I've been a fan of Jessie Chandler's capers since I picked up Pickle in the Middle Murder on a whim. C'mon, murder in the privies at a Renaissance Faire? This wench was all over that!

Her latest retains the fun and furious pace of her earlier novels, but her storytelling continues to mature. She has a new publisher and a new editor as well, and gives a shout-out to both Bella Books and writer/editor Katherine V. Forrest.

She started writing after devouring the Mickey Knight series by J.M. Redmann. She took classes from Lori Lake and Ellen Hart, both of whom she cites as major champions and influences on her work. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) gets a nod as well.

Jessie ended her four-book run with publisher Midnight Ink, but remains on good terms with them and in fact gives them credit for coming up with the term 'caper' to describe the series. (Heads up to cozy fans: although these books are very funny, Jessie is quick to point out that they are not cozies. Give the interview a listen or a read to see if they're right for you.)

Jessie also discusses the inspiration for the character Rocky. If you want to learn more about Prader-Willi Syndrome, Jessie provided this link.

Here are the books in the Shay O'Hanlon Caper series in order:

Bingo Barge Murder Hide and Snake Murder Pickle in the Middle Murder Chip Off the Ice Block Murder Blood Money Murder

As always, if you'd rather read than listen, a transcript is below. Enjoy!

Transcript for the Interview with Jessie Chandler

Laura Brennan: Jessie Chandler is the award-winning author of the Shay O'Hanlon Caper series, with her first four books racking up nominations and wins for Golden Crown Goldie and Ann Bannon Popular Choice awards, IPPY awards, USA Book Awards and Rainbow Book Awards. The fifth book in the series, Blood Money Murder, has just been released.

Jessie, thank you so much for joining me.

Jessie Chandler: I am so happy to be here, Laura. Thank you so much.

LB: For someone who didn't plan to become a writer, you've kind of taken the world by storm here.

JC: Kinda. I'm still not sure what happened.

LB: Well, before we get to your books, let's talk a little bit about you. You've had a lot of interesting jobs.

JC: I have, yes.

LB: Am I right that one of them was as a police officer?

JC: That is correct. I initially, I dispatched for the state patrol for three years. And I got very bored doing that, mostly because you're sitting on your butt and nothing happens and then suddenly everything blows up and the world is crazy. So, I thought, well, I'd like to be a trooper.

At the time, there were not a lot of law enforcement jobs available. The budgets had been cut for a lot of agencies and there were no rookie schools coming up for the state patrol. And when I finished the secondary - third-ary - type schooling that I had to do, I don't know how many interviews I wound up out of that, but it was a lot, and then suddenly I wound up with job offers from three agencies. And I chose a smaller one, kind of near an inner-ring suburb. And when I began, there were some younger folks on the police force, and some older folks. There was a little bit of consternation among the older folks about women cops. And it just turned into a big mess. And I wound up quitting a few months into it. I'm actually glad I did, I'm glad I had the experience. I'm very happy where I am now, working on writing books, doing all kinds of other creative things. Ultimately, I'm in the right place at the right time and I don't regret a single thing that I had experienced. But, I'm just really glad, where I am right now.

LB: Well, you bring in the cop camaraderie and all of that with JT

JC: Yes.

LB: So it's being used there, but you didn't have any desire to write a procedural?

JC: Not really. I wanted to -- it's kind of weird -- ever since 9/11, you know when 9/11 happened, things got really dark.