The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club

I adore Bill Cusano’s new series, The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club. The series begins as a contemporary paranormal cozy that centers on crime almost 200 years in the past. Then the books go back to the 19th century and offers up a multigenerational historical family saga that will stay with you long after you close the book. I binge read the series and can’t wait to read the next book. You can read the descriptions and my reviews of all three books on my previous post. I am happy to share the author’s guest post about his experience while writing book 4, And The War Came. As part of this Partners in Crime Blog Tour Bill is including a Gift Box Giveaway. So don’t forget to enter the giveaway at the end of this post.

Author Guest Post from Bill Cusano

Writing The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club

When I set out on a four-and-a-half-month world cruise I did it for one reason, to write a novel while looking at the ocean.

Of the 138 days, 62 were sea days, those days when we are not in a port. I thought those would be perfect days for writing. I envisioned I would sit out on my balcony and stare at the ocean while settling down to write the fourth book in my Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club series. What I didn’t know was that those sea days would become adventures themselves.

I did manage to write every day, even on port days, and by the end of the cruise, everyone I met on board wanted to know how the book was coming along.

That was the unexpected part, the interest from the other passengers.

I had brought ten books with me on the journey, five of book one and five of book two. Book three was with the editor. And book two was being turned into an audiobook. The books I brought on board, I gave away with one condition. Read it and give me feedback. If people liked the book, they could share it with others.

One of the interesting facts about cruise ships is that the passengers like to read. All over the ship on sea days, you could find people curled up in chairs reading one of the books they took out of the ship’s book exchange, or reading ebooks on their tablets.

I was curious about the feedback because my series begins in 2024 with a 192-year-old murder mystery involving two women, two pitchforks, two keys, and one dead two-timing man. The story is a cozy with a ghost or two or more. I never intended for it to be the first book in a series, but I was so captivated by the ghost of the widow who was accused of killing her husband, that I started a second book, taking the reader back to 1833 to discover her story. Elcira Cranberry quickly became an obsession. I wanted to follow her story, so after the Ghost and The Key, came The Widow Murderess, and then The Sparrow and The Crow. Now, I am finishing up the fourth book in the series, And The War Came, bringing us to the Civil War.

Who would have thought that someone who hated learning history would be writing historical fiction, a family saga across so many generations?

I don’t know where my story is going when I start writing. I never have created outlines or plans for any of my novels. I began writing at an early age, and wrote my first novel, a detective story, when I was seventeen. It was bad. I didn’t think so at the time, but now, looking back, I see how little I knew about the craft. You can read a ton of books on writing, but it all comes down to learning by doing, and it helps if you love doing.

I do.

Actually, I love my characters. I begin with them and they take me where they want to go or need to go. I give them difficult situations to deal with and they grow. Sometimes they fail, but they always grow.

I have been told that I have too many characters in my series. And it is true. I do. I provide a cast of characters for the reader, based on that feedback, and readers tell me they use it to keep track of who is who, until they get to know the characters and fall in love with one or more. I often hear “I can’t stand that character.” And that tells me the characters have become real.

Another thing I do that I get a lot of feedback on is leaving one or two mysteries unsolved. I don’t do that to sell the next book in the series, although that would be nice. I do it because I began this family saga in the present. Secrets had remained buried for generations. Sometimes what one person thinks they know is not what may have actually happened. So, some secrets get revealed more and more over time. But in each book, the characters develop and face conflicts or mysteries they need to solve.

I decided to write and publish full time when my wife of 32 years passed away. I wanted to write the kind of stories she used to read voraciously. I believe I have done that, and I will continue to do it, for her, for you, the reader, and for me as well. These stories have a way of healing wounds, showing how people make sacrifices, and how people deal with loss. My goal is to get to know all my readers personally, and to keep writing what they enjoy reading.

Thank you,

Bill

About Bill Cusano

Bill Cusano is an author, a retired deacon in the Episcopal Church and a believer that it is the process rather than the outcomes that matter most in our lives. Retired from the corporate world and an eight-year stint running a non-profit feeding program, Bill attacks every project as a ministry, giving it his full commitment. Needing to readjust to life after losing the love of his life to leukemia in April of 2024, Bill returned to writing full-time, resulting in The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club series, the motivation and inspiration for which came from his wife’s voracious appetite for reading historical fiction. While this is Bill’s debut novel, he has always been a writer, publishing short stories and poems early on, and then beginning a daily spiritual blog in 2008. You can follow Bill’s Reflections From The Garden Bench along with other writings on his Substack account.

Catch Up With Bill Cusano:

BillCusano.com
Bill’s Substack
Amazon Author Profile
Goodreads – @billcusano
Instagram – @billcusano
X – @CusanoBill
Facebook – @bill.cusano

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Want to read more of my reviews?

Interested in my reviews? I also have a Goodreads shelf dedicated to Cozy Mysteries and another for Historical Fiction. Want to read my reviews for books in other genres? I’ve got you covered. There are almost two thousand reviews on my account. Just check out Julie Ditton on Goodreads.