Guest post by Patricia Rockwell

I'm super excited to welcome another guest to my blog this week! Joining us tonight is Patricia Rockwell, author of two cozy mysteries so please give a warm welcome to Patricia! :-)

Why did I start writing cozy mysteries? I’ve always been a reader of cozy mysteries, but I didn’t actually know it. I just knew that I liked to read gentle mysteries where there was a lot of emphasis on the detecting--the puzzle solving--and not much emphasis on blood, gore, violence, and chasing. Oh, my, how I hate chasing. You know, where the main character is being pursued by the villain for chapter after chapter. I hate that! When I’m reading a mystery and a chase scene begins, I just thumb through the pages until it’s over. I like books where the amateur sleuth figures everything out and then announces the culprit and the police cart him (or her!) away--no blood, no violence, no mess! What I enjoy is figuring things out along with the detective--much like Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie. Early on in my writing career, someone informed me that books like that are called “cozy” mysteries, and I was delighted to discover that there was a label for the type of mystery that I liked to read and write.

Although I’ve always liked to read cozy mysteries, I didn’t start writing them until about four years ago when I retired from college teaching. I was a Communication professor and the only kind of writing I did up until that point was academic research. Much of that research is published. In fact, in addition to many articles in scholarly journals and a few textbooks, a book I did on sarcasm is published by Edwin Mellen Press. Of course, academic writing is serious non-fiction and is quite different from the light-hearted fiction I write now. Even so, all of my academic writing helped me learn to be an organized, thorough, and diligent writer. The world of academic publishing is very cutthroat and the “publish or perish” anthem is continually in the minds of academics trying to churn out articles so they can secure tenure or a promotion.

Now that I’m retired and able to write the kind of things I want to write, my life is more fulfilled. I spend my days writing, editing, or promoting my cozy mysteries. At the moment, I have two cozy mystery series in progress. The first one--my Pamela Barnes acoustic mystery series--follows a Psychology professor and acoustics expert at a small, regional university who uses her knowledge of sound to solve crimes. This series draws directly from my own experiences as a college teacher and researcher. My own research specialty--deception, sarcasm, and vocal cues--required me to be fluent in acoustic technology and I incorporate this knowledge into my Pamela Barnes books.

My second series--Essie Cobb senior sleuth--has just begun with a book entitled BINGOED. This series will follow the exploits of Essie Cobb, a ninety-year-old resident of an assisted living facility, as she solves mysteries that take place in her residence. In the first book, an elderly gentleman collapses and falls into a coma after winning a game of Bingo. Essie finds this suspicious and she and her buddies decide to investigate. In writing this series, I’ve drawn heavily on the exploits of my own ninety-year-old mother who lives in a local assisted living facility.

In addition to producing my own mysteries, I also publish cozy mysteries written by other authors. At present, my company Cozy Cat Press has published Diane Morlan’s TOO DEAD TO DANCE. Her second mystery SHAKE DOWN DEAD will be out in the next few months. I am actively searching for a third cozy mystery author to join the Cozy Cat Press catalogue. All of our books are available on Amazon.com in both paperback and ebook--and at Smashwords.com. You can find out more about CCP at our website: www.cozycatpress.com and more about me at my Facebook Author fan page: http://www.facebook.com/PatriciaRockwellAuthor.

Thank you, Vicky, for inviting me to talk about my books on Books, Biscuits, and Tea.
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And thank you to Patricia for joining us today! :-)