Lynn Cahoon is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of cozy mysteries such as Guidebook to Murder (Tourist Trap Mystery series) and Who Moved My Goat Cheese? (Farm-to-Fork Mystery series).

Q. In 2020 you published six cozy mysteries. How do you keep up that pace? And what do your readers get out of your productivity?

Lynn: I’m a fast writer. I enjoy spending time with my series characters, they become like friends to me during the writing process. I’m very goal driven and set word count goals weekly with an accountability partner. The other thing I do that helps is write in batches. I work full time so I carve out writing time each day. You’d be surprised at how much you could write in 15 minutes. My readers love having new books added to the series each year. Having four series, it’s important to keep a book in the fire at all times to make sure everything gets done.

Q. In your Kitchen Witch mystery series you set  your stories in the fictional town of Magic Springs, Idaho. Where did you draw inspiration for this setting?

Lynn: Magic Springs is my fictional town that sits near Sun Valley, Idaho. Growing up in Idaho, I always wanted to visit Sun Valley since that’s where all the stars went when they wanted to ski. As a teenager, I went to a state convention in Sun Valley for one of my school clubs. We took advantage of the outdoor hot tubs and had snow gently falling on us as we were in the water. I never forgot that night. It was magical. The original Sun Valley lodge makes me imagine what it might be like in European mountain communities. So when I wanted to write a ‘magic’ series, I couldn’t think of a more magical setting. 

My hometown (in SW Idaho), was in a rural community near the capital, Boise. I got to try a lot of things in a small school and really learn what I liked and didn’t. I use that setting for my Farm to Fork series and even ‘built’ a fancy farm to table restaurant in a building on my real hometown’s main street.

Q. What do you read in your spare time?

Lynn: I’m an eclectic reader. I’m always reading mysteries (love Lisa Gardner, Lisa Unger, Lisa Jackson) and have read through the JD Robb series as well as Butcher’s Dresden series. I enjoy small town contemporary romance/women’s fiction by Robyn Carr, Barbara O’Neal, Laura Bradford, and Catherine Bybee. And I enjoy light fantasy and paranormal (Angie Fox) as well as paranormal woman’s fiction. In other words, a good story well told.

Q. Readers often say no publisher does cozy mysteries like Kensington. Is that true?

Lynn: Kensington jumped into the digital first cozy world with my Tourist Trap series. I was with Kensington at the time which changed to Lyrical when Kesington bought out that press. Since that time, I’ve seen them expand their cozy line, both in mass market and in digital first. I love both formats because it keeps me involved in the process of publishing books. Which is changing all the time. They are willing to take a chance on a new author (me in 2014) and explore new tropes in the cozy line. In addition, their marketing team has held cozy cons for readers for the last two years (prior to 2020) where they bring their authors to bookstores all across the country to meet readers. I love attending these as an author and getting to know my audience.

Q. What are you working on now?

Lynn: Currently I’m working on the third Kitchen Witch novella, Have A Holly, Haunted Holiday. I love writing these shorter snippets into Mia and her Magic Springs team’s life. My only problem is keeping the number of characters down to a reasonable roar. I’ve already kicked one to the curb this book since he really didn’t need to be there. When I finish this, I’ll be finishing up a Cat Latimer story for release in 2021. And then back to what may be my final Farm to Fork book. It’s slated to end in 2022 with this release. I’m going to miss my County Seat crew.

I’ve got a full writing plan for 2021 and part of 2022. So readers can count on new books releasing for several more years.