Let's Get Cozy
You know those people who just seem to be amazing at everything they try?
I'm over here feeling pretty proud when I nail just one creative thing, but these people? They're out here casually crushing it in like five different areas! Well, get ready because I'm about to introduce you to one of these incredible humans… author Lucy Emblem.
So I've been working with Lucy since she launched her Tamsin Kernick cozy mystery series, right? And then one day she just drops into conversation that she's also an artist! Oh, and did I mention she's super involved with animals in both her work and personal life? I mean, seriously – she's like a creativity whisperer or something!
What I absolutely love about her mysteries is how she sprinkles in little bits of her real life and surroundings in her stories. And her readers are totally here for it!
You can just tell she really knows her stuff, and every page is packed with this genuine passion that makes her stories come alive.
If you're into furry friends and can't resist the charm of the English countryside, you're going to fall head over heels for her books! Lucy's been kind enough to agree to introduce herself to all of you.
Take it away, Lucy!
📖📖📖
Well hello there!
I’m Lucy Emblem, and I live in rural England with my dogs and I just love writing cozy mysteries.
My books are set in the ancient Malvern Hills - a designated National Landscape - and an area I know well. There is a definite feel about these hills - something between historic and supernatural. There are the clear remains of settlements from the Bronze Age - about 800 BC - and with the buzzards wheeling above you, you never feel quite alone.
Here is a view from the descent from the Worcestershire Beacon towards the Bronze Age fort at British Camp. Zoom in - it looks like a kind of wedding cake!
What are Beacons? Oh - mediaeval texting! They would send messages of battles or whatever by bonfires on strategically chosen hills across England.
But back to the present day, where my stories are set. Tamsin Kernick is a dog trainer who is passionate about teaching owners to respect their dogs and get the best out of them. Her own three dogs, Quiz, Banjo, and Moonbeam, are champs at performing tricks, tracking, and Search & Rescue.
And you’ve guessed it! They are instrumental in catching the baddies - in every book.
Here are their “models” - my own four dogs on Castlemorton Common on a cold winter day, with the Hills rising behind. We get a lot of fresh air round here!
My own life has been filled with music, art, history, working and competing with dogs, and many, many animals. And they all turn up somewhere in my books, be they dogs, cats, chickens, goats, donkeys .. and also children, as I had some of those on my smallholding too .
Here’s one of my boys with a young kid and our collie Tip.
Now these mysteries I write are pure cozy mysteries. No child or animal is ever hurt - perish the thought! - and there’s always a motley crew of regulars who help Tamsin solve the mystery and collar the criminal. You’ll meet a broad selection of characters - some quaint, some comical, and some irredeemably bad. And there's always plenty of cake.
I’m going to let a couple of my readers tell you more. These two were both talking about my latest book, number 8, Game, Set, and Catch!
“An intriguing, fun-packed mystery for Tamsin and her friends. The story is well written, and I love the cozy atmosphere, the delightful characters, and the adorable dogs. This time Quiz is the undisputed heroine!”
“This was a really enjoyable read with a definite 'feel good' factor to it. It was a baffling whodunit with a satisfying amount of suspects, some lovely animals, including a heroic dog and of course, amateur detective Tamsin.”
And this one, about Book 6, Snapped and Framed!
“This storyline is quite unique as a cozy. Highly original and very entertaining. The characters are great, and interactions believable. Sleuth Tamsin handles the case again and her tracker dogs are an active help.”
And one more.
“If you love dogs, friendship, determination and cake, do yourself a favour and read these books to be drawn into this beautiful area, full of characters interacting on so many levels, and so realistic I at least never wanted each book to end.”
My favourite books come from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction - in the 20s and 30s - and also other English books from that period, like PG Wodehouse, Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh.
And - like them - I write about the time I live in. This is what brings vibrance and realism to what is essentially an escapist pastime
I mentioned that art figures large in my life, so I will sign off with one of my own drawings. Here is a Ragdoll Cat for you, in coloured pencil.
Lucy Emblem
https://mybook.to/TamsinKernickCozies
You can read the free prequel to the series here: https://urlgeni.us/Lucyemblemcozy
You can pick up Lucy’s latest release here: https://mybook.to/GameSetCatch
And you may be pleased to know that the books are all available in Large Print too.
I love hearing from readers, and you can find me at lucy@lucyemblem.com
Isn’t that cat drawing stunning! I told you she is the creativity whisperer.
I don’t know about where you live, but it’s been freezing here in Ohio this week. It’s the best time to cozy up with a furry friend and a book for the afternoon.
What are you planning on reading?
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I have to say, I would never have believed that cat to not be a real one, had I not been told it was a drawing.
I live in Toronto, Canada, where the winters are still Canadian, but mild in comparison to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where I was born and raised.
I don't really read cozies, but I love the American descendants of the "hard-boiled" stories, and I have only one book left right now in Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series, unless (I hope!), he writes more. But Harry might have passed the torch to Renee Ballard. But in those novels, the City of Angels is virtually a character in the tale, to the point that - before the wildfires - L.A. would have been the one city in the US that I would have really wanted to see. And eat from In 'n Out Burger, and at Frank and Musso's. And maybe Chinese Friends.
My other main pleasure is horror, and we all know Stephen King's love of New England. But for the British Isles, there is Ramsey Campbell, the majority of whose tales are set in the southwest of England, like Cornwall, within sight of the Welsh border. Apparently, also lots of Celtic (pre-Anglo-Saxon) sites. And when you ride with him, you feel like you know the place, and are immersed in it, just like riding through L.A. with Connelly and Bosch or Ballard, where Connelly actually describes the traffic and the routes chosen because of it.
It is a great thing for authors to set their stories where they know the place like the back of their hand.
A thing that actually bothers me a lot is that a lot of horror movies are shot in my native Manitoba, and other Canadian provinces, but they pretend they are in the US. I always hate that, especially when it would not affect the story at all to set it where it is shot!