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I have a very talented lady here today to tell us all about her new mystery novel, Ticket to Ride. Her name is Winona Kent. Enjoy the interview but first, let's find out more about Winona and her hot new book...
Winona’s writing breakthrough came many years ago when she won First Prize in the Flare Magazine Fiction Contest with her short story about an all-night radio newsman, Tower of Power.
Her spy novel Skywatcher was a finalist in the Seal Books First Novel Competition and was published in 1989. This was followed by a sequel, The Cilla Rose Affair, and her first mystery, Cold Play, set aboard a cruise ship in Alaska.
After three time-travel romances (Persistence of Memory, In Loving Memory and Marianne’s Memory), Winona returned to mysteries with Disturbing the Peace, a novella, in 2017 and the novel Notes on a Missing G-String in 2019, both featuring the character she first introduced in Cold Play, professional jazz musician / amateur sleuth Jason Davey.
The third book in Winona’s Jason Davey Mystery series, Lost Time, was published in 2020.
Ticket to Ride is the fourth book in Winona’s Jason Davey Mysteries.
Winona has been a temporary secretary, a travel agent, a screenwriter and the Managing Editor of a literary magazine. She’s currently the BC/YK/NWT rep for the Crime Writers of Canada and is also an active member of Sisters n Crime – Canada West. She recently retired from her full-time admin job at UBC’s School of Population and Public Health, and is now happily embracing life as a full-time author.
You can visit her website at http://www.winonakent.com and connect with her on Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.
As a book bloggin’ and book luvin’ Princess, I’m always curious to find out how authors got the ideas for their books. Can you tell us how you got the
idea to write your book?
It’s part of a mystery series, so I was always going to write about my main character, Jason Davey. I just needed to come up with a story. In the book just before this one—which is called Lost Time—Jason has to solve the mystery of a missing teenager while he’s rehearsing for a tour with his mother’s old band, Figgis Green. About halfway through writing that novel. I decided I had so much research and so much unused material that it would be fun to follow Jason and the band as they actually toured around England. So that’s where the idea for Ticket to Ride came from. As for the actual mystery that Jason has to solve…my research into my family tree has resulted in some interesting characters being discovered. Jason shares my passion for family tree research…and his own investigations result in some fairly surprising—and shocking—results.
Can you tell us a little about the main characters of your book?
Jason Figgis (professional name Jason Davey) is a 50-something jazz musician with an ongoing gig at the Blue Devil Club in London’s Soho. He’s also discovered that he has quite a knack for solving mysteries—usually to do with missing people or missing items. In Ticket to Ride, he’s taken leave of absence from the Blue Devil Club in order to go on the road with his mothers folky-pop band, Figgis Green.
Mandy Green is Jason’s mother. She’s in her mid-70s, and is one of the founding members of Figgis Green, which was popular in the 1960s and 1970s. The other founding member was Tony Figgis, Jason’s father, who died in 1995 after being struck by lightning on a golf course. Mandy is feisty and funny and, as this is the band’s farewell tour, she’s making the most of her time on the road.
The other people in the entourage include band members Mitch Green (bass guitar), Rolly Black (drums), Beth Homewood (fiddle) and Bob Chaplin (rhythm guitar), and road crew members Beaky Johns (bus driver), Neil Sparks (lighting), Tejo (sound), Freddie (tour manager), Kato (equipment manager) and Mary and Janice from Roadworks Catering.
There is, of course, a baddie. Several baddies, in fact (spoiler alert). But I can’t tell you who they are without giving away the very unexpected ending.
Brian Richardson (my publisher) and I have created a rather
clever Figgis Green website which gives you the look and feel of a real touring
band. Please do drop by and visit:
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would that be?
Don’t let the crashing emptiness of your first failure get to you. The publishing world is about to change in ways nobody has ever experienced before. You don’t have to fear that your writing career is over. You will have more opportunities than you ever believed possible. It won’t look the same as it did when you were serving your apprenticeship as a writer in the 1970s and 1980s. But you will still be able to write, and get published, and, most importantly, you will never fail again. It’s all down to you—seize the moment, and never look back.
What would you say is one of your interesting writing quirks?
I guess it would be that with my Jason Davey Mysteries, I’m writing in the first person as a 50-something English male. Which I most definitely am not. I’m a 60-something female who was born in England, but I grew up in Canada and I no longer have my English accent. For some reason, I’m able to inhabit Jason’s brain and make him into a very credible character. I have no idea where it’s all coming from. Somewhere deep in my imagination, I suppose.
Do you hear from your readers? What do they say?
I do have a very solid little core of fans and they love Jason and they love the stories I give him. He started out as an entertainer on a cruise ship in 2012 in the novel Cold Play, and I was encouraged to bring him back by my publisher, Brian Richmond, and to give him a new life as an amateur sleuth. It was the best decision I ever made, and I know my loyal readers have been happy with that decision.
What is the toughest criticism given to you as an author?
It was when I was very young, at university, and just starting to make my way as a writer. I was working with a Canadian author, Ken Mitchell, who identified, quite correctly, that I had an arrogance about my writing which was completely uncalled for and very annoying. He told me I had nothing to be arrogant about and that a good dose of daily humility would go far to make me into a better writer and a better person. I took his advice to heart, even though it was very difficult for me. And I’ve never forgotten that lesson. You do need confidence and you do need to be able to promote yourself, but there’s a difference between that and the assumption that you’re the best writer in the world and quite beyond accepting editorial advice and help from those who offer it.
What has been your best accomplishment?
I think probably creating my current Jason Davey Mystery series. He’s brought me so much contentment and opened doors for me that I never knew about or imagined. I have a passion for creativity and I need my daily “writing fix”. Jason’s stories fill that need in every imaginable way.
Do you Google yourself?
All the time. I’m the only “Winona Kent” out there.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
Probably five or six “practice novels” from my early years, before the publication of Skywatcher, in 1989. Including my Creative Writing Master’s thesis, which was a novel called The Sloughwater Chronicles. But it was really awful. Since then, every book that I’ve written has been finished and published.
Fun question – if you were princess or prince, what’s one thing you would do to make your kingdom a better place?
I’d make the study of Kindness, Unselfishness and Consideration of Others mandatory in schools from Kindergarten to University.
Do you have anything specific that you would like to say to your readers?
Brian Richardson (my publisher) and I have created a rather
clever Figgis Green website which gives you the look and feel of a real touring
band to go along with Ticket to Ride, the novel. Please do drop by and visit:
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But when a fortune-teller in Sheffield warns them of impending danger, the band is suddenly plagued by a series of seemingly-unrelated mishaps.
After Jason is attacked and nearly killed in Cambridge, and a fire alarm results in a very personal theft from Mandy’s hotel room, it becomes clear they’re being targeted by someone with a serious grudge.
And when Figgis Green plays a gig at a private estate in Tunbridge Wells, that person finally makes their deadly intentions known.
Jason must rely on his instincts, his Instagram “guardian angel,” and a wartime ghost who might possibly share his DNA, in order to survive.
Book Information
Release Date: March 26, 2022
Publisher: Blue Devil Books
Soft Cover: 978-1777329433; 230 pages; $15.70; E-Book, $3.93
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3i0xRqY
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