Ask Michele...

How did the Wine Lover’s Mysteries come about? 

I was working for a wine broker and I was in Napa for a few days. I’d been writing for years (since I was about nine-years-old), and had a handful of unsold manuscripts stacking up. While in the wine country it donned on me that there was a lot of intrigue just in the landscape alone, plus the romance factor and no doubt the food and wines are divine. My imagination started churning and I came up with this sort of Nancy Drew on a vineyard, throw in a little sex appeal and some campy humor, add the recipes and wine pairings and I felt like I’d found something that really could work. The sixth installment of The Wine Lover’s Mysteries: A TOAST TO MURDER is due out April 2010. 
 

Who is Nikki Sands? 

Nikki Sands is an everyday woman struggling with many of the same issues we all struggle with, including self esteem issues, relationship issues, finding dead bodies wherever she goes—oops, hopefully that does not happen to many of us. However, it seems to happen often with poor Nikki. When I created Nikki I wanted to write something Nancy Drewish for the adult set. I wanted the books to be who dunnits, but I also wanted a little romance in there, some humor and the fact that there are recipes and wine pairings gives it a fun edge. Nikki is the kind of woman who wants to always do the right thing, but may not always go about it in the right way—if that makes sense. She’s got a dry sense of humor and a sarcasm that plays off well with another one of my favorite characters to write—Simon Malveaux. The scenes where I write Simon and Nikki are by far my favorites. I like to think that Nikki’s character portrays the kind of woman every woman wants to be friends with. She’s someone you could see yourself having a cup of coffee with or a glass of wine and hanging out. 
 

The book trailers? And the contest? What’s it all about? 

If you’ve followed the series, you know that Nikki has had some ups and downs in her personal life, not to mention the fact that dead bodies seem to follow her everywhere she goes, or at least she seems to find them everywhere she goes. I wanted to show readers visually a clip from each story and build on them. When I write, I see everything visually—almost like a movie playing in my head. I think readers who follow this series really like Nikki and feel like they know her. It got me thinking that if I out together  book trailers leading up to the sixth book that a contest as to who would be the perfect Nikki Sands could be a lot of fun. If you watch trailers 1-5, you will notice that you never see Nikki’s full face. You see her lips, or eyes, or profile but never a full view. For the book trailer for A TOAST TO MURDER, I wanted the reader to fill in that blank as to who Nikki Sands really is. Therefore, if you think you are the perfect Nikki Sands, I am asking you to e-mail me a photo and a paragraph or two as to why you feel you should play Nikki in the book trailer for A TOAST TO MURDER. Readers will get to vote on the site for their favorite semi-finalist. Good Luck! Semi-finalists will receive signed copies of all the books in The Wine Lover’s Mystery Series. The Grand Prize Winner will be featured in the trailer, receive the books and a two night stay at the Bonterra Winery in Montecito, Ca. (Airfare not included).