Spotlight on Sharon Dunn and Death of a Garage Sale Newbie

The author today began her foray into the world of chic lit mystery with Cow Crimes and Mustang Menace. With engaging wit and memorable characters, her Ruby Taylor series included wry humor along with a crime to be solved. Now, she's back again, but this time she's exploring the world of garage sale bargain hunters.

Buy Death of a Garage Sale Newbie from Amazon.com

Sharon Dunn lives with her hubby of twenty years, three kids, and three cats. Book two in her Ruby Taylor mystery series Sassy Cinderella and the Valiant Vigilante won the American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year award. When she isn't writing, she is usually being the mom taxi or making pets out of the dust bunnies under her furniture. You can read more about Sharon and her books at www.sharondunnbooks.com.

1. You're back again with another sassy murder mystery. This time, you're celebrating coupon-clipping bargain hunters. What gave you the inspiration for this story and this upcoming series?

Like the main characters, I love to bargain shop. I am into garage sales, clearance racks and punch cards. Writing the Bargain Hunters series combines two of my favorite things: women bonding through shopping and a fun, follow the clues mystery.

2. How much of your own experiences influenced the characters of Suzanne, Kindra and Ginger? What aspects became traits that were theirs and theirs alone?

Some of the things the women discover are similar to my own. The romance between Ginger and her husband Earl was inspired by my experience of rediscovering my hubby and falling in love with him all over again after weathering some health and financial trouble. All the bargain hunters come together because they need to cut costs. Like them, I am Little Miss Coupon Clipper, but their reasons for needing to stay on a budget are completely their own. Suzanne, for example, was buying designer clothes for her kids to make her feel like a better mother. Ginger teaches her how to stay on a budget and not use shopping to fill an emotional hole. Though I think I have shopped to fill an emotional hole now and then, designer kids clothes were never my downfall.

3. What themes exist in Death of a Garage Sale Newbie that you hope the reader sees? Are there any themes that weren't overt but developed as the story progressed?

I knew when I started that the whole series would explore the theme of Christians and money. Although Garage Sale Newbie is humorous, I really want to examine how we as Christians are supposed to respond in a world that says you get your worth from what you own. As I was writing Garage Sale Newbie, I saw that these women may have been brought together by the need to stay on a budget but they become a support network for each other in deeper ways. The conversation between them just happened. In early drafts, that theme of women supporting women started to emerge. I tend to focus on getting the clues laid out right in early drafts, but the relationship between the women was so precious. I brought that out more in later drafts.

4. What were your most difficult parts to write? Your favorite?

I love the banter between the women and the relationship that Ginger has with her wannabe inventor husband Earl. That was fun to write. I don't think that there was a part that was difficult. The whole time I am writing a book, I have a love/hate thing going on with the manuscript. There are times I want to push the delete button on the whole story because it doesn't look like I will ever get the book to match the vision I have in my head. Other times, I will read over a passage and laugh or be moved emotionally, or on the edge of my seat because a character I care about is in danger. During those times, I think "hey, this book isn't half bad."

5. When is your next book coming out and what is the story?

Book Two in the Bargain Hunters, Death of a Cute Teddy Bear, series comes out January 2008. This time the bargain hunters head down to Nevada to shop at the outlet capital of the west, attend the world's largest garage sale and help Earl get one of his inventions off the ground.

* * * * *

Thanks, Sharon, for being in the spotlight. Everyone, don't forget to post a comment for a chance to win a FREE autographed copy of Death of a Garage Sale Newbie. The books haven't shipped yet, but we'll get the winner a book as soon as they're available.