Guest Post (and a Giveaway!): Lynn Cahoon & Of Murder and Men

I love Lynn Cahoon’s cozy mysteries & I think her own story is so inspiring. I’m excited to welcome her to the blog today to share that story with us.

Love is in the air in Aspen Hills, and it’s making a terrible mess of Cat Latimer’s writers’ retreat—especially when blood stains the plot . . .

Ever since her business partner, Shauna, fell for a wealthy landowner in town, Cat has been working double time to keep her writers’ retreat running. And with the January session almost underway, that spells trouble. As if scheduling mishaps aren’t disastrous enough, Shauna skips out on kitchen duties one morning, forcing Cat to serve unsuspecting guests store-bought muffins . . .

But best laid plans really go awry when Shauna discovers her beau missing from their bed. When his body later turns up in the horse barn, they quickly find out the victim’s scandalous lifestyle left many dying for revenge.

While balancing an eccentric group of aspiring writers and a suspect list for the record books, Cat soon finds herself on the heels of a killer—and authoring her most deadly conclusion yet . . .

Reading is My Superpower…

I think that’s so true. Reading is my superpower and my salvation. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I love to read and why I write. Mostly it’s because I love a good story.

When I was a little girl, I fell in love with my local library. The building was old and lovely and the kids section was downstairs. When you got there, it just felt magically. My mom and stepdad were off doing other things, so I was on my own. But I felt safe in this setting, surrounded by stories that were begging me to check them out. I filled my bags with as many books as I could check out, knowing that I’d be out of stories long before I could come back to town to get more books.

It was in this little library that I found, A WRINKLE IN TIME.  The book made me feel less alone. I didn’t know anyone else who had lost their fathers. And now, I had hope that maybe he was just on another planet and not dead. So maybe I was a little naïve, but I read and re-read that story over and over.

In middle school, the school library was my refuge from the push and shove that is the pre-teen mania. I helped the librarian shelve new books and started reading the entire library. Which should have taught me that I love story more than literary fiction. But it took more time to make that discovery.

Many years later, I was going through breast cancer treatments and started reading mysteries. I knew some of the books I loved for their unique settings, ongoing story lines, and quirky characters. I’d read everything the library would have for an author, then pick up a new book by a different author. Which I would hate. Looking at the books, they both had mystery on the spine so why were they so different? That’s when I found cozy mysteries. These fun reads kept me sane during a time when I didn’t want to think about pain, suffering or death. I wanted happy with a bit of mystery mixed in to keep my mind active.

Once I was done with the year of cancer, I started writing. Which led me here, with the release of the third Cat Latimer mystery.

I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I have.

Lynn

Lynn Cahoon is the author of the NYT and USA Today best-selling Tourist Trap cozy mystery series. GUIDEBOOK TO MURDER, book 1 of the series, won the Reader’s Crown for Mystery Fiction in 2015. She also pens the Cat Latimer series. A STORY TO KILL, and FATALITY IN FIRELIGHT are available in mass market paperback. She lives in a small town like the ones she loves to write about with her husband and two fur babies. Sign up for her newsletter at www.lynncahoon.com

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What about you? When has reading gotten you through a tough time?