Tart Words Episodes
Tart Words: Authors discuss their latest book, what inspires them, and their creative outlets.
Oct. 26, 2024
Barbara Barrett
To avoid a midlife crisis, Barbara Barrett wrote fiction at night while still employed in human resources for Iowa State Government. After releasing eleven full-length romance novels and two novellas, she turned to the cozy mystery genre, having discovered it years before when pregnant with her fir…
Oct. 26, 2024
Hank Phillippi Ryan
How can television reporter Lily Atwood keep a secret private when she's in the public's eye? Find out in Her Perfect Life.
Hank Phillippi Ryan speaks from personal experience as an investigative reporter about always being on when out in public, exploring standalone books versus series books, a…
Oct. 26, 2024
Hannah Dennison
British-born, Hannah Dennison originally moved to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting. She has been an obituary reporter, antique dealer, private jet flight attendant, and Hollywood story analyst. These jobs have inspired her cozy mystery series.
Oct. 26, 2024
Amy Vansant
In this episode, Linda Hengerer talks with Amy Vansant about her two upcoming releases. Find out what "Meat Bingo" is and what it has to do with Pineapple Cruise, and how Pineapple Circus came to have a circus setting.
Oct. 26, 2024
Russia Week - Encore: Emilya Naymark
Join me for the first themed Tart Words podcast week. It begins Monday with an encore presentation of Emilya Naymark's episode.
Oct. 25, 2024
Tracee de Hahn
Tracee de Hahn is the author of classic tales of intrigue and suspense published by Minotaur Books. Swiss Vendetta was inspired by her years in Switzerland. A Well-Timed Murder probed the heart of the Swiss watch industry.
Oct. 25, 2024
Alan Orloff
Linda Hengerer talks with Alan Orloff, whose latest YA thriller I Play One on TV came out from Down & Out Books on July 19, 2021. Alan Orloff won an ITW Thriller Award for his novel, PRAY FOR THE INNOCENT, and he won a Derringer Award for his short story, “Dying in Dokesville.” He’s also had novels…
Oct. 25, 2024
Neil S. Plakcy
Neil S. Plakcy is the author of over fifty gay romance, gay mystery and adventure, and cozy mystery novels. His eclectic work career includes stints in shopping mall construction, web development, and computer game producing.
Oct. 25, 2024
Connie Berry
Connie Berry is the author of the Kate Hamilton Mysteries, set in the UK and featuring an American antiques dealer with a gift for solving crimes. Like her protagonist, Connie was raised by antiques dealers who instilled in her a passion for history, fine art, and travel. During college she studied…
Oct. 25, 2024
Susie Black
Born in the Big Apple, Susie Black calls sunny Southern California home. Like the protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry …
Oct. 25, 2024
Mia P. Manansala
Mia P. Manansala (she/her) is a writer and certified book coach from Chicago who loves books, baking, and bad-ass women. She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture. Her debut novel, ARSENIC AND ADOBO, comes out May 4, …
Oct. 25, 2024
Diane A.S. Stuckart
Diane A.S. Stuckart began her writing career in the 1990s as the critically acclaimed author of historical romance under the names Alexa Smart and Anna Gerard. She later switched to the mystery genre and is the NYT bestselling author of the Black Cat Bookshop Mysteries (written as Ali Brandon) and …
Oct. 25, 2024
Vincent H. O'Neil
Vincent H. O’Neil is the Malice Award-winning author of the Exile murder mysteries from St. Martin’s Press and the military science fiction Sim War series (written as Henry V. O’Neil) from HarperCollins. He has also authored several short stories in Mystery Tribune, Bourbon Penn, Mystery Weekly, Hy…
Oct. 25, 2024
Tara Lush
Tara Lush is a Rita Award finalist, an Amtrak writing fellow, and a George C. Polk Award-winning journalist. For the past decade, she's been a reporter with the Associated Press, covering crime, alligators, natural disasters, and politics. She also writes contemporary romance set in tropical locati…
Oct. 25, 2024
Shawn Reilly Simmons
Shawn Reilly Simmons is the Agatha and Anthony Award-winning author and editor of The Red Carpet Catering Mysteries and of twenty short stories appearing in various anthologies. She serves on the Board of Malice Domestic, is an editor at Level Best Books and a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Wr…
Oct. 25, 2024
Emilya Naymark
Emilya Naymark’s debut novel is “Hide In Place” from Crooked Lane Books. Her short stories appear in the Harper Collins anthology A Stranger Comes to Town, Secrets in the Water, After Midnight: Tales from the Graveyard Shift, River River Journal, Snowbound: Best New England Crime Stories 2017, and…
Oct. 25, 2024
Carrie Stuart Parks
Linda Hengerer talks with Carrie Stuart Parks, an award-winning, internationally known forensic artist. She travels across the US and Canada teaching courses in forensic art to law enforcement professionals including the FBI, Secret Service, and RCMP, and is the largest instructor of forensic art i…
Oct. 25, 2024
Suzanne Fox
Suzanne Fox, writing as Suzanne Scott, is the author of One Hot Summer. Originally published in 1997, Harlequin has re-released it as an ebook.
Oct. 25, 2024
Joan Lipinsky Cochran
Linda Hengerer is talking with Joan Lipinsky Cochran, whose Becks Ruchinsky Mysteries explore subcultures of American Judaism.
Oct. 25, 2024
Nancy J. Cohen
Nancy J. Cohen writes the Bad Hair Day Mysteries featuring South Florida hairstylist Marla Vail. These books have won numerous awards along with her nonfiction titles, Writing the Cozy Mystery and A Bad Hair Day Cookbook.
Oct. 25, 2024
Joan Wright Mularz
Joan Wright Mularz lives in Florida and summers in Maine. She is the author of the E.T. Madigan YA mystery series. The third book in the series, Maine Roots Run Deep, was a Finalist for BEST YA BOOK at the 2018 Independent Publishers of New England Book Awards. Kirkus Reviews said "Maine Roots Run …
Oct. 25, 2024
Annette Dashofy
Annette Dashofy is the USA Today best-selling author of the multi–Agatha Award-nominated Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township.
Oct. 25, 2024
Raquel V. Reyes
Raquel V. Reyes is the author of Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking, the second book in the Caribbean Kitchen Mystery series and available now. Mango, Mambo, and Murder, the first book in the series featuring Cuban-American cooking show star Miriam Quiñones-Smith, has been optioned for film and is now a…
Oct. 25, 2024
Christine DeSmet
Christine DeSmet is the author of the Fudge Shop Mystery Series and the novella series, Mischief in Moonstone Mystery Series, both set in Wisconsin. She is a writing coach as well, and spent several years as a Distinguished Faculty Associate in writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Continu…