Thursday, February 16, 2017

Interview + Giveaway: Poison My Pretty by Amity Allen

UFI welcomes Author Amity Allen. Thanks for Joining us!!


What can you tell my readers about yourself that they might not know from looking on your bio or reading in another interview?  
I was an alpaca breeder for fifteen years.

What do you enjoy doing on your down time?  
My son plays basketball so we travel around with that. About seven months of the year I’m a “basketball mom” which is like being a soccer mom without the inconvenience of the weather. (Thank goodness basketball is always indoors where it’s climate controlled!)

What is your Favorite part of writing? 
The idea phase. There’s nothing more exciting than coming up with plans for a new book.

Do you have any certain routines you must follow as you write? 
I am a very visual person so I like to put something on my big TV to have in the background while I think. Netflix has some of my favorite videos in their Moving Art series. I watch waterfalls, flowers, underwater scenes, even a fireplace. It gets me in the perfect mood to write.

What are some of your Favorite books or Authors in the Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Genres? I’m a big Charlaine Harris fan. I love her Sookie Stackhouse and Aurora Teagarden books.

How would you pitch Poison My Pretty to someone who has not heard of it before? 
When a beauty pageant director face plants into her potato salad, former TV witch detective Poppy Parker vows to hunt down her killer.

Can you tell us a little bit about the world that Poison My Pretty is set in?  
The setting is the small town where I live – Fairhope, Alabama. It reminds me of an upscale, updated version of Mayberry. When people think Alabama a lot of people think “hickville,” but Fairhopers consider themselves quite cultured. Their dedication to beautification and public art makes it a lovely place to live, plus it’s on the water. I love that!

Do you have a favorite scene in Poison My Pretty
Yes. I love the scene where Poppy has to figure out how to get into a suspect’s house and snoop around. She figures out a great way to insert herself into their home.

Which one character out of all your books was your favorite to write about? 
My main character and sleuth – Poppy Parker. I love her because she’s a Hollywood actress come home to try to cope with her new supernatural powers. It was fun taking her through her journey.

What Other Projects can we look forward to reading from you? 
I am writing two more books in this series this year. The second one, Gunshots My Girl, is coming in late Spring, and the third one will release this fall.
__________________________________

Amity grew up reading every mystery she could get her hands on, burning through everything by Agatha Christie in record time and wanting to be Nancy Drew when she grew up. After writing books in other genres for the past few years, she's finally come home to her true love - cozy mysteries.
Amity and her husband live in L.A. (lower Alabama) with a houseful of teenagers and a half dozen pets. Besides books, Amity's favorite things are football, needlepoint, fried shrimp, and sweet tea.

Find Amity and her books
__________________________________

Poison My Pretty
Amazon
As soon as Poppy Parker turns 21, the star of a popular TV show about witch detectives discovers she has supernatural powers off the set as well as on. When the show is canceled, she returns home to figure out how to harness the magic brewing inside her.

Freaked out by these recent paranormal gifts, Poppy just wants to fit in, so when she’s asked to serve as a judge for the annual Bloomin’ Belles youth beauty competition she readily agrees.

But when the pageant’s snooty director drops dead and Poppy’s friend is arrested,
the former TV sleuth sets out to uncover the real killer, only to find…

the business of beauty can be deadly.
 Excerpt:

Skylar’s twin sister Mads called while I was driving to the convention center. “Are you really going over there? I can’t believe they’re going to continue this pageant.”
“So you heard about the murder?”
“Yeah. Skylar told me last night when she got home. It’s awful.”
“Yes, but you know how it is. The show must go on! Surely you can’t be that surprised.” I was only beginning to understand the importance of these competitions to their participants, and I could picture pageant moms dragging their glitzed-up toddlers over the dead bodies of fallen competitors. The way zombies climbed over each other to get to the top of the pile in movies—only prettier.
“Are they sure it was a murder? She didn’t just have a heart attack or something?” I could hear the anxiety creeping into Mads’ voice, and I didn’t blame her. Our little town was supposed to be safe. Murders didn’t happen here. That was the sort of thing that happened in the city across the bridge, not in our sleepy little bedroom community.
“That’s what they said, Mads, but I don’t think you need to worry. If it was a murder, you can bet it was personal. Certainly not the doin’s of a mad man or a serial killer. If Heather Morgan was murdered, it was by somebody who knew her and had something to gain from her death. This was no a random act of violence.”



__________________________________
 Tour Wide





a Rafflecopter giveaway