Hey!! Tomorrow is December 1st!! Are y’all ready for Christmas? Do I have a early present for you!
First off, isn’t that cover adorable? Yes! It. Is! A few years ago Crooked Lane Publisher had asked my agent if I would consider writing a cozy baking series for them. It was what you’d call a author for hire. That means they sent me the entire plot (around 24 pages) and I would take their murder plot, along with the names of the characters, but put the Tonya Kappes spin on it. They own the series, names etc, but I’ll continue to receive royalties on it.
As with most publishers, they wanted me to take a pen name that I could choose, with one caveat. The last name had to be at the beginning of the alphabet because that’s how books are shelved in bookstore. I decided to pick Maymee in honor of my granny’s name- Mamie. I used the new version on how to spell it and used Bell as the last name because it’s a very southern last name.
I wrote two books for them and no more after that because the books didn’t sell well. Here is why…they priced them at $26 and under a name no one knows. I tried to tell them to set the ebook price lower and use Tonya Kappes but they didn’t.
Here’s the good news! This week Cake and Punishment is on sale for .99!!!!
This will NEVER happen again! So I’m telling y’all to get it. It’s so much fun!!!!
Here is the process of the cover. They actually hire someone to hand draw the covers with some inspiration input from me. That was a lot of fun!!!
I’m excited for y’all to get this book and just enjoy the delish recipes I came up with too.
And did you know that I actually took a baking and cake decorating class just for this series???
