Tuesday, February 25, 2025

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY - THE CASE OF THE CROAKED COACH by Susie Black


THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
The Case of the Croaked Coach

 

Get a behind-the-scenes all-access pass to The Case of the Croaked Coach by Susie Black!


***Synopsis***

There wasn’t an honest bone in Buzz Bixby’s body. The Encino High School’s head football coach was an equal-opportunity scoundrel. Bixby cheated and lied his way to the top and screwed anyone and everyone in his wake. So, the question wasn’t who wanted the bastard dead. The question was, who didn’t? 

Student reporter Hannah White’s interview with the coach is a nonstarter when she discovers varsity football hero Dean Snyder standing over Bixby’s battered corpse holding a bloody trophy. Despite how guilty Dean looks, Hannah is convinced he’s innocent. When Snyder is arrested for Bixby’s murder, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to flesh out the real killer. 

But the trail has more twists and turns than a slinky, and nothing turns out how Hannah thinks it will as she tangles with a clever killer hellbent on revenge.

Series Synopsis:

Hannah White is a high school newspaper investigative reporter who solves mysteries.

The books in the series are related by the cast of continuing characters and the locale of where the stories take place in Encino, California. Encino is a suburb in the San Fernando Valley which is 30 miles north of Los Angeles.

 

What is the sub-genre and trope? 

The sub-genre is a humorous cozy mystery. The trope is the stories all take place in a high school located in a suburban Southern California town.


Did your characters lead you to this genre or was that decided before the story began?

No, the characters did not lead me to this genre. It was decided before the story began.


Are you more character or plot-driven?

I am by nature a people person, so I am naturally more character than plot-driven.


With many main and secondary characters, how do you keep them separated in your mind? Do you have a story/vision board above your workspace?

All of my characters except law enforcement are based on real people I know or knew sometime in my life, so it is easy for me to keep them separated in my mind. So, no, I do not need a story/vision board above my workspace to keep the characters straight.


I know from previous interviews that characters take on a life of their own. Were any of the characters in this series determined to take their own direction instead of where you initially wanted them to go?

Yes. The protagonist was quite determined to take a direction that I had not intended for her to take. Hannah White insisted on not revealing to her parents what she was involved in. I had to enlist the help of her Nana to convince Hannah to fess up to her parents.


Are any of the male POVs based on anyone you know?

Yes. Except for the homicide detective, all of the male POVs are based on someone I know.


Are any of the female POVs based on anyone you know?

Yes. Except for the Assistant LA County Coroner and the private investigator, all of the female POVs are based on someone I know.


Was there any one character/scene that was harder to write about than the other?

Yes, the scene where Hannah discovers her classmate holding the bloody murder weapon over the victim was harder to write than any other. 

While the series is based on my experience as a high school newspaper investigative reporter, I thankfully had never made such a gruesome discovery as Hannah did. So, I decided to take a risk and have her respond exactly as her wise-cracking, irreverent personality would dictate.


I know that we aren’t supposed to have “favorites” as far as our children, but seriously, who’s your favorite character and why?

Hannah is my favorite character because she is based on me. Hannah is the me I always wanted to be as a teenager and more.


Series question - Who is your favorite couple and why did you decide on their dynamics?

Donna Weissman and Dean Snyder are my favorite couple. They are the quintessential high school sweethearts. I decided on their dynamics because Dean was the murder suspect and Donna was the girl who stood behind him no matter what. 


How do you get inside these character’s heads to find their perfect HEA?

Since these two characters are based on real people I knew, it was quite easy to get into their heads and find their perfect HEA as I imagined it to be. Of course, their perfect HEA was perfect for me… for them… not so much until the end of the story.


What scene in this book/series sticks out the most for you? Why?

The scene that sticks out in my head the most is the one when Hannah finally figures out who whodunit. 

Because she was so sure throughout the story that this person could not possibly be the killer because he had no motive…or so she thought. When the lightbulb finally went on, it was so hard for her to see how wrong she had been.


This question is if you write in MULTIPLE POVs not just the hero and heroine - I love the multiple POVs in a book. It’s not just the hero and heroine, but we get inside the heads of multiple characters throughout this series. I feel that it gives the story further depth. Do you think you will write another book or series following this multiple-POV outline? 

I write all my stories in the first person from the POV of the protagonist, so multiple POVs are not part of my writing scheme.


How long did it take you to write this book?

Since this is a completely new series the time from series concept to debut manuscript submission was one year.


How did you come up with the title for your book and series?

The series title gives the reader an idea about who the main character is and that the series is a mystery genre. All of my book titles give the reader a clue about the plot and how the murder victim is killed. 

All the titles in this series will begin with The Case of the… So, in this instance, The Case of the Croaked Coach gives the reader a hint that the story is about a football coach who is murdered.


If you met these characters in real life would you get along?

Since I did meet in real life the real people that most of these characters are based on, the answer is quite simple: 

Some of them are absolutely yes, we would get along fine. 

Some of them would be just colleagues and others close friends. 

But there are others-definitely NOT. We would buck heads most of the time as I did with the real people they were based on.


Series question – Did you know in advance that you were going to write this as a series or did one of the characters in book one demand their own story?

I knew in advance that I was going to write this as a series, and yes, the protagonist did demand that every story feature her as the star.


If your book/series were made into a movie, which actors do you see as playing your main characters?

Hannah White: Sadie Sink

MM: Jenna Ortega

Jodine: Emma Myers

Diane: Millie Bobby Brown

Cindy: McKenzie Foy

Toby: Maddie Ziegler

Donna: Kyla Kenedy

Terry: Anna Kendrick

Nana: Sally Field

Coach Bixby: Paul Rudd

Uncle B: Edward Norton

H.S: Milla Jovovich

Billy: Aaron Paul

Coach Bender: William Levy


Can you give us a hint as to what we can expect next? 

Whether a new book:

I have just done the initial plot points of The Case of the Dead Dealer, the 2nd book in the Hannah White Mystery Series. Terry Newman’s dad, a Chemistry teacher at Encino High School enlists Hannah’s help to promote a Say No to Drugs campaign when his older child gets hooked on drugs and goes into rehab. Hannah does a series on drugs at the high school. When Newman’s son gets back into high school, he goes right back into drugs and dies from an overdose of a tainted drug. The dealer is found dead and Mr. Newman is accused of the murder.

I am currently writing the first draft of Death by Coconut, the seventh book in the Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series. This is the first time that the protagonist and her Yenta colleagues are on the road in Miami to attend the swimwear trade show. 

The second new series I have just created is The Sunny Night Mystery Series. The Forecast is…Murder! has been queried and fingers crossed, the first book of the series will be out sometime in late 2025. Here is a blurb to tweak your curiosity:

The United Television Network exiles disgraced investigative reporter Sunny Knight to a small, remote California desert affiliate. Sunny is informed by the station owner that since nothing goes on in the middle of nowhere to investigate, the station does not need an investigative reporter and she is now the weather reporter. After they have a vicious altercation, the station owner’s bridge partner is discovered dead and Sunny’s boss is arrested for the murder. Despite her differences with her boss, Sunny is convinced the station owner didn’t do it. The wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to nail the real killer. But the trail has more twists than a pretzel and more turns than a rollercoaster. As she tangles with a clever killer hellbent on revenge, nothing turns out how Sunny thinks it will.

Last but not least, I am writing a humorous cozy paranormal mystery with an author colleague that will feature both sets of our respective protagonists and continuing characters. No completion date has been set yet. Stay tuned.


Check out all my interviews/reviews for Susie Black!
https://readingbydeb.blogspot.com/2022/11/author-at-glance-susie-black.html 



Named Best US Author of the Year by N. N. Lights Book Heaven, award-winning cozy mystery author Susie Black was born in the Big Apple but now calls sunny Southern California home. Like the protagonist in her Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, Susie is a successful apparel sales executive. Susie began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk. Now she’s telling all the stories from her garment industry experiences in humorous mysteries.

She reads, writes, and speaks Spanish, albeit with an accent that sounds like Mildred from Michigan went on a Mexican vacation and is trying to fit in with the locals. Since life without pizza and ice cream as her core food groups wouldn’t be worth living, she’s a dedicated walker to keep her girlish figure. A voracious reader, she’s also an avid stamp collector. Susie lives with a highly intelligent man and has one incredibly brainy but smart-aleck adult son who inexplicably blames his sarcasm on an inherited genetic defect. 





THE CASE OF THE CROAKED COACH by Susie Black
Hannah White Mysteries - Book 1

https://books2read.com/The-Case-of-the-Croaked-Coach

There wasn’t an honest bone in Buzz Bixby’s body. The Encino High School’s head football coach was an equal-opportunity scoundrel. Bixby cheated and lied his way to the top and screwed anyone and everyone in his wake. So, the question wasn’t who wanted the bastard dead. The question was, who didn’t?

Student reporter Hannah White’s interview with the coach is a nonstarter when she discovers varsity football hero Dean Snyder standing over Bixby’s battered corpse holding a bloody trophy. Despite how guilty Dean looks, Hannah is convinced he’s innocent. When Snyder is arrested for Bixby’s murder, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to flesh out the real killer.

But the trail has more twists and turns than a slinky, and nothing turns out how Hannah thinks it will as she tangles with a clever killer hellbent on revenge.


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