An Interview With Korina Moss

by Grace Topping

In Case of the Bleus, the latest book in her Cheese Shop Mystery Series, Korina Moss delivers another exciting book filled with more adventures for Willa Bauer and descriptions of various cheeses that will prompt you to make a trip to your local cheese shop. As an added bonus, she includes recipes using those cheeses. It was a pleasure talking to Korina about her series and all things cheese.

 

Case of the Bleus

 

Cheesemongers from across the Northwest have come to the Sonoma Valley for the Northwest Cheese Invitational. As owner of the local cheese shop, Curds & Whey, Willa Bauer loves it. The event showcases custom cheese creations, and it’s the perfect time to gather with old colleagues to honor her former boss, the late and grate cheese legend, Max Dumas. He was famous for journeying into the wild bleu yonder to where he aged his award-winning custom Church Bleu. Only Max knew the recipe and location to his beloved cheese, and many are eager to have these revealed at his will reading.

But instead of naming someone to inherit his cheese and its secrets, Max stuns everyone with one cryptic clue. When a fellow cheesemonger dies under mysterious circumstances––the woman they all thought would get the secrets to Max's prized possession––everyone falls under suspicion. Willa adores Church Bleu as much as the next cheese connoisseur, but it’s not to die for. Is a killer trying to get away with murder...and the cheese?

 

www.korinamossauthor.com

 

 

A big welcome to Korina Moss, who is a member of our Writers Who Kill family.

 

In Case of the Bleus, cheesemonger Max Dumas dies without revealing the secret formulation of his award-winning Church Bleu cheese and where it’s aged. Do cheesemakers go to great lengths to keep their recipes a secret?

I don’t think they go to the lengths that Max did, but I do think they all have their ways of making their own custom cheeses special. There are so many factors in how a cheese gets its flavor and texture (from the type of grass the cows/goats/sheep graze on to the length, location, and temperature of where the cheese is aged, and everything in between), that I think it would be hard to replicate it exactly, anyway. 

Your book becomes a bit of a treasure hunt when it’s discovered that Max only left clues about his Church Bleu cheese. What is the biggest challenge you face developing the plot for your books? 

 

Making sure all the pieces fit together at the end so that the mystery is indeed a mystery for the reader for as long as possible. Writing a mystery is such a dance – each piece of information, whether it be a red herring or a clue you want the reader to overlook—has to be done at the right time in the right way. Otherwise, it’s either confusing or too obvious. But that mystery plot has to be woven around characters that readers are invested in, so I also have to make sure I grow my characters and their relationships while still moving the plot forward. It’s a difficult dance. 

 

With all of the cheeses you’ve tasted while doing research, do you have a favorite, or have you become rather tired of cheese? What about one that you absolutely didn’t like?

 

Tired of cheese? Never! There are so many different cheeses, I can’t imagine getting tired of it. It’s a new experience every time you try a different cheese, and then another new experience if you pair that cheese with an accompaniment. I have several favorites, but the list keeps growing every time I try new cheese. The three that come to mind are Brabander Gouda, Montbrú’s Curat de Búfala, and the inspiration for Case of the Bleus, Rogue River Blue. One that I didn’t care for was Alp Blossom, which is the cheese that opens book 3, Curds of Prey. It’s a showy, beautiful cheese covered in herbs and flowers (which is why my protagonist Willa chose it for a wedding shower cheese bar), but all those herbs give it a very grassy, earthy flavor that I wasn’t so fond of. I appreciated the complexity of it with each bite, but with all the cheeses out there, it’s not one I feel the need to revisit. 

 

With your first book, Cheddar Off Dead, winning an Agatha Award and receiving other recognition, do you find it a challenge to start another book, wondering if it will measure up to it?

 

Luckily, I’d already written several of the Cheese Shop Mysteries by the time I received the Agatha Award last April for Cheddar Off Dead, so I wasn’t intimidated by the wonderful award. Having said that, I do feel a lot of pressure to try to make each book better than the last. Many readers said Curds of Prey was their favorite thus far, which thrilled me, of course. But it also adds extra pressure for Case of the Bleus. My personal favorite is book 2, Gone For Gouda, so you never quite know how your work will be received. 

Your books are available in paperback, e-book, and in audio. How was it hearing your work performed by your narrator? Did you have any input to the audiobook production?

 

I love listening to Erin Moon perform my books. It’s the next best thing to having them on the screen (which I’m hoping will happen someday). I appreciate her interpretation of the characters and how she really understands them. If my dialogue is meant to be sarcastic, she always knows to play it that way. Her performance heightens the humorous scenes and the tension of the action. She hasn’t made a false move. I think even if readers have already read the paperback or e-book copies, they should also listen to the audio. It’s a new way to experience the stories. 

 

Meeting deadlines can be a challenge for many writers. I understand that you’ve gone on writing retreats to enable you to focus solely on writing. Care to tell us about some of them? Any upcoming retreats planned?

 

When I’m under a lot of pressure from a deadline, it can be debilitating to my writing. Sometimes I need a change of scenery to kickstart my process or as an excuse to ignore my daily tasks and concentrate solely on writing. I’ve taken myself to a tiny house in the Catskills, an Airbnb with a lake view, and last winter I went on a week-long solo cruise. On the cruise, I wasn’t under the pressure of a deadline, but I was feeling burnt out. Being by myself on a laid-back cruise on the open sea freed up my creativity. I outlined book 5, which I’m currently writing, and also did some freewriting for a book in a different genre that I’ve been toying with for a while. I could’ve used another few weeks on that ship, but the week I did have was wonderfully restorative. I’d love to do an annual writing retreat cruise and invite other writers along.

Now that you have four books in the series, how is it balancing writing more books and having to do book promotion? 

 

It’s a difficult balance. I find myself wanting to cross off the things on my list that are due first, but then I realize too much time has passed where I haven’t worked on my book – the very reason for all that marketing. Unlike some authors, I enjoy marketing very much. I love interacting with readers, whether it be in a Zoom book club, in a Facebook group, or in person. Most of my time is spent alone, writing. Hearing from readers reminds me why I care so much about what I’m putting onto the page.

 

I see that you are scheduled to attend the Cozy Mystery Fete in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania on October 14. That’s a new gathering for me. Can you tell us about the fete?

 

I’m very excited about this and am so happy to have been invited. There will be 15 cozy mystery authors attending this all-day fête. It’s more than just readers buying our books and getting them signed, although there will be that too. We’ll get the chance to interact with our readers, we’ll do Q&As and roundtable chats. There’ll be freebies and swag, like recipe cards from those of us who have culinary cozies. The fee is $5 if you register ahead of time, and $10 at the door. This gets you in all day with refreshments. If you’re a cozy mystery fan, it’s worth making a special trip to attend, even staying overnight. Here’s more information: Mechanicsburg Cozy Mystery Fete

 

Do you make a lot of author appearances? Or have a favorite mystery conference you attend?

 

You asked about balance before and because my books have been coming out every six months, I find I haven’t had as much time for in-person author appearances as I would like. I have been on panels and book signings at libraries, and I have another Murder Mystery and Cheese Pairing event with Spread Cheese Co. and Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore in Middletown, CT coming up. I do a lot of appearances online—podcasts and YouTube interviews—through Facebook Live or Zoom. If people follow my FB author page, my private Team Cheese FB group page, or subscribe to my monthly newsletter through my website, they’ll be notified when and where I’m appearing. Of course, I love going to Malice Domestic, which is a fan convention that takes place in April in Bethesda, MD. I highly recommend it for fans of mysteries and writers, alike. This November, I’ll be on a panel at Crime Bake, a three-day mystery writers conference that takes place near Boston, MA.   

 

In addition to your books, you’ve had short stories in the Crime Travel and Death by Cupcake anthologies. Which do you find more challenging to write, novels or short stories?

 

I find short stories extremely challenging. I’m in awe of short story writers like Barb Goffman and Art Taylor, who make it look easy with how prolific they are. I rarely write short stories, but I feel challenged and proud when I’m able to (sort of) pull one off. My story in Crime Travel, “On the Boardwalk,” was especially challenging because of the theme. 

What’s next for Willa and her crew?

 

Right now, I’m working on book 5, the title is still to be announced. It takes place at the Dairy Days festival in a nearby town to Yarrow Glen. When a murder occurs, Detective Heath isn’t on the case—it’s not in his jurisdiction. But when danger lurks, involving Willa and her crew, for the first time Detective Heath puts down his badge and teams up with Willa to solve the case together. 

 

What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned since you started writing?

 

It’s a bigger responsibility to be an author than I realized. Just recently, I received a message from a reader who binged my series while she was in the pediatric ICU as her daughter was recovering from surgery. She said my books gave her a sense of comfort during a time when life was kind of scary. I’ve received a handful of messages like this before—readers who were recovering from knee surgery or heart surgery or reading to their moms in the hospital. You can’t underestimate how your books may affect someone. I take that responsibility very seriously. 

 

Thank you, Korina

 

 

To learn more about Korina and her books, visit her at www.korinamossauthor.com

 

 

Bio

 

Korina Moss is the author of the Cheese Shop cozy mystery series set in Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner of the Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead. Her books have been featured in Parade Magazine, Woman’s World Magazine, AARP Magazine, and Fresh Fiction. She loves creating quirky characters who live in idyllic small towns. She grew up on a healthy dose of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie novels, which developed her passion for solving mysteries and eventually writing her own. She lives in a small New England town with its own share of quirky characters. Korina is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. She blogs on Writers Who Kill.

 

 

Grace Topping is the author of the Laura Bishop Mystery Series.