“Why Weddings?”by Stephanie Blackmoore

I’m often asked why I picked wedding planning as the theme for my cozy series. Some readers assume I was or currently am employed as a wedding planner. However, I was an attorney and a law librarian before I began writing mysteries. The only wedding I’ve ever planned was my own. Yet it was a happy choice to create a character who began her career as an attorney and segued into wedding planning and owning a bed and breakfast when serendipity struck and she inherited a crumbling mansion.

Weddings are such emotional affairs! Even the most smoothly planned wedding has a few hiccups, moments of stress, conflict, and heightened anticipation. Tensions can run high when two people decide to formally join their families and incorporate different traditions and choices for their big day. Weddings are usually family affairs, and a chance for couples and family members to reflect on their dearest-held wishes, hopes, and dreams. The nexus of strong emotions, the conflicts involved in making decisions about a wedding, and reflection upon family traditions seemed like a theme that would provide ample fodder for a cozy mystery series.

A surprising revelation that often strikes my main character, Mallory Shepard, is the strong overlap in the skills she used from her days as an attorney with those she employs in her current profession as a wedding planner. Mallory has to persuade bridezillas and momzillas to compromise, mediate between clashing family members’ disparate wishes, and negotiate the best contracts for her business. And to top it all off, Mallory often gets to use the research skills she honed as an attorney to guide her in her unofficial role as amateur sleuth.

I also love exploring family expectations, conflicts, and secrets in my cozy mystery series. The backdrop of a wedding helps me weave these considerations into a tapestry of tension, character growth, and surprises. I also love to plan parties from the safe confines of my desk! I am a bit of an introvert in real life, but through my series, I get to dream up elaborate weddings and parties down to the last detail. I enjoy cooking, and focusing on weddings as my theme allows me to craft fun themed menus and confections. I’ve put my protagonist through her paces more than once by having her create new wedding plans overnight. I think that’s in part because the details are so fun to plan!

Gown with the Wind (A Wedding Planner Mystery)
by Stephanie Blackmoore\

About the Book

Gown with the Wind (A Wedding Planner Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Kensington (December 18, 2018)
Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
ISBN-10: 1496717511
ISBN-13: 978-1496717511
Digital ASIN: B07BV3K4N8

Professional wedding planner Mallory Shepard knows her job is challenging under any circumstances. But when the groom is your ex and someone invites murder, there may never be another tomorrow . . .

Mallory’s fine—really—handling the wedding arrangements for her ex, Keith. But his fiancée, Becca, has at the last minute decided to switch from a Japanese-cherry-blossom theme to a Gone with the Wind theme. She wants to honor her ailing grandmother, who owns an impressive collection of GWTW memorabilia—and who is fiercely at odds with the groom’s mother over the nuptial plans.

But among other complications, Becca gets into a fight with an old childhood rival over a replica Scarlett O’Hara wedding gown. She wins the dress—but soon becomes a murder suspect when the other woman is found dead in Becca’s swimming pool. And it’s up to Mallory to solve the mystery behind this unhappy occasion, before a different kind of civil war breaks out . . .

About the Author

A native Pittsburgher, Stephanie Blackmoore now lives in Missouri, with her husband, son and two-spirited cats. She was an attorney in Pittsburgh and a librarian in Florida before becoming a writer. Stephanie is a fan of everything black-and-yellow. She is hard at work on her next Wedding Planner mystery. Connect with Stephanie at the links below.

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