Greetings Readers!
Only one more week till the publication of Moonlight and Misadventure on June 18th! Today it’s my pleasure to welcome fellow author, Bethany Maines to Cyber Cafe. We both share a love for and write noir crime fiction and readers will really enjoy her dark tale, Tammy Loves Derek.
Bethany is an award-winning author of romantic action-adventure and mystery novels that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind-end. She has published several independent novels, two novels with Atria, and numerous short stories in Frolic, Shotgun Honey, and Switchblade Magazine. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel.
Tammy Loves Derek is a wonderfully dark and scary tale. What inspired you to write it?
I participate in the Seattle Noir at the Bar a few times a year. Noir at the Bar is a live reading event focusing on crime fiction and every time I attend I’m inspired to up my game. Every writer’s take on noir is a little different, but at our January 2020 event, someone made a crack about femme fatales. That got me thinking about writing a crime story from the “bad girl’s’” point of view.
I set out to write such a story planning to read it at our next Noir at the Bar event. Unfortunately, COVID hit, and in-person events were canceled. I had to start looking for a new home for it. I was thrilled when I saw the announcement for Moonlight and Misadventure – I was certain my story would fit in.
And it certainly does! Tell us more about Tammy Loves Derek.
Tammy Loves Derek centers on Tammy Lee Swanley. She has a stable job at a med spa, but she also has a cheating boyfriend and dwindling prospects for getting the gold-plated life she was hoping for. So Tammy comes up with five-step plan for wealth and happiness. Hint: that plan might not include her boyfriend, Derek!
What do you especially enjoy about being part of the Moonlight and Misadventure anthology?
I love the team effort of being part of anthology. It’s nice to work with other authors and I can’t wait to read all of the stories.
Tell us more about your writing. Do you write short fiction or novels or both?
I write both novels and short fiction. Of the two, I find short fiction to be the harder one! Short fiction has to contain so much within such tight parameters. Every word starts to matter!
You love to explore sub-genres in crime fiction. Tell us more!
I have one crime series – The Shark Santoyo Crime Series – which is a bit of a mobster mash-up and my homage to those fast moving pulp reads of old. But I usually write mysteries and what I would call “women’s action-adventure”. My novels are fast-paced, funny, female-driven yarns that keep the reader turning pages. I delve a bit in Romantic Suspense (Oooh! Naked kissing parts!), but we’re not hanging around to stare dreamily into each other’s eyes – there are more people who need to be punched in the face!
My short fiction, however, tends to be straight crime. I don’t know why, but my stories all involve murder, robbery, and/or mayhem. That may say something about my personality, but I’m choosing not to speculate!
How did you become a writer?
I always wrote when I was a kid, but a high-school English teacher told me that I wasn’t very creative. I thought that meant that I probably wasn’t a very good writer, but Simon & Schuster disagreed with her, so she can pretty much suck it. (No kidding!) But I guess my point is that I didn’t think writing was something I could do until after college. That’s when I really started to attack it as something more than a hobby or something I did for my own entertainment.
That’s really inspiring, Bethany! Be sure to visit Bethany on her website: https://bethanymaines.com
Follow her on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBethanyMaines Instagram: @AuthorBethanyMaines ; Twitter: @BethanyMaines
About Moonlight & Misadventure: Whether it’s vintage Hollywood, the Florida everglades, the Atlantic City boardwalk, or a farmhouse in Western Canada, the twenty authors represented in this collection of mystery and suspense interpret the overarching theme of “moonlight and misadventure” in their own inimitable style where only one thing is assured: Waxing, waning, gibbous, or full, the moon is always there, illuminating things better left in the dark.
Release date: June 18, 2021 in all e-book formats and trade paperback on Amazon and at all the usual suspects.