Q&A: Brewing Up Murder by Neila Young

Grab your favourite coffee and pull up a comfy chair because today’s guest on What Cathy Read Next is Neila Young, author of Brewing Up Murder, the first in the Coffee Cup Mysteries series of cozy mysteries. I’m delighted that Neila has agreed to answer some questions about the book, its inspiration and her approach to writing. Oh, and about coffee, of course!

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About the Book

As the owner of Mystery Cup Café in Wilton, Missouri, a town made famous by a string of long-ago murders Blake Harper is used to the mysterious. When her barista is found strangled in a mound of coffee beans, Blake vows to find the killer, even though her sister, the town’s lead police detective, tells her to stay out of it. Blake finds plenty of suspects, like the owners of a rival coffee shop and the handsome new bookstore owner. But when new threats are made, she soon realizes the danger is centered around Mystery Cup and someone is targeting her personally. Will Blake be able to solve the murder, find a new barista, and perfect her recipe for espresso brownies before she becomes the next victim?

Format:	ebook	Publisher:	Red Adept Publishing	Pages:	205
Publication:	19th Jul 2017	Genre:	Mystery

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Brewing Up Murder on Goodreads

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Interview: Neila Young, author of Brewing Up Murder

Before we get to your book, how do you like your coffee, Neila?

Coffee really is happiness in a cup, isn’t it? My first cup of coffee of the day is always with cream, no sugar. If I’m drinking brewed coffee, I don’t like it sweet. But if I venture out for my foo-foo coffee, at someplace like The Roasterie or Starbucks, I can easily get in the calorie danger zone when it comes to white chocolate mochas and extra whip.

Without giving too much away, can you tell us a bit about Brewing Up Murder?

In Brewing Up Murder, we meet Blake Harper, who owns Mystery Cup Café in the small town of Wilton, Missouri. Wilton is famous for a long-ago murder and draws in the tourists because it is one of the most haunted towns in America. When one of Blake’s employees ends up murdered in her cafe, she takes on the task of tracking down the killer, much to the chagrin of her police detective sister, Kyle. The suspects are numerous with rival coffee shop owners, the gorgeous new bookstore owner, who seems a little shady, and all the quirky characters that frequent Mystery Cup. As Blake gets closer to finding out the truth, she quickly becomes the killer’s next target!

How did you get the idea for the book?

Mystery Cup is located in Wilton’s downtown, which is inspired by a combination of the town I grew up in and the town where I live now. Most Saturday mornings, my husband and I get up early, head to the farmers’ market, and hang out in a little coffee shop downtown. We sit on a big fluffy couch by the window, drink coffee, and people watch. Being a writer, I immediately start spinning stories in my head about people. I always start with the advice of one of my very favorite authors, Mary Higgins Clark, who says to start by asking “what if?” and “suppose that…” For example, “Suppose that the woman over there eating a cookie walked in on a robbery. What if she saw something that she shouldn’t?” So yes, if you’re in a coffee shop with me and see me staring at you, it’s quite possible you’ll end up in my next book.

You’ve written a number of romance novels under the pen name N J Young. What made you want to tackle a different genre?

My two favorite genres are cozy mysteries and romantic suspense. I love romance, but I need a mystery to really drive the story forward. I started to realize when writing my romance novels, that I was way more involved in the mystery aspect of the story then I was the romance. That’s when I asked myself, “Why not just write a mystery instead?” And I absolutely love it!!

Brewing Up Murder is described as a ‘cozy mystery’. What for you makes a mystery ‘cozy’?

I know I’ve already mentioned it, but I really love the small-town feel of a cozy. I think it’s because I don’t have a big family myself, and in a small town, everyone knows each other, so the atmosphere is that it’s one big family. I love that. It gets the readers more invested in the characters and their journeys.  I also love great suspense without excessive violence. To me, it is always scarier to describe how I hear the thump, thump, thump of footsteps coming up the stairs than it is to describe in detail how someone was murdered. Cozy mysteries are great with the scare, the suspense, and the whodunit, without having to worry about the gore.

Your book has lots of characters but who was your favourite character to write?

My favorite character to write in this book was definitely Rachel, hands down. Rachel is married to Blake’s brother, Ryan. I love her because to me, she has it all. She has a great marriage, she’s a mom to twins, she’s smart, she’s hilarious, and she keeps Blake in check. I’m actually seriously considering the possibility of a spin-off with Rachel because I love her so much!

I’m sure there has to be coffee involved but do you have a special place to write or any writing rituals?

Ha-ha, of course there’s coffee involved! Coffee shops are great places to sit and write because if I get stuck, I can start people-watching and making up stories for them. That’s really a great way to jumpstart my brain. Another thing that helps if I get stuck is getting up and moving around. I’ve gotten some weird looks when I get up, circle the perimeter of the café five times, and then sit back down and start writing again. But even though I love coffee shops, if I can have alone time at home, then I love to just sit in my favorite oversized chair with my dog curled up next to me and write. My kids keep me so busy that unfortunately, that doesn’t happen as often as I’d like.

What is your favourite and least favourite part of the writing process?

I really love what I have started referring to as “accidental genius.” The first thing I do in my process is sit down and write an outline. I work through the story, summarize each chapter, and plan out all of the major plot points that I want to make sure I hit. Then I sit down at the computer, and completely deviate from that. LOL! When I am writing, I get so into a story, that it’s almost like I can feel what a character would do and what they wouldn’t. Sometimes, once I get into it, I realize that certain characters would never do or say what I had them doing in my outline. That’s when new ideas just pop into my head. This has resulted in minor characters turning into major ones and coming up with key clues that I never would have thought of before. I’ve even written one story where halfway through, I decided to change who the killer was. So I really never know exactly what’s going to happen, and I love it!

The least favorite part is the fact that the editing side of my brain can often clash with the writing side. I have an editing background, and one of the worst things an author can do is write as though her editor is looking over her shoulder. Let me tell you, when you’re an editor, that’s near impossible. I often have to remind myself that the first draft needs to come from the heart, and editing comes later. That’s not always easy.

Which other writers do you admire, and why?

I have a lot of authors that I admire on a personal and professional level. My good friend Nicole McLaughlin is a wonderful romance writer because she has some of the best descriptions I have read. She has been a huge inspiration for me.  One of my favorite cozy mystery authors is Denise Grover Swank, who lives just a few miles from me. I originally picked up one of her books because we have a mutual friend who recommended her to me. Now I’ve read several because I absolutely love her characters as well as her plots. She is great at coming up with unique ideas, and she really embraces the small-town atmosphere in her books, which I love.  Honestly, I admire any author who has written a lot of books and still manages to keep their stories and mysteries fresh and exciting.

Is the next Coffee Cup Mystery already brewing?

Oh, yes! I am about halfway done writing it, and I really can’t wait to share it with everyone. The second book in the series is tentatively titled Daggers and Decaf, and it takes place around Halloween.

Thank you, Neila, for such fascinating answers and explaining the role of coffee in successful mystery writing! I’m really looking forward to reading Brewing Up Murder.

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About the Author

Neila Young is a Midwestern girl and a lover of coffee, live music, and horror movies, not necessarily in that order. Writing (and reading) mysteries are Neila’s passion, and she approaches each day by thinking, “everything is a story.” She has been writing all her life and can’t remember a time when she wanted to do anything else. She loves to take notes and spin tales about the quirky characters she meets, and she has found that she can create some great stories by asking “what if” and “suppose that…”

Neila studied journalism at the University of Kansas and then spent many years suffering the trials of corporate America, writing about everything from financial risk management to software user manuals to website copy about radiators (sadly, that’s not a joke). She finally decided to take the plunge and write the cozy mysteries she loves so much, complete with recipes!

When Neila is not writing, she’s probably hanging out at a coffee shop or fighting evil with the help of her very supportive husband, two awesome children who constantly ask to have characters named after them, and the most lovable dog in the world, Dizzy.

Neila also writes romance novels under the pen name, N J Young.

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