord love a duck! Try telling a bunch of bankers that they could trust me with their financial secrets after they found out about my previous short-term career. I had the degrees – journalism and business. I had the experience – twenty years in their employ. Didn’t change one mind. Which is why I decided to write my own tell-all book, my life on the street as a bag lady. You should know the rest–you wrote it.”
Visit Norma’s web site for more information on her books. You can also check out Yesterday’s Body on Amazon. Jo Durbin knows one down-side of acting the homeless bag lady, no one will believe she just happened to find the very dead Francine.
Stop back tomorrow for Norma’s delicious recipe! On Wednesday, I’ll share an apple french toast recipe inspired by my novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today. On Thursday, we’ll meet Avery Aames, author of A Cheese Shop Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime, and on Friday, we’ll take a peek at the brand new book Killer Recipes, a collection of recipes by mystery authors with proceeds benefiting the American Cancer Society.
