Guest Post: Deb Baker

I am so thrilled to announce my first Guest to post on my blog.  She was a new author to me when I started this blog and wanted to read books written by Wisconsin authors or set in Wisconsin.  Little did I know I find one that lives less than an hour away from me or that she would write cozies, the genre I love.  So without further ado, here's Deb Baker with her alter ego Hannah Reed!!

A big thank you to Dollycas for inviting me here today to talk about my favorite subject - books!  

Not too long ago, the setting of a mystery really mattered to mainstream publishers. Getting in the door with a story created in an unusual place wasn’t as easy as it is today. Believe me, I tried, because I love small town settings in the stories I read and in those I write. 

Murder Passes the Buck, first in the Backwoods Adventures, took place in the rugged interior of the Michigan Upper Peninsula where I was born. It was an impossible sell to New York publishers because of the location. “Where is that exactly?” one of them said to my agent. “Canada?” The series finally found a home with a Minnesota publisher who understood and appreciated Gertie’s quirky Midwestern ways. 

By the time I wrote the Dolls To Die For series, I knew the tricks and moved the locale to Phoenix, since I’d lived there for 18 sunny months and everybody knows where that is. So I wrote four of those, exploring Camelback Mountain, the desert, and southwestern cuisine. 

Then times changed and authors started writing more stories about small towns, and getting away with it. 

Now, with the Queen Bee mysteries, I’m writing about an area I really know and love - Wisconsin, my home state - land of cows, cranberries, brats (a type of sausage, not an unruly kid), beer, and yes, cheeseheads. 

Story Fischer, the protagonist, lives in a fictional town (Moraine) in southeastern Wisconsin among the hills and valleys created by long-ago glaciers. (And you thought we were flat, didn’t you?) She’s a beekeeper (my state is eleventh in U.S. honey production), but she also owns a local grocery store, specializing in Wisconsin products. 

When she isn’t solving murders, she’s stocking shelves with Door County wines, award winning cheeses (squeaky cheese curds are popular items), Nueske ham, Racine kringles, sausages, Amish chocolates, frozen custard… 

Oh, and of course the hot guy in Buzz Off rides (what else?) a Harley Hog, Wisconsin’s premier motorcycle. 

It’s been fun writing what I know, and I hope you take time to visit Moraine and the characters who live there.

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Buzz Off, coming September 7th, is available for pre-order and to celebrate I'm running a special spring deal. Pre-order Buzz Off before May 1st and send a copy of the receipt - either email (hannahreed51@gmail.com) or snail mail (email for the address) and you'll be entered in the May 1st drawing for the prize. Your favorite brick-and-mortar bookstore can handle the pre-order for you. 

Or take care of it online at:

Barnes and Noble

(http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Buzz-Off/Hannah-Reed/e/9780425236420/?itm=2&USRI=buzz+off) 

Or Amazon 

(http://www.amazon.com/Buzz-Story-Fischer-Hannah-Reed/dp/0425236420/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269452743&sr=8-4) 

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Hannah Reed is the pen name for Deb Baker, author of Gertie Johnson’s Backwoods Adventures and The Dolls To Die For series. 

Visit Hannah’s home page www.queenbeemystery.com for more recipes and fun facts about honey and bees or at her Facebook Queen Bee Page (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Hannah-Reed-Queen-Bee-Page/359211701641). 

You can find Deb at www.debbakerbooks.com

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