Debbie De Louise, author of Rock a Bye Bye Baby, a Cobble Cove mystery, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today to share with us why she writes multiple series and why she thinks you should read them.

Welcome, Debbie. I’ll turn the floor over to you –

Rock a Bye Bye Baby is my sixth Cobble Cove cozy mystery published by Solstice publishing, and I write two other series. Why do I write multiple series? It all started with my A Stone’s Throw, the first book of my Cobble Cove series. I hadn’t intended to write it as a cozy, no less the first of a series. I considered it a romantic suspense novel, but readers reviewed it as a cozy. They may have gotten that impression because the book is set in a small town, features a librarian, library cat, and an inn.

Always hoping to satisfy my readers, I decided to go with the cozy theme and wrote the second book in the series, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, a Christmas mystery. Thus, followed Written in Stone, Love on the Rocks, No Gravestone Unturned, and my new release, Rock a Bye Bye Baby. Notice that I alternate rocks and stones in the titles with a play on popular phrases. I only deviated from this with the short story collection, Sneaky’s Supernatural Mystery and Other Cobble Cove Stories.

So why did I write another series? It wasn’t because I was bored with the plots or characters. On the contrary, I’d grown fond of the Cobble Cove residents and had introduced more active roles for the pets in the book starting in the fourth book of the series, Love on the Rocks, when I introduced a calico cat shortly before I rescued one in real life.

The Buttercup Bend series came about after I signed with a new publisher, Next Chapter (then Creativia). The Case of the Cat Crazy Lady, my first Buttercup Bend mystery, started with a different title but, after sharing it with beta readers, I changed it. Although I had ideas for the following titles in the series, it wasn’t until after I published The Case of the Parrot Loving Professor that I decided to feature a different animal in each book and that the murder would be tied to the person who owned or cared for that animal. For instance, in The Case of the Llama Raising Librarian, a llama-raising librarian was murdered. In The Case of the Whale Watching Wedding Planner, a wedding planner who worked part-time on whale-watching cruises was the victim. You get the idea and can figure out the theme of The Case of the Reptile Rescuing Receptionist.

I thought two series would be more than enough for me to write, but then I came up with an idea for a third: Murder at Meadows Lake Clubhouse: the first Soup the Supernatural Kitten Mystery. This book was the first one I wrote in my new home in South Carolina. I set it in that state with the main character moving there after having lost her husband and beloved cat. Widow Rose finds a talking ginger cat in Meadows Lake who introduces herself as Soup and helps her solve a murder in that community. She also meets two eligible men, a realtor and a sheriff. Soup is based on the ginger cat my family adopted in South Carolina. My daughter named her Soup, and I used the name for the character cat in the series.

Now that I’ve introduced you to my three series, why do I think you should consider reading them? First, if you like cozies and animals, you’ll enjoy these stories. It’s not necessary to read any of the books in order, although some people prefer to start with the first of each series to follow the development of the characters. Second, each series has interesting, quirky characters. In the Cobble Cove series, Alicia is a librarian and co-author of a mystery series along with her husband, John. Her best friend, Abigail (known as Gilly by her friends), gets Alicia involved in solving crimes despite John and Sheriff Ramsay’s objections. Gilly, a divorcee with three sons, takes over the local inn after she marries the sheriff. There are quite a few regular characters in the series including library employees, John’s father Mac, and his wife Betty who has a sad backstory. And, of course, Sneaky the library cat, Fido the golden retriever who plays a big role in the first book, and KittyKai who enters the series in the fourth book. Gilly also brings her beagle, Ruby, when she moves to Cobble Cove.

The regular Buttercup Bend characters include Cathy, the co-owner of a pet rescue center and cemetery with her brother Doug. Cathy lives with her grandmother Florence next door to Doug and his wife. Doug is the Cobble Cove mail carrier. Cathy also works part-time for the Buttercup Bugle newspaper as a photographer. She dropped out of college when her parents were killed in a car accident in which she was injured and left with a permanent scar on her cheek that she hides with her hair. She overcomes her shyness when her friend, Nancy, helps her discover her secret interest in solving mysteries, and the two sleuth together. They also share an interest in three eligible men – Cathy’s gardener, the veterinarian for her pet rescue, and the deputy sheriff.

I already mentioned widow Rose from Soup the Supernatural Kitten Mysteries and the other regular characters featured in the first book. I left out female detective, Dixie, who moves into Meadows Lake and befriends Rose. Dixie becomes like a daughter to Rose and helps her face some of her fears. She, like the other characters in the series, are unaware that Rose’s new cat, Soup, can talk and has other supernatural abilities. Rose, like Soup, has psychic powers that she hasn’t developed but begins to use them to solve crimes.

I hope this overview of my three series whets your appetite to read them. I’m currently working on the next Buttercup Bend and the next Soup the Supernatural Kitten books, but I plan to go back to Cobble Cove after I complete them and even left a teaser at the end of Rock a Bye Bye Baby.

Thank you for sharing this with us, Debbie, and good luck with Rock a Bye Bye Baby, the latest book in the Cobble Cove mystery series. Readers can learn more about Debbie De Louise by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook, Goodreads, AllAuthor, Bookbub, LinkedIn and Instagram pages. Readers can also follow her on Twitter/X.

The book is available online at  Amazon

About Debbie De Louise: Debbie is an award-winning author and retired reference librarian. She’s a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters-in-Crime, International Thriller Writers, the Cat Writers’ Association, and the South Carolina Writers Association. She’s published over twenty  books including three cozy mystery series, a romance, standalone mysteries, a time-travel novel, and a collection of cat poems. Her stories and poetry appear in over a dozen anthologies. Originally from Long Island, she moved to South Carolina where she now lives with her husband, daughter, and three cats.