Sara Rosett’s High Society series features Olivia Belgrave, an impoverished ‘lady’ who solves upper crust scandals in a fabulous 1920’s world of fur coats and fashion, cocktails and country houses. Hi there. I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and Sara talks about getting started in writing as a military wife, her three other contemporary cozy mystery series, and the favorite famous places that appear in her books. Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: Why the 1920s is a fab period for mysteries What being a military wife taught her How she manages multiple series What attracts her to mysteries The writers she admires most What she’d do differently second time around Where to find Sara Rosett: Website: https://www.sararosett.com/ Twitter: @sararosset Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/srosett/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sararosett/ What follows is a “near as” transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. Jenny: But now, here’s Sara. Hello there Sara, and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us. Sara; Thanks Jenny. It’s great to be here. Jenny: Now, Sara, was there a Once Upon a Time moment when you decided that you wanted to write fiction? And if so, was there a catalyst for it? Sara Rosett – Mystery author Sara: I can’t remember a single specific thing that set me on this path. But I have always loved reading. I’ve always loved books. When I was a little kid, going to the library was my favorite thing to do. And I love mysteries in particular. So it’s just something I’ve always loved, always wanted to do. I always wanted to write a book. The joy of the puzzle Jenny: It’s interesting, you know, a lot of authors say that’s their pathway. They adored books. And the library was the place that was their magic place. You’ve now got a very substantial back list of contemporary cozies and historical mysteries in several different series. But your most recent book, I think is Book Four in the historical series called Murder in Black Tie. You’ve mentioned that you’ve always liked mysteries. What do you think attracts you to mysteries? Sara: Well, I love the puzzle aspect to them. I’m always intrigued to try and figure out who did it. And I like the different settings you get, particularly in cozies as you get a close look at somebody’s world. And you get to really delve into the time period and get to know it really well. I like that and I just enjoy the characters. Mysteries are usually a series. And so I enjoy going back to the same characters cos it’s like visiting friends and you get to see them again. So mysteries are awesome. The delight of the 1920’s Jenny: That’s great. So Black Tie is the fourth standalone novel. Even though it’s a series, they can be read as individual books quite happily, can’t they? The series is called High Society Ladies Detective Series, and it features a young woman called Olive Belgrave, who is a member of the high society set, but is not particularly well-off. So she has to also assume some responsibility as a working girl in England in the 1920s. What attracted you to that time period and setting? Sara: Well, I think it’s a very interesting time because there were so many changes going on. There are changes in technology, in travel. The roles of women were changing, entertainment and media were changing. And so it’s a really interesting time to drop a character in and see what she faces. I’ve always enjoyed Golden Age mysteries, so I’ve always liked that time period. The two things blend together really well and also with the clothes. The clothes are great. Jenny: Yes, the clothes are great aren’t they? For many women of that class the obvious solution was to marry money if you didn’t have it yourself. But Olive’s got an independent streak, hasn’t she? And she doesn’t particularly seem to want to take that pathway, which makes her interesting to write, I guess. Romance in the wind Sara: Yes. And so far in her world, there hasn’t really been anyone that she would really want to be married to, especially in the early books. She’s renewing a friendship with someone she’s known for a long time in Jasper and there may be something there in the future, but for the most part she is a go-getter and she’s independent. And I think she feels that marriage would be settling and she wants to try and make her own way in the world. And that’s her goal and focus in the early part of the series. Jenny: Now, it’s interesting that you say about Jasper, but because certainly you do pick up the feeling that there is the possibility of romance there. It’s still rather tentative. But as the author, you don’t know yourself yet what’s going to happen? How far ahead do you plan the series? Sara: Well, this series I’ve planned out a little bit further than I usually do. Usually I only know a couple of books ahead. This one when I sat down to think about the series, I was thinking of it more episodically, because she is a detective. So each book is a case, which I haven’t usually had because in a cozy mystery, it’s usually an amateur sleuth who becomes involved in the problem – they’re drawn into a case. And in this series, I hope to get to the point where people will be bringing her problems and she will solve them. But I don’t want to get too far ahead because I feel like I do better if I focus on just the book I’m working on and maybe the next one and not look too far down the line. I don’t want to block myself in. And that gives me an open ended approach too. I have a path, but it’s not completely set. If that makes sense. A discreet problem solver Jenny: So Jasper and Olive could surprise you as well as everybody else? Sara: Possibly. Jenny: Yes, I think she has got to that stage, hasn’t she, where people bring her problems because she’s become identified as a discreet problem solver for the high society set when they’ve got something they want looked into, but they don’t want the police involved. They call in Olive. Sara: Yes. That’s what I’m hoping that’s a good setup and that it will continue. The first book was her finding her abilities to do that. And now that she’s a couple of books in and people are beginning to come to her. Jenny: Your other series have all been contemporary. This is the first time you’ve switched to historical, is that right? Sara: Yes. Jenny: And why did you make that change? Just just to keep it interesting for yourself. Sara: Yes. Well, I do love historical fiction and especially Golden Age mysteries. And I like writing contemporary cozies. But I picked up a book one time and it was called it was called The Affair Of the 39 Cufflinks, And I thought it was a Golden Age mystery. And so I read it and I was like, oh, this is an undiscovered author for me to go back and see what else they’ve written. I discovered it was actually a book that was written in the 1970s, a send-up of country house mysteries. Murder on Location I was really surprised because I really thought it was from the 1920s and 30s. And so I thought there is a timelessness to writing historical ministries set in the past that if you do it right, your books hopefully have more of a timeless quality to them. Whereas some of the cozies that I’ve written, I look back now and I think, oh no, they’re so dated because she had a flip phone or you know, there are certain things that just have changed so much that I wonder if it pulls the reader out of the story more. So I like writing the historical books because it gives more of a timelessness to the books, I hope. Jenny: Yes, that’s a really interesting point, isn’t it? Because depending on where you set them, they could they could date very quickly. Yes.. But in this contemporary series, you have still had an interest or an affection for England because one of them, the Murder on Location series, is a seven book series set around the theme of Death in the English Cuntryside. Murder on Location – English mystery series by Sara Rosett. Indulging a love of England And it seems to me that you’ve had a great deal of fun in choosing different interesting interest settings, castles and all sorts of things. Talk to us a little bit about that. Sara: Well, that was a fun series to write and that grew out of my love of England. I loved Jane Austen. There’s a lot of Jane Austen inspired fiction, and I knew I would never attempt to try and write a book in the style of Jane Austen. But I thought, what if I could layer that in somehow to a cosy. And so I thought, what if I took a location scout who’s looking for places to film Jane Austen adaptations? She would have to travel around the countryside of England. Look for you. Look at these beautiful country homes, castles. Some other cities like Bath or London. And so it just seems like there are so many options with that combination. And it let me indulge my love of English country homes and countryside. So it’s been a really fun series to write. Chatsworth House – a special place Jenny: It sounds like a great setup for a book. So how many of those have you done? Seven? That’s right. So you’re still writing those?. Sara: Yes. I’ve taken a little bit of a break to do the historical, but I do want to go back to it. Jenny: And do make a point of visiting all of the locations where you set the books? Sara: Yes. I took a special trip and went to Chatsworth House and Bakewell in that part of England and looked around there and I visited Bath. And those are all locations as well. I don’t have a book set specifically in London, but that may happen someday. But I love to visit the places and then write about them. Jenny: Fantastic. And then one of the other series you’ve done is the six book international travel mystery series called On the Run with Zoe Hunter has the run of the world? She goes virtually everywhere. I suspect travelling might be one of your hobbies or interests, is it?. Sara: I love to travel. Yes. I love it. Once I’m there, beginning there can sometimes be rough. Living and working overseas Jenny: So what inspired Zoe? Sara: Well, my husband’s job took us to some different places in Europe. And we were able to live in Italy and in Germany for almost a year and a half. And so while we were there, we did a lot of traveling. And it was such an interesting place and such an interesting experience, to live in another culture. It is just completely different from Texas, which is where I live. And so every time I travel somewhere, I want to write about it. So that series grew out of that travel. And then also I love the classic romantic suspense novels of Mary Stewart. And she has a lot of exotic locations and travel. And so that was the two things that came together through that series. And it’s just I love going to a city, visiting it and trying to capture some of that in the novel so that people can get an armchair tour of Italy, Germany, France somewhere right now. Elusive, by Sara /Rosett in the On the run mystery series Jenny: I honestly do think that’s one of the reasons people like to read mysteries often. It’s to learn something about the places and the times where they’re set as well. They like that extra information that takes them into a different world, don’t they? Sara: Yes. It’s a little bit better than a guidebook, I think. You get then you get the interesting places, but then you get a traveler’s perspective of it, which can be really fun. Jenny: One question that I often like to ask, it’s a natural thing when people read a book to think about visiting the place. Are there places that you particularly recommend from having researched them in your books? Say if we were doing a magical mystery tour, for example, of the death in the English countryside. series. Are the places that you’d really recommend readers put on their itinerary? Places to see, things to do Sara: Well, if you’re going to England. London is always interesting and there’s tons to see and do there. But I particularly enjoyed visiting Chatsworth House and Bakewell. That was interesting to see. And there is a very good tour. You could see all the interesting parts of the house and the grounds are just beautiful and I just love that. In Italy, you can’t go wrong for choice. Any city in Italy is very interesting. Each region is so different and unique. I really enjoy Venice. And I also like the Amalfi Coast. It was just beautiful. The curvy roads were gorgeous and frightening, but it was just so beautiful. And so I would recommend if you have a chance to go see places like that, definitely do it. Jenny: Right now, your very first series was about an Air Force wife called Ellie Avery, who was a professional mover and organizer. I suspect that there’s quite a bit of Ellie in you, because I suspect that an author might not take on a highly organized heroine unless she was also highly organized herself. How much of Ellie is reflected in your own personality? Chatsworth, England. One of Sara’s favorite places to visit. A professional mover Sara: There’s some element of me. Maybe because that is the first series I wrote and it was about a military spouse and a mom and I was both of those things. I feel that I would really like to be much better organized. So I’ve learned a lot about being organized and a lot of cozies have a little bonus content with like recipes or knitting patterns and things like that. And I am not crafty at all. And I thought, well, what could I do? And I was interested in organizing and thought it was interesting how people would come in and transform somebody’s home or closet or kitchen or pantry. And so I thought, there’s an interest there and I’m interested in it. And I could learn more. So I thought if I could combine that, I could get tips in the books. And so that’s how the professional organizing got included in the book and also gave Ellie a reason to go meet and interact with other people that she was working and organizing their closets. You know, you see a lot of interesting stuff when you help people clean out. Moving is Murder Jenny: I guess you also moved quite often in those years, did you? Sara: Yes, we did move around a lot. And I think that’s one reason I like writing about different places, because if you go there as a newcomer, you see things that somebody who’s lived there for years may not have noticed. And so every time we moved I thought, oh, this is an interesting place. This would make an interesting story. The first book in the series is called Moving is Murder. And people always laugh when they hear that title because they say, yes, yes, moving is murder. Jenny: So which of these series are still having new books added to them and which you regard as sort of completed? Sara: Well, I feel like the Ellie books are pretty much done. I feel like they’re on hiatus. I’ve learned never to say never, but I feel like that series has ten books and that’s a good long series. And I imagine Ellie and her kids and her husband as having a nice quiet time and no murders and no mayhem going on. So that one’s pretty much done. On the Run Moving is Murder, the first Ellie Avery mystery by Sara Rosett. I’m writing another book in the On the Run series and that will probably be the last one in that series. And then I will continue to do the Murder On location and the High Society Series. So narrowing it down just a bit. Jenny: Great. You also teach an online writing course. I think. on outlining cozy mysteries, which is really helping people to plot a whole storyline. Do you find this much crossover between writers and readers in that course? Do some of your readers say I’m really a hopeful writer in disguise. Sara: There have been a few people that want to write their own book. Most of my readers are interested in reading the books and not really writing them. They’re interested in the process, like what goes into it and research. But only a few I know have gone on to write books. And I know one woman, she wrote in romance. So, you know, you just you just never know how it’s going to go. Jenny: Turning a little now to your wider career away from the focus on the individual books. You’ve mentioned that you were a military mom. Tell us about your life before you started writing fiction and how have had those experiences fit into work? The adventures of the military wife Sara: Well, I think a moving has always given me a lot of material to be writing about. The military life was something that no one had done before. And it was very interesting. A lot of people didn’t know a lot of details about that. So I incorporated some of the things and experiences we’d have of moving to a new place and different experiences in the Squadron and on the base. What was funny about that was I didn’t think I had anything to write about because I was looking at all these people that were writing cooking mysteries and maybe their heroine was an archaedeologist. And I was like, oh, I have nothing to write about. But then someone asked me about being a military spouse and they asked all these questions like, how often do you move in? Does your husband work out every day and run five miles? No, that doesn’t happen. But so I thought, oh, these people don’t know what that life is like. So that is something I could write. The secret of her success? So I used that in the first series to help me launch a series because it was something new and different. And I felt like I could kind of give a window into that type of life. And before that, I worked in a company that wrote travel brochures. And so I got to write about all these beautiful places and interesting places. But I had never been able to travel. So later when the opportunity came to travel, I was all for it Jenny: Is there one thing you’ve done more than any other perhaps that you would credit with your success as an author? Sara: Probably just that I’m pretty determined. It takes a long time to write a book. And once I decided I was going to try it, I kept at it until I got it finished. And I would say that just keeping going is a big deal because usually you’re by yourself and when you first start out, you don’t have a support system of other writers or writer friends to help you out. So I would say just that when I decide to do something, I usually do it. A writer’s support system Jenny: And how have you put together that support system? Are you both mainly traditionally published? Sara: Well, the first series, the Ellie series was traditionally published and then I started hearing about indie books and indie writers and I thought I’d better check this out. So the all my other series are indie published. I’ve met a lot of writers at writers conferences. You can meet in person online and that’s great. But when you can meet somebody in person and have a meal with them, you just get to know them a little bit better, I think. So that’s how I’ve established a lot of friendships. I do have a lot of friends that are also indie authors. And we have some friends in the area that there we meet for lunch a couple times a month just to catch up and see what’s going on. And that’s wonderful. A businesslike approach Jenny: Yes. It seems to me that underneath the flow of books, you’ve had a very clear sighted career path as well, that you really have approached it as a business. You’ve got a lot of very good structural aspects of your work in place. And you’ve actually really boned up on that side of things, I think, haven’t you? Sara: Oh, yes. Once I realized that indie publishing was viable and that I could write what I enjoyed and that it would sell. I thought, you know, I have so many possibilities. So, yes, I’m very interested in keeping keeping it going as a business. I love writing, but I also love being able to share the stories with everyone. Jenny: That’s fantastic. And how many books do you try and publish a year? I mean, there was a lot of emphasis on rapid release in indie publishing. Sara: I try to do two to three year. I know lots of people that go a lot faster than that, but I just don’t think I can do what I want to do and keep up a pace. faster than that. So I guess what I’m aiming for. Time out to relax Jenny: Yes. And how do you contract out things like covers and editing and so forth? Sara: Yes.. Because I if I tried to do my own covers, it could take weeks just to decide on the font. I’m terrible at stuff like that. Jenny: Yes, I can appreciate that. And how do you relax when you’re not working? If it’s all home based and you’re your own boss, how do you make sure that you give yourself time pff? Sara: Well, I do love my job, so it is hard to put it aside sometimes, but I do. I love to read and I love historical mysteries and I love to walk and hike. It’s pretty flat round here. So we don’t really get to do much hiking, but we do walking. And I like to shop for bargains. There’s discount stores around here I love to prowl around and see what bargains I can find. Sara as reader – what she likes Jenny: Great. Sounds like fun. Turning to Sara as a reader, because this is called The Joys of Binge Reading. You’ve mentioned the Golden Age mysteries. Who else do you like to read? Sara: Oh, I love to read Agatha Christie. You can’t go wrong with that. I enjoy her books. I enjoy Dorothy Sayers. Patricia Wentworth was a new author that I’d never heard of. I discovered her books recently. An author that had a big impact on me was Mary Stewart. I love her romantic suspense with the travel and the smart heroines who get involved in these conspiracies or things that are much bigger than themselves and have to figure out a way to get out of them to solve the problem or the mystery. And also I love Elizabeth Peters books. I think her Vicky Bliss series is a lot of fun. Jenny: That’s fantastic. I’m not so familiar with Patricia Wentworth, What sort of thing does she write? A perfect Golden Age voice Sara: She has a female detective, Miss Silver, I think. Similar to Miss Marple, in a long series. I think the first one is called Grey Mask. I had never heard of her. And I thought, oh, a new woman’s female sleuth series set in the Golden Age? It’s perfect. Sound fun! When when we were talking about your your character surprising you, I interviewed a author called Clara Benson a few months back and she had this funny story that she’d started off writing a series where she made it sound as if it was genuinely set in the 1920s and that it was an old manuscript that had been discovered. And then after she got into the series, this conceit became quite difficult to manage. So after a few books, she had to come clean with her readers that the author was really her, and some of them thought it was terrific and some of them were rather annoyed. What would you change? Sara: I’ve read that series and I remember thinking, I wonder if this is from the Golden Age. It really had the feeling of a Golden Age book. I do remember when she told her readers that she was alive. And I thought, oh, Yes!. Jenny: You were one of the nice ones. Some of them were actually disappointed she was alive. Circling around, looking at your career over the long haul, if you were doing it all again, is there anything that you would change? Sara: It would be smart if when I started writing, I’d tried to write more books.earlier on. But I was most traditionally published and they just wanted one book a year usually. And I had little kids at that time. So I think that things have worked out fine the way they are. It would be nice if I had a huge backlog of books that I was just able to publish, you know, slowly over time. But there’s not much I would change. Jenny: Yes. And do you think that being trad published, particularly at that time and with young children, was actually quite a good introduction? What’s next for Sara, the writer? Sara: Yes, it was really good. And I learned a lot about the process, because a lot of indie publishing is project management. It’s like you’ve got order the cover and schedule things and just keep it all rolling. And so I didn’t have to do a lot of what is traditionally published author, but I was able to see the systems they had set up for this stuff. So it was really good. Jenny: Yeah, that’s great. So what is next for Sarah, the writer, and how does your next 12 months look like? Give us a little insight into that. And I don’t suppose you’ve got any new series on the horizon. You’ve got a hands full with what you’ve got on at the moment. Sara: No, I have enough to do. I’ll be working on Book Four coming out in High Society series, then Murder In Black Tie, that comes out in October. And I’m finishing up the next book in the On the Run series, and that will be called Duplicity. And so that will be out next year. Keeping the series going And then I’ll go back to the High Society series and write another book or two and that and then back to the Murder on Location series. So it’s just kind of rotating through and trying to keep keep all the series going. Jenny: It must be quite nice to have a bit of a change of location and time frame. You save yourself from getting stuck, don’t you? Sara: Yes. It is nice to be able to switch back and forth. And it’s what I learned that I decide if I did the High Society series that I would write two books back to back and not edit them until the second book was finished. Because I wanted to try a rapid release. It’s a big deal right now where people hold back books and release three or four within six weeks, which I didn’t want to do that. But I did want to write two books back to back and then release one and then maybe three months later release the other. And that was an interesting writing process because I found things that when I wrote book two, I was like, oh, I need to go back and change this. These couple of details in book one. And it helped me have a longer view of the series. So I enjoyed that. So I may try and do two books at a time. It’ll be longer between releases if I do that. But I did like that writing process. Where to find Sara online Jenny: And there is also quite a bit of discussion online as with a rapid release, really is that fantastic? Some people are now starting to say that perhaps. it isn’t that fantastic. There’s a bit of conversation about that. Sara: It can wear you out. Some people are trying to write, you know, five, six books and release them over a couple weeks or months. And some people can do that. And that’s great. But I’m not built to do that. And if I do that, I’d probably go crazy. Jenny: So do you like interacting with your readers and what can they find you online? Sara: Yes, I love to hear from readers. I’m at sararosett.com and I’m also on Instagram a lot and Twitter and Facebook and just all the usual places. Jenny: How do you avoid having a time sink? Avoiding the social media sink Sara: Oh, for the social media? I spend most my time on Instagram for my social media time. I like that platform because you can look at the pictures and make some comments and interact and then you can be done. On Facebook and Twitter I usually just use my notifications. I go in and check in. If somebody is commenting on something, I’ll get a reply. But I try and stay off the feed that just scrolls forever and ever because that’s like an endless time sink. Jenny: Well, that’s great. Sara, thank you so much for your time. It’s been fantastic to talk and I really am in awe of the production schedule that you’re keeping up and the very businesslike way that you’re approaching everything. All the best with Murder in Black Tie, which will be out in October. Readers can preorder on Amazon or other or other services. I’m sure. Sara: Yes. Yes. It’s everywhere. Jenny: So great. Thank you so much. And all the best with your writing. All right. Thank you for having me. This was a lot of fun. Thanks To Our Technical Support: The Joys of Binge Reading podcast is put together with wonderful technical help from Dan Cotton at DC Audio Services. Dan is an experienced sound and video engineer who’s ready and available to help you with your next project… Seek him out at [email protected] or Phone + 64 – 21979539. He’s fast, takes pride in getting it right, and lovely to work with. Our voice overs are done by Abe Raffills, and Abe’s another gem. He got 20 years of experience on both sides of the camera/microphone as a cameraman/director and also voice artist and television presenter. Abe’s vocal delivery is both light hearted and warm and he is super easy to work with no matter the job. You’ll find him at [email protected]

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