Welcome Juliet Kincaid, whose story in A World of Joy features not just people, but also Maine Coon cats.
Q: Tell us about your story.
JK: “Another Christmas Carol” is actually the third of the mystery stories I’ve written involving Jen Shirey, a young female private detective, and several Maine Coon cats. In the first story, “Cat Show Caper,” she meets the cats and their owners, Blanche Hubbard and Blanche’s mother, Mrs. Elvira Jones. In the second, “Catnapped!” Jen travels to the Hubbards’ bed and breakfast located in a small town much like Westin, MO. Here she meets Blanche’s personable son, Eric Hubbard. By time “Another Christmas Carol,” takes place, Eric and Jen have gotten to know each other fairly well and seem ready to take their friendship to the next level — until Eric’s old flame shows up.
Q: What was the inspiration for the tale?
JK: Part of the fun and festivity of the holidays for me is attending productions of seasonal favorites like the Nutcracker Ballet and A Christmas Carol. Also, in and around Kansas City, historical homes are often open to the public with appropriately seasonal decorations and costumed guides. Yet in Dickens’ original story and in our very real lives, we can have mixed feelings about the holidays. Partly, this arises from disappointment when holidays don’t meet our high expectations for them. So Jen’s cranky and not at all joyous to start the story, pretty much like Ebenezer Scrooge, but the story ends happily for Jen, as it does for Scrooge.
Q: What other writing are you working on?
JK: Currently I’m writing and publishing Cinderella, P. I. stories and a novel. Like “Another Christmas Carol,” they’re crime fiction, but not murder mysteries. They have humor and happy endings. Walls, a Cinderella, P. I. Novel is now available as a Kindle eBook and a trade paperback. And Cinderella, P. I., and Other Fairy Tale Mystery Stories is also available as a Kindle eBook. The trade paperback version of the story collection should become available this month. And coming in January 2014: January Jinx, the first in the Calendar historical mystery series.
Q: Do you have holiday traditions of your own?
JK: My daughter and I are looking forward to attending a friend’s ladies tea, a mystery dinner theatre with a Roaring 20’s theme, and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, a wild and fun variation on the usual story from the Owen/Cox Dance Group. We will spend Christmas itself quietly with just the two of us. We’ll give each other gifts, eat well (maybe we’ll roast a duck this year), and take joy in being together.
Q: Where can readers fin out more about your writing?
JK: My web site is www.julietkincaid.com, recently restored after a hiatus. I post blogs on a variety of subjects including my experiences launching a new career after the age of sixty and what I learn from the books I read that help me write my own.
Q: Thanks for sharing your story from this joyous anthology.
JK: Thank you so much!
Spread the yuletide cheer! A World of Joy is available for free download now.
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