Guest-Amanda Flower

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Jessie: In New Hampshire, wishing the black fly population had heard about social distancing!

I am just delighted to welcome Amanda Flower to the Wickeds today! I have had the pleasure of running into her in the past at conferences and am looking forward to chatting with her in real life again someday soon. Until then, I am so pleased she can vist virtually today!

My two favorite flavors are lemon and cilantro, so writing foodie mysteries like the ones I do for the Amish Candy Shop Mysteries, I have been waiting to use those ingredients in a book. As far as I know there are no cilantro candies out in the world. After a quick internet search for “cilantro candy” some very odd recipes and products come up. To be honest, they all sound terrible.

Because cilantro was out of the running for one my Amish Candy Shop books, I knew lemon would one day have her day. She finally has with the release of Lemon Drop Dead, and boy, did I hit the lemon hard in this story. The mystery is built around Emily Esh, who is Amish and pregnant with her second child. Her first child is part of the mystery that I won’t give away here. Emily loves lemon, just like I do, so the village of Harvest throws her a lemon-themed baby shower. However the lemon doesn’t stop there. It continues through the story and is tided in the murder and other crimes in the novel. Even more fun, there is an easy (because I like my recipes easy) lemon recipe in the back of the book.

I think all this talk of lemons and my love for them reminds me how much writers put of ourselves in our writing, even when we write mystery. No, I have never seen a murder nor investigated one nor do I want to either of those things to happen. However, there are bits of me throughout all my books. I think it would be impossible as a writer to keep yourself from spilling over into a story, and honestly, I learn a lot about myself when I’m writing fiction. It clarifies what I believe about justice, love, faith, and all those big ideas and important topics. And at the same time, it lets me share my love of mystery fiction, Amish culture, and yes, lemons. 

I hope you will give the novel a try, and remember even though lemons may be sour they make the sweetest desserts.

Amanda Flower, a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author of over twenty-five cozy mystery novels, started her writing career in elementary school when she read a story she wrote to her sixth grade class and had the class in stitches with her description of being stuck on the top of a Ferris wheel. She knew at that moment she’d found her calling of making people laugh with her words. In addition to being an author, Amanda is a former librarian with fifteen years of experience in Northeast Ohio.

Published by Jessie Crockett

Jessie Crockett wears a lot of hats, both literally and literarily. As Jessie Crockett she is the Daphne Award winning author of Live Free or Die and the nationally bestselling Sugar Grove series. As Jessica Ellicott she has received starred reivews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal for her historical mystery Murder in an English Village. As Jessica Estevao she writes the Agatha Award nominated Change of Fortune Mysteries. She loves the beach, fountain pens, Mini Coopers and throwing parties. She lives in northern New England where she obsessively knits wool socks and enthusiastically speaks Portuguese with a shocking disregard for the rules of grammar.

40 Thoughts

  1. Welcome, Amanda! You’ve reminded me my mother always had a bag of lemon drops at hand. I must find some! The book sounds wonderful, as all yours are.

  2. I love the gazebo on your book cover! Lemon is my favorite flavor for desserts, haven’t had lemon drops for ages though and now I want some!

  3. Congratulations on the new book Amanda!

    I have a bag of lemon drops on hand. But rather than a straight love of lemon or candy, I keep it on hand for a medical reason.

    A few years back, I found that the side of my face started hurting. The skin was harder to the touch. Just a weird thing. I ended up going to the emergency room after a few days of this. The doctor said that something inside wasn’t draining right and that was causing a back up, thus the pain, etc.

    His recommendation? Freaking LEMON DROPS!

    I looked at him and said, “I had to pay a $100 co-pay for you to tell me to buy a 99 cent bag of candy?”

    I went to the local store, bought a bag and popped one in my mouth. Sure as I’m sitting here typing this message, I could quite literally feel the backup draining properly. By the time I’d had three lemon drops, the pain had lessened so much that it was just this side of gone.

    Totally shocking to me for sure.

  5. I wouldn’t think cilantro candies would be A Thing either. But I love lemon – candies, cookies, bars, pie, drinks. Something about that sweet yet tangy taste.

    Congrats on the new book!

  6. Can’t wait for the opportunity to read ” Lemon Drop Dead”. Adorable cover!
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

  8. Hi Amanda,
    A friend of mine steered me to your books years ago. I’m very excited to get my hands on your new book and also, I know this will prompt lemon candy and other lemony things to suddenly appear in my kitchen. Congratulations on your latest release!

  9. I love that you were able to make a connection with your audience at such a young age and knew then what you wanted to do with that talent.
    Congratulations on your success, past, present and future.

  10. Welcome to the Wickeds, Amanda. A couple of years ago my husband and I were traveling in Sorrento, Italy. (I specify because there is a Sorrento, Maine.) A friend begged us to pick up bags of lemon drops from a specific shop so she could surprise her mother. We did and her mother was delighted.

  12. Hi Amanda, congratulations on the new book! I also love lemon but I’ll take my cilantro in smaller amounts, thanks! Stay well! Shari

  14. Congratulations on the new book. I won a copy of the book from Goodreads and Kensington. It’s now my favorite book of the series. I am a lemon lover also, and the mystery is well-done!

  15. Hi Amanda, Congratulations on your new Release! Your book sounds like a very good read and I love, love your book cover, it looks like a lot of fun can take place in it! Lemon desserts are delicious , now cilantro candy I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound like it would be any good, I tell you what though, my grandmother would put Cilantro in meatballs and they were delicious, I also like cilantro in salsa and in beef soup, but cilantro in candy, I think I would pass on that. Thank you for sharing about your book. Have a Great weekend and stay safe.

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