Q&A with Paige Shelton

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Thanks — I’m very excited for Betts and Gram’s second story!

I think their relationship is based on a “what if” scenario. My grandmother died when I was nine. Though she wasn’t as feisty as Gram, she was as amazing a cook. Unfortunately, no one wrote down my grandmother’s “little-of-this-and-some-of-that” recipes. I wish I would have been aware enough to pay attention or write them down myself. Forever lost are the secrets to her delicious fried chicken and her giant chocolate chip cookies that had a perfectly light and somewhat crunchy outside. Gram and Betts are probably an exaggerated portrayal of how I would have enjoyed spending time with my own grandmother if she’d lived longer. I doubt we would have ever opened a cooking school, but I bet we’d have spent lots of time in the kitchen.

2)  Betts and Gram encounter the ghost of Sally Swarthmore, a woman who may have been wrongly accused of committing multiple murders. Tell us about the research you conducted to create Sally and her back story.

I’ve always been intrigued by Lizzie Borden’s story, so I decided to add some facts from Lizzie’s life and trial to Sally’s fictional version. I started with the Internet, of course, but then decided to read a couple books about Lizzie and the circumstances surrounding her life and the brutal murder of her parents. It was all very fascinating. Ultimately, I did include some true Lizzie details in Sally’s story, but Sally’s personality most definitely took on a life of its own. She turned into a delightful character to write, even if she was a convicted ax murderer.

3)  Speaking of ghosts-do you believe in them yourself? What inspired you to write about them in the Country Cooking school mysteries? Is it a different process to write a paranormal mystery than it is to write the Farmers’ Market series?

First, yes, each series requires a very different process but not necessarily because of the paranormal element. The Farmers’ Market books have one mystery per book. The Cooking School books have two, and my goal is to somehow tie the past and the present mysteries together. Oddly, neither series is more difficult to write than the other, just . . . different.

I do believe in ghosts, though not the full-bodied versions like in the Cooking School books. I guess I think of them more as disturbances in The Force — flashes of movement, light, or perhaps thought. When I first began writing the Cooking School series with IF FRIED CHICKEN COULD FLY, there was no plan to include ghosts or anything paranormal in the books. But one day as I was writing, I sensed that someone was behind me, over my shoulder. When I turned around, no one was there. When I turned back to the computer, Jerome, the ghost in the first book, practically wrote himself onto the page. Was that my intuition telling me where to go with the story, or perhaps something else? I’m not sure, but it would have been nearly impossible to delete him. Fortunately, my editor liked him, as well as the idea of including ghosts in subsequent books.

4)  Both IF FRIED CHICKEN COULD FLY and IF MASHED POTATOES COULD DANCE have delicious recipes in them. Do you love to cook? Do you experiment in the kitchen or stick to the recipe at hand?

I do love to cook — when I know what I’m doing. I love to create an original recipe, but only if it’s by changing one or two things from something already written. I’m not good — yet — at starting from scratch. I hope to be someday.

5)  Can you give us a sneak peek at what you have in store for Betts and Grams next adventure?

IF BREAD COULD RISE TO THE OCCASION, the third book in the Cooking School series, will publish in 2013. The ghost is a teenager who was killed in a bakery fire in the mid-1900s. The present day mystery begins with Gram and Betts teaching their new crop of students how to make a seemingly innocent sourdough starter. Seemingly innocent.

However, 99% of the email I receive regarding IF FRIED CHICKEN COULD FLY is about the ghost Jerome. I had no idea he would be so well liked, and I’m thrilled. I’m also happy to bring him back, which I have done for the 2013 book. Boy, does he wreak havoc on Betts’ love life. It was so much fun to write.

Thanks to Berkley, and thanks to my readers; you all are truly the best!

Paige