Promote Me Please: Michelle Somers and Murder Most Unusual

I'm delighted to welcome Michelle Somers to Promote Me Please. Michelle agreed to answer five curly questions about her latest book Murder Most Unusual. Want to be featured on Promote Me Please? Click HERE to find out how.

1. Q1. Murder Most Unusual is a fine rolling title. What came first, the title or the plot?

A1. Great question! It was a scene that nudged its way into my mind and wouldn’t leave – a woman struggling to lift something in a large, open field, way past midnight, on the first dry night after two solid weeks of rain. She’s tired and muddy and yet, somehow, happy to be there. Then came the questions: Why was she out this late? What was she doing? And what events would immediately follow once she was done and back in her car, heading for home?

The answers to these questions formed the basis of Murder Most Unusual, my opening scene with Stacey and her mannequin counterpart Renaldo, and a fun, romantic rollercoaster ride that was Stacey and Chase’s story.

2. Q2. What is unusual about the murder?

A2. My tagline says it all: She writes. He watches. He waits. He kills …

Murder Most Unusual is a story of a quirky but loveable romantic suspense novelist, Stacey Holland, who believes the only path to the perfect murder is to enact it. So she finds the perfect location, employs her arsenal of imitation weapons, and with fake blood and a mannequin called Renaldo, she commits fictional murder. Then she returns to her writing cave and writes.

All the while, a sadistic killer is watching, waiting and replicating her murders, but with real live victims. So as Stacey writes, dead bodies litter the path behind her.

And she is oblivious, until the pattern is picked up by none other than Detective Chase Durant – the detective she convinced to help her with research for her first, award-winning novel.

So, now, not only must Stacey cope with the knowledge that she’s inspired a killer to kill, but she has a devilishly sexy, infuriatingly exasperating homicide detective planted quite firmly into her once peaceful life. And nothing from that point on is ever the same again.

3. Q3. Pretend you are introducing your main character(s) to a potential reader. Who is this person? (people)

A3. Hi. This is Stacey Holland, a romantic suspense novelist with a difference – she believes committing fictional homicide enables her to pen the perfect murder. And her partner in crime? A mannequin called Renaldo.

Why? Because nothing but the perfect murder will do for her stories.

After divorcing her manipulator ex-husband, Stacey immersed herself in her writing. As a result, she doesn’t have a lot of friends (she’s pretty quiet and unassuming outside her writing life), but the friends she has are as solid as iron ore. The loves of her life are Midnight, her sphinx cat, and a green tree python called Cuddles. And most nights – when she’s not in her writing cave typing up a storm – she loves nothing better than to curl up on her zebra chaise lounge with a good book, a glass of milk and a plate of the best choc chip cookies in the world.

And as for romance? Her ex-husband and her AWOL ex-cop father put paid to any belief it exists outside her books. Writing is her passion and her world. She doesn’t want for anything more.

4. Q4. Is Murder Most Unusual a stand-alone book, or part of a series?

A4. Murder Most Unusual is the sequel to my debut novel, Lethal in Love. Both books are set in Melbourne, Australia, and both books are written to be read as a stand-alone with characters in common.

5. Q5. What is the question (point, theme) you wish reviewers and interviewers would ask (note, discuss) that they never do?

A5. This is an interesting question, and, surprisingly, one I struggled over. It took me barely no time to answer your first four questions, but this question… It had me stumped. I’ve been asked a myriad of questions by interviewers over the years, and never once have I sat there and wished they’d ask me something else. I’ve been quizzed about my stories, my characters, my research and my inspiration. I’ve talked about my journey, my mentors, my belief that magic awaits us the moment we step outside our comfort zone. That no matter how terrifying, it’s a wondrous and liberating experience to feel the fear and do it anyway.

The list of questions and topics goes on.

Now, I know that doesn’t answer your question, and I know what a frustrating predicament that can be, so to do that I’m going to put a small spin on your words. For the purposes of this interview, let’s pretend your question read as follows: Michelle, what is the one thing you wish an interviewer had said to you during an interview?

Well, Sally, I’m so glad you asked.

And my answer? Here it is …

‘We’ve just spoken to Ellen and she wants you on her show.’ J

SO... who is Michelle Somers?

MICHELLE SOMERS BIO:

Michelle Somers is a bookworm from way back. An ex-Kiwi who now calls Australia home, she’s a professional killer and matchmaker, a storyteller and a romantic. Words are her power and her passion. Her heroes and heroines always get their happy ever after, but she’ll put them through one hell of a journey to get there.

Michelle lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her real life hero and three little heroes in the making. Her debut novel, Lethal in Love won the Romance Writers of Australia’s 2016 Romantic Book of the Year (RuBY) and the 2013 Valerie Parv Award. She released the sequel, Murder Most Unusual, into the big wide world early February 2017.

MURDER MOST UNUSUAL BLURB:

she writes.

he watches… he waits… he kills…

Romance novelist Stacey Holland doesn’t believe in love; marriage to a manipulator taught her as much. So she hides away in her fictional world, penning the perfect romance, intertwining the perfect crime. Excitement is for her books – worlds where the mortality of her characters is governed by a tap on her keyboard and the heroine always gets her happy ever after.

Homicide detective Chase Durant’s cases are real and gritty and one wrong move could be his last. The force is his life – he doesn’t have room for more. Love and relationships hold no place for a man whose fate is predetermined by the genetic roll of a dice. With uncertainty on the horizon, he won’t promise a future he can’t guarantee.

Then a sadistic killer breathes Stacey’s gruesome murders to life and the pair are thrown together in a sick game of murder and lies.

When tempers flare, and the murders get personal, can author and detective fight their growing attraction all-the-while fighting the killer determined to destroy them both?

Murder Most Unusual is a thrilling seductive suspense set in Melbourne, Australia.

‘Wicked murders, witty one-liners and totally satisfying romance.’

JUANITA KEES

'Michelle Somers doesn't just paint a picture, expecting readers to fill in the blanks – she immerses them in a high definition, surround sound movie experience. A must-read author.'

AMAZON REVIEW

BUY LINKS:

Murder Most Unusual:

iBooks: http://apple.co/2jtM1DZ

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2iGjZEu

Amazon Aus: http://amzn.to/2jSDur9

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2iB9Vcw

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/murder-most-unusual-1

Nook: http://bit.ly/2iGhqCq

Lethal in Love:

iBooks: http://apple.co/2j2YLyo

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2jZhcbv