{"id":5885,"date":"2024-08-18T07:00:08","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=5885"},"modified":"2024-08-18T09:36:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T16:36:03","slug":"author-interview-leslie-budewitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/author-interview-leslie-budewitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Interview: Leslie Budewitz"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Leslie Budewitz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village series, set in Montana, and the Spice Shop Mysteries, set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market.\u00a0 Both are “foodie” cozies. As Alicia Beckman, she has written two suspense novels, and she has an historical short story collection coming out later this year.\u00a0 Her most recent book, To Err is Cumin,\u00a0<\/strong>the eighth book in her Spice Shop series, was published in July.\u00a0 She is a triple Agatha Award winner and a Macavity nominee.\u00a0 Welcome, Leslie!<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: I love the Spice Shop books, partially because of the setting \u2013 something you excel at. I don\u2019t think you live in Seattle, so where did you come up with the concept for the series?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: I fell in love with the Pike Place Market<\/a> in 1977, as a freshman at Seattle University. It was only a few years after residents voted to tax themselves to save the Market, founded in 1907, from \u201curban renewal,\u201d and the place was still a little rough around the edges. I loved every sound, sight, and bite! Later, after law school, I worked downtown Seattle and shopped at the Market at least once a week. It\u2019s changed some over the years, but it\u2019s still vibrant, colorful, and dedicated to the mission of connecting shoppers and food producers \u2013 along with the artists, craftspeople, and shopkeepers. I moved back to Montana, my home state, 30 years ago, but I try to visit once every year or two, for research. And by research, you know I mean eat!<\/p>\n

Q: Reading through your bio, it doesn\u2019t look like you were ever a shop owner, but boy have you nailed it. I had a shop in a downtown for 26 years and all the stuff you talk about \u2013 parking, the community of merchants, the changes that confound long time \u201ctownies\u201d \u2013 are all very true.\u00a0 Pepper does get out of her shop a bit more than I was ever able to, but it\u2019s fiction!\u00a0 How did you make this part so real?\u00a0 I\u2019ve read lots of \u201cshop\u201d mysteries that don\u2019t get it right, so kudos.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A: Oh, gosh, thanks! I worked retail in high school and college \u2013 in a bookstore! Second favorite job, after writing. That helps, as does living in a small town and knowing a lot of shopkeepers and gallery owners. (Jewel Bay, the Food Lovers\u2019 Village, is based on my real town, Bigfork, Montana.) Over the years, I\u2019ve done launches, signings, and holiday events in lots of shops and galleries, a great opportunity to peek behind the curtain! In Seattle, Market shopkeepers and artists have talked to me, too. A trip downtown is never just an errand for me \u2013 I\u2019m always watching, listening, and drinking in the stories people tell me!<\/p>\n

Q: Can you talk about the love life and development of your character, Pepper? Her love life has a real depth to it and makes her character more three dimensional.<\/em><\/p>\n

A: My first cozy series, the Food Lovers\u2019 Village mysteries, feature Erin Murphy, a 32 year old who is single and looking when she returns home to Jewel Bay, Montana to take over her family\u2019s struggling business. That return home is a common story \u2013 it was mine \u2013 and I enjoyed exploring it through a much younger woman. When I created Pepper, I deliberately made her different \u2013 still running a food-related retail shop, but 42, divorced, and a native Seattleite. When we first meet her, she\u2019s still feeling a little raw \u2013 her husband, a bike cop whose beat includes the Market, cheated on her, and when another man does the same, it\u2019s rough. She takes a chance with a fisherman she meets at the end of book 3, Killing Thyme,<\/em> and I\u2019m so glad she did. \u00a0From the notes I get, readers are happy about that, too!<\/p>\n

Q: You write another series as well, the Food Lovers\u2019 Village series. Both series center on delicious sounding food \u2013 I\u2019m often hungry after reading one of your books, as well as wondering why Pepper doesn\u2019t weigh 300 pounds with all the pastry she seems to put away.\u00a0 Can you talk about your love of food?\u00a0 As well as the spices in your spice shop books?\u00a0 They are a fascinating element.<\/em><\/p>\n

A: I forget whether it\u2019s Pepper or Erin (in the Village series) who says running in circles and jumping to conclusions is great exercise! Plus Pepper climbs all those steps in the Market and takes Arf for walks. I should follow her lead better than I do!<\/p>\n

I did not grow up in a foodie family, though my late mother was an extraordinary baker of pies and Christmas cookies. The Market played a big role in spurring my love of food. Near the entrance is Market Spice, a cramped, fragrant shop that serves sample cups of spice tea. I loved grabbing a slice of pizza, scanning magazine covers at the news stand \u2013 hands off until I finished eating \u2013 then walking down for a cup of tea and searching out a cookie or another treat. When I started teaching myself to cook, I knew just where to go for inspiration \u2013 and for herbs and spices! There\u2019s now a second shop just below the Market, World Spice, that\u2019s also been a great inspiration.<\/p>\n

Another is travel. Mr. Right and I love coming home and recreating dishes we\u2019ve had \u2013 beouf Bourguignon in Paris, tiramisu and handmade gnocchi in Florence, Indian butter chicken in Seattle, and more! It\u2019s great fun to include in the books and share them at Mystery Lovers\u2019 Kitchen<\/a>, a group blog. One more form of storytelling.<\/p>\n

Q: I was also reading through your blog, and I know you contributed to Phyllis Betz\u2019s Writing the Cozy Mystery<\/strong><\/a>. I like that she takes this genre so seriously, and I like the topic of your essay: Social Issues in the Cozy.\u00a0 Can you talk about that a little bit?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: The cozy is often considered the lighter side of mystery \u2013 I call it comfort food \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t mean we have to shy away from some of the tougher stuff. People are social and people have issues! In the essay, I describe a social issue as \u201can external force, an overarching problem of the larger world, that invades a community and harms individuals and relationships.\u201d Examples in my books include homelessness, domestic abuse, anti-immigrant bias, and the impact of the pandemic on shopkeepers. I like to think that showing readers how my own characters approach these issues \u2013 sometimes better than others —\u00a0 can help them deal with challenges in their own lives and communities. Of course, balance is key \u2013 they often arise in subplots or ongoing relationships. My goal is to tell the truth, gently.<\/p>\n

Q: You have a short story collection coming out this year which is historical. What can you tell me about that book?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: All God\u2019s Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection<\/em>, coming Sept 17, tells the story, in fiction, of a real-life woman, Mary Fields, who was born into slavery and spent the last 30 years of her life, 1885-1914, in Montana. She had a close connection to Mother Amadeus Dunne, Mother Superior of the Ursuline nuns who ran schools in Montana, and both women have long fascinated me. The title story, \u201cAll God\u2019s Sparrows,\u201d won the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story. Writing about her has been a challenge and an honor \u2013 I love history, but am not trained in it \u2013 and I hope readers love her as much as I do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Q: I also wonder about your fledging suspense novel career as Alicia Beckman. What\u2019s it like to write in such different genres?\u00a0 Or do you not feel they are that different?\u00a0 A good cozy certainly has elements of suspense.<\/em><\/p>\n

A: Every novel has a little mystery and suspense in it, right? That\u2019s what keeps us reading. The challenge was less the shift in genre, and more in writing a standalone when I was used to writing a series. Both Bitterroot Lake<\/em> and Blind Faith<\/em> are set largely in Montana, and they let me explore truths and push edges, telling stories that don\u2019t fit the conventions of a cozy or in a series. I hope to write more.<\/p>\n

Q: What\u2019s your definition of a cozy?<\/em><\/p>\n

A: The cozy is the ultimate amateur sleuth mystery. The protagonist is an intelligent, independent-minded woman (usually), often emerging from loss or grief. She\u2019s deeply involved in the community, whether it\u2019s a small town, a suburb, or in the urban cozy, a community within a community. Often, she has a job or runs a business that fosters that sense of connection. When a crime threatens the people and places she loves, she uses her skills, her knowledge, and her relationships to ask questions and make connections that law enforcement can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Crime damages the social fabric. While law enforcement is charged with restoring external order by making an arrest and prosecuting, the cozy protagonist restores the social order.<\/p>\n

Unlike the protagonists of noir or hard-boiled crime fiction, the cozy protagonist sees the world in a positive light. She believes most people are good and care about each other, and that one person can make a difference. She\u2019s fully engaged with what\u2019s going on around her. So it\u2019s only natural that her view of the world will on occasion compel her into action, investigating crime and probing its causes and effects.<\/p>\n

Q: Can you name a book that was a transformational reading experience for you?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A: So many! But when it comes to mystery, I have to mention Tony Hillerman. I was a young lawyer driving around western Montana listening to books on tape \u2013 and they were on tape then. The Missoula County Library had a lot of mysteries and I loved them \u2013 Ellis Peters\u2019 Brother Cadfael series (which Pepper also loves), Elizabeth Peters, Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky, and more. But Hillerman showed me I could set books right where I lived \u2013 at the time, on an Indian reservation, although I am not a tribal member \u2013 and that readers would be interested. And that was transformational.<\/p>\n

Q: Finally \u2013 what\u2019s next? You are one busy lady!<\/em><\/p>\n

A: I\u2019m wrapping up revisions on the 9th<\/sup> Spice Shop mystery, tentatively titled Lavender Lies Bleeding<\/em>, due out in July 2025. I\u2019ve learned a lot about lavender. And oh, what I\u2019ve discovered about Arf, Pepper\u2019s Airedale, who continues to be a reader favorite!<\/p>\n

Thanks, Robin, for terrific questions, and for all you do to connect readers with a good book!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village series, set in Montana, and the Spice Shop Mysteries, set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market.\u00a0 Both are “foodie” cozies. As Alicia Beckman, she has written two suspense novels, and she has an historical short story collection coming out later this year.\u00a0 Her most recent book, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[943,1798,1265,442,1797,143,1267,1796],"class_list":["post-5885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-crooked-lane-books","tag-foodie-cozies","tag-leslie-budewitz","tag-montana","tag-seattle","tag-seventh-street-books","tag-spice-shop","tag-to-err-is-cumin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5885"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5909,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5885\/revisions\/5909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}