Guest Post

GUEST CHICK: OLIVIA BLACKE

Today the Chicks are pleased to present Olivia Blacke, whose new mystery, DEATH AT THE DOOR, was released just yesterday! Congrats, Olivia, and take it away:

This weekend, I was talking with someone about books and reading (my favorite topics!) and when I told her a little about the books I preferred, and she called them “Pringles reads.”

Friends, I was taken aback. It felt vaguely judgy, like somehow genre fiction isn’t nutritious enough.

Maybe the books I read (and write) are Pringles. Personally, I don’t see the downside. Pringles are delicious. They always hit the spot. And they come in dozens of flavors, just like crime fiction. Noir. Cozy. Detective. Paranormal. Historical. Rom-cozies. Procedural. True crime. Series. Short stories. Standalones. There’s something for every taste and mood.

FYI, I love Pringles. They’re crispy, salty goodness. Besides, who doesn’t like potatoes? And books—all books—like snacks, don’t have to be technically healthy to be good for you.

Books are my treats. They’re something good to look forward to after a long, difficult day of adulting. They’re my fun escape when the real world gets too heavy. They keep me entertained in waiting rooms, public transportation, and on airplanes. They help me wind down before bed and give me an excuse to curl up on my favorite chair in my PJs on the weekends.

Mysteries are my favorite books to read because while I’m relaxing and enjoying the story, I’m also trying to solve a puzzle. And the best part? In the end, the mystery is solved. The killer is caught. The good guy wins and the bad guy pays for their crime. It’s satisfying.

As much as I love reading mysteries, I love writing them even more. I enjoy writing cozies like Vinyl Resting Place because there’s such joy in being able to revisit a beloved fictional town and hang out with all of the kooky residents, who spend their days listening to music, drinking coffee, and occasionally solving a murder (or two). I’m really excited to be writing paranormal mysteries like A New Lease on Death and Death at the Door, where a recently deceased ghost and her living roommate must learn to work together to bring killers to justice. How fun is that?

At the end of the day, I want a book—and a snack—that makes me happy. Sometimes I’m in a mood for a bowl of fresh fruit. Other times, I’m craving a salty snack. All I know is right now, there’s a stack of cozies and a can of Pringles calling my name.

Readers: What about you? What’s your favorite treat?


Olivia Blacke (she/her) is the Anthony Award-winning author of the Ruby and Cordelia Mysteries, as well as the cozy Record Shop Mysteries and the Brooklyn Murder Mysteries. She had her first ghost encounter when she was five, but wasn’t involved with an active crime scene until much later, when she accidentally stepped into a chalk outline on a Manhattan sidewalk. Armed with a Criminology degree, she channels her love of the supernatural and passion for writing into darkly humorous supernatural mysteries. She wants to be a unicorn when she grows up.

Website: https://oliviablacke.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oliviablackeauthor/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorOliviaBlacke



When death knocks, they answer. The odd couple of crime-solving returns in Death at the Door, where a ghost and her living roommate find another supernatural mystery on their doorstep, and must navigate the fine line between the dead and the living to bring a killer to light.
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49 thoughts on “GUEST CHICK: OLIVIA BLACKE”

  1. Kudos, Olivia, on your latest book! Like eating chips, I feast on several books. They’re like conversations, and reading from many novels within a day seems natural. Insights abound as to the similarities in bestselling novels, offering patterns we can use to freshen our writing.

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  2. Congrats on your book release, Olivia. I enjoyed Death at the Door.

    Pringles are good, but I like eating Twizzlers among other snacks while reading. Sometimes the snacks are healthy, sometimes they are not.

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  3. Sometimes I’m a nuts or pretzels girl, but always a book girl! Bring on a good mystery to solve and a good story to go with it and I’m happy, even without a snack! Congrats on the book release! I look forward to reading it.

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  4. Congratulations, Olivia! I love Pringles. Actually, l love anything salty and crunchy. And dark chocolate. When I found chocolate-covered potato chips in the Dallas airport I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

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  5. Olivia, congratulations on the release. And boo to whoever called what we write “Pringles reads.” Grrrr! I try to go with fruit as a snack, but I also like salty, so then it’s pretzels. But I’m always disappointed. Maybe it’s my imagination but it feels like they don’t taste as good as they used to!

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    2. LOL I don’t think they meant it as a bad thing. I certainly didn’t take it as one! Personally I’d rather consume pringles than try to eat The Odyssey

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  7. Congratulations on the new book, Olivia! My go to snack is tortilla chips. Sometimes with salsa and sometimes not. Males things interesting that way. 😉

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    2. Thanks for hosting me! I can’t eat cheezy poofs, or cheesy anything. My dog has really big, sad eyes and ends up eating them instead of me. Life isn’t fair.

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  9. Olivia!!!!! Thank you so much for chatting with us today and giving us such a fun topic. We have so much in common! I, too, love Pringles and long to be a unicorn when I grow up. Seriously, though, Pringles never make it out of my kitchen alive. I look forward to reading Death at the Door. Sounds like another winner!

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  10. Hi Olivia! It’s your friend from the New Orleans airport Uber! Thanks for hanging out with us on Chicks today. First of all, I love crunchy salty snacks and I don’t have time to read books that are the equivalent of eating my vegetables! Also, I agree — I love writing cozies for all the same reasons! 🙂

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    2. Just read somewhere that they’re recasting Moby DIck with a teenager, if anyone is interested. (A nope from me.)

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  11. Hi, Olivia!! So glad you’re here & congrats on Death at the Door! I tend to have a sweet tooth, but when I was young, I loved Pringles–they’re amazing shape and perfect crunch. Now, when I crave salty, I go for nutty and cheesy items.

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  12. Olivia, we’re so happy that you’ve joined us on Chicks today! And equally thrilled that Death at the Door is officially out in the world–an extra October treat! I like to stack Pringles and bite through the whole stack. Makes a mess but still yummy. I lean toward ice cream in the treat dept. Cliche, I know, but the truth. In high school one of my best friends worked at Baskin-Robbins and I got all the Here Comes the Fudge I could eat. (Like Wonder Bread, grew a body 12 (32?) different ways.) Still, I’m looking forward to this year’s Mystery Flavor for Pringles. Maybe an ice cream flavor?

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  13. Olivia, congrats on the new book! When I read the line about Pringles, my first thought was – I can never stop at just one. Seems like a compliment to me. My favorite snack is just about anything chocolate–and yes, that includes chocolate covered potato chips!

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  14. Frankly, after a rather stressful day working at the public library (and listening/reading the news lately), I much prefer reading something that will take my mind off the negative stuff going on and help me relax enough to sleep. If that’s what a “Pringle” read is, then I’m all for it. I’ve been working as a librarian for more than 42 years, most of them in public libraries. We have lots of wonderful times, but we do face stressful situations a lot – more and more in recent years. So yes, I like to read books that will allow me to sleep fairly well at night, so I can get up and go back to work and do my best to help all kinds of people (nice, nasty, and everything in between) deal with their various situations as THEY try to cope with their challenges.

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  17. Excited for this release, book 1 was great! I change my mind all the time about snacks. Ridged potato chips are a favorite but usually when I’m using an audiobook so I don’t get the pages greasy.

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  18. …one should also note that Pringles pack ALL the chips in the most efficient, compact space. No air, no poof, just a solid stack of potato-y goodness. 😉

    I’m a fan.

    —JKB

    (Who may or may not occasionally eat chips for dinner…)

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