Ask the Author: Marty Wingate
Answered Questions (12)
Marty Wingate
Hi Eve, Thanks so much for your question! I'm delighted to say that the entire Potting Shed series is being re-released. Beginning with THE GARDEN PLOT on (Aug. 29), one title a week will be out on Amazon in both ebook and print (audio is still around!). This week, book 2 (THE RED BOOK OF PRIMROSE HOUSE) is out and next week it will be book 3 - and on they will go through all eight books! So, you won't have long to wait between each story. Happy reading!
Marty Wingate
Hi Jennifer, Thanks for this question. Bittersweet Herbs (#8) is currently unavailable, but it's all for the good, because the entire Potting Shed series is going to be re-released by Joffe Books in ebook and print! They will begin the releases in late August starting with The Garden Plot (#1) and the books will come out once a week. (They're doing this for my Birds of a Feather series, too, starting in February.) And there's more! Bittersweet Herbs and #7 (Midsummer Mayhem) have never been available as audio books, but now will be! As soon as I have more details and I will out a newsletter (you can sign up on my website).
Marty Wingate
Hello Barbara! Thanks so much for your question. I'm delighted you enjoy Hayley's stories, the fabulous setting of Bath, and cake! Sadly, my publisher did not want anymore books in the First Edition series. But I have not stopped telling stories! I'm now working on a new historical mystery series set in 1921 London (the London Ladies Murder Club) and I am having a fabulous time with it. If you sign up for my extremely occasional newsletter (really - I just put one out and the previous one was last March) you'll be alerted to the release of book one, A Body on the Doorstep. You can sign up on my website, and also email me from there. Happy reading!
Marty Wingate
I'm so pleased you enjoyed the story! The Orphans of Mersea House in a standalone, so we leave Olive and everyone at the end of the book. Of course, I'm not ruling out having one or two the characters appear in another story some day!
Marty Wingate
Thanks for tour question about Bunter the cat! Yes, male torties are rare, but I must fall back on the author's excuse of "that's just what he is." We use this about characters all the time--sometimes they come to us fully formed (as Ann Cleeves says about Vera) and we don't question it. Seven male Bunters in a row does seem like quite a feat, but that's across quite a few decades. Perhaps Lady Fowling had a backstory about torties--that's something I'll have to consider!
Marty Wingate
Good morning (from the West Coast)! Thanks so much for your question. I'm delighted to tell you that book 2 in the First Edition Library mysteries will be out in October. Its title: Murder Is a Must, and just as in book 1 (The Bodies in the Library), I have woven bits of a Golden Age of Mystery book into the plot. This time I used Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers. I love that book! I'm happy you like Hayley's stories and I'm now writing book 3! We are all reading a lot these days, aren't we? Good for us (but too bad the reason).
Marty Wingate
Hello Hilary! Thanks so much for your question - I love writing about Julia (and I love Suffolk). I certainly can't let it end here, can I? We must get them married! But, we have a temporary glitch - Alibi (the digital imprint from Random House) has "closed its doors" - they are taking on no new titles. That means both Birds of a Feather and my Potting Shed mysteries have no publisher. But I have started the next book in both series and so it's just a matter of figuring out how to get them to readers once they are finished. Will I self publish? Perhaps. I'll be sure to shout about it when the decision is made. (And will post details on my website and in my newsletter.) In the meantime, I have a new series coming from Berkley - the First Edition Library mysteries. Book one - The Bodies in the Library will be out Oct. 8. Again - thanks so much for getting in touch!
Marty Wingate
Telling stories - combining history, people I've known, my own experiences, and putting them into a brand new tale.
Marty Wingate
Life inspires me! Observing people and their actions and exchanges, the way they dress. (A woman I saw walking by while I sat at an outdoor cafe was the inspiration for Jemima, Kitty Bassett's granddaughter in The Skeleton Garden.) You never know what might trigger an idea!
Marty Wingate
Even little things can be a catalyst. Have you ever remembered something totally wrong? I love to mess with perceptions and memories. Here's a tiny incident from when I was about five years old. Our next-door neighbor came to visit - she was carrying some of our family's clothes on hangers and she put them on the back of our sofa. After she and my mom had coffee and talked, the neighbor left (leaving the clothes). I asked my mom why our neighbor had our clothes. My mom couldn't understand my question - no, the neighbor hadn't had our clothes, she hadn't walked in the house with them. They had been on the sofa the entire time. Hmmmm...
Marty Wingate
Best-Laid Plants (Potting Shed #6) will be out in September 2017 - I'm working on copy edits now. Pru and Christopher in the Cotswolds!
Marty Wingate
The Suffolk countryside and my favorite villages inspired me to write Every Trick in the Rook (Birds of a Feather #3) - along with noticing the many different corvids that live in England. Not only crows and magpies (The Rhyme of the Magpie, Birds of a Feather #1), but also jackdaws and hooded crows and ravens and rooks. I've grown quite fond of the rook Alfie, who turned into a main character in the story.
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