Interview with Mystery Author Teddie Peacock

Check out my newest author interview with mystery author Teddie Peacock!

Alexis: Tell us about yourself! What would you like readers to know about you?

Teddie: Hi! My name is Teddie. I just wrote and published my first book at 59. My second book publishes on May 30th. I taught college level writing classes for 11 years. I still don’t know where commas go! A death in my family and relocation to another state with my husband’s company left me feeling out of sorts. On a whim, I joined my neighborhood book club “Book Club is my Alibi.” These wonderful, supportive women encouraged me to write and publish my first book Secret Keepers.

Picture of Teddie Peacock, the author of Secret Keepers

Alexis: Awesome! What book or books have most influenced you as a writer?

Teddie: I love Jane Austen novels, and all of the descriptive details of every day life and relationships.

Alexis: Jane Austin is one of my favorite authors too! What are some tropes of fiction in your genre that you love/hate? Why?

Teddie: I hate the shocking “ twist that no one saw coming” that makes no sense. For me as a reader, there has to be some tie in that makes sense. I love that you can write “ over the top” villains that you love to hate!

Alexis: Agreed about twists! I love when I get a really shocking reveal, and then I look back through a book and see tiny hints or clues that showed it was coming. Who is your favorite character in your book? What do you like about them? (or, which character do you hate most and why)

Teddie: Tessa is my favorite character. She is the moral compass in the story and the “ truth seeker”. Kelly Ryan is the worst! Everyone hates him and I’m not sure he has even one redeeming quality.

Alexis: What do you like to do other than read or write? Do you have any interesting hobbies?

Teddie: I kid myself into believing I am an awesome flower gardener. When really I am an awesome neglectful weed gardener.

Alexis: I also love gardening, but it can definitely be a challenge! Tell us about a mystery/urban legend from your hometown (or another place you’ve lived).

Teddie: On the farm across the hill from ours in KY, certain times during the year, the old large plantation style farmhouse would appear to be engulfed in flames. Legend goes that the daughter and her handmaid were burned to death when the house caught on fire due to a lightening strike . The daughter was being forced to marry a local doctor when she was in love with a Civil War officer who later went on to become a very famous general. The daughter is rumored to haunt their family cemetery calling the name of her forsaken soulmate.

Alexis: What a fascinating story! What TV shows/Movies do you like to watch or stream? 

Teddie: My all time favorite was Supernatural. I just rewatched Outlander. I’m trying to pace myself watching Bridgerton.

Alexis: I’m a huge fan of Bridgerton, and I’ve watched some of Supernatural. What’s your favorite animal? 

Teddie: Dogs - definitely dogs. They love you even on the worst days.

Alexis: Do you like playing video games? What’s your favorite game right now? Has a video game ever influenced you as a writer?

Teddie: Nope! But I do watch my young grandson play and act like I know what is going on.

Alexis: Do you like playing board games or role playing games like D&D? If so, which games do you like best?

Teddie: I do like board games. But right now they mostly trend toward kid games

Alexis: What advice do you have for other writers or people just getting started in writing?

Teddie: Just Do It! Don’t listen to that self doubter in your head. Be your own best cheerleader! Get out of your head and read your work like a reader.

Alexis: That’s a great answer! Certainly we can sometimes really discourage ourselves with too many doubts. How do you choose what books you want to read?

Teddie: Book club mostly! But I also try to support other indie authors and read their work.

Alexis: Great! I read tons of books, but definitely read indie when a book speaks to me.

Cover of Secret Keepers, a book by Teddie Peacock

About Secret Keepers

Kelly Ryan was bad, very bad and they all knew it!
But they were friends with him anyway. Kelly was a walking, talking chaos creator.

Years later, when Kelly dies suddenly under mysterious circumstances; Tessa can't let it go. Not after the night that caused so much destruction, shattered friendships and changed all of them, forever.

They've all been telling lies and keeping secrets about that night and nearly everything else. They all had reasons to end Kelly but who wanted revenge enough to actually do it? Can Tessa stop the cycle of destruction that comes from being in Kelly's orbit? Lies, secrets, loyalty, revenge and murder- how far would they really go?

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Interview with Sherill Joseph, Author of Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse

Congrats to author Sherrill Joseph on the release of the next exciting book in her Botanic Hill Detectives mystery series, Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse. Here’s her interview, and she also has a Giveaway for one of her paperbacks!

Tell us about yourself! What would you like readers to know about you?

For me, life has been all about kids. I’m a mom, grandmother, and a retired teacher turned kids’ mystery book author. I think kids are the best people on the planet and too often don’t get enough credit for their blossoming intelligence. I write to entertain kids but also to show them, through my mature, polite role-model detective characters, how to approach challenges with courage and teamwork. (My detectives were based on my fifth-grade students and twelve-year-old twin cousins). In my books, I strive to present positive characters of varying ethnicities, abilities, and disabilities to help grow anti-racist kids who can feel comfortable wherever they find themselves in the world.

Also, like my detective character Rani Kumar, I have lexical-gustatory synesthesia. That’s where we taste or smell something when we hear a word or name. For example, Rani says her name makes her taste raw green beans. My name Sherrill makes me taste cherry jelly. My last name Joseph makes me taste a Mounds candy bar (coconut and dark chocolate). Not all tastes are pleasant, however. We were both born with this mental ability (not a disability) and can’t control the tastes we get. We also can’t turn it off, so you might say that we experience the world in a different way from most people. I know that it has enhanced my ability to write descriptively.

What book or books have most influenced you as a writer?

Nancy Drew (The Secret of Red Gate Farm; The Password to Larkspur Lane were faves) and Phyllis A. Whitney mysteries (The Mystery of the Green Cat; The Secret of the Samurai Sword) enthralled me as a child. I still read those for fun and inspiration. As an English major in college, I came to love the classics and still do, especially the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (“The Hound of the Baskervilles”) and the mysteries of Wilkie Collins (The Moonstone; The Woman in White). In this century, I am awed and inspired by the writing style of Hazel Gaynor (The Cottingley Secret), in particular, her use of metaphor and descriptive language. For children’s authors, I enjoy Steven K. Smith (The Virginia Mysteries) and Nancy Springer (The Enola Holmes Mysteries).

What book or books have most influenced you as a writer?

Nancy Drew (The Secret of Red Gate Farm; The Password to Larkspur Lane were faves) and Phyllis A. Whitney mysteries (The Mystery of the Green Cat; The Secret of the Samurai Sword) enthralled me as a child. I still read those for fun and inspiration. As an English major in college, I came to love the classics and still do, especially the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (“The Hound of the Baskervilles”) and the mysteries of Wilkie Collins (The Moonstone; The Woman in White). In this century, I am awed and inspired by the writing style of Hazel Gaynor (The Cottingley Secret), in particular, her use of metaphor and descriptive language. For children’s authors, I enjoy Steven K. Smith (The Virginia Mysteries) and Nancy Springer (The Enola Holmes Mysteries).

What are you doing to de-stress during the pandemic? Is there any coping mechanism you’d recommend (or NOT recommend)?

As a writer, my daily routine hasn’t changed that much since the pandemic began. I spend most of each day at my desk pounding away on the computer. This keeps me out of harm’s way. My work and routine also keep me grounded. I would recommend to others to find something create, positive, and other-focused to take your mind off the current world situation and your potential fears. And when my dog and I go out to walk, I always wear a mask and socially distance. The precautions we take protect others, too.

Tell us about a mystery/urban legend from your hometown (or another place you’ve lived).

Here in San Diego, California, my hometown, there are still some sidewalks downtown with inlaid pop-bottle-glass tiles. Occasionally, if you look down at just the right time, you can see someone or something moving below! Even some lights flashing. Legend has it that aliens from outer space are down there conducting experiments on humans.

What’s your favorite animal?

Ever since I was a child, I have loved lambs. I had a collection of lamb figurines in glass and plastic. I had rubber lambs, stuffed lambs, books about lambs, and pictures of lambs. Maybe lambs are the inspiration for my currently owning a dog who looks like one!

Do you have pet(s)? If so, share a picture of your pet!

I have an adorable poodle-bichon rescue named Jimmy Lambchop. (There’s that lamb again!)

It shows him with his glorious, fluffy winter coat, which is my favorite look on him. He’s also my cowriter, watching me at my computer and cheering me on while he half dozes on the bed behind me. He’s my little precious boy who takes me for two walks every day. I prefer him to most people! He provides me with unconditional love. That’s hard to find.

Jimmy Lambchop , the adorable little doggie of author Sherill Joseph!

What advice do you have for other writers or people just getting started in writing?

Just start writing. Don’t let anyone dissuade you. Write first for yourself, getting inspiration from people, places, books, movies, music, artworks, and topics that interest you. Find ways to bring those into your writing to make it enjoyable and authentic. Set aside time daily to write. Carry something so you can make a quick note if an idea hits you. If literary agents turn you down, self publish. Share your work with the world on your own terms.

How do you choose what books you want to read?

They choose me. I gravitate toward mysteries, but I find that whatever book I’m reading has something special to offer me at just the right moment.

What advice do you have for other writers or people just getting started in writing?

Just start writing. Don’t let anyone dissuade you. Write first for yourself, getting inspiration from people, places, books, movies, music, artworks, and topics that interest you. Find ways to bring those into your writing to make it enjoyable and authentic. Set aside time daily to write. Carry something so you can make a quick note if an idea hits you. If literary agents turn you down, self publish. Share your work with the world on your own terms.

How do you choose what books you want to read?

They choose me. I gravitate toward mysteries, but I find that whatever book I’m reading has something special to offer me at just the right moment.

More about Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse

In 1945, Isabela de Cordoba’s great-grandfather, the famous silent movie actor Lorenzo de Cordoba, mysteriously hid a legendary, multimillion-dollar emerald somewhere on the family’s sprawling Eucalyptus Street estate. Seventy years later, the gem remains concealed. Nicknamed the “Green Curse,” the emerald is blamed for the Southern California familia’s numerous, untimely deaths..

On her twenty-first birthday, Isabela receives a secret letter with a cryptic poem. These documents from the long-deceased Lorenzo invite her to hunt for the gemstone. But first, she must decipher the poem’s eight stanzas for clues. To assist, Isabela hires her thirteen-year-old neighbors, the four Botanic Hill Detectives—twins Lanny and Lexi Wyatt, and their best friends, Moki Kalani and Rani Kumar. Eerie footsteps inside the mansion, unexplained occurrences in the adjacent cemetery, and the mysterious tenant in the backyard casita challenge them. But they ingeniously make progress on the poem’s meaning with startling discoveries. Sliding wall panels, a secret room, and hidden passages reveal much. The detectives aren’t the only ones looking for the emerald. The perilous race for the de Cordoba treasure is on!

More About Sherill Joseph

Sherrill Joseph will be forever inspired by her beautiful students in the San Diego public schools where she taught for thirty-five years before retiring and becoming a published author. She has peopled and themed the Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries with children and adult characters of various abilities, races, cultures, and interests. Sherrill strongly believes that children need to find not only themselves in books but others from different races and social situations if all are to become tolerant, anti-racist world citizens. In addition, the author created her detectives—patterned after her own fifth-grade students and twelve-year-old twin cousins—to be mature, smart, polite role models that will appeal to parents, teachers, but especially to kids who seek to realize their greatest potential with courage and self- respect.

Sherrill is a lexical-gustatory synesthete and native San Diegan where she lives in a 1928 Spanish- style house in a historic neighborhood with her poodle-bichon mix, Jimmy Lambchop. Other loves include her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. She can’t leave out dark chocolate, popcorn, old movies, purple, and daisies. Having never lived in a two-story house, she is naturally fascinated by staircases. Sherrill is a member of SCBWI and the Authors Guild and promises many more adventures with the squad to come!

Books: Nutmeg Street: Egyptian Secrets and Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and BookBub

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Book Spotlight: Altered Helix by Stephanie Hansen

Altered Helix is the first installment of a YA Paranormal Mystery Series, and it’s available for $0.99 on Amazon! There’s also a giveaway for a $30 Amazon Gift Card that you can find here.

Book Description:

I didn’t want to take the traditional path. First, I wasn’t ready for college. Second, I was going to live with my best friend, Tiff, and work at the Haunted House. Third, did I mention the hot guy Josh that works there too?

The most exciting thing about Austria’s new job, at a local haunted house, was the fact that the toughest looking people screamed the loudest. But when she meets the boy without a home, Josh, Austria’s life takes intriguing and eventful turns. Up until now, Josh has managed to hang with his Street crowd, but they’re in danger, and so is Austria, the girl Josh recently fell for. The group finds themselves joining forces with previously considered enemies who also now find themselves in danger.

Deeply compassionate and full of twists, Altered Helix captures the struggle of polarized people that must work together for the greater

Excerpt:

Some dangers come barreling at you like a freight train. Others slide right under your nose without being noticed. When I took the job at the haunted house, I never imagined I’d be kidnapped.

As I’m blacking out, it’s my sense of gratitude that brings me peace in my final moments. At least I was able to experience most of my life’s desires before the end.

I’d found the siblings for which I’d yearned while growing up. I’d met someone with whom to share the rest of my life. And perhaps best of all, after many years, I was finally able to see my father again.

Ironic, isn’t it? To find everything I’d ever desired, just before I die. The black spots in my vision grow closer and closer together until they completely consume my sight. I imagine the cut they’ll make in my body when it’s gutted. My breathing becomes shallow. Then, I feel the sharp pressure from the point of the blade against my flesh as it breaks through my skin. My body won’t move. I want to cry out, but my voice fails me.

About the Author

Stephanie Hansen’s short story, Break Time, and poetry has been featured in Mind’s Eye literary magazine. The Kansas Writers Association published her short story, Existing Forces, appointing her as a noted author. She has held a deep passion for writing since early childhood, but a brush with death caused her to allow it to grow. She’s part of an SCBWI critique group in Lawrence, KS and two local book clubs. She attends many writers’ conferences including the Writing Day Workshops, New York Pitch, Penned Con, New Letters, All Write Now, Show Me Writers Master Class, BEA, and Nebraska Writers Guild conference as well as Book Fairs and Comic-Cons. She is a member of the deaf and hard of hearing community.

Website: https://www.authorstephaniehansen.com/

Social Media: Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

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