COZY WEDNESDAY - With Author Janet Bolin (Giveaway)

After reading Janet's book Dire Threads I can't believe this is her first published novel and it debuted at Barnes & Noble as #9, Borders as #21, and Bookscan  as #17. She has had short stories published in trade magazines and literary journals.  Janet has also had her humorous essays read aloud on national radio programs on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and published in the anthology DEAR SAD GOAT. But Dire Threads is truly her first published novel.

I am so happy to have "met" her and thrilled that she is guest posting today.  I loved her book as you will see from my review below her post.

Welcome Janet!!!!

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Thank you for inviting me Lori.  I am so glad you liked my book!

I think Janet LOVES her dogs just
like I LOVE mine.

The Transparent Writer

When I was about seven, I decided to be a writer. However, printing was a little painstaking, so I contented myself with imagining. The story I wrote in my head just happened to match exactly what was going on around me. After someone spoke, I would think “he said” or “she said.” This got to be a habit. I accidentally blurted “she said” after one of my own comments.

I got some funny looks.

“Don’t make faces,” my mother warned. She, by the way, was the all-time world champion of grimacing.

I dutifully tried to curb the outward manifestations of my inward story-telling.

However, classrooms were, apparently, designed for daydreaming. Why listen to a teacher droning on and on when I could imagine an exciting story, instead? Or at the very least, I could mentally add “she said” to the end of every sentence the teacher uttered.

Frequently, I got into trouble. “Janet! What did I just say?” I never knew how to answer that, of course, and I figured that repeating. “She said” would not have helped my cause.

Eventually, I stopped the “he said, she said” ploy, but even as an adult, I am not always able to divorce my body language from what’s going around in my head.

Not too long ago, I was visiting a charming old coaching inn that had been converted into a spacious and comfortable home. As I strolled down the broad, curving front stairs, I imagined the weddings that could have taken place in that building over the years. I wasn’t picturing myself as a bride, or anything like that, but when I reached the foot of the stairs, a friend became concerned. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Are you limping?”

And now I write mysteries. At the moment, I’m in my most dangerous-looking stage. I’m planning a new book, and there’s this giant white screen in front of me. What am I going to write? One of the first things I’ll need to do is come up with a villain. And a motive.

Physically, I could be walking down a street, but in my head I’m playing and replaying murderous scenes. Greed! Revenge! Loathing! Betrayal!

It’s a good thing I can’t see my own face. And people are crossing the street only to get to the other side, right? Not because the glaring author striding toward them has taken on a distinctly menacing gait?

Janet Bolin

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Cover Illustration
by Robin  Moline
Cover Design
by Annette Fiore Defex

A Berkley Prime Crime Mystery

Published by The Penguin Group

A Threadville Mystery

FIRST IN A BRAND NEW SERIES

Available now!!!

Threadville is a wonderful village in Pennsylvania.  A town restored by a bunch of crafty shoppes.  Willow Vanderling has come to Threadville to open her dream store In Stitches, a delightful embroidery store catering to both hand and machine embroidery. Bus tours bring customers right to her door every day. The property is perfect, a store at street level, an apartment below and a cute little cottage at the rear of the property.

Willow would love to renovate the little Blueberry Cottage, "a Victorian confection with curlicues and gingerbread trim".  But the village's zoning commissioner, Mike Krawbach, denies her permit to redo and upgrade the little cottage.  Then he shows up in her store, which is full of customers, to try to get them to sign a petition to tear down the cottage to make room for a ATV trail.  These are tourists from out of town and he is tricking them into signing this petition.  Willow is livid and has a war of words with the corrupt commissioner with a wide variety of witnesses.  

So when the commish ends up dead in Willow's backyard she is the one every one thinks killed the man.  Of course she didn't, but she is new in town, people don't know her well, so it is up to her with a little help from her craft shoppe friends to untangle the clues and get a hoop around the person who really killed Mike Krawbach. They have to do it fast because Willow knows she not going to be able to embroider anything from jail.

It is so rare that I LOVE a first book in a series because it takes time to develop everyone's stories, how they fit together, how they relate to the setting and the direction the series is heading.  As I said above it boggles my mind to think this is Janet Bolin's first published novel or even the first book in this series.  

The characters are well defined but have plenty of room for growth.  The setting is picture perfect and thanks to cover illustrator Robin Moline it is so easy to see it and relate to it and want to travel there as soon as possible. There is suspense, humor, a quirky character or two, a few diversions, some lovable pets, and maybe a romance on the horizon.  Bolin has crafted a charming debut to a series I know will keep us In Stitches!!

Your Escape With A Good Book Travel Agent

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Berkley Prime Crime, a division of Penguin Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. 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.”

For more about about Janet and Threadville go to http://threadvillemysteries.com/

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Now I know you would love to win a copy of this wonderful story and thanks to the people at Berkley Prime Crime I have 2 copies to giveaway!!!

U.S. and Canadian Residents Only

Followers will receive an 
extra 2 entries for each of their entries.

If you leave a comment for Janet and show her some love you will get an additional 5 entries.

Contest Ends July 6 at 11:59 p.m. CST