Author Interview with Kim Janine Ligon  ~ New Release: Running To Daylight #cozymystery #cleanromance

Please help me welcome today’s guest, Kim Janine Ligon…

Please tell us a little about yourself, where are you from? Where do you live now? Family? Pets?

I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin as the oldest of ten kids. I have six sisters and three brothers. My dad was a veterinarian so we had pets galore. At one point we have six Great Danes, a pug, and three Siamese cats who all lived in the house with (at that time) six kids. Once I went to college and could put on black pants without brushing off animal hair, I never went back to having pets again. I married my college sweetheart while still in college. After living in central and southern Illinois, then Philadelphia, PA, we are now settled in Alabama.

Where did you get the idea for Running To Daylight?

My husband has named this book and three others before this. The only one he didn’t name was my Christmas in the Castle book.

Why did you choose this genre?

This is my fourth cozy romantic mystery. I like the added intrigue beyond the romance. It is the third book set in Lansdale, Wisconsin.

Was there anything unusual, any anecdote about this book, the characters, title, process, etc, you’d like to share?

My sister, Erin, will recognize herself in an encounter at the Purple Cow Drive-in early in the book and The Fox Creek Winery really does exist in Richland County Illinois. My uncle and cousin own it.

What is the most difficult thing about writing a book?

Remembering to SHOW not TELL.

What was the most difficult thing about this one in particular?

Getting used to a new editor after working with the same one on the first four books.

Do you collect anything?

I collect bunny figurines and elephant figurines. The elephant collection grew dramatically when I inherited my mother’s collection.

What was your first job?

Working in my dad’s veterinary clinic. I did everything. I answered phones, scheduled small animal appointments, called on the radio about farmers who needed the veterinarian, cleaned cages for the animals being boarded or recovering, clipped poodles, did inventory, posted charges, and processed bills. It was a lot of different experience and one of the hardest jobs I ever had.

What’s the main thing that you could get rid of in your life that would give you more writing time?

That’s easy—housework—not cleaning because I do very little of that but grocery shopping, laundry, cooking, cleanup, paying bills. All those things are necessary but they are also time consuming. If I became the outstanding housekeeper my mother was washing walls, shampooing carpets, and repainting—I’d never have time to write.

What is your favorite quote?

Winston Churchill said during the blitzes of WWII: “Never, never, never give up.” I think that’s great advice in so many situations in life and, especially, in writing and being published.

What do you want your tombstone to say?

She loved her family and friends fiercely.

Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?

They are parts of real people mashed together. Sometimes I start with a real name and can see a real person as the model, but I modify character traits to fit the story. Sometimes people I know think one of my characters is a mutual friend but I’ve never just lifted someone in total to the pages of my book. 

What do your friends and family think of your writing?

They are my biggest cheerleaders and supporters. They signed up for my blog. They are early readers and critics. They buy my books and encourage their friends to buy them too. They love to have their names turn up as a character.

Thank you for joining me and sharing a little about yourself. Now, please tell us about your book.

Blurb:  

After ten years in witness protection, Morgan Tucker is hidden no longer. Evil hasn’t been thwarted by a false name or Morgan’s move the small town Lansdale, Wisconsin.

Mark Trask, a veteran of Lansdale’s police force, returns from vacation to find his reclusive housemate, Phil Hughes, missing. The driver of a black pickup truck stalks Mark and nearly kills him. Are they targeting Mark or is it related to Phil’s mysterious disappearance?

Elsie Dennis lives with her older brother, Hubert and operates Knitting Pretty in downtown Lansdale. Unexpected danger plagues the siblings. Why now? Who is behind this evil?

Mark and Elsie are thrown together to solve the mysteries surrounding them and try to determine if they are related to a ten-year-old murder. They encounter evil at every turn as together they find their way toward the daylight.

Excerpt:

 It was too late for celebrating. It wasn’t even a relief that Scachhi can no longer hurt me. I couldn’t visit Mom since she’s been gone five years. Cancer was the physician’s diagnostic guess. I knew better. It was loneliness and a broken heart. I couldn’t contact her without The Family finding out. That was against the rules I have had to live by all these years.

I have always been a ‘follow the rules, do the right thing’ person. Always. At all costs. Ten years has been a long time to stay this hazardous course. I have had to watch every step to stay on the straight and narrow never-ending path toward daylight. 

I was finally free, but I have nowhere to go. No one was waiting to welcome me back into the bosom of my family. They were all gone. No one knew Morgan Tucker any longer. I sacrificed my life so that my father would get the justice he deserved. I would do it again. It was the right thing—the only choice. Mom understood the truth as well as I did. Perhaps even better.

I testified. The bad guys went to prison. I have been reborn into a new life under the protection of the U.S. Marshals Service. I’m living proof that when you do the right thing everything will work out in the end. 

Wait.

Who knew to send me a letter to an address in Lansdale, Wisconsin?

To the new me?

If the sender was only trying to scare me, they have succeeded in spades. Who would still be alive to care where I am? Who I am?

Lord, please don’t leave me. I need your protection now more than ever. Shield me from the darkness. Lead me to the daylight.

Buy link(s):

https://mybook.to/RunningToDaylight

https://mybook.to/AllMyBooks

About the Author:

Kim Janine Ligon has been writing stories for most of her life—some on paper and some only in her head. She has lots of source material growing up as the oldest child in a large family in a small town in Wisconsin. Her father was a veterinarian so there were not only lots of children around, but all manner of house pets and farm animals, too. Her love of reading comes from her mother who was seldom seen sitting down without a book in her hand. After a demanding career in healthcare information technology, she is now doing all the creative things she loves which includes writing her stories to share with you. She lives with her chief encourager and personal romantic hero, her husband of almost forever, in Alabama. Please follow her further adventures at www.spinningromance.com or contact her at kimjanine@spinningromance.com