eBook Deals: Grab the First 3 Accidental Alchemist Books, Starting at Just $0.99!

Everyone loves a deal! for a limited time, grab the first three ebooks of the Accidental Alchemist Mystery Series by Gigi Pandian while they're on sale!

	Buy for Kindle: $0.99 Buy for Nook: $0.99 Buy for Google Books: $0.99 Buy for iBooks: $0.99 Buy for Kobo: $0.99
	Buy for Kindle: $1.99 Buy for Nook: $1.99 Buy for Google Books: $1.99 Buy for iBooks: $1.99 Buy for Kobo: $1.99
	Buy for Kindle: $2.99 Buy for Nook: $2.99 Buy for Google Books: $2.99 Buy for iBooks: $2.99 Buy for Kobo: $2.99

New Releases - January 2017

Start out your New Year with Midnight Ink's January releases!

Now available from Midnight Ink, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indiebound and your local bookseller!

Guest Post: Gigi Pandian - The Elusive Elixir

It's time for some fun facts from Gigi Pandian!

1. I once played the role of Wonder Woman in a play
2. I got married wearing Converse sneakers.
3. As a kid, I didn't have cats or dogs, but rabbits.
4. I have an organic vegetable garden in my backyard, but my husband is the one with the green thumb. I only manage to write fiction about successful gardeners; If I look at a plant, it dies.
5. I think The Goonies might be the greatest movie ever made. Or at the very least it's what inspired me to write my first screenplay.
6. When I was in high school I wrote, starred in (along with my best friend), and directed the epic home movie The Goonies Go to Europe.
7. I love the locked-room mystery genre that was most popular during the Golden Age of detective fiction, and all of my short stories are impossible crime stories. 
8. Like Zoe Faust (the heroine of the Accidental Alchemist mysteries) I adore my Vitamix and use it at least twice a day.
9. Like Dorian (the comic relief in the books) I'm an accidental vegan cook, and cook most of my meals from scratch.
10. Unlike Zoe and Dorian, I'm not a 300-year-old alchemist, nor am I a living gargoyle who was once stone. Sorry to disappoint.
11. I prefer rainy days to sunny ones.
12. I was gobsmacked when the fabulous Terri Bischoff at Midnight Ink wanted to publish the Accidental Alchemist mysteries. I love writing about a mischievous gargoyle chef, but I had no idea others would want to read about him as well. I'm still pinching myself that so many people do.
13. In addition to the Accidental Alchemist mysteries, I write the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mysteries. I think this means as a life choice I've chosen fun and coffee over sleep.
14. My dad is from India. I've traveled there many times and I set one of my books there. The opening scene of Pirate Vishnu is based on a true story that happened to my father.
15. I used to run a blog called Gargoyle Girl, posting gargoyle photographs I've taken on my travels. I gave it up in favor of writing novels, but the archives are still there: www.gargoylegirl.com

***

About the new book, The Elusive Elixir

Dorian Robert-Houdin, the three-and-a-half-foot gargoyle chef who fancies himself a modern-day Poirot, is slowly turning into stone, and it’s up to Zoe Faust to unravel the alchemical secrets that can save him. When they discover that a long-lost stone gargoyle with a connection to Dorian has reappeared in Europe, the stakes are even higher.

From Portland to Paris, Zoe searches for the hidden knowledge she needs, but a cold case that harkens back to 1942 throws her off course. With an ailing friend desperately trying to discover his own elixir of life and a new romantic interest offering the first chance at love she’s had in nearly a century, Zoe is torn between a dangerous form of alchemy and her desire for a safer life.

 Gigi Pandian is the USA Today bestselling author of the Accidental Alchemist mysteries, the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mysteries, and locked-room mystery short stories. A cancer diagnosis in her 30s taught her two important life lessons: healing foods can taste amazing, and life’s too short to waste a single moment. Gigi spent her childhood being dragged around the world by her cultural anthropologist parents, and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and a gargoyle who watches over the backyard garden. Gigi’s fiction has been awarded the Malice Domestic Grant and Lefty Awards, been nominated for Macavity and Agatha Awards, and her most recent novel Michelangelo’s Ghost was recently named a “Best of 2016” cozy mystery by Suspense Magazine.

Visit her at gigipandian.com, connect with her on Facebook (facebook.com/GigiPandian) and Twitter (@GigiPandian) and sign up for her email newsletter (http://gigipandian.com/newsletter/). 

First Line Friday #1: The Accidental Alchemist

Now available from Midnight Ink, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indiebound, and your local bookseller!

Celebrating Women's History Month #2: The Ladies of 2015 Series Starters

Here at Midnight Ink Headquarters, we find that the best way to celebrate Women's History Month is to talk to our authors whose books feature strong female protagonists. Every day this week, return to this blog to find out more about the ladies portrayed in our various series and stand-alone releases this year!

Check out the first in this series here.

Gigi Pandian

Gigi Pandian is the USA Today bestselling author of the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mystery series for Henery Press. A cancer diagnosis in her 30s taught her two important life lessons: healing foods can taste amazing, and life's too short to waste a single moment. Therefore she writes the Accidental Alchemist mysteries while drinking delectable green smoothies and eating decadent home-cooked meals.

Zoe Faust is a centuries-old alchemist. Her character came to me because I loved the themes of immortality explored in The Highlander TV show, but the experiences and challenges would be different for a woman. Living forever isn’t necessarily a blessing, and Zoe has lost many loved ones over the years. When The Accidental Alchemist (January 8, 2015) begins, Zoe has been running from human connections for years – until she’s sought out by a fellow misfit who needs her help. In helping the gargoyle who was accidentally brought to life through alchemy, she embraces her strengths and finds joy in life once again. 

Loretta Ross

Loretta Ross is a writer and historian who lives and works in rural Missouri. She is an alumna of Cottey College and holds a BA in archaeology from the University of Missouri—Columbia. She has loved mysteries since she first learned to read. Visit her online at www.lorettasueross.com. 

In real life, some of the strongest women I know are also some of the kindest. It was this realization that helped to define my female main character, Wren Morgan. Her strength comes from kindness and a desire to care for those she cares about.

In Death Bogart, she sees a good man broken down by war and tragedy. Letting him into her heart would be scary even if they weren't being stalked by homicidal jewel thieves. But Wren is strong and she will do whatever it takes to see them both through in Death and the Redheaded Woman (February 8, 2015).

Elizabeth Perona

Elizabeth Perona is the father/daughter writing team of Tony Perona and Elizabeth Dombrosky. Visit Tony online at www.tonyperona.com.

Our main character in Murder on the Bucket List (July 8, 2015) is Francine, based on Tony’s mother (Liz’s grandmother) Frances. Frances grew up in a very poor family in Terre Haute, Indiana during the Depression. She was the oldest child. When she was ten or eleven, she was put to work picking berries for a landowner during the summers, day after day in the hot sun. Her income was necessary to help her family survive. When she reached her teens, her parents wanted Frances to quit high school and work full time, but knowing she needed an education to get a better job, she worked long hours after school as a soda jerk until she graduated. Her determination is honored in our stories. 

Deirdre Verne

Deirdre Verne is a mystery writer, college professor, and an active college blogger. A writer for the millennial crowd, Verne regularly delivers straight-forward and often hilarious advice on her college blog. Prior to teaching, Verne worked in new product development for Time Inc., representing the magazine titles Fortune, Money, and Parenting. Visit her online at www.deirdreverne.com. 

I’ve been a rule follower my whole life and according to my mother, I was the easiest child to raise. I never strayed from the path, I did well in school, I got the right jobs and then I raised my own family.  If this was the start of a novel, you’d probably put the book down and so would I. That’s why I created CeCe Prentice, an unconventional, off-beat, Dumpster-diving freegan who thrives on challenging the rules. Although she does and says as she pleases, her higher power is the environment. Sure, she steps on toes along the way, sometimes even her own, but the socially conscious CeCe genuinely cares about the world and those closest to her. And when people mess with that world? Well, you can find out how far CeCe strays from the path in Drawing Conclusions (February 8, 2015).

Amanda Flower

Amanda Flower is an academic librarian and the Agatha Award-nominated author of Maid of Murder, the Appleseed Creek Mysteries and the India Hayes Mysteries. She also writes the Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries under the name Isabella Alan. Visit her online at www.amandaflower.com. 

Kelsey Cambridge is a single mom and the director of Barton Farm, a living history museum thirty minutes south of Cleveland, Ohio. Like all single moms, she is strong and does everything for her son. Her dream is to preserve history for all children, and she took the job as Barton Farm’s director because of her love of Ohio and American history. She is determined to help the struggling Farm succeed so that future generations can learn from the past. She brings new ideas, like a Civil War re-enactment, to the Farm, but not everyone embraces those ideas, as in The Final Reveille (May 8, 2015).

Tracy Kiely

Tracy Kiely is the author of the Elizabeth Parker Mysteries for Minotaur Books. Murder with a Twist is her Midnight Ink debut.

My character Nicole “Nic” Martini is a modern-day twist on Dashiell Hammett’s iconic detective, Nick Charles. Like her predecessor, Nic is a former NYC detective who has married into wealth. Husband Nigel shares Nic’s wit, quickness, and love of a “dirty Martini.” In Murder with a Twist (May 8, 2015), the couple is in NYC for Nigel’s cousin Audrey’s birthday party. Unfortunately, Audrey’s shady husband is missing. Nic reluctantly agrees to find him and quickly realizes that there are darker forces at play. Nic’s tenacity and innate sense of justice lead her to seek the truth, even if that truth ruins Nigel’s family.

Return to this blog tomorrow to hear about the protagonists from some of our longest-running series from: Sue Ann Jaffarian, Jess Lourey, Kathleen Ernst, and Sheila Webster Boneham.

Q&A with Gigi Pandian

This week, we sat down with Gigi Pandian, author of The Accidental Alchemist, a series debut released earlier this month.

Midnight Ink: How long have you been writing?

Gigi Pandian: I’ve been writing since I was a kid (I wrote my first “novel” in elementary school and wrote plays and scripts in high school) but it wasn’t until 2007 that I began to take my writing seriously. That’s when my first novel, Artifact, was awarded a Malice Domestic Grant, a writer’s grant for unpublished traditional mystery writers. That was the first time I realized people outside my family and friends saw promise in my work, and that writing could be more than a hobby.

MI: What influence have other authors had on your writing?

GP: Elizabeth Peters has always been my favorite mystery novelist. Reading her Vicky Bliss and Amelia Peabody mysteries as a teenager inspired me to become a mystery novelist. Her books cleverly combine puzzling mysteries with romance, history, humor, and adventure. When I set out to write a novel, I knew that’s the kind of story I wanted to tell, but with my own unique spin.

I love writing short stories in addition to novels, and I generally write locked-room “impossible crime” short stories. My biggest inspiration for those stories was John Dickson Carr, who wrote during the Golden Age of detective fiction during the middle of the previous century.

There’s a wonderful book called Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon that argues that anyone starting out in a creative field should emulate their favorite creators, because that’s how we grow into our own voice.   

MI: If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?

GP: Sleeping in :)

MI: If you have a job outside of writing, what is it?

GP: I’m the Creative Strategist at a non-profit organization. I studied both public policy and graphic design, so I work on visual messaging that tells complex stories in visually compelling ways. Yup, I’m lucky that I get to be creative all day!   

MI: What is/are your favorite thing/s to do when you’re not writing or working?

GP: Cooking, reading, traveling, and photography.

I cook most of my meals from scratch (which inspired one of the main themes in The Accidental Alchemist), give myself plenty of time to read each night before bed (how else would I have time for all the great mysteries out there?!), am always planning my next trip abroad (I caught the travel bug the first time I accompanied my anthropologist mom on a research trip to Scotland when I was 10), and I post my gargoyle photography and other mysterious photographs at www.gargoylegirl.com.

MI: Who is your favorite mystery sleuth and why?

GP: Vicky Bliss, Elizabeth Peters’ historian heroine. She is brilliant, independent, and has fun-filled adventures traipsing across the globe surrounded by a wonderful set of friends.

MI: Do you have a favorite murder case from a book (either yours or another author’s)?

GP: I have so many favorites, so I’ll go with one of my recent favorites. Marisha Pessl’s Night Film. It’s difficult to characterize the book, but one of the big reasons I find Pessl’s atmospheric books so satisfying is that her endings are both completely resolved and also open to interpretation. They stick with you.

MI: What was your inspiration for the Accidental Alchemist mystery series?

GP: A combination of three things inspired the series:

1)      I’ve always loved gargoyles. I love mysteries, and gargoyles are so mysterious, lurking high above us on beautiful buildings.  

2)      A cancer diagnosis at 36 threw my life upside down. I wrote a draft of this book while undergoing chemotherapy, when the Elixir of Life was an especially intriguing idea.

3)      Learning how to cook from scratch inspired the culinary alchemy of the series. My particular cancer markers gave me some food restrictions, so I taught myself to cook. I loved teaching myself to cook. Transforming healthy foods into amazingly decadent meals by using a few simple techniques is culinary alchemy in my own kitchen.

 

MI: Tell us about Zoe Faust (and Dorian!).

GP: Zoe Faust is a centuries-old alchemist who accidentally discovered the Elixir of Life over 300 years ago. She can never stay in one place for too long, so for decades she’s been living out of a silver Airstream trailer as she criss-crosses the U.S., until she falls in love with Portland, Oregon, and decides to stay a while. She has a way with plants, and she grows healing herbs and vegetables. Even though she doesn’t age, she’s far from immortal, so she’s adopted a vegan diet to feel healthy as she lives on.

Dorian Robert-Houdin is a three-and-a-half-foot gargoyle who was once stone, but was accidentally brought to life by a French stage magician (“Father of Modern Magic” Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin) who didn’t realize the alchemy book he was reading contained real magic. Dorian is a food snob and secret chef, so when he leaves France to seek out Zoe for help, one of his biggest challenges is learning to cook decadent French cuisine with vegan ingredients. Spoiler alert: he succeeds in this culinary challenge!

MI: How does this series compare to your past works?

GP: All of my books are traditional puzzle mysteries that feature history, humor, and a touch of romance.

My first mystery series is the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mystery series (Artifact, Pirate Vishnu, and Quicksand) featuring an Indian-American historian who solves present-day crimes linked to historic treasures related to India’s colonial past. Each of those books takes the characters from a home-base of San Francisco to a different foreign destination – so far Scotland, India, and France.

The Accidental Alchemist mysteries are set in Portland, Oregon, a city I fell in love with several years ago. The settings of the different series are at the heart of the stories, which is one of the things that gives each series a distinct voice.

MI: Do you have a pet? Tell us about him/her.

GP: I don’t currently have a pet, but my favorite pets from my childhood were two huge lop-eared rabbits named Snug and Bug. Bug used to chase neighborhood cats out of our backyard.

MI: If you don’t have a pet, do you have a favorite animal?

GP: Does gargoyle count?

MI: What food could you live off of for the rest of your life?

GP: If coffee doesn’t count, I’ll go with oatmeal. You can’t go wrong with a comfort food that’s good for you, too.

MI: Do you have a favorite recipe?

GP: I cook most of my meals from scratch, so I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with my own recipes. At the back of The Accidental Alchemist there are three of my vegan recipes: Kid-Friendly Green Smoothie, Roasted Butternut Squash with Lemon Tahini Sauce, and Cherry Walnut Oatmeal Cookies.

I’ve also begun to post additional recipes on my website: www.gigipandian.com/recipes .

MI: What is your favorite part about being an Inker?

GP: All the great people I’ve met! From the support of the Midnight Ink staff to the friendships I’ve formed with other authors, it’s been an amazing experience. 

Get your copy of The Accidental Alchemist online or in bookstores now!

January Releases!

By: Maegan Beaumont

It's a new year and Midnight Ink is kicking it off with some FANTASTIC new releases!

A Killer Retreat
By: Tracy Weber 
A Downward Dog Mystery #2 

Cozy readers will enjoy the twist-filled plot.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Dying for the Past
By: TJ O'Connor 
A Gumshoe Ghost Mystery #2

"The twisty plot is well delivered . . . Anyone who loves a strong ghost yarn will savor this tale."—LIBRARY JOURNAL

The Accidental Alchemist
By: Gigi Pandian 
An Accidental Alchemist Mystery #1

“This reviewer is eagerly anticipating more from this series, and a return of a cast more fun than an episode of Portlandia.”—RT BOOK REVIEWS 1/2

January 2015 Books Available Now!

Don't miss Midnight Ink's latest releases!

“Cozy readers will enjoy the twist-filled plot.”—Publishers Weekly on A Killer Retreat

“This reviewer is eagerly anticipating more from this series, and a return of a cast more fun than an episode of Portlandia.”—RT Book Reviews (4 1/2 stars) on The Accidental Alchemist

“[T]he twisty plot is well delivered . . . Anyone who loves a strong ghost yarn will savor this tale.”—Library Journal on Dying for the Past

Now available from Midnight Ink, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indiebound, and your local bookseller!