Interview and a giveaway with Julie Cosgrove!

We're excited to welcome author Julie Cosgrove! She has graciously agreed to give away an ebook of  Dumster Dicing and an ebook of Baby Bunco when it releases in 2017! Comment to be entered to win! 

SS: Tell us about your current release. 

I am under contract for a new Cozy Mysteries series called the Bunco Biddies Mysteries. So I have switched genres from suspense-romance, where two people bump into each other during a tense moment, to cozies where someone is bumping off people.

The first is Dumpster Dicing. Bunco is a dice game, so the titles in the series all reflect that theme. It is set in a retirement community called Sunset Acres where three vital elderly ladies discover a crime has been committed and decide to speed up the investigation by getting their fellow Bunco players involved. 

 SS: Where did you get the idea for this book? I see elderly people in my congregation in their seventies, eighties, even pushing ninety that still play golf, volunteer, and are a vital part of my community. In our youth-oriented society where gray hair is dyed and wrinkles smoothed by lotions and creams, I wanted people to see life doesn’t end at sixty. I like to say sixty is the new forty!

These graduated retirement centers, which offer everything from independent living all the way to full nursing care, are popping up all over the country. I was invited to be a part of a book fair at one and have since toured a good many of them helping an elderly friend find housing. Most cozies are set in small communities so I decided why not set a series in one of these places? Luckily my editor and publisher agreed.

 SS: Tell us about your main character.

Janie Manson is the widow of an Austin, Texas police detective. She decided to sell her house and move to Sunset Acres. Because the “senior activities” lean to the lame side, she hosts Bunco games in her condo every Thursday evening. Each morning, she power-walks with her two buddies. Ethel is an avid mystery reader who cross catalogs her paperbacks by crime. Betsy Ann is a retired home and garden reporter for the local newspaper. 

Janie’s daughter, Melody, is married to Blake Johnson. He’s the Chief Detective in the police department of the nearest town, Alamoville. Like many central Texas towns, it is booming, and Janie sees that Blake is too busy for his family. So naturally she wants to step in and solve the crimes quickly so he can make the soccer games and band concerts, perhaps even take a family vacation to the coast.

 SS: Is there a spiritual message in your book? If so, what is it? 

The message is to cherish family and marriage, to honor the elderly, and to realize that no matter your age, you can be a useful person. Here is what one critic said—

​“Dumpster Dicing, by Julie B. Cosgrove, was the most delightful book I’ve read in some time. A well-written mystery that had me guessing, this book also offers humor, a wee bit of romance, and a beautiful message weaved into the characters’ actions.

I loved Janie’s daughter and son-in-law, Detective Blake Johnson, as well many more of the secondary characters.

What I didn’t expect was such an encouraging message to come in the middle of a cozy mystery. Sometimes authors shove a Christian message in between crime scenes and car chases. However, Cosgrove seamlessly threads her message throughout the book. From the way Blake responds to his wife and his mother-in-law, to the way Janie is convicted about visiting friends in the assisted living center, the characters exemplify what it means to live a life of Christian love. Beautifully done!

I highly recommend this book and I can’t wait until the next installment in the Bunco Biddies series!” Christian Women Writers Reviewer

 SS: What are you working on now? 

I am in edits on a Christmas-themed novella called Hill Country Homecoming for my publisher as part of a holiday series (Nov 2016), in line edit proofing with Baby Bunco, (Winter 2017) the second in the Bunco Biddies series, and writing Threes and Sixes, the third one (Summer 2017).

 SS: Tell us three things about yourself that would surprise your readers. 

My writing career took off after I found my 59-year-old husband lying dead in the shower from a massive heart attack as he got ready for work. I had to fill my evenings and vegging out on popcorn in front of the TV for hours didn’t work. Ten novels later, I guess God had a plan, right?

I am the third daughter in my family. So was my mother, my grandmother and my great grandmother. However, the tradition ended with me. I had only one son, then a hysterectomy at 28. My niece picked up the ball and ran with it. She has three girls. Perhaps the third one, Rachel, will continue the tradition one day. But she is only three years-old. No pressure.

I grew up spending my summers in the Texas Hill Country at a cabin my grandfather built in 1923.  So, besides various rescue cats and a dog, our menagerie of pets soon included ducks, horned owls, opossums, squirrels and a rabbit. I once nursed a hummingbird back to health.

SS: Where can readers find you on the Internet? 

My website is www.juliebcsogrove.com.  I have an inspirational blog called Where Did You Find God Today?

I write regularly for several devotional publications and websites, and I am on Twitter @JulieBCosgrove, on Facebook as juliebcosgrove, and on Pinterest and LinkedIn. 

You can follow my Goodreads author page and my Amazon author page as well. 

 SS: Anything else you’d like to share with us?

Since you asked…I’d love it if the readers checked out my other fictional works. Of most interest to your audience would be my suspense romance series. A young widow, Jen, is kidnapped by a coworker named Tom who says it was her husband’s last bequest in order to keep her safe from the cartel that caused his car accident. But the more she tries to learn what really happened, the deeper she swirls herself, Tom and two trafficked teens into an underground tempest of deception that spans two continents. The first is Hush in the Storm and the sequel is Legitimate Lies. It won Best Religious Fiction 2016 by the Texas Association of Authors. You can preview them and watch the trailers on my website.