Interview & Giveaway with Beth Yarnall, author of DYED AND GONE

 

Hairstylist Azalea March is looking forward to a wild weekend in Las Vegas with her friends. Oh, sure, they’re supposed to be there on business, attending the biggest hair show on the west coast, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a little fun. But fun quickly turns to drama. On the first morning of the show, Dhane, the biggest celeb of the hair-styling world, is found dead. As it turns out Azalea’s friend, Vivian, not only knew Dhane, but the tale she weaves of how they met is faker than a showgirl’s uh… assets. When Vivian confesses to the murder and is arrested, Azalea knows there’s no way she could have done it and suspects Vivian may be trying to protect someone. But who?

Azalea now has to convince Alex, the sexy detective from her past, to help her prove Vivian’s innocence and comb through clues more twisted than a spiral perm. But the truth is stranger than anything found on the Las Vegas Strip, and proving Vivian’s innocence turns out to be more difficult than transforming a brunette into a blonde.

Purchase Dyed and Gone from:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | e-Books.com | iTunes | Kobo

Google Play | Powells | BAM! | Mysterious Galaxy

Check out my review of Dyed and Gone here.

You can follow along with Beth’s Dyed and Gone Blog Tour here.

Hi Beth.  Thank you for stopping by today.  Dyed and Gone is the first book in your Azalea March Mystery Series.  I recently started reading the book.  I haven't gotten very far, but what I've read so far is hilarious.  Could you please tell me about Azalea and her friends Vivian Moreno and Juan Carlos?

Azalea, Juan Carlos and Vivian have been friends and have worked together for many years. They know each other very well and are very close. There’s lots of good-natured teasing and practical joking, but at the heart of it all they are the very best of friends.

Do you know how many books you plan on having in the series?

For sure there will be one more. I have ideas for two or three more books in the series, but I haven’t written the proposals for them yet. I love writing these characters and being in their world, so as long as they’ll have me I’ll keep writing their stories.

You write cozy mysteries as well as romantic suspense.  Do you like one genre more than the other or equally?  Please explain.

This is really good question. Each genre has its own challenges and its own joys. I enjoy each one for different reasons. My Azalea March series and my novella series are both written in first person from the point of view of the heroine only. Whereas my romantic suspense books are written in third person from both the hero and heroine’s point of view. I feel as though first person is my natural writing voice, but I also really like writing in third person and getting to explore the male point of view. And although I’m most comfortable in first person, third person is actually easier to write because I get to show more to the reader. So I guess the answer would be that I like them both equally.

Transport yourself back in time.  You're still a hairstylist.  You're closing up the salon for the night.  You unlock the backdoor leading to the alley and you stumble over the dead body of a client you HATE.  What do you do?

Oh my gosh! A whole bunch of plot bunnies just hatched in my head. This would make such a great opening to a book! I’m not nearly as brave or as entertaining as my heroines so I’d probably do something boring like call the police and then high five all my co-workers because I don’t have to do that client’s hair anymore. And then I’d spend all my free time following the case online like a stalker. I’d be very interested to know who killed her and why. It would be the stuff of salon gossip for months. Great question!

Thank you.  I aim to please.  Okay.  One final question.  What's next for you?

I have 2 romantic suspense novellas releasing this year, one in April and the other in July, and a full-length romantic suspense novel releasing in October. I’ll start writing the next Azalea March mystery this summer and maybe write the proposals for two more. I’m quite lucky in that I never seem to run out of ideas for stories. If only I had more time to write them!

Thanks for taking time to answer my questions Beth.  I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next for Azalea and her friends.

Thank you so much for having me on your blog, Kim. It was a real pleasure. I loved your questions!

*****

I don’t know if there will be comments on the blog post, if so, here’s a comment prompting question- Who are some of your favorite amateur sleuths in mysteries?

Best selling author, Beth Yarnall, writes romantic suspense, mysteries and the occasional hilarious tweet. A storyteller since her playground days, Beth remembers her friends asking her to make up stories of how the person ‘died’ in the slumber party game Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, so it’s little wonder she prefers writing stories in which people meet unfortunate ends. In middle school she discovered romance novels, which inspired her to write a spoof of soap operas for the school’s newspaper. She hasn’t stopped writing since.

For a number of years, Beth made her living as a hairstylist and makeup artist and co-owned a salon. Somehow hairstylists and salons always seem to find their way into her stories. Beth lives in Orange County, California with her husband, two sons, and their rescue dog where she is hard at work on her next novel.

Places to find Beth Yarnall:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest

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