Five Cozy Questions with Author Cielle Kenner
Today we welcome Cielle Kenner, author of the Enchanted Antique Shop series — magical mysteries with a time-travel twist.
Five Cozy Questions
1. What cozy mystery book or project are you working on right now? I’m writing Antiques and Apparitions, which will be the first book in my Enchanted Antique Shop series. It sounds odd, but it turns out I’m writing all the stories out of order. Originally, I thought The Enchanted Antique Shop would be the first book. Then I got bogged down in backstory, so I decided to jump into the main story in midstream. I told myself I could get right to the good stuff, and then do all the setup work in a prequel. I feel like it’s all working out for the best. After all, time travel is a recurring theme in my books, so there’s no need to write them in order.
2. What do you enjoy most about creating a cozy mystery setting? I can’t tell you how much I love my setting! Enchanted Springs is the small town of my dreams. It’s loosely based on my real-life hometown, which means I don’t have to do a lot of research. I simply add all the magical elements I wish existed in real life.
3. How do you keep track of plot details throughout a series? I keep an extensive series bible. It’s mostly a list of character names and descriptions, arranged alphabetically, so I can search for whatever I need. Oddly enough, the hardest thing for me to track are all the publication details for my stories, like taglines, blurbs, ISBNs, ASINs, and release dates. It’s crazy how often I have to refer to those items.
4. Do you have a favorite secondary character in your books? If so, why? I love Violet Serrano, the spirited ghost of a 1920s flapper who’s living her best afterlife at the Enchanted Antique Shop. She’s based on my grandmother Evelyn, who wasn’t really a flapper, but she was definitely “flapper adjacent.” I remember her sass and her vintage sayings, so those come through in Violet. Also, since Violet is such a fun character, she makes a rowdy appearance at the start and end of every book.
5. How do you plant clues and red herrings in your stories? I make a bullet list of everything I want to include in a story — from scenes, to character interactions, to clues —on the first page of my Word doc. As I write, I cut and paste those bullet-list items into the manuscript.
About the Author
Cielle Kenner’s books are set in the small town of Enchanted Springs — where ghosts are friendly, magic is real, and time is anything but linear. It’s a charming small town in Central Florida, loosely based on Cielle’s own real-life hometown near Ponce de Leon’s legendary Fountain of Youth.
Cielle started writing professionally at the age of seventeen, first as a newspaper reporter, then as a magazine editor and author of several non-fiction books. Along the way, she earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from California State University.
Cielle is a certified tarot master and certified astrologer, and an expert in ancient mythology and storytelling models like the Hero’s Journey. She’s also a graduate of the Citizens Police Academy, and her formal training in police procedures and criminal investigations imbues her mystery stories with a sense of realism and authenticity.
When she’s not writing, Cielle finds inspiration in red wine, baked potatoes, and gently haunted antique shops. She likes cats and dogs equally; at the moment, she’s dog mom to a feisty Jack Russell terrier named Dottie. Cielle also likes to crochet, even though she’s not very good at it, and she has more yarn hidden in her craft closet than she’ll ever be able to use.
Cielle is available for book signings, book talks, and book club discussions. You can find her online and across social media @ciellekenner.
Author Links
Website: ciellekenner.com
Patreon: patreon.com/ciellekenner
Facebook.com: facebook.com/ciellekenner
Instagram: instagram.com/ciellekenner
Twitter: x.com/ciellekenner
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ciellekenner
Featured Cozy Mystery
The Enchanted Antique Shop
A haunted mansion, a priceless painting, and a spirited sleuth. It’s just another magic Monday in Enchanted Springs.
Marley Montgomery is the newest proprietor of the Enchanted Antique Shop. She’s also the latest in a line of time-traveling witches, a talent that caught her completely by surprise. Upended by her unexpected abilities, she’s come back to her charming hometown — a perfectly normal paranormal community. Nestled within its borders, time-traveling witches cast spells, spirited ghosts share stories from the Great Beyond, and vampire detectives take a bite out of crime.
Marley dives right in, learning to master her gifts and embrace her family’s magical heritage. But when an art heist leads to murder, she’s plunged headfirst into a mystery that threatens to turn her new life upside down. And when a legendary ghost asks for help, Marley must untangle a web of family secrets, hidden motives, and haunted history to catch a killer and recover a missing masterpiece.
Click here for your copy of The Enchanted Antique Shop: https://amzn.to/472rXwI
