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In this episode, we sit down with Simone and Peter Stier, the dynamic husband-and-wife duo behind the Cafe Crimes cozy mystery book series. Discover how their real-life move from Los Angeles to the charming town of Fuquay-Varina inspired their bestselling novels set in the fictional Magnolia Grove. Learn about their writing process, transition from corporate jobs to full-time authorship, and how they successfully navigated the self-publishing world to become Amazon bestsellers. Whether you're an aspiring author or a fan of cozy mysteries, this episode is packed with insights, inspiration, and a bit of humor. Don't miss it!
00:00 Welcome to Fuquay-Varina: A Cozy Town with a Twist
01:22 Meet the Authors: Simone and Peter Stier
01:42 The Inspiration Behind Magnolia Grove
02:32 From Big City to Small Town: Parker Hayes' Journey
03:09 The Dream Coffee Shop
04:53 Writing and Editing as a Team
10:19 The Cozy Culinary Mystery Genre
12:49 Moving from LA to Fuquay: A Life Change
16:56 Fuquay's Influence on Magnolia Grove
17:33 Incorporating Real People and Places
18:52 Self-Publishing Journey
20:48 Challenges and Triumphs in Publishing
23:29 Marketing and Business of Writing
29:43 Lightning Round Questions
32:10 Future Projects and Inspirations
33:28 Conclusion and Where to Find Us
Creators and Guests
Guest
What is What’s Up, Wake?
What’s Up, Wake covers the people, places, restaurants, and events of Wake County, North Carolina. Through conversations with local personalities from business owners to town staff and influencers to volunteers, we’ll take a closer look at what makes Wake County an outstanding place to live. Presented by Cherokee Media Group, the publishers of local lifestyle magazines Cary Magazine, Wake Living, and Main & Broad, What’s Up, Wake covers news and happenings in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Wake Forest.
22 - Whats Up Wake - Simone & Peter Stier
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[00:00:00]
Melissa: Fuqua Arena is widely considered to be a safe, quaint town and Southern Wink County, a charming place to raise a family or retire in peace.
But according to Simone Steyer and her partner in crime, husband Peter Fuquay Marina is rife with murders and mystery. Well, maybe not fuquay exactly, but a town inspired by the Quay called Magnolia Grove. [00:01:00] Magnolia Grove is the setting for the Cafe Crime series of mystery books written by Simone and Peter, all six of which having made the Amazon bestsellers list.
This husband and wife writing duo is here today to chat about scandal intrigue and their favorite Fuquay coffee shop, which sets the scene in their cozy mystery books. Welcome Simone and Peter Steyer. Hi. Hello. Thank you guys for being here.
Simone Stier: Thank you for having us.
Melissa: It's not very often that I get to sit across from published authors, so it's quite a treat for me as, and I'm a writer myself, so it's, even though I'm not a published author, not on the Amazon bestsellers list, maybe one day.
So first I wanna explain the series a little bit. It follows your heroine, Parker Hayes, who is a true crime podcaster from a big city. Parker moves to a small town Magnolia Grove and opens a coffee shop, but just because she left the noise and crime that's synonymous [00:02:00] with a big city murder can happen in a small town too.
So tell me about the idea for the book, the first of which is called a Shot of Scandal.
Peter Stier: Well, first off, thank you for having us and we will also say that Parker Hayes is inspired by us because we are transplants from a big city named Los Angeles. And
Melissa: that's where the two of you met, right? Correct.
Peter Stier: And that really informed how we thought about this approach to a book. What if, a former true crime podcaster who wants to get away from that, that the noise and all the mayhem of the city comes to a small town to live a quiet life, but.
Can she really live a quiet life? So I thought that would be a fun thing because when we fir, when we moved to Fuqua, we just realized there's so many characters and. Real life is just the people are amazing as far as just the characters. [00:03:00] Just, we don't even really need to make up people because it's just people we've come to meet and love and just, we just plop them into the setting and it just writes itself.
Simone Stier: And I, my inspiration for Parker is I've always wanted to open up a coffee shop that has sells books or pastries. There's a spot on main Street in Qua Arena. It's where the old Elliot's Drugstore used to be, and it's been abandoned for a while. But and I always have this fantasy that I'm gonna somehow get this place, renovate it and make it a really cool spot for people to go to.
But I just don't have to have a couple million dollars laying around. Yeah. So, yeah. I just said, you know what, I'm just gonna write about it and I'm gonna have a character who moves from the big city. She opens up her coffee shop and her life is just small town life dream come true.
Melissa: Okay, so that might be something that I was misunderstanding.
I thought you were writing about an actual coffee shop in Fuqua. This is really you. It's a coffee shop. And your dreams? Yes. [00:04:00] Oh, but I do have a favorite
Simone Stier: coffee shop in Fuco. Okay. That I write at a lot. Okay. And yeah, so it's called, I don't wanna say what it's called because it's gotten so busy now.
Melissa: Oh yeah, I know. Oh my gosh. I'm afraid to out, yes. I'm
Simone Stier: afraid to share my secret. You can
Melissa: give it a shout out if you want. Yes. If you do a lot of cultivate
Simone Stier: coffee. They are wonderful. Yeah. And they just refill my tea and they just get, make a space for me and I love them so much. So, yeah.
Melissa: Good, good. So.
Like you said, you came from a big city and Parker the character also from a big city, so. Was I right about the rest? She's a true crime podcaster.
Peter Stier: Former.
Melissa: Former. Former. Yes. So now she's the coffee shop owner. Okay.
Simone Stier: Yes. Yes. She wanted to get away from all the crime and murder and the mayhem and the noise and pollution and everything of the big city.
So she left to open up her coffee, her dream coffee shop.
Melissa: Okay? Alright. Gotcha. So how did you guys. How did it come to be that your writing partners, Simone you [00:05:00] went to school for creative writing, is that right?
Simone Stier: I did. I went for communications and I got into advertising management and I stayed there for quite a bit.
And what I always did on the side was I wrote and I started publishing. In 2005, I had like a little humor book, and I also had a blog on MySpace, which is where the two of us met. So this is a long time ago. I'm dating myself, but we we would talk on MySpace and we had a mutual friend, didn't know that this was Peter because he had a, an alias.
Melissa: Critter.
Simone Stier: Yeah, it was critter. So I just, MySpace alias. Okay. So I didn't put the two together until later. And then we started dating and writing and I was always wanting to write. And Peter's an editor visual editor. Oh. So Okay. Oh, gotcha. Visual editor. Yes. But not books. And not books, but he's a writer too.
So we just, writing was our thread. And and our third rail. And so when I started publishing back in 2013, he would, he edits all my [00:06:00] books. How we do that is he reads them out loud and he's fantastic. He does the characters, he does the drama. So he's, when we're reading it, we're like, yikes, that doesn't sound right, or, and we'll edit right there together.
And so we did that for probably 17 books, maybe 18. And then this time with this series, we are completely working together and outlining together we do an extensive outlining process and then we we just start drafting. And because I've been working my day job, Peter's been doing a lot more of the writing and that's probably why it's so good.
Because he is an excellent writer. And then we get together and we edit. I'll do a round of edits, and then we'll do a round of edits together. And that's when the voices come out. And the characters come out and it's really been such a fun experience working together.
Melissa: Well, I like that he. Reads it out loud, because I am an audible listener.
I'm on the go so much [00:07:00] that if I want to read a book, I'm gonna have to listen to it. Yes. So I appreciate a good voice. Yes. A good voice. Reading books and getting into character. It really does make a big difference when you're listening
Simone Stier: to a book. Oh yeah. And he is great. We actually just signed a deal for audio, so we will have the Nice, we will congratulations books in an audio book series, so I cannot wait to hear it come to life.
Although you do a great job. Will you be the, will you be the voice or no?
Melissa: No.
Okay. I'm not an actor.
Simone Stier: No way.
Melissa: Well, I didn't know if, there were men characters. He could play the man characters. Yeah, I do. I like it personally. When there's an audible and. There's a different voice for the man character.
Because otherwise you hear the lady that's trying to talk like a man, she changes it like that. Yes. And it's, I'd rather hear an actual man voice, but that's also more money. Yes. Because you're having to pay more people to read your books. Yes. That's right. So you talked about how you write and edit and brainstorm as a team.
You used to write a under a pen name? Simone Pond, correct?
Simone Stier: [00:08:00] Yes.
Melissa: Is this the first series that you are writing with Steyer? As the name? Okay. Yes.
Simone Stier: Yes. And we're, it's our, it's a pen name for both of us.
Melissa: Does it ever get tricky? Do you guys like butt heads over ideas and such? I'll let Peter
Simone Stier: answer that question.
Peter Stier: What ends up happening? Walk very tread very carefully. Peter. Yes. I shall, thank you. I. When we, what happens is usually I'll go over the top. Into absurd land or just really just, I'll just throw everything out there. And then what she's really good at is bringing it back down into kind of, shaving it into the realm of sanity, more realistic. Yeah. And I think what helps me is I'm completely aware of that because I know that I can go just way too absurd. Or way too farcical or way too, like I'm a complicated, yeah, that's another word, and I can really try to over [00:09:00] complicate things. Yes. To make it really this Rube Goldberg setup that just starts getting really just.
Intricate and then we just find ourself in this just mess. And so she's really good at just parsing out. She's really good at untying the knots. Simplifying that I can tie
Simone Stier: Yes. The
Peter Stier: Gordian knot. Yes. She can take the sword to it and just
Simone Stier: thrust. Yes. I can untangle his mess and I'm
Peter Stier: what helps is I'm aware of that.
Simone Stier: Yes.
Peter Stier: And so I know. So I think that's what makes us a really good team. Is she knows how to clean up my messes.
Melissa: Yes. So, well, it sounds like you really have to take ego out of it.
Simone Stier: Oh, yes.
Peter Stier: That
Simone Stier: You can't have hurt feelings. No. And usually the first reaction when I do not usually, but sometimes there's a reaction where he doesn't agree with me.
Right. And I just back off and I say, all right. And then he'll come up to me later on in the process Yes. And say, you were right. And I'll say, I know. Yeah, I know I was and I'm getting, how do I'm, and I'm getting
Peter Stier: better at just immediately identifying just her saying, just say, yeah, you're right. You're right.
Yes. [00:10:00] 'cause that's the key. And then what really happens at the end is we have a book that's just it's excellent. I, in my it's readable. Yeah. It's
Simone Stier: relatable. It's not too complicated because this is cozy mystery. Yeah. So it's a, it is a genre that. They love solving puzzles, but we don't want to exhaust them.
Yeah. And make them not wanna read the next book.
Melissa: That's actually my next question is about the whole cozy mystery. The Cafe crimes novels you've made are Amazon Cozy Culinary Mysteries best seller list books? Yes. That's a tongue twister around mouth full. Say it very slowly. Yes. What is a cozy culinary mystery?
Simone Stier: So cozy mystery is, I'll start with that. 'cause that's the top of the umbrella is cozy mystery. And that is, these are mysteries that are clean. They're not gory, they're they're small towns. They're found friends, found family, and they're just really, they gave you that cozy. [00:11:00] Feeling and that cozy vibe.
And so not like a scary mystery. Exactly. No jump scares, no psychological twist. Just really I look at it. I often say it's like a. At the Christie Hallmark channel. So the Hallmark channel has like fun, simple mystery, hallmark Mystery has fun, simple mysteries. There's, they're they're not heavy duty.
So these are cozy, these are the type of books you wanna read when you just wanna fall into something nice and pleasant and a good cozy escape. So that's cozy Mystery. And then under Cozy Mystery, they have a bunch of genres. So they have the culinary, they have the crafts and hobbies. They have, what is it? The help me the psych witches and stuff. What is that? Oh, it was paranormal. Paranormal, thank you. I lost the word there. Paranormal. And which it sounds
Melissa: like Peter might be good with Yes. Since he likes to have the fantastical ideas.
Simone Stier: Yes. He would be great at that. So, so culinary. Usually food elements involved in desserts.
And so Parker owns a coffee shop, so she's all about her [00:12:00] coffee. She's a. Coffee aficionado, which is him. And and then also desserts. So we always talk about the desserts. We always have a coffee drink for the book and a dessert for the book, depending on the theme of the story.
Melissa: And it's tied in with the title as well.
Just like the first one is. A shot, what was it? Shot of? A Shot of Scandal. Yes. Uhhuh. I love that. I thought that was really cute. Yeah.
Simone Stier: Yes. So, cozy mystery readers love puns and they love just fun with words and alliteration and so that's what we went with, that we wanted to keep it coffee focused.
Peter Stier: And they like pets.
Simone Stier: Yes.
Peter Stier: There's ones with cats, dogs, and so we also have a dog in ours. It's a major, the. He's a Boston Terrier,
Simone Stier: although some of our readers don't believe us that he's a Boston Terrier. But I'm not gonna argue with them. Yeah.
Melissa: They're just envisioning him to be a little bit different, I'm sure.
Yes. You guys talked about how you moved from LA to Fuquas. How did that even come to be? That's a big move.
Simone Stier: I Was in Los Angeles for [00:13:00] years. We met in 2006 and and LA is a wonderful city. If you're young and have a lot of energy. I was getting older, maybe a lot of money and a lot of money, and I was getting older and I just kept telling Peter, we need to move.
We need to move. I don't wanna retire and grow old here. I started doing my Zillow search. I was on Zillow for years.
Peter Stier: She was,
Simone Stier: I would find a market. I said, we would have, we have to get in this market before it goes up. And he would say, I'm not ready. And so I one of my friends came to visit a friend in Carrie.
And so when she came back, she said, I know where we're gonna retire. And I said, okay, where? And she said, North Carolina. I said, that's it. I knew it.
Peter Stier: And so she was already 2019, she was already pretty much packing. The our condo in LA is saying, I'm we're moving. And I said, all right, can you maybe pump the brakes there a little bit because I've never even been.
To North Carolina. I'm west I'm basically Rocky Mountain West, oriented. And I thought I, I've [00:14:00] met a lot of great people from North Carolina 'cause in Los Angeles there's a lot of people from everywhere. Yeah. And I. I met, a few people in my, I was a video editor and stuff like that, so I met a lot of people within the industry from North Carolina and they were always awesome, cool people.
Simone Stier: We are,
Peter Stier: yeah. For sure. I like the vibe, but I still need to go there. 'cause my biggest thing was thinking, there's this thing called humidity.
Melissa: Yeah. Oh yeah. Which we don't get. It's hum today a lot in the west.
Peter Stier: So I go, we gotta at least go there. And she said, well, can we go in? She, you wanted to go, I wanna go in the
Melissa: fall.
Peter Stier: And I said, no, we gotta go when it's maximum humid. August. Yes. So we came out in, was it August? Yeah.
Simone Stier: September. End of August. September. So
Peter Stier: we came out just
Simone Stier: to do a reconnaissance mission. Right. To
Melissa: look around. Yeah. It, it's actually smart. You don't wanna move to Arizona, right. Without.
Testing out the summers in Arizona. Yes. And you don't wanna move to North Dakota without going in the winter. Yes. So it does
Simone Stier: make sense. Yes. And I grew up in humidity, so I knew I'd be okay. She was fine. I knew I'd be all right.
Peter Stier: But, [00:15:00] so I, we came out and I thought, okay, I can, I think I can handle this.
And so we drove, we tried to find some different places. We were in Apex, we were in Holly Springs first. We started in Charlotte. Oh yeah, that's right. We went
Simone Stier: around Charlotte area and then we came up here. And we went around the Raleigh area. We looked in C Apex. Raleigh and we kept, I was like, what is this town called Qua que?
I said it wrong. And we were like, what is this place? And when we went to look at it, we're like, oh, this is home. This is it. And everything. It just felt right. It felt right. And then everything, my requirement was I needed to have a coffee shop that I could write at. And there was two, there were a couple actually.
So. And now there's a lot more because Fuqua is booming. It is booming, yes.
Melissa: Yeah. I think you guys got in right before the big boom of Quay. We did. We got
Simone Stier: in right before COVID too. Yeah. So we were very blessed in that sense because it got crazy in la, so we were Oh, that is true.
Melissa: Yeah. But I really think that. COVID made some smaller towns, boom. And I think Fuquay is one of those. Yes. And we
Simone Stier: [00:16:00] sprinkled that throughout the series. Yep. Yeah. Parker is, even though she's a transplant, she's like, what is happening? Why are there so much development? There's so much housing developments going on.
Where are all the farms going? And Right. And that's a theme throughout the book series.
Peter Stier: Yeah. We feel almost like. We feel like, whoa. No, stop. Please. But we're also part of the transplant trust. Trust me,
Melissa: I'm a Raleigh native, and I'm going, Hey, can we shut the gate now? Yes please. I love all the new people coming, but we're full, right?
Yeah. Yes. So how does Fuqua inspire the setting of [00:17:00] Magnolia Grove? Because I know that there are certain. Key elements traditions and Fuqua that are also making a, an appearance throughout the series.
Simone Stier: Just, well, again, the old Elliot's drugstore was the main, that was the, that was the center point was it had to be that place. And from there we just built up around the town. So the hardware store, restaurants and inn. We just built this world that was based on inspired by Quar, but we set it in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Yeah. To make it a little different, but yeah, we'll drive by places and see names and we're like, oh, that is a great name.
We have like Falcon
Melissa: Park. That's real, is the series. That's a real
Simone Stier: park. Yes. Yeah. And it's a great name. You're right. There's a place in Lillington that we drove by many times called Buzzard Law. And so we have a character named Roger Buzzard who's a lawyer. So we just take the inspiration and then we add our touches to it.
Yeah. Just like
Melissa: Peter said, you meet real people and they it writes [00:18:00] themself. They have either a great name or a great personality. Yes. And you just put it on paper.
Peter Stier: Yeah. And we actually have introduced. Real people, as little characters that are some of us, some of our number one fans that are also friends of ours that we love, that are from here, and we've actually tucked them in, surprising them, and they love that.
Yes, I bet
Melissa: they do. Yeah. That's a, that's quite an honor to have.
Simone Stier: Yeah,
Melissa: it's fun. Have your name in a novel. Fun. Yeah.
And I read that you also include the town tree lighting, which is a big deal in Fuqua. And the Fuqua Purina police department, polar plunge makes an appearance as well.
Yes. Uhhuh. So all these little sprinkles Yes. That, that give you some inspiration. And I love that. And I would think that people that know Fuqua Marina. It's like little Easter eggs throughout. Exactly. Exactly. Find the little Easter eggs. Simone, I wanna talk about your journey of becoming a self-publisher.
I know that with [00:19:00] authors that's a really big hurdle and it can really deter people from following their dreams because they think, oh, I'm never, nobody's ever gonna, publish my books. But you took it. In your own hands? Yes. Can you talk to us about that?
Simone Stier: Absolutely. And I'll try to not go into the whole long story, but it is a long story.
I started in 1993. I sent my first, query letter to an agent. I was a young puppy and yeah. Were you in college or even before college? I was right out, right outta college. Okay. And I got my first rejection letter, so I was 23 when I got my first rejection letter. And that's a hard
Melissa: age to get a rejection.
Yes. It was,
Simone Stier: and I was like, okay, I'm not gonna write. So I didn't write That's close the door forever and ever. Yeah. Yeah. So I tried that for a little while and was miserable and and I just kept my day job. And finally what happened was, I started writing these other novels. They were my dystopian novels under Simone Pond and it was the new agenda series and that's the one Peter helped me bring to life.
So what happened was I was at a [00:20:00] conference for writers and I'd heard traditional people speak traditional publishing. Literary agents were there, but there were also people talking about self-publishing. And I. Was drawn to it. I was like, oh, self-publishing, I can control everything. I'm a control freak.
So I love that aspect of it. And so I started researching it and everything I do, I research it to the end of the internet. And so I just learned as much as I could about. Industry. And then I started instead of going through the pain of getting rejected again, I started publishing my own books.
And that was how it took off. And I met other authors and we have author groups and we help each other about how to market to people. And so I just continued to do that. Then at a certain point I got to a place where I'm like, oh, I'm getting burnt out. Because I was, my books were no longer hitting the market, they started sinking and I was like, Ooh, I wanna get a traditional, deal. And so it took, I can't even tell you [00:21:00] how many query letters I've sent out over the years. Over the years it's probably in the 800 range. That many. Wow. Yes. So, it is a very difficult gatekeeping industry. And so, but I did get an agent and I was so happy and I I started to write more young adult contemporary.
And so I was working with an agent for about three years, and it just, nothing was selling. It was during COVID, nothing was selling, and I thought I was just gonna quit writing altogether. I was like, that's it, I'm done. But I know not to never say never. So what happened is I said, I'm just going to go back to my own self-publishing.
And I'm gonna study it and see where things are, because it had been seven years. I'm like, things completely have changed. So everything has changed. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It changes every day. So I just constantly have my finger on the pulse with what the trends are. What marketing you need to do.
Newsletter subscribers, like I am constantly doing research on that and I'm in a couple of different author groups and we're just always educating each [00:22:00] other and helping each other, which is so, the cozy mystery author group is amazing and so are the readers, like the most generous, kind, encouraging people.
So that was it. I just started researching it and then started writing and we got a book by an author named Natasha SC SaaS. SASS and she wrote a book on how to write a cozy mystery. And that book is amazing. And it just changed our whole game. And so we just stick to that formula and while he's doing a lot of the writing and heavy lifting, I'm doing a lot of the marketing and figuring out how to get it out there.
Because you can write a bunch of books, but if nobody knows about them, they're gonna go Yeah. Into invisible. They're just gonna become invisible on Amazon.
Melissa: And we've all seen movies and shows where an author. Sends their work to a publishing company and they love it. And the author's so excited because, oh, I'm gonna have my work published, but then when they get it back, it's been edited so much.
That it, the tone has changed. Yes. Everything has changed. Their ideas become front and [00:23:00] center versus the original ideas and. Now you've taken, like you said, control where you get to keep it exactly how you want it. And it's not going to be skewed and into another person's vision.
Simone Stier: Yes. And we get to work with our cover designer Mariah Sinclair. She is amazing. You have the covers for
Melissa: this series are Oh my gosh, so cute. She is, they're bright, incredible, bright and cute. I'm not diminishing them at all. They're I to one. We want to be cute is a great word. It makes you want to take it off the book stand?
Yeah. She's
Simone Stier: a great. Cover designer. So we get to pick our designer, we get to pick our editors, we get to pick how we do run our business. And that's how we look at it. We look at it like a business. It's not it of course is creative and we're being creative, but it really is how do you run a publishing business?
Yes. Because I've been in the place where if you're not keeping up with the marketing, you will get lost in the algorithms and become invisible. And that is a hard thing to deal with.
Melissa: Well, I think it's especially hard for artists. For because a lot of people that I know [00:24:00] that are artsy writers painters, whatever, they don't like the business side.
And that, that is you can get stuck in a cycle of, I wanna, I just wanna do my art. But I don't wanna do the business side. Yeah. And you guys have really taken the bull on by its horn and you're steering it yourself.
Simone Stier: Yes. And I credit that to my years in advertising and project.
Oh, that's project management. A good point. So that I learned skills that are very necessary for organizing and production schedules and just, oh, there's so many steps into publishing. Just one book and then. Marketing, just one book. There's a so many steps. So, and I just happen to really be organized and I know how to do that.
So if there are authors who don't like to do that, hire somebody who can, because otherwise it's just, it gets lost.
Melissa: And I, if you don't wanna talk about this, we can edit it out. But you came into the podcast today with a smile on your face and said that you just
Simone Stier: quit your [00:25:00] day job. Yes, I quit. About a month ago, so today was my last day.
I turned in my computer and that was it. And I've done this before where I'm like I'm done with corporate America. I'm gonna write books. And so I've done that a few times and what happened was I always have to go back into freelancing and doing some contract work to make some more money so that I can do some more writing.
And it's been like that for 15 years. So. I am officially finished. So grateful. Congratulations.
Melissa: Yes, thank you. That is huge. I'm sure you feel such a relief,
Peter Stier: as do I,
Melissa: although the paycheck's not coming in, so I'm, I'm sure it's also a little scary as well. Yes. Yeah. Leap of faith. Yeah. Well, congratulations. Thank you. That's amazing. And it's very. Inspiring to aspiring authors that you took the initiative and took control over your own future. Yes. Took me
Simone Stier: until I was 43 to really do that to really just focus on it. But again, I was miserable and I was, and I wanted to enjoy life and so.
I [00:26:00] wouldn't have it any other way. I feel like I did get a late start, but I wouldn't have it any other way because I needed to go through what I went through to be where I am today.
Melissa: Good for you.
Peter Stier: And can I jump in about the author thing? Absolutely. Because I think this for aspiring authors and artists like you mentioned.
I think what it really took for me was to understand that it is a business. You have to somehow be able to make a if you wanna make a living, there's, you can write. It's a very artsy, deep novel and nobody will ever read it, and that's it. And you might have written the best novel ever written.
I. If nobody ever reads it, then it's basically just a vanity project. 'cause I wrote one novel in the nineties when I was one of those aspiring authors that was gonna write the Great American novel, and it was like, I didn't care, I didn't want to even talk about like business aspects. So for any aspiring artist in business, you have to, you, I, I understand the tendency to want to just be the creative.
You have to at least understand [00:27:00] that this is also a business where you're marketing your thing and you want if you wanna, if you wanna maximize who you want to read it, you do have to look at it in business terms. And luckily over the years I've gotten my, my, my ego has gotten shaved down to the point where, look, I.
I never thought I would write cozy mysteries.
Melissa: I just,
Peter Stier: that never was the thing on my radar. But when I finally after I stepped out of the video editing stuff, when my job had went away I thought, and after hell having helped her, I thought. I don't have an ego anymore.
I love the fact that I just wanna write fun stuff that people will love and we can tuck in little, little morality thing. Not like Parker Hayes, she's, she likes to lie because to get what she needs to do for information. But Wi Hawthorne is a guy that comes in and he starts saying, maybe you shouldn't lie too much, so much.
So. It's almost like we can have these little meaningful [00:28:00] interactions with people, but also it doesn't have to be something that is just my ego of I'm a great writer. No, we serve
Simone Stier: The reader.
Peter Stier: The reader.
Simone Stier: Always about the reader. And
Peter Stier: that's why, and the Cozy mystery readers are awesome.
Simone Stier: Yeah, they
Peter Stier: really are. They are just such nice, genuinely nice people, but we can't reinvent the cozy mystery.
And I think,
Simone Stier: and that's what I have to remind him of all the time. Exactly. When he goes off hands, I'm like, when he starts spiraling, this is fitting into the trope.
Peter Stier: Yes, please.
But that's the beauty of it, is the tropes are there for a reason. But you can get creative within the tropes.
Simone Stier: Yes.
Peter Stier: And the characters and just the dialogue. You can just really, but also we just. We also have to understand that the marketing aspect is there too. Like this is a business. And I have to remember that too.
Like, oh yeah, we need to really take care of the business aspect of it too, because this is after all a business.
Melissa: Yeah. And there's really, when you think about how many authors there are in the world, there's only a select few who C can really. [00:29:00] Ignore the business side. Yes. Because they have a machine.
They have the machine. Yeah. They have machine, they have the machine
behind
Simone Stier: them. Bestsellers are made. Yeah. They're definitely made.
Melissa: Yep. And there's really only a few of those people that can Yeah. Set it all aside, just focus on the art art. And ignore the rest.
Simone Stier: Yep.
Melissa: Well, I will say you guys have, i'm very intrigued. Now I'm gonna have to pick up a cozy, hold on. What is it called? Cozy. Cozy mystery. Co cozy, culinary mystery. Yes. To be specific. Yes. And I'm gonna grab yours first. Awesome. Yeah, just now it's too hot for a blanket, but I was gonna say curl up in front of a fireplace.
Now I'll just sit outside in the sun. Yeah. Full side. There you go. Full side. It is time for a special mystery themed. What's up, Roundup? Why I ask a series of lightning round questions before we say goodbye. And you guys are welcome to both answer these or just one of you. It's up to you. This one is from my 17-year-old son.
I'm a lifelong fan of Scooby [00:30:00] Doo. What is your favorite class? Like a mystery show or a movie?
Peter Stier: Mmm. Very good. Wow. Very good question. Well, Scooby Doos up there,
Simone Stier: It's hard to beat Scooby-Doo. Yeah, it's, yes.
Peter Stier: Wow.
Simone Stier: I like them all. I like historical, I like the show Psych is one of my favorite shows.
We watch Psych. Psych is very good. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Very funny. Monk is another good one. Monk is my mom's favorite. Yeah. So that's mine. Those are Miss Scarlet's, another good one. And yeah, there's so many Sherlock Holmes. It just go on and on.
Peter Stier: Yeah. There's one.
From Canada called the Murdoch Mysteries. That it's a basically turn of the century. Detective who uses newer scientific methods that are just occurring. Which is, it's pretty cool 'cause it, it ties in history Yes. With mystery.
Of the, turn of the last century. So,
Melissa: yeah.
That sounds great. Are you guys true crime junkies like Parker, and if so, what is your favorite? Who [00:31:00] done it? Mystery.
Simone Stier: Wow. True mystery. True mystery. I like Law and Order. That's been one of my favorite shows. And there's, those are taken from the headlines. The stories are taken from the headlines.
But I haven't really listened to True Crime Podcasts.
Melissa: Yeah, I think that gets into the scary category, which I don't like. So I don't listen to true Crime. Yeah. I
Simone Stier: do watch a lot of documentaries. Cold Case Murders and America's Unsolved. I do watch that kind of stuff, so I guess I do love that.
But I just, I don't, there isn't a True Crime podcast that I listen to. I didn't, I wanna listen to Serial just because it was so popular about 10 or 15 years ago. Yeah. But I didn't I haven't gotten there yet.
Peter Stier: Yeah. I used to love this show called Unsolved Mysteries, which wasn't necessarily true crime, but it was a show just about mystery.
I remember that show. Yeah.
I, and then, I guess I. As far as and we do watch a lot of true crime documentaries. Okay. Netflix style stuff. Yeah.
Melissa: That counts. So, yeah.
Peter Stier: As far as podcasts, no. And I guess that's why we have, we're able to [00:32:00] cheat a little bit by saying Parker Hayes is a former true crime podcaster.
Simone Stier: Yes.
Peter Stier: So, yeah.
Simone Stier: And her podcast episodes always come up and they sometimes help her solve her crimes.
Melissa: Right. When you wrap up the Cafe crime series, which setting do you envision next? Wow.
Simone Stier: That is where I've been sitting for quite a while now. And we have some ideas, we'll probably keep going for a while with this one, just because we have good read through.
And people love the series, so. I want to start another series in probably a more spinoff type of series, and that is where I am not a hundred percent sure what to do next, but probably one of the characters in the book and doing a spinoff of that.
Peter Stier: And something I gravitate a lot towards the traveling.
Kind of cozy mystery, whereas somehow the, for some reason the sleuth or sleuth are maybe on a road, on the road or something so they can go to different small towns. Perhaps that's just, and again, now we're still in this phase of, we haven't quite [00:33:00] honed in on where. That seems to be right now where I'm thinking in terms of my mind might be an interesting also thing from via a former or a character who's within the books that we have now. And we
Simone Stier: might do para cozy too, like the paranormal aspect of it, but we're not sure it's, yes. It
Melissa: sounds like Peter is itching to do that. Yes. Yeah. Like Scooby
Simone Stier: Doo, but really having ghosts that are, love it.
Melissa: Then you never know. You take the sheet off the person in the end and you figure out who done it. Yes. Where can our listeners find more about your series and about you guys? Website is
Simone Stier: always a good place.
Simone Steyer. It's, s-I-M-O-N-E-S-T-I-E r.com and then Amazon, if you just, all of our books are on Amazon. If you just look up a shot of Scandal, that's the first book in the series so they could find it right there.
Melissa: Perfect. Thank you guys so much for being here. Thank you. Good luck with everything in the future.
Thank you. You
Peter Stier: too.
[00:34:00]