Meet Cynthia Hickey - Interview & Book Giveaway

I was at the ACFW lunch when Cynthia Hickey received her contract from Barbour, so it’s a real thrill for me to have her on the blog. Her new book is Fudge-Laced Felonies, part of the Heartsong Presents Mysteries line. Let’s meet Cynthia!

THE BIO

Cynthia Hickey lives in Surprise, Arizona with her husband, two of their seven children, two dogs, two cats, and a fish. They're a large blended family. Cynthia has one birth child, three step-children, three adopted children, and five grandchildren. She is also the Detention Monitor at the local elementary school. Life is busy, but there's always time to write.

She received her contract for Fudge-Laced Felonies during the American Christian Fiction Writer's Association's Friday lunch. In front of five hundred people. Instead of realizing the editor was talking about her, she glanced around the large room wondering who else had been an army brat and foster parent for nine years. Yep, it still hasn't completely sunk in.

THE INTERVIEW

JA: Your latest book is Fudge-Laced Felonies from Heartsong Presents Mysteries. Please tell us about it.
CH: Summer Meadows wants people to think of her more than the spoiled, almost thirty year old who lives with her aunt and uncle. She wants to accomplish something in her life, and catch the eye of her long-time crush, Ethan Banning. When she finds diamonds buried beneath her hopeful prize-winning rose bush, she sets out to solve the mystery, endangering her life in the process.

JA: In the course of solving the mystery, heroine Summer Meadows, must face her true feelings for handsome Sunday school teacher Ethan Banning. At the same time, Ethan is trying to hide his feelings for Summer. How much fun was it creating the tension between these two?
CH: Creating the tension between the two was great fun! Summer is, by nature, a selfish person. But she’s also witty, caring, and a complete ditz. When she thinks Ethan has his eye on the town vamp, she goes to extremes to attract his attention. There’s a lot of humor in her attempts to make him notice her.

JA: Summer’s aunt is a candy maker. Did you get to do any fun candy-related research for this book?
CH: Actually, Summer is the candy maker and her aunt works for her. I use to own a handmade chocolate store so research was done years ago. Besides writing, candy-making is the best job in the world!

JA: What do you hope people take away after reading Fudge-Laced Felonies?
CH: That we are all created unique. With faults and all. God loves us without the need for us to succumb to something other than what we are. Summer struggles with letting go and letting God. Something most of us need to work on. At least I do.

JA: What’s next for you in the writing arena?
CH: I’ve completed and submitted to my publisher books two and three in the Summer Meadows series: Candy-Coated Secrets and Chocolate-Covered Crime. I am now working on another cozy series set in the fictional town of Timbuktu, Arkansas.

JA: You grew up in a family of story tellers. How did that impact your life?
CH: The stories I grew up with where mostly true stories of family history. These stories raised many questions of “What if”. An older cousin was also the master at scary stories. Our imagination would take off to where we were afraid of a square of moonlight shining through the trees. I’ve made up stories since I was a child. It seemed natural to move to writing.

JA: What would people be surprised to learn about you?
CH: This is always a hard question. But, I guess it would be that beneath this blunt exterior, is a big heart. I always tell people, don’t ask the question if you don’t want to hear the answer. I also have a strange sense of humor.

JA: Have you read any books lately that thrilled you to your toes?
CH: Embrace Me by Lisa Samson. This story of wounded and disfigured carnival people rocked me to my toes. Definitely! What a true story of God’s love. I’m also really enjoying the other HeartsongPresents/Mysteries by Barbour. A lot of fun.

JA: Last but not least, how can people keep up with your latest publishing news?
CH: My visiting my blog or website, www.cynthiahickey.com or www.cynthiahickey.blogspot.com

Thanks so much for visiting the blog, Cynthia. May God continue to bless you in your writing journey!

WIN THE BOOK

If you’d like to be entered to win a copy of Fudge-Laced Felonies just leave a reply to this blog. I’ll combine the responses of my Blogger and ShoutLife blogs to pick a winner at random on June 2nd. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. (To prevent spammers from trolling for your email, please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail [dot] com--or something similar.) ShoutLifers will be contacted via ShoutMail. Good luck!