Andrea Hagan is our featured author of the week! She writes magical and mafia romances.
Andrea has an accounting degree and a law degree, neither of which she puts to good use. She lives in the South with her husband and kids.

You can sign up for Andrea’s newsletter or her reader group on Facebook to learn about her latest books.

Check out the recipe below from her book
In Possession: A Memphis Magic Novel.

Lazy Witch (a play on an old fashion cocktail – Copyright 2022, Andrea Hagan)

-3 ounces of good bourbon (don’t even attempt to make one of my cocktails unless you use good bourbon)

-1 tablespoon of brown sugar simple syrup

-2 dashes orange bitters

-Candied orange slice

-Candied bacon strip for garnish

-Cocktail cherry for garnish (the cherry should be a deep burgundy red, not one of those bright red abominations)

Add the bourbon, brown sugar simple syrup, and orange bitters in a shaker. Shake well and strain into a rock glass with three ice cubes. Add the cherry, candied orange slice, and candied bacon for garnish and serve. Await your praise.

Do you have a book trailer for any of your books? Check out the trailer for Breakfast with the FBI. 

When did you start writing? I began writing by chance in 2014.  

What genre(s) are your books? My books are Memior style/ fiction.  

How did you start writing? I met my husband’s editor who planted the idea of me writing when she heard what happened to me while my mother was dying. I was exhausted from caretaking and had no me time…so I went to learn to knit with the most wicked women on the face of the earth…no kidding…by the end of reading Knit 2, Purl 2, Kill 2 you’ll want to do something with a few of the women. Lol. Anyway…I have written Diapers,Drama, and Deceit The Mothers of Easthaven, Writing Ain’t for Sissies, and The Neighborhood a laugh out loud funny story about anyone’s neighborhood.  

What are you working on now? I am currently working on three more novels.  

Where do you prefer to write? I like to write at coffee shops and small restaurants.  

Meet author Erina Bridget Ring and read the incredible inspiration for her book, Breakfast with the FBI. We’ll share more about Erina and her books on the blog on Thursday.

By Erina Bridget Ring:

Breakfast with the FBI is a true story about what happened to me when I worked at a bank. They sent me to the branch across town.

I went to balance the vault. It was $60,000 short, and the ATM was $40,000 short. The manager told me to sign off on the loss…would you? 

My story began at that moment. I finished the day and did not sign off on the loss. I went to the main branch to tell the bank president. It was in that meeting I found out he was involved and I left his office shaking and drove straight to the police department, as I was afraid for my life. 

At the police department, I was instructed to not tell anyone, to go home and wait for a call from the FBI as they would call me that evening. I was on pins and needles. When I got the call, I was instructed to meet them at 6 a.m. the next day at the local bakery. I was a wreck. I could not eat a thing or drink my coffee.

The FBI instructed me to not tell a soul not even my husband. I told them I was not their person, and they told me I was already involved. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through personally and the most heroic. I found out what I was made of for sure. 

1. How long have you been writing? I wanted to be a writer since the 3rd grade. As life is prone to do—it happened, distracting me
   from the call to write. After I moved from Tallahassee, Florida to Atlanta, Georgia in 2000, I dug in and began to take my dream seriously.
2. What inspired the book you’re currently promoting? My debut novel, THE CICADA TREE, began as an entirely different book. It took place in the 1970s, and the protagonist was a little boy. I was so intrigued with his mother that I began to wonder what she must have been like as a girl. It was those imaginings that gave birth to the novel.
3. Who are the authors who most influenced your work? Aside from sense of place, my writing is influenced and inspired by the literary work of others.  As a boy, it was with great obsession, I turned the well-worn pages of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Wuthering Heights? Yes, another source of adoration. And Truman Capote’s debut novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, I admire with equal reverence along with everything ever written by Tennessee Williams. 
4. Where do you write, i.e. an office, outdoors, a coffee shop? Though I once wrote in coffee shops, now I am most comfortable writing at home in my office. I keep the light dim, and I burn candles and play classical music.
5. If you could visit one place to research a book where would it be? My work in progress takes place on a fictitious Georgia coastal barrier island. I was fortunate to visit the marsh in Beaufort, South Carolina last year to begin work. I would very much love to visit Cumberland Island next to round out my research.

Robert Gwaltney writes Southern fiction. His debut novel, The Cicada Tree, has stunned readers, reviewers and book award judges alike. Check out the book trailer or read the book description below to learn more about this mesmerizing story.

Book description:

“Some things in this world are meant to burn …”

The summer of 1956, a brood of cicadas descends upon Providence Georgia, a natural event with supernatural repercussions, unhinging the life of Analeise Newell, an eleven-year-old piano prodigy. Amidst this emergence, dark obsessions are stirred, uncanny gifts provoked, and secrets unearthed.  

During a visit to Mistletoe, a plantation owned by the wealthy Mayfield family, Analeise encounters Cordelia Mayfield and her daughter Marlissa, both of whom possess an otherworldly beauty.  A whisper and an act of violence perpetrated during this visit by Mrs. Mayfield all converge to kindle Analeise’s fascination with the Mayfields.

Analeise’s burgeoning obsession with the Mayfield family overshadows her own seemingly, ordinary life, culminating in dangerous games and manipulation, setting off a chain of cataclysmic events with life-altering consequences—all of it unfolding to the maddening whir of a cicada song.

1. How long have you been writing? 
I’ve been making up stories as long as I can remember. I used to scribble nonsense in notebooks since before I learned how to read and write. One might argue that I still scribble nonsense, but it’s generally more legible now. 

2. What inspired the book you’re currently promoting?
As a recovering ex-Texan, I have a deep-seated (or in this case, deep-seeded might be a better pun) love of bluebonnets and state/county/local fairs. A FATAL GROOVE gave me the chance to set a mystery (and a treasure hunt!) at a Bluebonnet Festival. And let me tell you, the whole time I was writing/editing, I was craving churros and cotton candy and frozen lemonade and…

4. Where do you write, i.e. an office, outdoors, a coffee shop?
I do my best writing in my home office, usually with my puggle Baileycakes curled up under my desk. I find myself too easily distracted outdoors or in a crowded coffee shop where there might be shiny objects… Wait a second, what were we talking about?

5. If you could visit one place to research a book where would it be?
I’ve always wanted to set a book in Ireland just to have an excuse to visit for “research.” Seriously though, every time I travel, I’m inspired. I don’t know if it’s the downtime or the unfamiliar location, but everytime I visit somewhere new, I come back with at least three new ideas.

One of my favorite things about writing the Record Shop Mysteries is coming up with punny, musically themed coffees (and sometimes teas) for Juni Jessup and her sisters to serve at the Sip & Spin Records coffee nook.

A lot of these drinks you can try at home! Well, technically you could also order them at your favorite coffee shop, but they might look at you funny. One of my favorite drinks from A FATAL GROOVE is Sweet Home Cappuccino:

1. Start with a pump of agave syrup or honey.
2. Evenly layer espresso, steamed milk*, and thick foam*
3. Stir and enjoy while you’ve got “Sweet Home, Alabama” stuck in your head
   *The milk and foam can be substituted with dairy-free options like soy, almond, or oat milk.

What inspired your latest work? My work in progress, A Cruise to Nowhere, is based on my love for cruising. I want to make those who have never or can’t cruise feel like they are along for the ride. The title came from the fact that anything can occur in the middle of the vast ocean, causing you to feel powerless as what to do. It is only when you rely on your strength and work with those around you that you can overcome obstacles. 

Where do you prefer to write? I tend to be most comfortable when writing on my laptop while sitting on my comfy couch in the family room. While I have my own office at my home, I hate having to sit ridggedly at a desk for long periods of time. The downside to working on the couch is, sometimes, I get sandwiched between cats, or one of them wants to help me write by strolling over the keyboard. 

If you could go anywhere to research a book, where would you go? I have read many books that whisk you into wonderful worlds, enticing your imagination, but if I choose to write a book that included aspects of a place/country, I would choose to go to Paris. I love history and would find learning the history behind a building’s beautiful architecture. I have been to France four times, but the history there runs deep. Learning more about country would be a history lover’s dream!

Jennifer Lynn Roche is our featured author of the week. She’ll be promoting her Redbury Junction series, including A Cruise to Nowhere, her work in progress.

Be sure to join Jennifer from 7 p.m. EST to 9 p.m. this Thursday to learn about her books and what’s coming up next for her writing.

How long have you been writing? Officially, eight years

Who are the authors who most influenced your work? Roberta Webb, Watch Nee, Corrie TenBoom and multitudes of writers of theology, Hebrew, Greek and ancient history

If you could visit one place to research a book, where would it be? Israel — The Holy Land 

How did you start writing books? It was a fluke. We use to tell our friends and grandchildren stories about things we experienced growing up and went through on our life journey. One of the stories was about a gas station wewe owned when we were first married. A lot of strange things happened there, really weird! We decided to sell and leave it got so weird. I still call it the Twilight Zone. 

So, that’s how it started … and 27 books later, we are still going strong. Then we got into our ancestry. Oakley’s ancestors are so interesting we had to write about them. We haven’t even been able to get to mine yet.

What do you two write? We write about almost all genres except romance. Judith Krantz pretty well covered that and Amazon is inundated with Highlander series so I don’t think I can add anything special to that other than I do like a man in a kilt, but then I do have Scottish ancestry. My genre is theology and I am working on several books that have to do with biblical studies. I also have a recipe book coming out soon.

Can you tell us more about your life and where you like writing? Oakley and I met in high school in the library. We write together in our recliners in our living room and in the indoor/outdoor room we had built for our cat, called the “Catio,” so he (the cat) is still able to be inside and experience the outside without getting hurt by the nighttime critters. His name is Marvin.

I plan to write a book about Marvin and his interesting life as a cat. His name came from “Starvin Marvin to have his own “catchelor pad” and “catio.” He is now “Cool Cat Marvin,” and everyone on the street asks about how he’s doing nowadays.