Welcome to Author Judy Cole and her new release, Jilly Came Tumbling After, from Red Sky Presents.
Inquiring Minds Want to Know
Is your book based on real-life experience or a figment of your imagination?
It’s a bit of both really. The lead characters, Jilly and Rafe, are very loosely based on my own experiences with an ex. Several other characters are also inspired by people and events from my past—and present. In fact, the person the “Dr. Mike” character is based on was one of my beta readers.
For the record, the pompous, arrogant professor the murder victim is based on, never to my knowledge, hit on any of his students, myself included.
If you could trade places with one of the characters from your book, who would it be and why?
I think that out of all the characters, the one I’d most to swap places would be Jilly’s mom, Sonja. She’s tough. She’s talented. She has a huge heart. She can fillet a herring. She also pursued her career as an artist and made a success of it as well as marrying someone she loved and had two great kids. Sonja was evolved also enough to forgive her husband when he screwed up without being in any way a doormat. I think that takes guts.
Is the setting for your book real? If so, have you been there? If it’s fictitious, is there somewhere real that you’ve used as a model?
I used several locales that are fictionalized versions of real places. Jilly and Rafe’s alma mater, Castleford College, has many things in common with my own alma mater, SUNY Purchase. I grew up in New York’s Westchester County somewhere between Larchmont and Scarsdale. A lot of obscene wealth there. D.W. Griffith had a studio in the town where we lived. “The House that Herring Built” is an amalgam of homes in that area.
I also did a lot of research on White Plains real estate to come up with the office where Rafe takes a meeting with his prospective new partner. It’s based on an actual 1920’s-era building.
If you could trade lives with any other writer, living or dead, who would it be and why?
For a day or
permanently? I’m going to say I’d stick with the 20th or 21st
centuries because I really like indoor plumbing and prefer to able to bathe on
a regular basis. I think it would be fascinating to spend a day in the mind of
Stephen King. He’s a brilliant writer and I have an awful lot to learn about
discipline. An hour or two as Oscar Wilde wouldn’t go amiss, either. I’d love
to be that quick-witted.
What has been the most unusual experience you’ve had that you have written into a book?
Well, as this is my
debut novel, I’ll have to cherry-pick something. The sex scene in the opening
of the book—2 a.m., deserted
construction site. Yeah, well just don’t tell my mom.
Do you like to read in the genre in which you write? Or, are you adventurous?
After consulting with
industry types, the feedback I’ve gotten is that what I’ve written is a “hybrid
novel.” So, murder mystery or rom-com, it can go either way. When I was
younger, I went through a huge phase of being addicted to Agatha Christie. I’ve
read pretty much all of her work. The interesting thing is that most of her
books have a romance element and a happy ending. I devoured Dashiell Hammet as
well. (Not nearly so happy.)
But for the past few years, I’ve developed a huge appetite for Romance novels. So far, I’ve reading mostly been Regency and some modern, but I’ll likely branch out into the sub-genres at some point. Some chick lit appeals to me, some does not. I majored in English lit in college, so I’ve also read my share of classics, poetry, and plays.
If you had to create a pseudonym for your work that poked fun at the genre in which you write, what would it be?
Coming from an adult
entertainment background, I’ve actually had several working pseudonyms. I think
the most fitting to resurrect for a tongue-in-cheek murder mystery would be Luxury
Holmes. (I also went by Kenya B. Leavitt.) For romance, Constance Craving,
perhaps?
If you listen to music while you write, what are the top three songs on your playlist?
I generally don’t listen to music when I’m writing as a rule, but if this book ever was made into a film, I’d definitely want a say in what went in the soundtrack. This is off the top of my head and just three…
·
Eagles:
“Best of My Love”
·
Thin Lizzy:
“The Boys are Back in Town”
· Israel Kamakawiwoʻole: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
He was the one who got away—but what does she do when he comes back? Homicide detective Gillian “Jilly” Delmar (a.k.a. the Wise Choice Herring heiress) is about to find out—in the middle of a murder investigation. When Reginald Breedlove, a college professor at Jilly’s alma mater (and a man of questionable morals), dies under sinister circumstances, Jilly catches the case.
For the first time in nearly two decades, she also catches sight of criminal profiler Dr. Raphael Hanlon, her long lost true love—and soon-to-be subject of an upcoming original Netflix series, who has also been assigned to the case.
Can the pair rekindle their passion, heal old wounds, cure the hiccups, and find the killer before he—or she—strikes again?
“Give me that!” Jilly spat, but Rafe, enjoying her show of pique, read on.
“‘His mouth slanted over hers in a mindless act of pure possession as the thick dark curling pelt on his chest rasped the delicate nipples that crowned her naked breasts, tantalizing the tight buds into stiff, rosy peaks.’ His mouth slanted over hers? How do you even do that?” Rafe angled his head left. “That can’t be it.” He tried angling it to the right. “Is this better?”
“Oh, shut up and give me back my book,” Jilly wailed in frustration.
“And I guess I won’t be rasping anyone’s nipples with this sorry pelt,” Rafe admitted.
“Nope, no rasping for you,” Jilly agreed, making a lunge for the book, giggling. Rafe, laughing as well, tumbled onto the bed, and all at once, they weren’t laughing any more.
~ ~ ~
My Review
First of all, there are so many things the heroine and I have in common (e.g., we're neither young, thin, nor beautiful, we have an affinity to sweets, and we're both great shots), that I was not surprised when I feel immediatley in love with her character. And, of course, I feel for the hero--it's our job as readers of romance to (nearly) always fall for the hero.
As for the rest of the book, I absolutely loved it. I don't read a lot of suspense because it makes me think too much and I usually like to read to 'not' think. However, this story was so engaging, I couldn't help but be swept up in the adventure. Of course, I enjoyed the wonderful sexual chemistry between the two main characters and was happy to see them reunite, and not just because of a murder mystery.
I look forward to more from this author in the future.
~ ~ ~
About the Author
In addition to Playgirl, Judy also served as chief cook and bottle washer for Today’s Charlotte Woman, SexIs, and Vibrant Living magazine. Her work has been featured in Creative Loafing, SKIRT!, Nerve, Charlotte Magazine, Draft (all things beer), Business North Carolina, North Carolina Health News, Men’s Fitness, and the Good News Network. She also scripted nearly eight seasons of Twice as Good, a regional Emmy and Taste Award-winning, STEM-centric, PBS cooking and travel program for kids.
Judy’s previously published fiction includes a collection of slightly off-kilter, not-exactly-for-children's stories, Peculiar Parables for a Dubious Millennium and Grrracie! A Stray Dog’s Tale. She and her menagerie of rescue dogs and cats currently reside a stone’s throw—if you have the ambition and a really strong arm—from Charlotte, North Carolina. And Jilly Came Tumbling After is her first novel.
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