Author Spotlight: Meet Debut Mystery Author Carol Light!
We have a winner! Sue Farmer, you are the winner of a $10 Amazon gift card! Carol will be in touch with you! Thanks to you and everyone for stopping by and commenting. We love conversations with our readers!
Mes amies, I’m so excited to bring debut author, Carol Light, into the Author Spotlight today. Carol is an amazing writer as well as a fellow Tule author. Her debut novel, Room for Suspicion, released on June 27 and it is a treat of a mystery!
Carol is an avid reader and writer of mysteries. She loves creating amateur sleuths and complicating their normal lives with a crime that they must use their talents and wits to solve. She’s traveled worldwide and lived in Australia for eight years, teaching high school English and learning to speak “Strine.” Florida is now her home. If she’s not at the beach or writing, you can find her tackling quilting in much the same way that she figures out her mysteries—piece by piece, clue by clue.
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Carol, take it away!
Hello! I’m so happy to be here to tell you about my new book, Room for Suspicion. This is my first published novel, and I’m very excited to make my debut. This is also the first book in my Cluttered Crime Mystery series, so there will be more to come. In fact, I’ve just started writing the fourth book!
I’ve always wanted to be an author, probably since I read those immortal words, “Look, Jane. See Spot run.” Why was Spot running? Was someone chasing him? I was hooked. Little did I know then that I’d grow up to be an author. All I knew was that I loved reading and entering that magical world of meeting people in new places having experiences that were sometimes familiar and sometimes not. Like Jane having a dog (I didn’t have one) and a baby sister (that experience was in my near future).
Readers often want to know if an author has anything in common with her main character. In Room for Suspicion, Crystal (“Crys”) Ward is in her late thirties, married to Rick, and the mother of two middle schoolers. I have little in common with her except a sense of humor, curiosity about other people and how they live, and a desire to make a positive contribution to the world. I’m less organized and spend much more time on my computer than she does. I also call 911 less frequently, thank goodness!
Crys has started her own business in Chicago as a professional organizer, a career her husband isn’t so sure about. Rick’s a cop and doesn’t like the idea of her going into strangers’ homes. He wants her to only work with clients referred by friends or family. Crys takes that to mean a friend of a friend counts because otherwise she wouldn’t have much work to do. When she goes into a client’s home and discovers a dead man, the conflict between husband and wife ratchets up a notch or two. And when her client is about to be arrested for the murder by her husband’s former partner, a man she despises, Crys commits to proving her innocence, despite her husband’s warning to let the police handle it.
One thing Crys and I do have in common is a love of problem solving. Plotting a mystery really tests my skills. I use an outline but still manage to tie myself in knots at times. Like Crys, I’m stubborn and sometimes obsessed enough to keep working at it until a solution appears. We’re also both optimists, although I don’t know if I could cope as well as she does with the challenges life has thrown at her—and the new ones to come.
Thanks so much to Nan for inviting me to talk about Room for Suspicion. I hope you have a wonderful July. Happy reading!
**Giveaway**
Tell me about your proudest achievement or a goal—big or small—you had to really work hard to achieve. A winner will be chosen at random to receive a $10 gift certificate from Amazon.
Room For Suspicion
It’s going to take more than carefully labeled boxes to sort through the clues of this homicide…
Professional organizer Crystal Ward knows she can make a success of her new business, Organizing Chicago. The extra income would allow her to renovate her own home, full of more cluttered spaces than she’d ever admit to her clients. But her life wasn’t always this disorganized. Five years ago her husband, Rick, a Chicago police detective, was shot while chasing a suspect. Now a paraplegic, he’s wary of her going into strangers’ homes…and for good reason.
When Crys discovers a dead man in a client’s living room, she refuses to accept that the murder is an open-and-shut case of domestic violence. If she can untangle this mess, she can prove her client’s innocence and ease Rick’s fears.
But the only witness to the murder is hospitalized in a catatonic state. And the lead detective is Rick’s former partner, the man Crys blames for his paralysis. Crys is on her own to save her client from jail and stop a murderer intent on tidying up loose ends.
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22 Comments
Liz Flaherty
Hi, Carol! What a great interview. Crys and Rick both sound great to me. Word “on the street” is that Room for Suspicion is a great story–I’m anxious to read it. Congratulations and good luck!
Raising a family is my favorite accomplishment, but that was a village and me–my husband, friends and relatives and coaches and teachers had so much to do with that. I’m very proud of having written a lot of books, though. (But not as hard as raising kids. Lol.)
Carol
Hi Liz and thanks for the support! I think raising children is a huge accomplishment and a long-term commitment. It does take a village, but mothers of course play the most important role. Well done on the writing, too!
Carol
Hi Joannie,
Congratulations on both achievements and persevering despite those migraines. My niece also suffered with them in high school and college. I hope you’re past the worst of that condition and enjoying life much more now.
Kim
Congratulations in your release.
The hardest thing for me to achieve was becoming a mother.
Carol
Thanks, Kim. So glad you achieved motherhood!
Susan Farmer
Congratulations on your book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to book 2. Mysteries are a favorite genre of mine.
My proudest achievement is getting my MBA. I had just graduated college in May with a Political Science degree and wasn’t having much luck finding a job,. I made the decision to return that fall and get my MBA. I had to take the GMAT and then set everything up. I even got a graduate assistantship. I had no business classes so I started from square one and finished in two full years including summers. It was a wise move and I’m so happy that I was able to accomplish it.
Carol
Hi Susan,
So glad you enjoyed Room for Suspicion! Congratulations on the MBA. That was a bold move doing a master’s in a new field.
bn100
graduating college
Carol
Graduating college takes work and is a great achievement!
Latesha B.
Congratulations on your debut novel, Carol. I think my proudest accomplishment was earning enough scholarships to attend college.
Carol
I’m glad you did, Latesha! Affording college is a major achievement these days. You must be a star to earn multiple scholarships.
Cherie J
I am really proud of the fact that I was the first person in my family to graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree. Since then, my twin sister and brother have surpassed that by getting master’s degrees, but it doesn’t change the fact that I was the first.
Carol
Congrats, Cherie. You set a high standard and example for your siblings. That’s a lot to be proud of.
Roseann McGrath Brooks
I love the book “blurb.” The story sounds both fun and mysterious! One thing I’m really proud of is being an editor and helping people better say what they want to say. Recently, a writer said to her boss, “I ran my copy through that AI tool, and it only caught about half of what Roseann caught. I don’t think the tool is any good!”
Carol
Hi Roseann,
Take it from me, editors (like Nan) make authors shine! Sounds like AI isn’t ready to take your place. Congrats on helping writers improve!
Jan Brittain_Trampp
My there’s so many but my proudest is getting away from an abusive relationship before it got too bad
Leigh Ann Edwards
Congratulations on your new release. I can’t wait to read your story, Carol. It sounds really interesting.
Following my dream of becoming a published author, and leaving a 30 year, unhappy, unhealthy marriage were two huge challenges for me.
But I’m so grateful I followed through with both.
Carol
Thanks, Leigh Ann! I’m glad you followed through, too. Neither of those accomplishments were easy, I’m guessing. Looking forward to reading your books!
Carol
Jan, that’s a huge accomplishment. I’m glad you were able to find your way to a happier (I hope) situation.
Janine
I have never really set goals or done anything that I can say I am proud of. From when I was young, I wanted to be a mother, but that never happened. I pretty much knew I would end up being just a housewife. I do love reading and reviewing books and I have a blog, but I know anyone can do those things.
Carol
Hi Janine,
Don’t sell yourself short. I bet nobody writes a blog or review exactly like you do! And how many people think they’d like to do that but never do? Or think they can’t read or write well enough? Maybe there’s a volunteer opportunity near you to help children with reading or writing? I hope you’ll read and review my book—all feedback welcome.
Joannie Sico
My proudest achievement is ultimately my daughters. Other than my daughters, I would have to say it would be graduating from high school in the top 2% of my class. I even had a full scholarship to college. Unfortunely, I wasn’t able to attend college because I wasn’t able to attend full time. I have chronic daily migraines ever since I was about 10 years old and missed a lot of school, plus was forced to go on medical homeschool a couple of times. My senior year, I only went to school half days because of how bad the migraines were so just graduating high school with high grades was a big deal for me.