Heather Weidner is…Back On the Writing Block!

Sherry Ickes
May 20
3 min read

If you don’t remember Heather, who was on as a guest for her other series, let’s take a look at who she is…

Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Pearly Girls Mysteries, the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries.

Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, Murder by the Glass, and First Comes Love, Then Comes Murder, and she has non-fiction pieces in Promophobia and The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers’ Cookbook.

She is a member of Sisters in Crime: National, Central Virginia, Chessie, Guppies, and Grand Canyon Writers, International Thriller Writers, and James River Writers, and she blogs regularly with the Writers Who Kill.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.

Do you have a writing schedule, or do you write whenever you can squeeze it in?

I try to write (or do some book kind of book promotion) every day. I find that when I stick to a schedule, I’m more productive, and it doesn’t take me years to finish the first draft. My first book took over five years to write and another two to get published. I’m much faster now with my schedule. I usually write three cozy mysteries a year.

I am an early bird, so I start around five o’clock, and I write until it’s time for work. I usually write during my lunch hour, and if I make my word quota, I’m done for the day.

How much research do you conduct for your storylines?

Surprisingly, I do a lot of research for my fiction. There are a lot of real places and other interesting things that I need to learn about. I want to make sure that I get the details right.

Any advice for other authors?

Writing is a business, and you need to treat yours like that. It’s often a lot of hard work and persistence. And always keep learning.

How much is based on real life versus made up?

There are a lot of real places in my book. Some of the stories are based on true events. And no one is safe around me. I am always jotting down ideas for stories, cool character names, and interesting dialog or slang. I keep a giant spreadsheet of ideas, and I review it before I start outlining my next book.

Bonus Question: Are there any animals in your book? If so, describe them and how involved they are in the investigation.

In the Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries, there are two animals. Chloe, the pudgy French bulldog, is owner Jade Hick’s sidekick, and she’s helped with a few murder investigations over the years. There is also Neville the Devil Cat. He’s a beautiful tuxedo kitty who wandered into the store one day and stayed. He and Chloe are the best of frenemies.

What is Murder Strikes a Chord about?

When Cassidy Jamison inherited her late grandmother’s event planning business, she also inherited her grandmother’s friends—four sixty-year-old women known around town as the Pearly Girls—as part-time employees. Now Cassidy barely has time to breathe between spending every waking hour trying to keep her business afloat and the Pearly Girls out of trouble and focused on event planning.

So when she lands a three-weekend event complete with a chart-topping band, she’s thrilled. Until she and her chihuahua mix Elvis find the body of the Weathermen’s lead singer in her venue’s koi pond. With the help of the not-so-helpful Pearly Girls, Cassidy must stave off the bad publicity, navigate the prying questions of the local police department, and solve the murder before the media frenzy shutters her business for good, and takes one of the Pearly Girls with it.