#authorinterview ~ Rivers and Creaks by Marc Jedel @dollycas #blogtour

1. What’s your background?

I’ve been an avid reader for as long as I can remember and have wanted to write a novel since I was a kid. Years of working in high-tech marketing honed my ability to write fiction. At my job, we just called it advertising and emails. Finally I overcame my inertia and started writing novels in earnest. 

Like my character, Andy, from the Redwoods Country Mystery series, I continue to grow older and would prefer not to run a bed-and-breakfast inn. Like my characters Jonas and Elizabeth from the Ozarks Lake Mystery series, I grew up in the South and spent plenty of time in and around Arkansas. Like my character, Marty from the Silicon Valley Mystery series, I now live in Silicon Valley, work in high-tech, and enjoy bad puns. Like all my protagonists, I also have a dog, although mine is neurotic, sweet, and small, with little apparent appreciation for my jokes. (I think he has a dry sense of humor.)

1. Tell us a little about this novel. What gave you the idea?

I describe Rivers and Creaks as Grumpy Old Men meets Schitt’s Creek. I enjoyed that show and was thinking about setting a new series in a small town full of quirky people. My family went on a vacation to Monte Rio, California to visit the redwoods, wineries, and play on the river. While my wife and I were walking our dog through the small town, we started discussing what kind of interesting people might live there and what kind of humorous mysteries could be based in the area. Although the novel is set in this real town, all of the people or businesses in the story are completely made up. 

And who didn’t enjoy Walter Matthau in that classic comedy movie, Grumpy Old Men? 

1. What makes your books different from others out there in this genre?

I’ve become bored reading all the seemingly similar cozies where the protagonist happily runs a bakery, bookstore, or bed & breakfast and the police, violating nearly every standard and practice they actually follow, share all sorts of detailed investigative information with this amateur sleuth. So I made sure my characters don’t work with the police. While a bed and breakfast is involved in Rivers and Creaks, how Andy feels about it and handles the responsibilities is quite different from the normal cozy. 

While my Ozarks Lake Mystery series have both a female and male protagonist with their own point-of-view chapters, Rivers and Creaks and my Silicon Valley Mystery series have male protagonists, which is unusual in this genre. 

1. What are three things most people don’t know about you?

Played professional soccer while completing my year as a Rhodes Scholar, 2) Nominated for both Pulitzer and Nobel prizes for my previous novels, 3) Likes to make up answers when asked questions for which I don’t have a good response.

1. Is there anything about writing you find most challenging?

As a mystery writer, I spend a lot of time pondering new, interesting, and plausible ways to kill someone. It’s way more challenging than you might think. Especially when you want an amateur sleuth to figure it out without any help from the police and you don’t want readers to guess whodunnit. All this requires some very unusual internet searches. I’m just glad no law enforcement officer has ever asked me questions about my browser history.

1. What is the first book you remember reading?

I’d have to say it’s a tie between Go Dog Go and The Cat in the Hat. This might also explain my love for puns and entertaining word choices. What’s not to love about a story that has great wordplay and shows off awesome party hats?

1. Where do the ideas for your books come from?

For some of my other novels, a strange news article inspired those stories. A story about the unusual cases of poisoning gave me the idea for several novels. An article about diamond hunting at the Crater of Diamonds state park in Arkansas got me started on the third book in the Ozarks Lake Mystery series once I realized the park wasn’t far from where I had placed the fictional town of Jenkins, Arkansas. Reading about thieves stealing unusual items that I’d never considered valuable from a location where they could die if they slipped gave me another start for a novel. 

1. Which, of all your characters, do you think is the most like you?

I used to say that Marty Golden, my protagonist in the Silicon Valley Mystery series, was the most similar to me. Of course, Marty is a younger, funnier, and cooler version of myself—the guy I imagine I see in the mirror each morning. But Andy Shirley, the sixty-five-year-old protagonist in Rivers and Creaks, was a lot of fun to hang out with in my head. My wife is a bit concerned that I’m enjoying spending time with a grumpy old man even though I’ve told her he’s quite funny and not quite as grumpy as he thinks he is. But frankly, she’s been worried for years about all the imaginary friends that I spend time with as I write my novels. 

1. What’s next on the horizon for you?

I’m hard at work on the sixth novel in the best-selling Silicon Valley Mystery series, starring a fashion-backward, bumbling amateur sleuth who is armed only with the powers of self-delusion, the complete inability to leave a coherent voicemail message, and a good eye for detail. Uncle and Ants, the first in that series, has over 2,200 ratings on Amazon. After that, I plan more novels in the new Redwoods Country Mystery series. Beyond that, who knows?

1. Anything else to tell readers?

My novel, Rivers and Creaks, is on sale for only $0.99 during this tour. It’s available at: https://mybook.to/RiversandCreaks. You can find all my cozy mysteries at: https://www.amazon.com/Marc-Jedel/e/B07H7MVKJL. My novels are all free for Kindle Unlimited members. The first three books in the Silicon Valley Mystery series are out on audiobook from Tantor Audio, available everywhere audiobooks are sold. 

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