Lavender Toes by Barbara Silkstone Guest Post

Welcome to the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Lavender Toes: A Cold Cream Murder Mystery! I’ve got a fun guest post from the author Barbara Silkstone. Find out how she came up with the idea for the series!

Lavender Toes (A Cold Cream Murder Mystery)

by Barbara Silkstone

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Lavender Toes (A Cold Cream Murder Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Independently Published (December 1, 2019)
174 pages

Someone dear to Olive is found dead—toes up and barefooted—in Digby’s Bees lavender field. Olive and Lizzy team up with WonderDog to find the killer. Digby’s hives are home to the wondrous Soprano bees. The little buzzers are the source of the secret ingredient that powers their Nonna’s Cold Cream—a fountain of youth in a jar.

Finding the killer becomes more of a challenge as the gals protect Digby’s bees from a determined land developer who wants the beekeeper’s farm. The clock ticks as saving the honeybees becomes every bit as important as finding the cousin-killer.

While Olive and Lizzy buzz about, Grams, nonagenarian ace reporter for the Silverfish Gazette, takes on the story of a diamond heist in nearby Sarasota. Can the gals protect Grams from another near catastrophe or can the feisty lady handle it alone?

Help the Cold Cream gals solve the mystery of the Lavender Toes while once again bailing Grams out of trouble. And what about those bees?

Every book comes with a recipe for a homemade beauty product.

Barbara Silkstone – Guest Post

How I came to write the Cold Cream Murders series

The happiest years of my life occurred when I lived on the west coast of Florida. I bought a house on Boca Ciega Bay just a short walk to the white sand beaches bordering the Gulf of Mexico. It was a mini paradise.

Every morning as the sun rose, I would lay on my tummy on the dock. I’d extend my hand out over the water while dolphins would swim close enough to touch my fingers. It was a magical place in a magical time. It was there I met my dear friend and soon to be business partner, Lizzy.

Feeling nostalgic I began to jot down my happy memories from those years. Most were so hilarious as to make them unbelievable. I realized I had enough funny stories to make a cozy series. All I needed were a few bodies, some mysteries, and a passel of red herrings.

Lizzy and I had a real estate company and when I started to write the series I was headed in that direction. Then the idea for a miracle cold cream popped into my mind. I couldn’t resist. Imagine a cream that could vanish wrinkles in a poof or lip gloss that made your lips soft and kissable. It just seemed like so much fun.

The more I wrote, the more our zany experiences came to mind. I was back in St. Petersburg giggling with Lizzy as we wiped lip-gloss graffiti off her bedroom mirror.

I fell out of seat laughing as I recalled my partner entering a posh hotel lobby from the ladies’ room—the back of her dress caught up in her panty hose. She was clueless that her bottom was exposed, and I was laughing too hard to warn her.

It’s been a joyful experience for me to revisit those memories—a time when we could exchange a glance and read each other’s minds. I wish everyone a special friendship like ours.

Florida makes a wonderful setting for cozies with it’s various sites from beachfront condos to backwoods cabins, from great blue herons to golf course alligators, from ladies of leisure to vacationing villains. And yes, for those of you who have read one or all six books, she did have seventy-six finches flying loose in her beachfront bungalow.

Grams? She was real. Every day she’d stop by our office on her way to socialize on the green benches of St. Petersburg. Cute as a button she weighed about ninety pounds; a good breeze could lift her off her feet. Wearing a retro hat and always gloves, she’d take her place on one of the benches and flirt like a teenager. She was in her eighties and the gentlemen were often older. At noon she would totter to the local tearoom. She’d do a bit more flirting and then head home for a nap. Heaven forbid we should offer to help her.

I know these memories are why I wrote the Cold Cream Murder series. Never in my life have I encountered so delightful characters. I was blessed to know them all. I hope your readers take the time to meet them. I hope you’ll love them as much as I do.

With love and laughter!

Barbara Silkstone

Thank you, Barbara, for sharing this guest post. I loved reading about how you incorporate memories from the happiest years of your life in this series! Grams sounds like quite a character!

About the author

Barbara Silkstone‘s most current series is COLD CREAM MURDERS ~ GLOSSY LIPS, SMOKEY EYES ~SOAP ON A ROPE. Coming this fall Book 5 in the series: LAVENDER TOES. This series will have at least 6 books when complete. The adventures take place in the imaginary burg of Starfish Cove, Florida ~ a place near and dear to Silkstone’s hometown of Redington Beach on the Gulf of Mexico just north of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Barbara currently lives in Central Florida with her eccentric kitty who adores Liam Neeson and chasing lizards (the cat, not Barbara) 🙂

Silkstone is the best-selling author of both Regency Pride and Prejudice variations, including the popular the MISTER DARCY SERIES OF COMEDIC MYSTERIES ~ PRIDE AND PREJUDICE contemporary variations. All her books are light-hearted adventures based on Jane Austen’s timeless tales of love denied and love discovered. “Feel good” tales to warm your heart.

She is also the author of the Wendy Darlin Comedy Mystery series. Five coffee-snorting tales that combine Cozy with outrageous adventures.

Plus a mixed bag of standalone cozy comedy mysteries: Zo White and the Seven Morphs, Cold Case Morphs, The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland … and more.

Author Links –

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Barbara-Silkstone-Author-156097004489447/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/barbsilkstone

Enter the giveaway ENDED

1 Winner of a Save the Bees sweatshirt (US); 5 winners of a signed copy of Lavender Toes (US); 5 winners of a digital copy of Lavender Toes (INT)

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Baroness’ Book Trove – REVIEW

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I Read What You Write – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST

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A Blue Million Books – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

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Cozy Up With Kathy – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

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Mysteries with Character – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

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