I’d like to welcome the fabulous Liz Boeger to the blog for #WriterWednesday.

A few of your favorite fall traditions: Wearing long sleeves for a day or two when a Florida cold front swings through. We don’t put on the closed-toed shoes until winter.

Something autumn-related that you’ll never do again: Make sand angels on the beach. Not because its not fun, but the shells can be a little sharp.

Favorite fall treat: Humongous chocolate and peanut covered caramel apples-no sharing.

A fall treat that makes you gag: Circus Peanuts candy—those orange marshmallow things.

Favorite autumn beverage: Mulled wine by the fake fire on the big screen television.

A drink that gives you a sour face: Pour quality orange juice with pits.

Favorite fall smell: Cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and all related baking spices

Something that makes you hold your nose: That sweaty odor from wearing a plastic face mask on Halloween when you were a kid.

A tradition you share with others: I always bring my fall crafts to show with my students and to decorate the classroom. They love the tabletop quilts (Halloween and Thanksgiving), fabric pumpkins and decorated basket. I used them this year in science to teach the concept of “transformation" when we studied energy.

A tradition that can be retired: Cooking the BIG Thanksgiving dinner. Too much work and too many calories. We can still get together and enjoy family and friends without the sweat and mound of dirty dishes.

Best thing you ever cooked/baked in autumn: I hacked store bought sugar cookies into Ginger Snaps by adding fall spices and minced up crystallized ginger. Yum! They are a quick stand in for my sister’s famous Ginger Snap cookies, which is a rare treat.

Your worst kitchen disaster: Probably the chocolate chip cookies with too many chips that turned into brick-like discs.

Favorite place you spent a fall day: Outside with clear blue skies a slight breeze and coolish 60-70 degrees at a pumpkin patch and farm when my sone was a toddler.

The worst place to spend a fall day: Stuck inside grading papers, which I really need to do today.

Your best Halloween costume: An octopus I made for a young friend. She was the star of her school show.

A Halloween costume that wasn’t quite what you imagined: The Star Wars inspired alien get up I wore to my high school job at a local department store. I looked more like a space janitor with a unibrow.

Favorite pumpkin spice item: Hands down--old school Pumpkin Pie

Something that should never be pumpkin-spiced flavored: Key Lime Pie

Elementary principal Ana Callahan knows a thing or two about flipping failing schools, but she’s discovered the learning curve on solving murders is steep.

Now in the second year of her school rescue, in Moccasin Cove on Florida’s Gulf coast, Ana is on the verge of winning a pivotal grant award. But her grand plan hits a snag after a teacher is murdered and the crime is pinned on a runaway teenager Ana mentored. The story goes viral. Ana’s campus is besieged by the media, angry parents, and complex questions about the dead teacher’s past. Worse, the myopic rookie detective assigned to the case has her sights set on all the wrong suspects.

While grieving the teacher’s death, Ana starts her own investigation, but her discovery of a body on the beach pins a bullseye on Ana’s back. In her quest to solve two murders, locate the missing teen, and salvage the grant win, Ana unwittingly unleashes a riptide of childhood secrets that force her to learn a hard lesson...

It takes a village to raise a child, but it may also take your life.

2021 Finalist: Daphne Du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense

2015 Finalist: Royal Palm Literary Award, Florida Writers Association

About Liz:

Tampa native, Liz Boeger, writes the award-winning Moccasin Cove Mystery Series about an elementary school principal who has a lot to learn about murder. If you like your traditional mysteries with a cozy edge, a hint of Southern snark, a beachy vibe, and always a happy ending, this series is for you. Don’t worry, she promises the suspicious search history on her laptop, the crime scene tape on her bookshelf, and her real-life run-in with the US Secret Service all have perfectly reasonable explanations.

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I’d like to welcome Liz Boeger to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

A few of your favorite things:

My new all-in-one mom cave houses my teach-from-home office, writing nook, and quilting corner.

Things you need to throw out:

Nothing. No, don’t look in the garage or my office closet. What do you mean, “What am I going to do with all of that fabric?”

Things you need for your writing sessions:

My computer and sticky note paper for scritch-scratched thoughts. A window, preferably looking into my garden. Quiet, I prefer morning sunshine, coffee-hot, half & half, no sugar. Life’s too short for cold coffee and skim milk. After lunch I swap out to Diet Mountain Dew.

Things that hamper your writing:

Social Media distractions and television. I’m still trying to rein in the web-surfing. I have a TV wall mount in my new office, but I covered it up with a shelf-no time for TV. Besides, you can watch reruns of the Gilmore Girls only so many times, right?

Things you love about writing:

Those moments when I’m pounding out a scene, only to find that my characters have a plot point or two to insert that I was not expecting. Oh, and I love my characters like family.

Things you hate about writing:

Scavenging for my many typos. It’s a little embarrassing to have red-pen-worthy grammar and punctuations issues in a book written by a teacher.

Words that describe you:

Skeptical Optimist

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t:

Bossy—sorry, it’s an occupational hazard.

Favorite smell:

Citrus-lemons-oranges-grapefruit-kumquats—all of it!

Something that makes you hold your nose:

Fish cooking in the oven or on the stove. I don’t mind it on the grill (outside.)

Something you’re really good at:

I have a talent for making lists and crossing things off my lists. Sometimes I add things I already did to the list, just so I have one more thing to cross off. It is a trait I’ve forced on my main character.

Something you’re really bad at:

Ugh, this whole tooting your own horn and book promotion business. That’s why I’m so grateful to the writing community for taking some of the sting out of it by being so supportive.

Last best thing you ate:

My sister’s secret recipe ginger snaps are the purest form of deliciousness I’ve ever tasted.

Last thing you regret eating:

Way too many of my sister’s secret recipe ginger snaps…No, wait. No regrets there. Keep ‘em coming, Sis!

Things you always put in your books:

My pets and my favorite Florida scenery.

Things you never put in your books:

Real people I know or events that are too disturbing. I’ve seen a lot as an educator that is just too heartbreaking to put into a cozy or traditional mystery. Yes, I write about murder, but I keep the violence mostly off page and try to balance it with kind and quirky people you care about and want to root for.

Things to say to an author:

“You’ve got some writing chops! I’ve read all your books.”

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book:

“You’ve got some writing cops, babe!” (or darlin’, or sweet cheeks, or a similarly endearing and wholly inappropriate moniker.)

Favorite places you’ve been:

The beach (any beach), my grandparents’ farm, Crystal Springs Preserve.

Places you never want to go to again:

Jammed in the crowd under the stadium at the Strawberry Festival waiting for the gates to open when the crowd behind you thinks they already have. Yeah, no way.

Things that make you happy:

Riding my recumbent tadpole trike on a sunny morning—gardening—quilting—talking with people who loved reading my books and who want to know more about the education world and the Florida setting described in the series.

Things that drive you crazy:

My poor organizational skills and my personal battle against holding onto “stuff” longer than necessary. See #1 above.

The nicest thing a reader said to you:

They thought my main character was a hoot and someone they’d want to hang out with.

The craziest thing a reader said to you:

Since my book is being released on August 30th, it’s too soon to answer this one. I’ll have to get back to you. 😊

About Liz:

Liz Boeger’s stint as a swimsuit model peaked in kindergarten. Her fallback career as a mystery author didn’t surface until she hit the mid-century mark. In between, she wrangled children, adults, and the occasional Florida panther as a teacher and school administrator. And that encounter with the U.S. Secret Service may show up in a plot someday.

Her multi-award nominated mystery series is inspired by her childhood nearby Rattlesnake, Florida. If you love your mysteries with a cozy edge, some Southern snark, and quirky characters you’d love to hang out with, this series is for you. Member of Sisters in Crime, SinC Guppies, and Florida Writers Association.

She’s a graduate of Tampa’s Robinson High School, The University of Tampa, and Saint Leo University. Her hobbies, other than plotting murder, include gardening, quilting, and cheering all things great about her hometown, Tampa!

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