Author Spotlight: More Wedding Bell Mysteries with Nancy Robards Thompson

Congratulations to Angela Crockett–you are Nancy’s winner! She will be in touch with you! Thanks to everyone for stopping by! We love talking to our readers! 

What fun I had chatting with my pal and fellow Tule author, Nancy Robards Thompson!  Nancy is a USA Today Bestselling author who writes cozy mysteries, romance, and women’s fiction. Fresh out of college, she worked as a newspaper reporter covering Central Florida government, tourism, and business, but soon discovered reporting “just the facts” bored her silly. Much happier to report to her muse, Nancy has sold more than fifty books to five traditional publishers (and is exploring indie publishing). Her work, which critics have deemed “…funny, smart, and observant,” has sold in 22 countries and been translated into 12 languages. She lives in Tennessee with her husband and their corgi, Luna. 

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1. Welcome to the Author Spotlight, Nancy, I’m so pleased to have you with me today to talk about your newest novel from Tule Publishing, Maid of Dishonor, book 4 in the Wedding Bell Mysteries. And a quick reminder to readers–there’s a giveaway at the end of this interview that they’re not going to want to miss!

NRT: Nan, thank you so much for having me today! I always love a chance to chat with you.

2. Tell me about the inspiration for the 4-book series that features a wedding planner and her mom becoming sleuths.

NRT: I’m so happy you asked this question, Nan! The inspiration came from a few different places. First, my daughter and I are very close. When she was in middle school, we plotted a middle-grade series together. We never wrote it because I was contracted for other books, and she was busy being a kid, but we had such fun plotting it out. When she was in high school, she confessed that she didn’t really want to write, but she gave me her blessing to run with it. The Wedding Bell series started out with some elements from our series, but it eventually morphed into its own world.

The corgis in the story were inspired by my love of the breed. I have a Pembroke Welsh corgi named Luna, who is such a delight. Corgis are little clown dogs. They’re funny and so smart.   The corgi Agatha Christie (Aggie) in the Wedding Bell series is based on her and my first corgi Samantha. The male corgi in the series, Sherlock Holmes (Homie) is based on other corgis I’ve met. They had such a fun aspect to the story and readers can expect to see more of them in the future!

The other source of inspiration came from the Gilmore Girls television show. I still adore that show – the strong mother/daughter relationship and the quirky small town of Stars Hollow. When the idea for the Wedding Bell Mysteries was first forming, I had been reading a lot of cozy mysteries and devouring the Hallmark Channel’s television mysteries. One day it clicked – I thought hmm… Gilmore Girls meets Murder She Wrote. I want to write that series!       

 Even though my daughter has no desire to write, she is still a fantastic plotter. She has helped me plot many scenes in my Wedding Bell Mystery books.

Just an aside about Gracewood Hall, the wedding venue in Maid of Dishonor — it was inspired by my love of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. I’m enamored with the place – the glamor and romance that surrounds it. However, Biltmore house is huge, so it was difficult for me to suspend my disbelief that there would be a place like it on the outskirts of Hemlock. But there’s an intriguing story about George Vanderbilt’s first guests at the Biltmore. After six long years of construction, Vanderbilt opened the estate to family and friends on Christmas Eve of 1895. I imagined that the man who built Gracewood Hall was one of those first guests and was so inspired, he wanted his own mountain retreat. Of course, his pockets weren’t as deep as George’s. So he settled for something a bit more modest  – a third of the size of the rambling 135,280 sq ft Biltmore, which meant Gracewood Hall was still a staggering forty-five thousand square feet. It was fun imagining the history of Gracewood Hall and incorporating a place I love into its backstory.

3. I nabbed an ARC of Maid of Dishonor and read it in practically one night. I love all the characters but I think Maddie is closest to my heart. Maybe because she’s not just the owner of a bridal shop, she’s also a cozy mystery writer. Tell me how much of you is in Maddie?

NRT: Thank you for reading it, Nan! I’m so happy you like Maddie. She’s such a fun character to write. I think there’s a little bit of me in Maddie, especially when it comes to her solid relationship with her daughter, Jenna. However, Maddie is a lot braver than I am. I guess you could say I live vicariously through her when she gets off the pages of her works in progress and goes out into Hemlock to solve actual crimes. LOL!

4. It was so cool that Maddie’s mom, Gigi, got in on the fun in this newest book, restoring the old mansion that will become a venue for weddings and events. ! What a fun twist. And I love the little town of Hemlock. Is Hemlock based on any real place?

NRT: Hemlock is an amalgamation of two places I love. The town is very loosely based on Brevard, North Carolina, and the downtown area where Blissful Beginnings bridal boutique is located is modeled after downtown Winter Park, Florida, where I grew up.  In my mind, Hemlock is located in Western North Carolina (near Brevard), but I’ve picked up the downtown shopping district of my hometown and planted it in North Carolina.

5. Have you done a lot of research on wedding planners and venues to write this whole series—that seems like pretty intensive work for you and your characters.

NRT: When my daughter got married, it was a crash course in wedding planning. I learned a lot about what goes into pulling off a bride’s important day. But my love of party planning goes way back to when my daughter was in elementary school. I was on several committees that planned parties and events for the school. One of the best compliments my daughter ever gave me was when she told me I should be a professional party planner. Writing about a party planner is the best of both worlds. I get to plan events on the page, but I don’t have to do the real-life heavy lifting. Haha!

6. Has it been hard to keep Jenna and Maddie’s characters fresh through four books? And on the same note, how have you managed to keep all three generations of Bell women so real and true to their ages?

NRT: It helps to keep the characters fresh when you have more than one main character. That way, the focus isn’t just on one, and the other characters can help bring out the best (and maybe even the worst) in each other.

In all the books I’ve written, I’ve found it helps to think of the characters as real people – or even friends. As crazy as that might sound, it really helps. Think about your best friend, sibling, or parent… they have endearing and challenging aspects to their personalities. Thinking about characters as real, three-dimensional people helps keep them fresh – and, I hope, makes them seem real and relatable.

7. I loved how the relationship between Sheriff Jack Bradley and Maddie has evolved with an ebb and flow you don’t usually see in these books. It feels like there might be more to come with those two. Any chance we’ll see more Wedding Bell mysteries in the future?

NRT: Yes! There will definitely be more Wedding Bell mysteries. I have some twists and turns planned for Maddie and Jack… just wait! Oh, and by the way, I’m giving away $10 Amazon card to one lucky commenter. Just tell me in the comments below, what was the strangest thing you ever saw happen at a wedding? (Hopefully, it wasn’t a murder!) We’ll draw a winner on Saturday morning, so tell me your freaky wedding stories!

Maid of Dishonor

Instead of walking down the aisle, the bride is suspected of murder…. 

Maddie Bell’s life and career have hit peak stride. She’s sold her cozy mystery series and is contracted for two more books; she’s engaged to Hemlock’s chief of police; and her mother has purchased and restored the beautiful historic mansion, Gracewood Hall, in their hometown of Hemlock, North Carolina. Three generations—Gigi, Maddie, and Jenna–are now happily engaged in the wedding and special event business.

But their highly scrutinized inaugural event—the wedding of an A-List social media influencer—becomes a murder scene before the rehearsal dinner. Kate Archer, the professional bridesmaid Jenna hired, is found bludgeoned by a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, not only threatening their new business, but also sending Jenna into a tailspin of guilt. She knew Kate from college and had begged her to fill in as the maid of honor.

Even as the police warn Maddie not to interfere with the investigation, mother and daughter set out to discover who killed Kate and dispel the growing rumors that Gracewood Hall is cursed.

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