Fried Chicken Castañeda by Suzanne Stauffer

Fried Chicken Castañeda
by Suzanne Stauffer

About Fried Chicken Castañeda

Fried Chicken Castañeda
Historical Culinary Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Las Vegas, New Mexico, in June 1929
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Artemesia Publishing, LLC
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 6, 2025
Print length ‏ : ‎ 228 pages
Paperback
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1963832051
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1963832051
Digital
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1963832242
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DZC47WJQ

At the Castañeda Hotel you’ll find romance, gourmet dining, bootleggers, and murder!
Bored with her conventional middle-class life, Prudence Bates escapes Cleveland by heading west to qualify as a Courier for the Southwestern Indian Detours. On the California Limited she meets Jerry Begay, a charming Navajo school teacher. They feel an instant rapport, but he’s headed for Gallup, so it’s but a brief encounter.
In Las Vegas, New Mexico Prudence is befriended by Castañeda Hotel Harvey Girls Martha and Anne and desk clerk Clara. They take Prudence under their wing and invite her along to dances and the local hot springs.
Four days later, Martha’s brother, Tom, is found murdered. Was it because of his bootlegging activities? Or his amorous relationship with Liz Kearney, daughter of the richest man in the area and rumored mob boss? And was that really Jerry Begay whom Prudence saw meeting with Tom in secret the day before he was killed?
Following in the footsteps of her favorite fictional detectives, Tommy and Tuppence, Prudence is determined to solve the murder. But one wrong step and she may end up in the sights of the bootleggers.

About Suzanne Stauffer

After 20 years as a librarian and 20 as a professor of library science and library historian, Suzanne Stauffer has moved on to a third career as a mystery novelist. She currently lives in Albuquerque with her Australian husband and brown and white spotted rat terrier dogter, Treme. Her debut novel, Fried Chicken Castañeda (Artemesia Publishing, May 2025), won the CIPA EVVY Bronze Medal in Mystery/Crime/Detection and the New Mexico Book Award for Cozy Mystery.

INTERVIEW

1. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I don’t remember not wanting to be a writer and not writing. I remember writing (bad) poetry as a child. I took creative writing in high school and was on the school’s literary magazine. I also took creative writing in college, but the need to make a living intervened. I was in a writer’s group as an adult and also wrote fanfiction for several years.

2. How long does it take you to write a book?

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but it depends on the book. Somewhere around six months, now that I’m retired, if life doesn’t interfere. That’s once I actually start writing, after I’ve done the historical research.

3. What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

Schedule? What schedule? LOL! My goal is to write 550 words a day, five days a week. That’s about two hours of writing. Exactly what time depends on the day and what other commitments I have. Early mornings are probably best.

4. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I like to talk things out with my characters. I’ll have conversations with them throughout the day about scenes that aren’t working, dialogue that feels artificial, that sort of thing. My husband just shakes his head.

5. How do books get published?

My books are published by Artemesia Publishing in Albuquerque, NM. They are available in print and as ebooks through the usual channels.

6. Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?

The idea for the Couriers Series came from an exhibit on the Couriers at the Bright Angel Lodge at the Grand Canyon. I had been toying with the idea of writing a cozy mystery series once I retired, and I realized the Couriers (tour guides) and the Detours (guided tours around the Four Corners region) would make an excellent setting. It turns the typical cozy around – my amateur sleuth goes out to meet the characters rather than the characters coming to her.

I gather information from history books, reference materials, and, yes, Wikipedia and other internet sources.

7. When did you write your first book and how old were you?

I started on Fried Chicken Castaneda during COVID, while working from home, then put it aside when we went back to work at the office. I finished it in 2023, so I was 66.

8. What do you like to do when you're not writing?

Read. LOL! I write on my blog (https://couriersseries1926.blogspot.com/) and my Substack (https://smstauffer.substack.com/) newsletter (and spend too much time on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/couriers1926/), bake, knit, crochet, garden, and visit museums, historic sites and national parks with my husband and dog.

9. What does your family think of your writing?

I’ve never asked them. They’ve never said.

10. What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

That police cars didn’t have lights on the top or radios until 1933. LOL! I had to rewrite several sections because of that.

11. How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?

At this point, I have finished three novels – Fried Chicken Castaneda and two sequels. They are my children! How could I pick a favorite? I do think that each one is better than the last in technical terms, but FCC will always be my first.

12. Do you have any suggestions to help me become a better writer? If so, what are they?

READ! Read widely and often. Read like a writer. Evaluate what works for you and what doesn’t and ask yourself why. Examine the various styles. Understand that there is not one single “best” way to write. Find your own voice and your own style. Write for your audience.

13. Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

Sadly, I don’t. I have heard from one reader and she was very complementary. I wish that I heard from more. My email is couriersseries1926@gmail.com.

14. Do you like to create books for adults?

Yes, because I can explore more adult themes and use more adult vocabulary. I haven’t tried to write for young adults or children yet, so I can’t really compare it.

15. What do you think makes a good story?

Characters whose motives you can understand – even if you don’t like them. A well-developed atmosphere and setting. An interesting plot that is not predictable, but at the same time, is logical. Writing that is technically correct – spelling, grammar, syntax. Nothing ruins a story more than having to stop and re-read the same sentence several times to understand it.

16. As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

Lots of things. I was raised in a fairly traditional family, so “wife and mother.” The first women I encountered who did anything else were nurses and teachers – so nurse or teacher. As I got older, I wanted to be an Oxford Don, like the uncle in “The Chronicles of Narnia.” LOL. I wanted to learn everything.

17. What Would you like my readers to know?

I never became an Oxford Don, but I was a librarian and then a professor of library science. I didn’t learn everything, but I did learn how to find everything. I earned my Ph.D. from UCLA at 47 and published my first novel at 66. I also got married for the first (and only) time in 2006, when I was 49. So you are never too old to achieve your dreams, although you might need to modify them a bit.

Oh, and Fried Chicken Castaneda won the 2025 New Mexico Book Award for Cozy Mystery and the 2025 Bronze Medal in Mystery/Crime/Detective of the CIPA EVVY awards.

Author Links
Blog https://couriersseries1926.blogspot.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/couriers1926/
Substack Newsletter Amuse-Bouche https://smstauffer.substack.com/

Purchase Links: Publisher Amazon B&N Bookshop.org

TOUR PARTICIPANTS

March 2 – deal sharing aunt – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

March 2 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT

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