The Naked Truth about Mystery Lovers with Guest Blogger: Melissa Bourbon Ramirez

Welcome mystery author
Melissa Bourbon Ramirez
to the Book Boost today!

She's here to chat about her unabashed loved for all things mystery and here's what she had to say...


Mysteries are close to my heart. Okay, truthfully, books of any kind are close to my heart, but mysteries, in particular. The mystery can be large or small. It can be the central focus of the story, or play a supporting role. It really doesn’t matter to me the scope of the mystery elements, as long as it’s there in one way, shape, or form.


My love of mysteries started, like most young girls of a certain age--ehem, we don’t need to talk about age, now, do we?--with Nancy Drew. From there I graduated straight to Agatha Christie. I have a distinct memory of going with my mom to our town’s library so she could check out the last Hercule Poirot novel, Curtain. She was crushed that it was to be Poirot’s last, and her love of these book intrigued me enough to start reading them.


I spent almost all of my high school lunches in one classroom or another reading.


Now, I should say that I’m a light-weight when it comes to these things. Horror movies and books are not for me. I threw Silence of the Lambs across the room once or twice while reading it, and I cover my eyes during certain parts of Dexter.


But I love the deduction.


So, of course, when my passion for writing grew until it couldn’t be denied, it was no surprise that it manifested itself in the form of mysteries. I began with the Lola Cruz Mystery series, published initially with St. Martin’s Minotaur, and now continuing with Entangled Publishing. Bare-Naked Lola comes out in a little over a month!


Then I wrote 2 romantic suspense novels, which, of course, have strong mystery elements in them. They’re based on Mexican legends and these will be coming out sometime next year.


Finally, my cozies, A Magical Dressmaking Mystery series with NAL, which launched last year, will be continuing with a 2nd three book contract. Pleating for Mercy is going into a second printing (just found that out today), so mysteries are working for me. Good thing, since I love them.


Mystery, mystery, mystery. The characters. The communities. The crime. The puzzle. The deductions. The justice. All of makes for such a satisfying read.


I’m especially thrilled to see Bare-Naked Lola shine. Lola Cruz was my first character love, and writing her is like hanging out with friends. Lola’s smart, sexy, sassy, and isn’t afraid to do what she believes is right. She’ s my kind of heroine.


I’d like to know what everyone loves most about mysteries? Small town cozies? Private Eyes, like Lola? Hard core romantic suspense? There are so many to choose from. What’s your pleasure?


A Note from the Book Boost: I love mysteries as well and they are the very reason I started writing in the first place. Oh, to have the ultimate mystery that is both unsolvable and yet gives the reader that "a ha" moment in the end. Sigh. Thanks for joining us today, Melissa. Best of luck on your upcoming release!


Blurb:

Going undercover is second nature for Private Investigator Lola Cruz, but she’s out of her league when the case of a murdered Royals Courtside Dancer leads her to a local nudist resort.

Parading around the sidelines of Sacramento’s professional basketball scene in a barely-there cheerleading outfit is one thing—but parading around in nothing but smile? If she has any chance of hiding this from her traditional family and on-again/off-again boyfriend Jack, she’s going to have a lot more than her duct tape bra and killer dance moves to keep under wraps….

Want More Melissa?


Melissa Bourbon, who sometimes answers to her Latina-by-marriage name Misa Ramirez, gave up teaching middle and high school kids in Northern California to write full-time amidst horses and Longhorns in North Texas. She fantasizes about spending summers writing in quaint, cozy locales, has a love/hate relationship with yoga and chocolate, is devoted to her family, and can’t believe she’s lucky enough to be living the life of her dreams.


Visit her on the web here: http://melissabourbon.com/

Follow her on Twitter here:
http://twitter.com/#!/MelissaBourbon

Pre-order a copy of her book today! Click here.