We are delighted to welcome author Linda Joffe Hull to Omnimystery News today.
Linda's third mystery to feature Maddie "Mrs. Frugalicious" Michaels is Sweetheart Deal (Midnight Ink; November 2015 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the chance to catch up with her to talk more about the series.
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Omnimystery News: How did the character of Mrs. Frugalicious come about?
Photo provided courtesy of
Linda Joffe Hull
Linda Joffe Hull: I came up with the idea of writing about the main character in my mystery series, Maddie Michaels, AKA Mrs. Frugalicious, after chancing upon one of those extreme couponing reality shows. While not much of a coupon clipper myself, I immediately knew that someone who could think on her feet enough to trim a grocery store tab down from $300 to $1.99 had the makings of a crack amateur sleuth. I also knew there would be more than one book in her future. I believe that no matter how firmly a book falls into a certain genre, character is key. To that end, I have an overarching story arc that spans the series as well. Not to give too much away, but in Eternally 21 (book one) Maddie is worried that her suave, TV financial guru hubby is cheating. By book two, Black Thursday, they are separated, and he's trying everything he can to win her back. In Sweetheart Deal (book three), they have divorce papers drawn up, but are pretending to be married for the sake of their newly minted reality TV show, The Family Frugalicious. In a nutshell, Maddie is solving crimes as she deals with the realities of her ever changing family dynamic and developing character.
OMN: Into which genre would you place your books?
LJH: I describe my debut novel, The Big Bang, as a suburban satire/pregnancy whodunit, so I suppose satire is the best way to categorize that book. Frog Kisses, my other stand alone, is Romantic Comedy. My mystery series includes three books — Eternally 21, Black Thursday, and Sweetheart Deal, which make up the Mrs. Frugalicious mystery series. They are all considered cozies, although they aren't traditional by any means. As a writer who writes based on a concept or an idea that I find compelling and want to explore, I try not to worry too much about labels. Luckily, my agent doesn't give me any grief for being a bit freespirited where genre is concerned.
OMN: Give us a very brief summary of Sweetheart Deal.
LJH: Maddie Michaels, reality TV's Mrs. Frugalicious, takes her show south of the border to teach America how to plan a destination wedding, complete with corpse. Even with cue cards and a partially staged investigation, Mrs. Frugalicious manages to unmask a killer.
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the books of this series?
LJH: I am terrible at math, and anything but a savvy shopper. In fact, I often wonder if merchants and retailers see me coming and add 10% to the cost of whatever it is I'm going to buy. Maddie Michaels, my protagonist, is only like me in that we live in the same city — Denver. I live in the city. She lives in a McMansion they can barely afford in the 'burbs. She is forced to become a super savvy shopper when her financial guru husband loses all their money in a Ponzi scheme. Thankfully, my husband is lot more financially conservative. Maddie's (larger than) life and circumstances are all made up, but she's someone I'd like to know because she is optimistic, industrious, and deals with a lot of difficult situations with humor and real pluck.
OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author?
LJH: The best advice I received as an author is that doctors, lawyers, electricians, plumbers, and pretty much everyone who excels at what they do has spent years in school or out in the field learning their trade. As a writer, you can't expect to be excellent without putting in your time reading and writing, writing, writing. It took me a dozen years to get published, which was frustrating, say the least. Now I try to think of that time as my grad school/apprenticeship. When I run into aspiring authors who are as frustrated and in as big a hurry as I was, I tell them they wouldn't want a doctor operating on them who hadn't finished med school but was handed a scalpel. Writing a book can feel like it's life or death, but it isn't. It often takes years to develop craft, and that's okay.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a mystery author and thus I am also …".
LJH: I am a mystery author and thus I am also … a completely innocent, upstanding citizen who spends the day trolling the internet for novel ways to kill someone. Weirdly, none of my friends or fans find this at all disturbing.
OMN: Tell us a little more about your writing process.
LJH: I don't start writing until I've outlined my book on notecards which I put on a bulletin board I've organized so I can see exactly where the story is going. Things change a lot as I write, but the beginning, end, and major plot points seem to stay pretty static as my characters develop and change throughout.
OMN: And where do you most often find yourself writing?
LJH: I used to write in a sun porch directly off my bedroom. While pleasant, it was small, messy and dangerously close to the best area in the house for a nap — my bed. With two of my three kids in college, we finally renovated what was their sunny but dilapidated playroom. I now have what I can only describe as the bookcase-lined office of my dreams!
OMN: How did Sweetheart Deal come to be titled? And how much input do you have on the cover art?
LJH: I don't have much input on cover design, particularly for my mystery series, but my publisher has a great designer who came up with the covers for all three books in the series. Sweetheart Deal, my newest release, is my favorite so far. As far as the title, this particular book takes place at a timeshare resort down in Mexico so I did a ton of research on timeshare sales. I found a list of terms associated with timeshares, kicked around a few, and ultimately realized "Sweetheart Deal" worked on a number of levels.
OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories?
LJH: They say write what you know, but I certainly don't know about murder from personal experience. There is nothing worse than having someone who really knows the location or occupation or details related to your story complain that you didn't get it right, so accurate research is key. I have done everything from police ride-alongs to trying my hand at extreme couponing. Like most mystery writers, I fear I may be on some sort of FBI watch list as a result of some of my internet research, though. Seeing as my most recent book was set in and around Playa del Carmen, Mexico, it was anything but a hardship to vacation as research! I did do a ton of (not necessarily) interesting internet research on timeshares and talked to people in the industry before I wrote this book. I've done the same, on whatever topic, for my other books.
OMN: Suppose the Mrs. Frugalicious series were to be adapted for television or film. Who did you see playing the series lead?
LJH: Mrs. Frugalicious would best be played by an actress with good comedic timing. Jennifer Aniston would make a great Maddie Michaels. So would Amy Poehler.
OMN: How true are you to the settings of your books?
LJH: Three out of five of my books were set in Denver, one in Los Angeles, and one in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. While location is important to me, specifics are not. I try to be as accurate about geography and local environment as possible, but my books are more about people than places. My readers will definitely recognize streets and various attractions, but I do take a few liberties and change a few names to protect the innocent (or guilty).
OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, to research the setting for a book, where would it be?
LJH: I love to travel so, quite honestly, I'd take an all expense paid trip wherever! India might be nice. South America definitely. Europe is always on the list. My books tend to be about suburban dwellers and their big and not so big everyday life experiences, so exotic foreign travel isn't usually in the forefront of my mind where a setting is concerned. That said, I love the idea of writing about a typical American family embroiled in atypical circumstances abroad. Send me a ticket and I'll write you a book!
OMN: Have any specific authors influenced how and what you write today?
LJH: I read in a very wide variety of genres, but, and in no particular order, a few writers who have influenced how I write today are: David Sedaris, Tom Robbins, Tom Perotta, Jennifer Weiner, Jane Green, Judy Blume. Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Kurt Vonnegut. There are many, many others.
OMN: What kind of feedback have you received from readers?
LJH: I like feedback from readers. While we all prefer (and greatly appreciate) positive comments, I've actually learned a lot from a few negative remarks. A reader once wrote a review about Black Thursday saying she liked the book, but didn't like my implication that "all men were cheaters". The truth is, I've never thought such a thing and certainly wasn't trying to imply that in the series. As a result, I looked back through my books and noticed that there was some content that could be interpreted that way mainly because infidelity makes a great motive for murder. Because of the reader's comment however, I tweaked a small subplot to make sure I wasn't falling back on an easy motivation, and, I think, improved the complexity of Sweetheart Deal.
OMN: What kinds of books do your read for pleasure?
LJH: I'll read anything that sounds intriguing, but I am typically drawn to mystery and contemporary literary fiction. This year I've had the honor of judging a large contest so I've spent the last 8 or 9 months reading lots and lots and lots of middle grade fiction — pretty much exclusively due to the volume. It's been an incredible experience to see the range of what's out there and how well it is written.
OMN: Do you have any favorite series characters?
LJH: This changes every time I pick up a compelling new book or series but some recent favorites are Mira James in Jess Lourey's Murder-By-Month mysteries, Isabel Spellman in Lisa Lutz's The Spellman Files series, and Catriona's McPherson's Dandy Gilver.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests?
LJH: Writing takes up an enormous amount of my mental energy, so I'm not really a hobbyist per se. I do workout daily and love to travel. To that end, my boys are collegiate divers so I get the opportunity to see them at meets all over the country which has been amazing. Go Hawkeyes!!!
OMN: Create a Top Five list for us on any topic.
LJH: Top Five Easy Money Saving Tips:
1. Scan the coupon section of the newspaper and clip coupons for the things you already use. Why not save the money?
2. Before you go to the mall or shop online, take a few minutes and Google your favorite stores. They often have unadvertised online coupons that will save you 10-20%.
3. Don't toss those coupons that are automatically printed out with your receipt at the register. Catalinas, as they are known, are already tailored to your buying habits and result in substantial savings if used.
4. Shop for airline tickets between Tuesday and Thursday — the prices tend to be lower.
5. While it may seem obvious, don't toss out those money mailers that arrive at the house every month before you've looked through them. They are a gold mine of money saving discounts and deals.
OMN: What's next for you?
LJH: I am in the process of editing a domestic suspense manuscript which I wrote with co-writer Keir Graff called Swing Set. As soon as that is finished, I'm starting on the next installment of the Mrs. Frugalicious series and outlining a new story idea for another domestic suspense project that is still in its embryonic stages.
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That Linda Joffe Hull's father thought it well advised to read Kafka in general, and The Metamorphosis in particular, to his then eight-year-old daughter is a question better left for the therapist's couch. As a result however, Linda was bitten by the literary bug. Always an avid reader, she ignored the corresponding compulsion to write receiving a B.A. in Economics from UCLA, embarking on a career in sales and diving headlong into the all-encompassing job of motherhood. Thanks to the encouragement of her family and the support of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers she finally gave in to the unavoidable urge and finally sat down in front of the computer. Linda is a native of Saint Louis, Missouri, but currently resides in Denver, Colorado with her husband and children. She is a member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and is currently on the board of Mystery Writers of America.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at LindaJoffeHull.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Sweetheart Deal by Linda Joffe Hull
A Mrs. Frugalicious Shopping Mystery
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Now the star of her own reality show, The Family Frugalicious, Maddie Michaels heads south of the border with her family to cover bargain destination weddings at a swank, but budget friendly, Mexican resort. Things get a little too real when timeshare sales manager Alejandro Espinoza makes a play for Maddie one evening and ends up floating dead in the pool the next. Was it an accident or a preplanned part of the Mrs. Frugalicious storyline?
When the show's producers extend the trip so she, her all-but-ex Frank, and the kids can investigate — not to mention get enough footage for a two-part, Emmy-worthy episode — Maddie fears she's in way more agua caliente than she ever bargained for.
— Sweetheart Deal by Linda Joffe Hull
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