Cold Open Haunted Bookstore Call

Ellie Alexander 0:05

Haunted? You think the bookstore is haunted? I cupped my hand over the phone and raised my eyebrows at Fletcher Hughes, my business partner in all things bookish and crime. Until approximately two seconds ago, his head had been buried behind stacks and stacks of reference books. He was deep into the fall semester at Redwood College, where he was focusing his studies on Sherlocan lore. An appropriate subject given that he was already an expert in the life and writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His broad brow furrowed as he closed the book he had been studying and sat up taller, suddenly locked into my conversation. Fletcher was a few years older than me, in his mid-thirties, with sharp angular features and astute eyes that didn't miss much. He belonged in a different time with his fitted khaki slacks, buttoned-up houndstooth shirt and black vest. Like me, he had found his spiritual home at the secret bookcase, the Agatha Christie inspired store we ran together. And he was in his element where whether he was deep in golden age mysteries or poring over the fine details of our real life investigative work at The Novel Detectives, our newest venture.

New Release And Series Milestone

Tech Guy 1:23

All right. Oh yeah, I should have been ready with the uh it's a throwback.

Ellie Alexander 1:34

And just like that, welcome to Reality Rights. I'm author Ellie Alexander and I'm here with the Tech Guy.

Tech Guy 1:40

Hello, hello, and it's uh new book time. It's a new book. We have another new book releasing from Ellie Alexander. This is book four in the novel detective series. And that's really wild to say because I know that you're already several books ahead in writing the novel detectives. Uh, but this is the fourth book that's releasing on October 13th, and it is available for pre-order now in Buy Books.

Ellie Alexander 2:13

And yes, this is the fourth book in the novel detectives series, but there are six previous books in the secret bookcase series, which the novel detectives spun off out of. So, spun off out of? I'm not sure if that's a thing, but we'll call it a thing. Yeah, sure.

Tech Guy 2:29

It's our podcast, we can make it up.

Ellie Alexander 2:31

Yeah, that's right. We can say whatever we want to say. So technically, this is book 10, which is just bananas to me. I don't know how that happened.

Tech Guy 2:38

Yeah, well, in a very short period of time. When when did the first when did the first book in the secret bookcase mysteries come out? Do you remember?

Ellie Alexander 2:49

Oh, I don't remember.

Tech Guy 2:51

Yeah, it was but it was like it was like two years ago, right?

Ellie Alexander 2:54

2023, I think.

Tech Guy 2:56

Okay, three years ago. Uh still yeah.

Ellie Alexander 2:59

Ten books in three years is not so shabby. Yeah.

Tech Guy 3:01

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're doing better than Castle. Uh longtime fans of that TV series will know what I'm talking about. So that's right. Um I, in addition to a new book release, which we're gonna talk about, A Murder at Midnight, the fourth book in the novel detective series in this episode. And just so everyone is okay, like there are no spoilers. No spoilers are gonna be happening. You got a little preview of uh the the intro of the book, but uh that's it. You're not you're not gonna get any spoilers. So we're gonna talk about the book and the series and uh get into some um spooky things because this one is this one is spooky. Uh but I have actually a piece of news for you, Ellie. Oh uh do tell this is our 75th episode of Reality Rights.

75 Episodes And Listener Requests

Ellie Alexander 3:55

Shut up.

Tech Guy 3:56

No, that's not possible. 75. Yeah. I was I was like when I was getting ready to uh set up everything to record the episode, I was looking back through the folder uh and I just happened to look down in the status bar of the Finder window, and 75 episodes across three seasons so far. So yay us. I'm gonna I'm gonna give us a little applause. Um we deserve that.

Ellie Alexander 4:27

It's fair. We're putting out as many Reality Rights episodes as I'm writing books. So we're just in the creative flow.

Tech Guy 4:36

Totally. Yeah. Um, but that being said, 75 episodes, we've talked a lot about the the writing world, the reading world, um, everything in between. And so for everyone out there listening, let us know what you think. Have you enjoyed it? What else do you want to hear about in any of those areas? Uh, we would love to hear from the darlings out there.

Ellie Alexander 4:59

The darlings are gonna be like, we've heard it all. It's good, we're done. Thanks. Thanks, guys. We don't need any more.

Tech Guy 5:08

75. Well, now it's only 25 to 100. So we'll have to do something special for the 100th episode, which it will happen sometime in season four next year.

Ellie Alexander 5:18

So okay, yeah. So we got to start thinking now. I like it. Okay.

Tech Guy 5:21

Yeah, yeah. All right. So, where do you want to start talking about a murder at midnight?

Plot Setup Ghost Hunters Takeover

Ellie Alexander 5:30

A murder at midnight. Well, I would love to give the darlings a little primer again, always spoiler-free because these are mysteries and they are part of a series. And whenever you're writing a series, there are subplots and other pieces of development that may build and expand, even though you can read all of these books as a standalone. But I will not be giving away who who the killer is or any major series spoilers on this episode. But for starters, A Murder at Midnight is set in the fall pre-Halloween season. So the bookstore, the secret bookcase where this entire series is set, is as you heard in the intro, the little snippet I read is an Agatha Christie themed bookstore in the fictional town of Redwood Grove, California. And Annie and Fletcher get a phone call from Ghost Hunters, a very popular ghost hunting TV show who wants to come to the secret bookcase, take over for a weekend because they are convinced that it's haunted.

Tech Guy 6:39

Whoa, so this is a ghost story. Does that make this a paranormal cozy mystery?

Ellie Alexander 6:44

No, not so much. I would say this is a spooky, like I like to think of it as like a grown-up Scooby-Doo, right? Darlings, you already know this, and of course, Tekka, you know this about me. Scooby-Doo was always my favorite growing up because it's fun, it's kind of spooky, but it's really not scary. Like, there's always some pretty benign explanation as to whatever's going on behind the scenes that the gang is investigating. And so those are sort of the vibes. Now, paranormal cozies are a thing. There's a whole entire sub-genre where there are paranormal elements, you might have witchy things, you might have supernatural, you might have something that's maybe not even cozy, like a lot darker. That's not the case. Annie is fully grounded in, of course, the secret bookcase is not haunted, uh, but she gets convinced to have the ghost hunters team come to the store because they think it's going to be good press. And, you know, independent bookstores, they need all the eyes they can get on their books, so that she gets convinced that this is the right thing to do. Is it the right thing to do? I don't know.

Tech Guy 7:51

That makes sense. I mean, you get shows like that coming in, and suddenly, you know, your store could pop off, right? Um, they'd be like having uh Josh Gates uh come and and investigate, right?

Ellie Alexander 8:07

Exactly. That's kind of one of the inspirations for this particular book in this series. We used to watch his show and they were so campy and fun. Uh, and again, not so scary, but I I love the idea of somebody coming and like having the whole TV crew. And of course, from a writing perspective, it gives me ample suspects. There are plenty of um potential flare-ups and drama between the cast. And um yeah, and then I just love the idea that during October and the spooky Halloween season, you would have ghost hunters who want to camp out and stay up all night in the bookstore. And of course, Annie and Fletcher have to be there with them because they have to protect the books in this process.

Tech Guy 8:52

Yeah, the only thing I'd say is hopefully Annie and Fletcher are better at coming to a resolution of a mystery than Josh Gates because they never solved anything on that show.

Ellie Alexander 9:04

No, I'm so curious. Now, darlings, do you remember? So one he had like three different shows, but this was Expedition Unknown. Was that the first one?

Tech Guy 9:13

No, I think that's his most recent one.

Ellie Alexander 9:15

Is that his most recent one?

Tech Guy 9:16

Okay, but anyway, yeah, the it they're all the same, right? They're all very similar in style. So yeah.

Ellie Alexander 9:23

Yeah, it's like reality TV meets ghost hunters meets history, all the things. And in fact, there's a historian um who is one of the suspects in this particular book, in A Murder at Midnight, who comes along with the team. She's part of the crew because she wants to do all of the historical research to add this layer to the to the show, the ghost hunting show, um, that builds in like real lore from around the community. And and that used to always be one of the things that I enjoyed. And Josh Gates would do things like, you know, a deep dive into what happened to Amelia Earhart or lore and legend, but then you never got any real answer. So you're like, oh.

Tech Guy 10:07

That's funny. So this one is set in fall as pre-Halloween, uh, but um the uh they do like so the ghost hunters are coming in, they're gonna do a sleepover at the at the bookstore.

Ellie Alexander 10:19

They're gonna do a sleepover.

Tech Guy 10:21

Knowing the the real life house mansion that uh the secret bookcase is modeled after, that would be super creepy. Even if it wasn't haunted, it would be super creepy.

Ellie Alexander 10:33

It would be super

Filoli Inspiration And Real Haunts

Ellie Alexander 10:34

creepy. So the secret bookcase is modeled after Phyloli, and we've talked about this on previous episodes on one of our 75 episodes before this. Phylloli Gardens is a real place in Northern California, and the house itself is what I imagine the secret bookcase to be like. It's this old Edwardian mansion. It's out in the middle of nowhere, gorgeous grounds, surrounded by redwood and eucalyptus groves, but you're pretty remote. And the house itself is massive. It has, you know, a billard's room and a smoking room and a full dining room and sitting room and all of those beautiful, stunning places from something that was built in the early 1900s. But it is also haunted. And we know this because we got a personal tour behind the scenes.

Tech Guy 11:21

Yeah, definitely. Uh, including the attic, which I will never go back to ever, ever. Ever. That was creepy, and all the lights were on. It was still creepy. Oh, yeah.

Ellie Alexander 11:34

So creepy. And uh that that was a couple years ago at Halloween. So, what always happens when I'm working on series is that I will just sort of take copious notes in the moment when I'm experiencing something, knowing that I'm probably not gonna write about it at that particular moment, but I'm gonna save it for something in the future. So after we had our private tour of the house and the attic and everything, I came home and I took lots of notes about, ooh, okay, what would this play in or how would this play into the secret bookcase? And um I didn't really think about it until like a year or two later. And then as I was mapping out the idea for this particular book, I was like, oh yes, that's right. The attic is haunted, so ghost hunters could come to town, and then it all sort of spirals from there.

Tech Guy 12:22

Totally. Yeah, well, so talk a little bit about Annie and Fletcher because they are a bit different from your other cozy mystery series in that they work in a bookshop, but they're also private detectives. So they're real investigators, unlike, say, Jules, who is a pastry chef in the Bake Shop Mystery series and has no private investigator license.

Why Annie Can Investigate Legally

Ellie Alexander 12:51

And really has no purpose being on a crime scene whatsoever, as we've established. They're no police officer is going to invite a pastry chef to come study the crime scene with them. So, yeah, it's nice. With this series, I get to do a little more in terms of the crime, the cases, the grittiness, the weight of what Annie and Fletcher are investigating because they own a professional private detective agency that they run out of the bookstore. And Annie has her California state license to be a private investigator. So I have done so much research that will never make its way officially into a lot of the book because it's unnecessary into what private investigators can and cannot do, particularly in the state of California, because those laws obviously change based on whatever state you're residing in. But I'm always surprised. It's a lot, it's a lot more than you think. And private investigators do consult with the police and they get access to five. I mean, not in every instance, but of course, there are many situations in which um there are true partnerships with the police. So I enjoy getting to explore that and getting to really have a viable reason to have Annie be involved in the crime itself. Now, of course, these are still cozy mysteries. So in the real world, probably the police are gonna do the heavy lifting and the private investigators are gonna come in as support and you know, maybe they're gonna research financials or they're gonna have other conversations with suspects, that sort of thing. But um, in this case, Annie always has to be the one to solve it because she's brilliant.

Tech Guy 14:34

Yeah, yeah. Well, hey, darlings, uh, when we were talking about this earlier, this particular episode and this private investigator thing came up, I told Ellie, hey, you know what would be a great idea is if we got our private investigator licenses and started our own private investigation service and actually solved a crime. Like, how cool would that be if a mystery author was a private investigator and solved a crime? That would be amazing.

Ellie Alexander 15:02

So we're not announcing that next year we're going to hit a hundred episodes. We're announcing that we are opening Ellie Alexander in the tech guy, investigate. Yeah.

Tech Guy 15:15

There you go, darling. Yeah, send it, send us your agency name uh ideas, and we will we will pick a winner. And yeah.

Ellie Alexander 15:26

And then um in you know, the comments, please give us your most pressing puzzles that you need us to solve. The first case will be free, of course, because we need to build our repertoire and experience. So yeah.

Tech Guy 15:41

I I am really good at finding and rescuing animals. So there is that. Yeah, I've got a long, I've got a long history in that.

Ellie Alexander 15:50

So collectively, yes, you would be good at that. You're great at maps and directions.

Tech Guy 15:54

You are not.

Ellie Alexander 15:55

I'm not at all. So there's that. I would um for stakeouts, I'd be great at bringing snacks. Snacks. I could put a mean playlist together. I would have fabulous outfits.

Tech Guy 16:11

Okay.

Ellie Alexander 16:12

Um, I would get caught instantly because I I am not stealth in any way, shape, or form. I would be immediately called out on any kind of stakeout.

Tech Guy 16:22

You'd have to stay in the car for sure.

Ellie Alexander 16:24

But I would still be found out in the car, I feel like.

Tech Guy 16:27

No, because I would, I would bring, I would bring the tech side of things and we would we would have the best gadgets. This would be a miserable failure as an actual business because we would spend so much money up front buying the top-of-the-line like secret agent gear, and then we would get called out to you know make $50 to find somebody's lost cat. And that's right. And my all my drones and and uh you know, secret microphones and video cameras would be totally useless for something like that.

Ellie Alexander 17:01

Well, it's funny that you say that that, and you don't know this, but there is kind of this thread that's been building as the novel detectives have grown that Fletcher is constantly buying all of this, you know, very high-end spy gear that Annie's like, we don't need this, but this might be a tiny bit of a spoiler for a future book. At some point in time, all of Fletcher's tech does come in handy.

Tech Guy 17:25

So that's what I this this guy sounds very familiar to me, honestly. And I tell you all the time, like, this stuff is gonna come in handy. So okay.

Ellie Alexander 17:36

Well, you already hear first, darlings. Obviously, we don't have enough to do. So, what we should really do is start our own private detective agency. I'm in, count me in.

Tech Guy 17:45

Totally.

Ellie Alexander 17:46

All right, solid yes, okay.

Tech Guy 17:48

Back to the book. Back to the book. Everybody's like, whoa, this episode really went off the rails. Um, can't wait for a hundred. Um yeah, so this is before Halloween, but is is the store decked out for Halloween?

Ellie Alexander 18:05

Of course. Okay, yes. Oh, yeah, it's got all the Halloween vibes.

Tech Guy 18:09

And where did you get that inspiration from?

Ellie Alexander 18:12

I don't know. Yeah, I have no idea.

Tech Guy 18:16

No, tell everybody about going to Phyloli for

Halloween Nightfall And Spooky Vibes

Tech Guy 18:19

Halloween.

Ellie Alexander 18:19

That is so Phyloli, in addition to getting to do this private tour a couple years ago, Phyloli every year for Halloween has nightfall, and the grounds are completely decked out for the season. So we're talking fog machines and thousands of carved and lit pumpkins all throughout the fields and arches and witches brew and sound effects, and it's just this fully immersive experience. And then the house is all backlit, and in the inside of the house, there are these elaborate, like bloody cake displays and ghosts floating around the ballroom and all of the things. So if you've ever been to Phyloli and then you read A Murder at Midnight, you'll be like, wow, Ellie really does not stretch her imagination much at all because exactly what I saw there is what ends up on the pages of the book, pretty much. Um, but it's great inspiration. It's so fun to be able to experience something like that and then come home and make it my own somehow.

Tech Guy 19:28

Yeah, it is. It is such an amazing experience. And um, in addition to everything you described, there are also a couple of actors dressed up. Well, at least I think they're actors. Maybe they were ghosts. I don't know. I think they they might have been ghosts, but their costumes are pretty, pretty incredible and creepy. In creepy. In creepy. Yeah, yeah.

Ellie Alexander 19:56

There was like a ghost seated at this elaborate um ballroom feast. The table was all decked out with gothic candles and like swaths of cobwebs and black drapery and all the things, and then there was a woman seated at the end that I thought was a mannequin and part of the decor. And then as we walked by, she moved. And of course, and it's not it's not like a haunted house experience to go to nightfall, but I turned it into one, which again proves my point that I should not be on a stakeout.

Tech Guy 20:29

Yeah, there are no jump scares there, but it is it is almost creepier to be looking at someone and then just have them slowly turn their head and look at you, you know. That's yeah. So those are those are the kind of vibes that that you're gonna get from a murder at midnight, not the uh not the jump scares.

Ellie Alexander 20:49

Not the jump scares so much. I mean, I think the moral of the story when you peel back my layers of writing is that everything I do in the real world finds its way onto the page. The other sort of thread that runs through this particular book is

Fugitive Game And Teen Staff Energy

Ellie Alexander 21:06

that um Annie and Fletcher, over the course of the last few books, have expanded the staff at the bookstore because you have to. Not only are they running a massive mystery bookshop, but now they have a detective agency too. So they need some support staff. And a couple of those staff members are younger high school and college kids because that's what really happens in the book world, right? You've got this rotation of younger staff that come in along with some more mature staff, shall we say. And um, they are playing a game called Fugitive in Oceanside Park, which is the park that backs up to the secret bookcase and is sort of the central part of the village square in this series. And uh that inspiration came because when Sky Guy, our son, was in high school, the kids would play this game Fugitive. And it was um incredible how involved it was. And they were running all over town. Up until midnight, 2 a.m. Like, love it.

Tech Guy 22:04

Yeah, you can get away with that in a small town like Ashland. Um, the the the teens running around town and and playing this game in the middle of the night didn't really freak anybody out. So benefits of a small town.

Ellie Alexander 22:18

Benefits of a small town. Good reason to set your cozy in a fictional small town because again, everybody's like, oh, they're playing fugitive, like they do. It's fine that they're you know chasing each other at the park at 2 a.m. Yeah.

Tech Guy 22:29

Right, right. Totally, totally. Well, are there any other subplots going on in this book?

Hal Christie And Agatha Christie Clues

Ellie Alexander 22:38

This book has and the entire series this far thus far, especially the novel detectives, because the secret book case started with Annie's best friend from college, Scarlet, being murdered and Annie trying to solve that murder for a decade. Once that resolved with book six and we spun off into the novel detectives, there is another thread that has been there since the very beginning, since book one, which is that Hal Christie, the original owner of the secret bookcase, believes that he is the long-lost grandson of the one and only the great dame of mysteries herself, Agatha Christie. And so there have been little snippets about that throughout all the books. And for the last few books, the investigation into whether there could be even a kernel of truth to his belief is starting to ramp up. And I'm building to that as the series is growing. And I am very cognizant, and this is another thing that we've talked about before, and it's something that I really have deep conversations with when I'm doing coaching or writing work with new writers is how long do you let a subplot linger? Because I know as a reader, I really love a subplot. So I want to know is how related to Agatha Christie? Spoiler alert, right now, I don't know. No, I'm just kidding. I know, you don't know. But um, so it's fine, I think, to dangle that for a while. And and each book you get a little, a little bit more, or maybe a new clue that shifts direction, but there has to be resolution or closure. This is linking back to the whole Josh Gates thing, right? You don't want that to be a letdown at the end, like okay, well, nothing really happened. So we are building toward finding those answers, is what I will say. And uh that thread is still continuing.

Tech Guy 24:35

Oh, awesome. Well, speaking of continuing, so we talked about this being book four in the novel detective series, and that there were six books in the secret bookcase mysteries prior to this that are all related. Uh, do you have any news about the novel detective series that you want to share with the darlings?

Contract Through Book Ten And Next Title

Ellie Alexander 24:58

This is just like an episode of exciting news all the way around. A new book, our 75th episode. And yes, I just signed a contract through book 10. So there are definitely gonna be more. I'm working on book eight as we speak, so I'm already much farther ahead in the series, but there will be 10 books for sure. And as part of that 10, we will know for sure whether Hal is a real Christie or not.

Tech Guy 25:23

Oh wow, you're not gonna not gonna end it on a cliffhanger.

Ellie Alexander 25:27

Yeah. In scene.

Tech Guy 25:32

That's awesome. Oh, 10, 10 at least. Yeah. 10 at least, right. Right. Yes, right.

Ellie Alexander 25:37

For sure, 10. I'm signed on for 10. So 10 it is.

Tech Guy 25:41

And what uh have you released the name of the next book in the series?

Ellie Alexander 25:46

The next book in the series comes out in January. Its title is A Fatal Frost. Um and it's actually up for pre-order now, too. The quick premise for this one is that um Annie has moved into a new cottage and she wakes up hearing her neighbor scream. And her neighbor has found dead rodents and graffiti and all sorts of unpleasant things in her new garden cottage shed in the back yard. And um Annie starts to investigate that and um gets in the mix with um some new neighbors.

Tech Guy 26:34

I'm I'm I I can tell you're trying, you're on the fly, you're trying not to reveal anything.

Ellie Alexander 26:41

Because I realize as I'm saying this that there are some embedded spoilers that I'm dancing around here. So um, yeah, that's all I can say. But a fatal frost, it comes out in January. It's already done.

Tech Guy 26:54

Thank thank you for doing that. So I don't have to go back through and bleep out half the half the words there. That's awesome.

Ellie Alexander 27:01

I know, but all the darlings are gonna be like, she doesn't even know what that book is. You're right, right. I do. I've written this. Sure, sure.

Tech Guy 27:08

You've written the book, Ellie. Sure. Is it written?

Ellie Alexander 27:10

No.

Tech Guy 27:12

No. Um I'm gonna put on my private investigation skills and see if I can find out.

Ellie Alexander 27:17

Okay.

Tech Guy 27:19

All right. Uh, anything else that you want to share with the darlings about a murder at midnight before we wrap up here?

Ellie Alexander 27:27

No, I'm just so excited to share this one with you. And it's been such a delight to get to build this new series in this world and hear from you that you're enjoying it. And this is the first series that I've written that is based on real places, but is set in a completely fictional town. And it's been really fun to do that for the first time and just sort of completely build a world based on taking little snippets of things that I like and mashing them all into one place.

Fictional Town Versus Real Settings

Ellie Alexander 27:55

So I'm just so delighted to get to share this one with you. And I hope it gives you all the spooky Halloween vibes without keeping you up at night.

Tech Guy 28:04

Actually, that brings up a good point. So I'm gonna take, I'm gonna use my tech guy, um, play my tech guy card here and just actually have you talk about that for a minute. So all of your other series are set in real life places. And this, so what comes with that is sometimes, even though this is a fictional series, or you know, that all of them are fictional series, if they're set in real places, um, people will take issue with certain things, like because you even though they're set in real places, you might move something or you know, farther away than it really is, or you might make something smaller than it really is, or bigger than it really is, or a red building might be blue in the books, or whatever it is. You don't have that problem with this series because this isn't a real place, right? But you've taken real things from other places. So for the darlings out there, which do you like better? Which do you like writing? A real place or a or a fictional place?

Ellie Alexander 29:05

Oh, yeah, that's good. I mean, of course, all of my fictional series, even though they're inspired by real places, to your point, I have made them my own. But there are definitely readers who will sometimes take umbrage with the fact that yes, like, no, that doesn't really exist there, where I'm like, I know,

Preorder Details And Sign Off

Ellie Alexander 29:25

but I needed it to for the purpose of this book. Uh yeah, I'm curious too. I let I love both, but I think it's fun, especially because I do write more than one series, not at a time, but in a year. You know, I go back and forth. So I I write a Redwood Grove story and then I'm back in Ashland. Um, so it's nice to kind of have both for myself as a writer because I think it stretches my creative energy slightly differently.

Tech Guy 29:50

Yeah, interesting. Okay. Yeah. I just I thought that was really curious when you were talking about it. I I realized that yes, this is the first series where it's actually a fictional place. So that's awesome.

Ellie Alexander 30:02

It's all made up, it doesn't exist. Except Vite Lily does. So if you happen to be in the Bay Area for the month of October, go check it out. I'm not, we're not getting kickbacks or paid, but uh, it's worth a visit.

Tech Guy 30:13

Definitely worth a visit. All right, so that is a murder at midnight, the fourth book in the novel detective series. It releases on October 13th, and it is available for pre-order now.

Ellie Alexander 30:25

That's right. And October 13th is such a perfect day for uh sleeping with the spirits. That's the name of the ghost hunters uh TV show that is in the book to come out. Like chef's kiss for that.

Tech Guy 30:38

Nice. All right. Well, with that, I'm gonna say until next time.

Ellie Alexander 30:43

Till next time.