June Heal: Olivia Davis, you are up. Tonya said you go first since your novel was her first mystery published.
Olivia Davis: What? What is Tonya up to now?
June: Something about a new adventure in blogging where we do the blogging, not her.
Olivia: Really? (She rubs her hands together.)
June: Umm. . .yes.
Olivia: What do you want me to say?
June: I guess since this is our first time on the blog, we need to tell the readers who we are and what we do.
Olivia: I'm Olivia Davis in the Olivia Davis Mystery Series. Tonya created me after she saw a show where this guy uses the internet as breakup business. Since I'm extra special to Tonya. . .
June: You aren't extra special.
Olivia: Yes I am. I was first.
June: Um-kay. Whatever you say. But I have eight books in my series to your two.
Olivia glares at June.
June: (shrugs) Just sayin'.
Olivia: Anyways, having a breakup service wasn't enough and Tonya loves to watch shows like Mork and Mindy, Twilight Zone, Betwitched, Knight Rider, Murder She Wrote, Touched By An Angel, so she knew having me posses some sort of paranormal power would add a little more fun and humor to the story.
Holly Harper: She didn't give me any special powers.
June: Holly, it's not your turn yet.
Holly: Did Tonya die and make you a writer?
Tonya Kappes: Ladies! Okay. I didn't want to intervene, but this is exactly why I didn't write one book with all of y'all in it because each of you deserve your own stories and spotlight.
Olivia: Yeah, but I was your first USA Today Bestselling novel.
June: I was second!
Olivia: You know what Ricky Bobby says: if you ain't first, you last.
Tonya: Stop! Olivia finish telling our new blog readers who you are.
Olivia: I can't hold a regular go the the office type of job because I read auras and pass out when too many are coloring my world. So I started an online breakup service where my clients write me, telling me personal things about their relationship so the person I'm breaking up with knows I'm not a fake. Things are going great until one of my clients ends up dead and the police traces his computer files back to me and my business. Of course I had to take matters into my own hands in fear the police is going to shut me down and I'd never be able to another job to pay my bills.
Tonya: Holly, can you tell our new readers your story?
Holly: Yep. I live in one of Tonya's made up small southern towns. I own The Beaded Dragonfly, a lapidary (bead store). I belong to a divorcee club where we use to meet in the basement of the local baptist church. Now me and the Divorced Divas, what we like to call ourselves, meet once a week at my store and make jewelry. The Divorced Divas range in age from nineteen to a spry eighty-five. Me and the Divas love to bash our exes until one of them showed up dead. And all the fingers pointed to us Divas!
Tonya: Thank you, Holly. Laurel London.
Laurel: What?!
Tonya: Ladies and gents, Laurel is the snarkiest of my characters. I'm sure you'll get a kick out of her.
Laurel: Yeah, they say I'm full of piss and vinegar. Really I'm just full of snark and sass. I grew up in an orphanage in my small southern town that Tonya created. Needless to say, I got into a lot of trouble as a kid and some people in town just haven't forgotten it as I've grown up, making it hard for me to keep a job or having a nice car. So I drive an old police cruiser that looks like a taxi. When mob boss, Trigger Finger Tony, jumped into my car thinking I was a taxi, my life changed forever.
Tonya: Emma Lee Raines, are you here?
Emma: I am. If y'all haven't figured it out, Tonya writes southern, small town charm with humor. She's known to make you laugh out loud, dry your tear ducts, and keep you guessing until the end. It might sound silly that she can make my job as an undertaker all those things, but somehow she does. I love being the undertaker in my small southern town, but when I had a run in with a falling plastic Santa Claus and knocked flat out, I woke up in the hospital. I was sure I was a goner. Joined the big guy in the sky because my family stood on one side of my hospital bed while clients of my funeral home, Eternal Slumber, stood on the other side of my bed. My clients as in six-feet under. Dead. That year Santa didn't give me a gift I wanted, he gave me the gift of communicating with dead people. Dead people who have been murdered. Now I have two jobs. I'm an undertaker and a Betweener.
Tonya: Alright June.
June: Saving the best for last? (June picks up her fairy-god cat, Mr. Prince Charming)
I'm June Heal. I'm going to tell a big secret. My story was the first one Tonya wrote back in 2009. Originally I was going to be a young adult. Tonya let me hang around because she isn't a witch or knows anything about witches and she didn't want her readers to think she was witch, so she wrote several of my stories and waited. I'm glad she did because she's developed my world into an amazing place. I'm a homeopathic curest just like my mamma, Darla was. It wasn't until later that I discovered I was born into a family of spiritualist, but didn't know until I moved to a small southern town with cozy shops. Little did I realize all the shop owners have some sort of spiritual gift and their shop is a cover for their gift. Since I'm a homeopathic curest, my shop is sorta like an apothecary. When a client comes they might think they have heartburn, when in reality they have a broken heart. I hide behind my little partition where my cauldron is located and make a very personal potion for each customer. Mr. Prince Charming, my fairy-god cat, happens to be one of the most popular characters in the books as well as the Karima sisters. They own Two Sisters and A Funeral, both can communicate with spirits. Then there Raven and Faith Mortimer, who own Wicked Good Bakery. I could go on and on about all the cozy shop and their owners, but I suggest you come visit and take a gander around for yourself. Readers have claimed that I'm the adult version of Harry Potter! Fun!
Emma Lee: I think I can speak for all of Tonya's series and characters when I say that Books and Company Book Store had it right last year when they claimed that "Tonya Kappes has the freshest voice in cozy mystery." And Murder By The Book Store claims that my series, The Ghostly Southern Mystery Series, is the most anticipated series of the year! Plus. . .my story won Best Fiction Novel 2015 from Joseph Beth Booksellers.
Tonya: Okay, y'all. Stop bragging.
Laurel London: We have to because we know you won't.
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