Charred: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery by G.P. Gottlieb Book Tour, Review and Guest Post {Ends 2/28/23

Review By LAWonder10:

Charred is an interesting Mystery/Romance drama. It begins with a sturdy foundation that consistently builds as further events occur.

The characters involved are all connected in some way to Alene Baron and the Whipped and Sipped eatery. The eatery is among the few functioning establishments during the COVID-19 shutdown. However, the staff had to be cut down and the dining area closed. This hurts the business drastically.

This book is about various traumatizing situations that occurred to several individuals involved.

The cast of characters are very endearing and diversified. They all seem so real. The background scenes are well-portrayed and easily pictured.

The Title is clever and well-chosen, as is the Cover Image. At the end of the story, there are nine recipes mentioned in the book that are Vegan and Gluten Free that I am anxious to try.

I offer a Five Stars rating for this book.
This book was gifted to me with no pressure for a positive review. This is my honest review.

How I Keep Track of My Characters:

When I write a story or novel, I always try to convey normal conversations with friends, realistic dialogues between my characters, and frustrating but not-too-scary interactions with law enforcement. I always worried about how to keep each character’s distinct voice and personality separate. I wondered how, from a tidbit of conversation, could I communicate each person’s temperament while furthering the plot. And how do I organize the many characters that traipse through my imaginary café across the Whipped and Sipped series?
While reading the first draft of my first book (Battered), I saw too many people with green eyes, too many smart-aleck responses, and too much eye-rolling. They couldn’t all be adolescents with green eyes. I wrote a chart with distinct attitudes (critical, accepting, kind, flashy, etc.). It also included color of eyes and hair, other physical characteristics, and individual quirks (like one character is fussy and always wears floral cardigans, another character shares aphorisms at the drop of a hat, and a third talks endlessly about herself).
I got the idea of creating a character chart not from a writer, but from Kate Levy, a brilliant actor who has performed mostly in the theater, but also in films and on television. We were visiting NYC, and because she’s a friend, she invited us backstage following one of her magnificent stage performances.
The mirror in her dressing room was lined with photos, and of course I asked who all those people were. “They’re all the characters in the play,” she answered.
Not only did Kate think up a backstory for the character she portrayed in that play (we’ve seen her in Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and NYC, so I can’t remember which show it was!), she cut out pictures and created a “character board.” She did that even though she was working with a cast whose pictures she might have used. She said cutting out random pictures of how the characters might have looked helped her when she was learning the role. I went out and bought a bunch of glossy magazines.
Because I’m working on a series of culinary mysteries, I only needed to build one character board for Battered (2019), and then add pictures on a separate sheet for Smothered (2021), and Charred: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery, which is launching this month (2023).
When I’m writing a scene and can’t immediately imagine the response of a character, I look at my character board and check the graph. It usually becomes clear that my protagonist’s widowed father, a retired financial advisor who loves cracking jokes, will probably say something pithy. Ruthie, my protagonist’s best friend and pastry chef, will probably say something thoughtful and caring that takes other people’s feelings into consideration. And Frank’s 23-year-old daughter, who is struggling with her health and directionless, will probably respond with the same toss of her head that she did as a child.
I’ve noticed that while working on this third book in the Whipped and Sipped series, I was already so familiar with my characters, I hardly needed to reference the board. I know those characters like I know my sister and brothers. I knew what they are going to say and how they’d react to a bunch of different circumstances. All I needed to do was sit down and tell the story.
And on a side note, hardly anyone has green eyes.
©G. P. Gottlieb
G.P. Gottlieb is the author of Charred: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery (D.X. Varos 2/21/23) third in her culinary mystery series. She is host for New Books in Literature, a podcast channel on the New Books Network, and has interviewed over 170 authors. You can read more about her at gpgottlieb.com.