BOTTLED SECRETS OF ROSEWOOD by Mary Kendall

When I first heard the premise of BOTTLED SECRETS OF ROSEWOOD by my fellow Artemesia author, Mary Kendall, I had to buy it. This page-turning mystery was released on July 16, 2024.

Miranda falls in love with her dream house but soon discovers it’s an affair with complications. A lot of them. Rosewood is a centuries old, tumble-down, gambrel roofed charmer located in an isolated, coastal corner of Virginia referred to as “strange”. Known for long-standing and antiquated customs, an almost indecipherable brogue and possible witchcraft connections, Miranda shrugs all locational concerns aside to pursue her new love.

When an archeological dig is undertaken at the property, a series of incidents commences that goes beyond just “bumps in the night”. Awakened one night by the eerie glow from a ring of fire around her house, Miranda must decide. Should she leave Rosewood or stay—and potentially pay the ultimate price?

What most draws you to a gothic aesthetic?

My reading “roots” go back to an early diet of gothic mystery and suspense. I grew up in old houses dating from the 1700s so maybe that was part of what drew me to these kinds of stories and a gothicky aesthetic in general.
Favorite vintage gothic authors formed the foundation not only for my reading tastes but also for who I have become as a writer. Memories of my younger self come flooding back when I revisit those novels which can be hard to come by now. But, in my opinion, the older and more beat-up paperback, the better.

Love it! In BOTTLED SECRETS OF ROSEWOOD, Miranda has a lot of gumption. How did Miranda originally come to you, and what ways, if any, did she surprise you?

I set Miranda up in an exaggerated version of my first home buying experience. I bought my first house at the age of thirty as a single female. It was a twelve-foot wide rowhouse built in the late 1880s in Baltimore City that needed a lot of work. I was terrified and felt like I was diving off a cliff (I am not, by nature, a cliff diver). But Miranda is far braver with more moxie than myself. Thus, she can face down all the consequences that ensue after her impulsive purchase.

Miranda did surprise me at times with some of her choices. Even though a logics professor, she sometimes allowed her heart to rule over her mind. But isn’t that just the nature of being human?

It certainly is! What have you enjoyed most about working with a small publisher?

Working with Artemesia Publishing has been such a delightful experience from the very start. There are so many things to highlight but I’ll hit the top three: responsiveness to any little silly thing I need to ask about, a stellar editing experience that included not only a developmental round but an additional copy editing round (so, more than one set of eyes), and widespread promo and distribution via Edelweiss and other avenues. I feel so fortunate that Artemesia took me on and will forever shout their praises.

I definitely will too! What are some of your current projects?

My fourth novel, The Accidental Heiress, will be released in January 2025 by Bloodhound Books. It is a sequel to my debut, The Spinster’s Fortune, and both are historical mysteries. Readers seemed to enjoy the characters, setting and time period so I took off writing again and ended up with this sequel which revolves around a middle-aged love triangle murder.

Next, I hope to find a home for my current work in progress which is somewhat of a departure from my other novels in that it dances (a little) into a new genre for me: folk horror. But, like all of my fiction, it is rooted in history; in this case, a family mystery uncovered in an old newspaper article.

Order BOTTLED SECRETS OF ROSEWOOD

For more information about Mary Kendall and her books, go to
https://www.marykendallauthor.com/