Rosalie Spielman is April's featured author, and yes, I know it's May! In April, I started this new feature in my monthly newsletter and just had the epiphany that once the newsletter goes out, it would be fun to add the featured author to my blog. Now back to Rosalie!
Rosalie and I are former literary agency sisters, and she is one of my favorite people. You've probably seen me gushing about her Idaho-based Hometown Mystery series, but did you know she also writes as part of a multi-author series set in Hawaii?
This is the Aloha Lagoon series and there are 21 books in the series! Nope, you don't need to read the entire series before you read Rosalie's contributions. It's such a fun concept. All the authors writing for the series share the location and the sheriff, but the rest of the characters and stories are their own. How cool is that? It's a super fun series and Rosalie's main character, Kiki, is a dive instructor. She has a swoony love interest, a Hawaiian landlord she calls Aunt, and a hysterical parrot.
Rosalie's latest contribution to the series just came out this week, and it's the perfect time to read Death at the Spring Fling!
I asked Rosalie where she got her inspiration to make Kiki a dive instructor, and if she dives herself:
I got dive certified while in college - so my open water certification dives were in the Puget Sound in the springtime. Mmmm toasty warm. My reason to get certified was to dive with my sister when she was stationed in Panama. Gorgeous water, amazing experience! And yes, a few years later I did go diving in Kauai, and even saw a honu in the flesh! So when I was debating an occupation for Kiki in Kauai, diving was the first thing that came to mind.(And in the first book, when they are looking at where else she had been diving, that was straight from where I had been.)
Rosalie Spielman is a mother, veteran, and retired military spouse. She was thrilled to discover that she could make other people laugh with her writing and finds joy in giving people a humorous escape from the real world. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband in a rapidly emptying nest. For more information on her books or to subscribe to her newsletter, go to her website, Rosalie Spielman, Writer
It's springtime in Aloha Lagoon, Hawaii, and romance is in the air! Along with murderous intentions...The dive shop where Kiki Hepburn works is sponsoring the first annual Aloha Lagoon Resort Spring Fling Dance, and naturally is in charge of the "Under The Sea" themed decor. In between hanging crepe paper jellyfish tentacles and paper mache honu, Kiki witnesses an argument between two men, and is unsurprised to see her old foe Ruby Nakasoma right in between them. But what does surprise her is when, during the dance, Kiki and her boyfriend Dex find one of the men dead, with Ruby leaning over him holding a vicious looking murder weapon! Kiki thinks Ruby's true nature has finally caught up to her, but when Ruby makes a heartfelt appeal for help, Kiki starts looking for a murderer who may or may not be finished...With Dex undercover and suspects as bountiful as springtime hormones, bike-riding delivery men, a tree-trimming cougar on the prowl, and a nose-booping jack-of-all-trades make their way under Kiki's magnifying glass. Will she find the murderer before they find the victim?