Welcome to author KC Burn! KC is here today to celebrate the release of her latest novel from Dreamspinner Press, Tea or Consequences. There’s a great guest post ahead as well as a the chance to win a $10 DSP store credit! Check out the entry details below.
Mysteries… I Just Love Them
I’m KC Burn and I’ve always wanted to write one and I finally did—Tea or Consequences. There’s also some sexy, romantic times for my beleaguered amateur sleuth, Riley Parker, but the super fun part for me was creating the mystery. In addition to sci-fi and fantasy, mysteries were some of my earliest influences. Scooby Doo, obviously. But I was obsessed with The Hardy Boys (and not just because Parker Stevenson was a hottie—showing my age a bit, but I was also five). I owned the entire Hardy Boys book collection, and also owned a number of Nancy Drews and Trixie Beldens.
I also remember watching Charlie Chan, Hawaii 5-0, Sherlock Holmes, The Rockford Files, Nero Wolfe, Colombo, McMillan & Wife, and a few others with my parents. It was pretty much inevitable that I’d love reading mysteries too.
Later on, Agatha Christie formed a huge influence, but there are other mystery writers who I adore. Elizabeth Peters might be number one, because her mysteries combined a strong female sleuth with some incredible ancient history. Anne Perry writes some great Victorian mysteries. Kathy Reichs and Aaron Elkins incorporate anthropology (forensic and physical, respectively) both of which made up one of my degrees, so the fascination has been long term.
I also love watching mysteries on television—I’ve recently discovered the Hallmark Movies & Mystery channel and I’ve one-clicked a few books by authors whose books have been made into movies. I love Criminal Minds, Murdoch Mysteries, Midsomer Murders, Monk (weirdly, these are a lot of M’s), Death in Paradise, and Sherlock. One of my favourite shows, though, was Psych. Loved that show and I’m super stoked they’re creating some feature length movies.
And if you weren’t sure, I scoop up just about every mystery written by m/m authors, with Josh Lanyon, Charlie Cochrane, Rhys Ford, and Mary Calmes some of my favs.
Combining romance and mystery is like the best of both worlds, in my opinion, and although I’ve wanted to write a mystery in the worst way for a long time, I was always a little afraid of it. Are there enough clues? Are there too many clues? Will everyone know whodunit in the first chapter? Will it even make sense at the end? Finally I just went for it, and Tea or Consequences is what came pouring out. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
I’d also love to hear about your favourite mysteries—I know I haven’t had time to get to them all!
About Tea or Consequences
Riley Parker: temp, twink, geek… sleuth?
Maybe Riley isn’t living up to his full potential, but being a temp executive assistant suits him. He’s never bored at work, he’s got friends who let him geek out, and he’s got a carefully crafted twink exterior… which might be getting constrictive now that he’s on the other side of thirty. Life isn’t perfect, but it’s comfortable.
It all unravels when he takes a job working for a tea-obsessed cosmetics queen, the owner of Gautier Cosmetics. During the launch party for a new product, Riley finds his boss dead under suspicious circumstances, and the homicide detective is none other than Tadeo Martin, Riley’s high school obsession who never knew he was alive.
Tad drafts Riley to get the scoop on the inner workings of Gautier, and for Riley, it’s like a drug. His natural inquisitiveness is rewarded with more and more Tad. Unfortunately, his snooping puts him in the running for two other roles: suspect and victim. The killer doesn’t care which.
Tea or Consequences is available at Dreamspinner Press and Amazon.
About the Author
KC Burn has been writing for as long as she can remember and is a sucker for happy endings (of all kinds). After moving from Toronto to Florida for her husband to take a dream job, she discovered a love of gay romance and fulfilled a dream of her own — getting published. After a few years of editing web content by day, and neglecting her supportive, understanding hubby and needy cat at night to write stories about men loving men, she was uprooted yet again and now resides in California. Writing is always fun and rewarding, but writing about her guys is the most fun she’s had in a long time, and she hopes you’ll enjoy them as much as she does.
Visit KC at her website, on Twitter, on Facebook, or find out about new releases by signing up for her newsletter.
The Giveaway
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OMG your reading list could be an exact mirror of what I used to read as a kid!! I still have every Agatha Christie, Nero Wolf, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden!!! I just couldn’t get rid of them. My current reading list also includes the above mentioned authors (among many others) It’s pretty exciting to actually read that someone has the same interests. Congratulations on your new book! This is definitely one I will be getting!!!
blaine.leehall(at)yahoo(dot)com
OMG – so jealous! I used to have every Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Trixie Belden but my mom managed to “lose” a few boxes during one of our moves :( I’ve tried to replace the Hardy Boys set, and I think I’m only three or four away. It’s hard to find those old 70s style hard covers of my youth.
Thanks for the post, KC – it really intrigues me to grab and read this book. I’m also a mystery books lovers, though I confess to not have imagination to write one. Ha! It’s reading all the way for me. ;-)
Hi Didi! I have to admit, it was definitely one of the more challenging books I’ve written – hope you enjoy :)
Hi KC, absolutely love your work, so glad you have done a mystery, I love them! I grew up watching all of the shows you mentioned and am addicted to the books written by Rhys, Mary, Josh, and Charlie. Can’t wait for Friday to dig into Tea or Consequences.
Thank you Brenda! Love hearing that I’m not the only one who grew up with those old shows – I sometimes pop them on Netflix and a surprising number still hold up.
Can’t wait to read this book!
Thanks kp :)
I love mysteries and have always thought they must be tough to write. So, congrats on this new book! I also love all the authors you mentioned. Another favorite of mine is C.S. Poe.
Thank you! And I do like CS Poe too!
I loved your Toronto Tales and I can’t wait for this book especially since it is a mystery romance. I’ve started really liking the genre and I’m sure you’ll do it justice. Unfortunately when I was younger I was more into epic fantasy and now if there’s no m/m I can’t bother lol so I haven’t read any of the authors you mentioned though I do know them =D I do LOVE Monk though and Elementary is also one of the series I enjoy but usually my go to tv shows are comedies.
Good Luck with the release, all the best ^^
Thank you Christina! If you like Monk, you might enjoy Psych (not sure whether it’s streamable anywhere) which is mystery & comedy combined. Elementary is great too!
16forward September 21, 2017 at 4:50 pm
I don’t know how I’ve missed this series! It sounds like some great chemistry, lots of frustrating conversations and fun ahead! At least now I can read all three and not have to wait with baited breath for the next to be released!
Congrats on your upcoming release of Tea or Consequences. I already have it on my tbr/wishlist. I love your Fabric Hearts serie, i already read all three books and i was wondering if there will be more books in that serie?
Thank you Angela! Not sure if there will be more Fabric Hearts or not… so many ideas and not enough time to write them all!
Thank you for the post. I know all of them but haven’t read anything but Nancy Drew and not much of it. The only show I watch was Criminal Minds.
Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys were staples of my pre and teen years. I think I watched all the same series too :)
congrats on the new release
congrats on your latest release
congrats on your release this sounds really good. This has been added to my wishlist until my next paydate.
You just mentioned some of my favorite mystery authors. I can’t wait to check this book. Congrats on the new release, by the way! I hope you write more sci-fi books, I love Gallactic Alliance series.
Congratulations and much success, KC! Looks like a good one!
taina1959 @ yahoo . com
Congratulations!!!!