Author Spotlight: Meet Debut Cozy Author, JP Bird!
What a joy it is to bring y’all a new author! Her debut novel, Murder at First Sight, book 1 in her Suddenly Psychic series, just released yesterday from Tule Publishing on June 30. I can’t wait to read it!
JP Bird writes cozy mysteries with quirky characters that make her laugh when they disagree with the laid-out plans for their story and take her on a different path. She lives in Winnipeg, Canada, and hates the cold weather but loves the winter months because they’re a great excuse to hibernate with a cup of tea or a glass of red wine. When she’s not writing or reading, she spends her summers in the garden and her winters plotting how to win her neighbourhood Christmas display competition. They don’t know it’s a competition, but she plays to win nonetheless.
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We had a chance to sit down for a chat recently…
N: Welcome to the blog, JP. I’m so pleased to have you with me today. So, what inspired you to start writing?
A: Thank you for having me.
I’ve always loved to write but never seemed to be able to find the time to complete a book. During Covid lockdowns, I finally had time!
I told myself I needed to use this unexpected free time to finally finish writing a book. I have a folder full of half-started ones on my laptop, but I was determined to properly write, from beginning to end, a book. When I finished my first book (it was terrible but, still, it was a completed novel) I had such a sense of accomplishment. It spurned me onto continuing and The Suddenly Psychic Novels were born!
N: Murder at First Sight is your debut novel. How exciting! What is the most surprising thing you discovered about yourself while writing Murder at First Sight?
A: How very stubborn I am. I had quite a few days when I thought I wouldn’t finish this book, but I kept telling myself to just write a few more words and somehow those became a completed book.
N: What inspired the idea for your first cozy?
A: Friendship. During Covid, I was missing my friends and writing about the close relationship Amelia and her bestie Carolyn have gave me a connection to the friendships I value so much.
N: Murder at First Sight sounds like a fun book to read; which part of the book was the most fun to write?
A: So many parts. I love the chaos and ridiculous situations Amelia gets into. Writing the scene when she goes to hot yoga makes me laugh every time I read it. Or anything to do with her brother, Laurence. I adore him, he such so much fun to write about.
N: Your protagonist, Amelia Wethers accidentally discovers she has inherited psychic abilities. Did her gift take research or do you also have psychic abilities?
A: I wish! I would love to be psychic. I think all of us have some psychic abilities to a degree, but I did quite a bit of research for Amelia. A lot of it was fun research. I visited a few psychics and had my own readings done, asked a lot of questions and sat with the space to get the vibe.
N: Are any of the characters in your book similar to you or to people you know?
A: I think in part all of them. There’s a lot of characteristics I love, make me laugh or hate from the people I know/met in my characters. Amelia’s dad is definitely my late partner; I used a lot of his funny quirks when I created Jason Wethers.
N: And now for a few sort of personal questions because readers love to know more about us beyond our writing life: What do you like to do when you are not writing?
A: That’s a hard question to answer. I was widowed in 2025 and I’m navigating my way now through the person I was to this new version. My partner and I used to garden and I’m trying to get back into it, but it’s different now. I love reading, wine tastings, walking my little dog and travelling. I lived overseas in my twenties and hope to do that again at some point.
N: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
A: Find the time to write! I never thought I would be published and whenever life got busy, I would push it aside.
N: What did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I switched weekly. A teacher, a lawyer, a model (two of my brothers are over six feet tall and I thought I’d keep growing but stopped at 5’4”), but a constant theme was a writer.
N: Favorite book when you were a kid?
A: Everything by Roald Dahl.
N: Are you working on anything at the present you would like to tell our readers about?
A: I used to work in the liquor industry representing wineries around the world. I was very fortunate that I was able to visit a few. I’m at the outlining stage but I’d like to write a cozy mystery series based at a winery. Between the grape vines, production area, sales, marketing, events, etc., there are so many aspects that tie a winery together. A.K.A. places for chaos to occur.
N: Finally, my favorite question to ask my guests: If you could choose three people, living or dead, real or fictional to invite to a dinner party, who would they be and why?
A: I would just want one guest. Having another dinner with my partner. He loved to cook. I was in charge of doing the prep and he was the chef. The two of us laughing and being together with our dog and cat running amuck, even for a few hours, would be incredible.
N: Thanks so much for being with me today, JP. Please come back soon, okay?
A: Definitely! And thank you again for having me, I had a lot of fun!
GIVEAWAY! JP is giving away a signed copy of Murder at First Sight to one lucky commenter. Just tell her in the comments below if you’ve ever discovered something about yourself that was a surprise to you. We’ll choose a winner on Saturday morning.
Murder at First Sight
When a good deed might lead to murder…
Coerced into posing as a seer at her small town’s spring fair, barista and aspiring artist Amelia Wethers dives into the dramatic role, comforting herself that it’s only a few hours and then she can indulge in sweet and savory snacks. When the wealthy and snarky Summer Foster swans into her tent inquiring about the expected success of her swanky summer party, Amelia’s not prepared for the crystal ball to fill with smoke and reveal the shockingly violent murder of Summer’s husband.
Amelia grapples with skepticism, anger, and scorn as she tries to warn wealthy scion Phillip Foster that he’s a target for murder in a few weeks. Discovering she’s descended from a long line of psychics complicates Amelia’s investigation, especially when the town’s newest and distressingly handsome homicide detective dogs her every step and suspects her of murder.
It’s a race to the finish, and Amelia will do anything—including pre-dawn hot yoga, adopting her brother’s feral ferrets, missing dessert, setting herself up as bait and making a fool of herself—to stalk a killer.