Please Welcome Mystery Author Morgan C. Talbot

with Morgan C. Talbot

We are delighted to welcome back mystery author Morgan C. Talbot to Omnimystery News today, courtesy of Red Adept Publishing, which is coordinating her current book tour. We encourage you to visit all of the participating host sites; you can find her schedule here. Red Adept Publishing is also giving our readers a chance to win one of three Amazon gift certificates; details and entry form, below.

Morgan last visited with us in November 2012 when we discussed the first book of her "Caching Out" mysteries. The third in the series, Nine Feet Under (Red Adept Publishing; July 2013 trade paperback and ebook formats) was published this summer and we asked her to tell us why readers love quirky characters.

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Photo provided courtesy of
Morgan C. Talbot

One of the foremost tropes in any good cozy mystery series is the uniqueness of its characters. Specifically, the flighty, paranoid, lovelorn, obsessed, and in all other ways lopsidedly larger-than-life characters. Often, the wildest traits don't belong to the main character. Her friends / enemies / frenemies / love interests / random acquaintances can either help or hinder the solving of the case, depending on what their foibles and quirks are, how strongly they present, and how they interact with actual plot points.

So sure, we cozy readers are used to an adorable parade of the unusual: the OCD sufferer; the girl who talks to the dead; the pet cat; the knitting granny; the power shopper, the supersmeller. They're usually upbeat forces for good, charging forth into the world, encouraging those around them, and stepping up in time of need.

But why do we love them? Why are they such a powerful trope in the cozy subgenre of mystery novels? Why do we love the quirky?

They make us feel better about being who we are, in two separate and oddly opposite ways. Their distinct and obvious quirks make them stand out, sometimes to ridicule even in their fictional world. They're purposely created for us to giggle at. They deliberately have antics and hijinks. They can be troublemakers, never really realizing how difficult it can be to live around such a person. Compared to their shout-out-loud, off-center existence, we're relieved to be so normal!

Yet at the same time, the quirky are often very confident and generous people, at least to all the right characters. They are not ashamed of their faults and foibles. They're too busy having a purpose and living as best they can. They shake off doubt, and they're never discouraged by repeated failures. They soldier on with a smile, and we envy their solid confidence.

We love the quirky because we are the quirky, and because we wish we were better quirky than we are. No one is quite so human as the cozy mystery quirky — that flawed mirror of our own existence.

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Morgan is an outdoorsy girl with a deep and abiding love for the natural sciences. Her degrees involve English and jujitsu. She enjoys hiking, camping, and wandering in the woods looking for the trail to the car, but there isn't enough chocolate on the planet to bribe her into rock climbing.

When she's not writing, she can be found making puzzles, getting lost on the way to geocaches, reading stories to her children, or taking far too many pictures of the same tree or rock.

She lives in Eastern Washington with her family. For more information about the author and her work, please find her on Facebook and Twitter.

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Nine Feet Under
Morgan C. Talbot
A Caching Out Mystery (3rd in series)

Greed and betrayal make a deadly combination …

Margarita and Bindi have big plans for the Fourth of July, involving borrowed bicycles, a geocaching power trail, live podcasts, and plenty of fun. But their day quickly goes awry when they stumble upon what looks like a murder in progress.

Strange rivalries and secret alliances test Margarita's puzzle-solving skills, and Bindi suffers a rather painful setback when she comes face to face with someone she never thought she'd see again.

The overly stoic sheriff can't be in two places at once, so the girls need to figure out whodunit and rescue the next potential victim before the explosive finale.

        

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