The best big sister

Angelica -- love her or hate her, she's here to stay.

Who?  Angelica Miles from the Booktown Mysteries.

When I started the first book, Murder is Binding, I had no idea Angelica was going to show up and be a perpetual thorn in her sister Tricia's side from then on.  I thought I had an idea of who Tricia would be, but Angelica continues to not only surprise Tricia, but me, too!

The Miles sisters carry a LOT of baggage.  They come across and two pretty straight forward people (except for the fact Tricia seems to stumble over a lot of dead bodies while running her vintage mystery store, Haven't Got a Clue).  The issues started and seemed to be on the way to being solved, but then more kept popping up.

Like the secret life Angelica led for many years.  The things she'd kept from not only Tricia, but other members of their family.

Tricia always thought of her sister as a bullying narcissist. But that wasn't true at all, and with every book, Tricia's awe in the things her sister can do continues to grow. You see, she always thought she was the "good" sister. These days, she's not so sure.

One of my favorite aspects of Angelica's personality is her love of cooking. She's changed my life. You see, before I started writing the Booktown books, I didn't like to cook. Tricia and I seemed to have a lot in common.  Then my editor asked for recipes. Uh-oh!

Let Angelica loose in the kitchen and suddenly she's cooking for friends and family. He desire to feed the world grew to the extent that she felt the need to open a restaurant. But she didn't want it to eat up her whole life -- so Booked for Lunch only serves ... lunch!  But even that wasn't enough.  She wanted to become a cookbook author.  She worked hard and voila! She became a nationally bestselling cookbook author. (All the recipes in all the booktown books are available on my website. You can find one from every book here.)

Now, like Angelica, I find myself chopping carrots, onions ... whatever, and enjoying myself. Something I never had the patience for has suddenly become fun. And I'm cooking from scratch.  Yesterday Mr. L and I decided what kind of cake he would like for his upcoming birthday. He said, "you can buy a spice cake mix."  I don't think so.

Sometimes when I'm in a fix, I say to myself, "What would Angelica do?" (She's really much, much smarter than me. Well, than just about everyone.) She's got a big ego, but she's also got the biggest heart. t's never more apparent than in the next Booktown Mystery, Title Wave.

Tricia and Angelica leave Booktown behind for some much needed R&R. Naturally they choose a Mystery Lovers cruise, where they can ponder whodunnit in deck chairs while sipping colorful drinks and soaking up some rays. But the fun is cut short when a fellow passenger is murdered for real. Is the killer a famous mystery author, one of her fans, or a member of the ship’s crew? As Tricia tries to find the killer before they reach port, she may be cruising for a bruising...

It comes out on June 14th in hardcover, ebook, and on audio, and is available for preorder now.  Click here for links.

What would you like to see Angelica do next?