Come and meet The Bitches of Brooklyn (and there is a special giveaway!)

Giveaway is at the bottom of the page.

Rosemary Harris is a native Brooklynite, like some of the characters in The Bitches of Brooklyn.  A former bookstore manager and television executive, she’s the author of the Dirty Business mystery series featuring amateur sleuth Paula Holliday. Her debut novel, the Agatha and Anthony-nominated, Pushing Up Daisies (Minotaur), was followed by The Big Dirt Nap, Dead Head and Slugfest.  The Bitches of Brooklyn is the first in a new series. Rosemary is past president of Mystery Writers of America’s NY Chapter and Sisters in Crime’s New England Chapter. She lives in New York City and Fairfield County, CT and I am pleased that she is here today doing a book tour with Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours, welcome Rosemary.

So. You kissed Pete Townsend and jogged with Bill Clinton. I’m done. No idea where to go after that. Seriously, what do you have left on your bucket list at this point?

Oh.. traveling to Africa with Angelina Jolie, playing tennis with Roger Federer…just kidding…I’ve had a pretty interesting and fun time so far. No real bucket list – although I’ve always wanted to go to Antarctica.

I must admit that while reading THE BITCHES OF BROOKLYN, at more than one point I expected them to find Abby’s body or at least that she was… more missing than she was? What was the reason you decided to turn away from mystery for this book?

Well, good on you…she did die in the first draft! But then my agent read it and told me the book was really about friendship. I was delighted to bring Abby back from the dead. After having killed off a bunch of people in my first four books it was refreshing not to have my characters tripping over corpses. On a more serious note, it’s a challenge to keep an amateur sleuth legitimately involved in crime-solving – without getting ridiculous!

I read this was the first in a series. What kinds of things can we expect the friends to be getting up to in the future, anything you can share?

I love the jobs I gave the women – a veterinarian, a teacher/writer, a baker, a publicist and a producer. I think I’ve either had or wanted all of those jobs at some point in my life. There are families, work challenges, kids and maybe even a crime or two. After all, these are new amateur sleuths. 😉 The sequel has the women tangentially involved in a crime when a fellow writer is killed and Tina is a witness.

Is any one of the genres more fun to write than the other and do you have favorites amongst your characters?

I recently started writing a historical novel. That was great fun because of all the research. I learned so much. When the story flows it’s all fun – but if pressed I’d say The Bitches has been the most fun. I love those girls. They’re the women I’ve known and grown up with!

What do you like to do to balance the demands writing places on you?

In the spring and summer, gardening. It’s my form of meditation.  In fall and winter, baking. I’m not much of a cook, but I do love to bake I can be a little obsessive about the arrangement of the cranberries in my cranberry tart.

Now three things that have nothing to do with writing or your book:

• What is your favorite food? This is hard…let’s just say, I’m a good eater. Okay – I never say no to pizza.
• What is your favorite TV show? Right now, Downton Abbey. I even downloaded a little gizmo that let me watch the upcoming season 4 when it aired in the UK last September.
• What is your favorite music? Classic rock. Give me The Boss any day.

Thank you so much for being here today Rosemary, and good luck with the tour and your new book. Before you go, is there anything else you would like to tell your readers or have them know about you?

Happy holidays, of course, but…thank you for being readers! With so much competition for eyeballs – tv, movies, online activities, etc. it’s great to be reminded that there are still people who enjoy escaping into a good book for a few hours. One of my most memorable library events came at the New Haven Free Library a few years back. The moderator asked the group which actress they thought should play Babe Chinnery , a particularly feisty, sexy woman of a certain age who appears in my first four books and makes a cameo in the current one. The answers were wildly divergent and it reminded me that I write one book, but each reader sees it through her own eyes. That was illuminating for me. So thank you for being readers!

AUTHOR LINKS

• Visit Rosemary at www.rosemaryharris.com
• She blogs with seven other mystery writers at www.jungleredwriters.com
• Like her on facebook at www.facebook.com/RosemaryHarriswriter 

BLURB

Are they really bitches? That depends who you ask…Rachel, Clare, Tina and Jane are four friends awaiting the arrival of a fifth at a secluded Cape Cod bungalow where they spend an all-girls weekend every year since reconnecting at a reunion. But the fifth woman doesn’t show. Instead she sends a note that reads – “I’ve run off with one of your men.”

Has she? Is it a prank? Do they run for the phone or try to enjoy the weekend without her? Fast, funny and filled with Harris’ trademark snappy dialogue you’ll recognize friends and maybe a little of yourself as the women are forced to reevaluate their friendships, their marriages and their memories.

Inspired by a classic Hollywood film, The Bitches of Brooklyn is for every woman who’s ever had a best friend and wondered…is she really??

MY REVIEW

I enjoyed the book. A bunch of girlfriends on an annual get together getaway. I knew when I signed on to this tour that the book was not a mystery – a welcome break now and then. And I was not familiar with the author so I was not aware of her mysteries. Frankly, I was expecting a Sex And The City knockoff. Which is okay – imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all. But instead, as I read, I kept feeling I was reading a mystery and the character of Abbey was going to show up dead. It is well written and it flows nicely, it is just for me, for whatever reason, I was anticipating something that never happened. We learn a lot about each woman and her insecurities as each of them is worried that their’s is the man Abbey has run off with. And of course each woman puts on a brave face as though she is sure it couldn’t be her man, all the while in agony imagining he is. While I lean toward thinking this book should have remained the mystery it started life as, I am interested enough to want to read the next installment. ♥♥♥½

PURCHASE LINKS

 Amazon             B & N

TOUR PARTICIPANTS

December 1 –  Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – KICK OFF SPOTLIGHT!!!
December 2 – Mystery Playground – Interview, Special Giveaway
December 3 – StoreyBook Reviews – Review, Giveaway
December 4 – Books-n-Kisses – Review, Guest Post
December 5 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – Review, Giveaway
December 6 – Shelley’s Book Case – Review, Giveaway
December 7 – dru’s book musing –  Guest Post, Giveaway
December 8 – Thoughts in Progress – Review, Giveaway
December 10 – Darla King Series – Interview
December 11 – Kelly P’s Blog – Guest Post
December 12 – rantin’ ravin’ and reading – Review, Interview, Special Giveaway
December 13 – fundinmental – Guest Post,  Special Giveaway
December 14 – According to Squenn – Review, Interview
December 15 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – Interview

 

 

 

We have a special giveaway today, in addition to the book you could win a swag bag – an insulated tote with plastic champagne glasses and a bitches tank top. Just leave a comment below and an email to contact you.