Camilla Graham first appeared in A Dark and Stormy Murder and one of the best ways to learn about a person is by asking questions, so let’s get to know Camilla.

What is your name?
Camilla Graham.

How old are you?
I’m sixty-nine and looking down the barrel of seventy. I fear that my assistant and friend Lena London is planning something elaborate for my birthday.

What is your profession?
I am a writer.

Do you have a significant other?
I was married for almost forty years to a wonderful man named James Graham. When he died, I spent a few years exploring the idea of solitude; and then an old friend came back into my life and we became what they call “an item.” So I am now dating Adam Rayburn.

What is his name and profession?
Adam owns and manages a restaurant called Wheat Grass. He has loved good food since his days of working as a waiter, way back when he was twenty-something.

Any children?
I have no children. I have created some lovely fictional ones, though.

Do you have any siblings?
I have two sisters, Sybil and Phillippa. They live in England.

Do your parents live near you?
My father died many years ago. My dear mother is still living in a small cottage in an English village. She is self-sufficient at 94 years old.

Who is your best friend?
My Adam is my dearest male companion and a good friend. But if I had to choose a female best friend, it would be my assistant and devoted confidant, Lena London. She is also my collaborator–we have written two books together and are working on a third. We’ve known each other for only a year, but we have an undeniable bond. I don’t like to ponder the idea of a life without her in it.

Cats, dogs or other pets?
I have two German shepherds named Rochester and Heathcliff. I never need to worry about security while they are in the house, but they are mostly just big affectionate babies. Lena’s cat Lestrade has also joined our Graham House family.

What town do you live in?
I live in Blue Lake, Indiana.

Type of dwelling and do you own or rent?
I have long dwelt in a house at the top of a bluff that overlooks Blue Lake. It was my husband’s family home, and I inherited it upon his death. I have written all of my books in this house.

What is your favorite spot in your home?
I love my office. It has a fireplace and a charming desk, and I do most of my official work there. There is also a special chair for Lena–a purple overstuffed thing that she loves.

Favorite meal and dessert?
I love all sorts of things that Adam’s chef makes at the restaurant, or the things Adam whips up for me at home. Lena and I both have a sweet tooth, and once we shared a midnight snack of cupcakes.

Favorite hobby?
I enjoy walking around Blue Lake, especially with Adam and the dogs.

Favorite color?
I don’t really understand this question, or how people are able to choose just one color over others. I do love color, though, and I have all sorts of colorful highlights scattered throughout Graham House, from pillows to quilts to baskets of yarn.

Favorite author?
One of the reasons I write Gothic suspense novels is that I was so enthralled by the work of Charlotte Bronte and, later, Daphne Du Maurier. I suppose they are my two primary inspirations.

Favorite vacation spot?
Blue Lake itself is a tourist destination, so I often feel as though I’m in a travel brochure. But when I want to get away, I generally fly home to England to visit my family there.

Favorite sports team?
I don’t really follow sports. I enjoy watching Wimbledon in summer, though.

Movies or live theater?
Adam and I often walk to the second-run movie house on Friday nights; that has become a bit of a tradition. But Lena has also introduced me to the joy of Netflix and other channels, and so we have done some building up of our home theater. I don’t get to very many plays, but there is a community theater in Daleville (a nearby town), and Adam has taken me there twice since we started dating.

Are you a morning or a night person?
I get up quite early without an alarm. I enjoy morning, both the birdsong and the special quality of light. I like the quiet of it. I make most of my big decisions in the early morning.

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
I am a professional writer, but an amateur sleuth. Lena and I have solved a fair number of local mysteries together, although we never set out to be a crime-fighting duo. We mostly just want to write books together.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
I get up early, ponder the tasks for the day, take in the beauty that is Blue Lake from my Sun Room. Eventually I’ll be joined by Lena, who sleeps an hour or so later than I do, and we’ll work together in peaceful quietude while Adam works at the restaurant and Lena’s fiance, Sam, works out of his home. In the evening we often come together for a dinner at Graham House, or Sam and Lena host something at Sam’s lovely home, which he calls “Sam House.” We have some dear and very close friends in town, including a police detective named Doug Heller, and his girlfriend, a research librarian named Belinda Frailey. Not to mention Lena’s best friend Allison, an emergency room nurse at the hospital. Add to that Sam’s brother Cliff and a new veterinarian named Isabelle and we often find that our quiet old house is filled with friends and laughter. Lena brought all of that into my life, and I wouldn’t have things different for any amount of money.

A dark cloud is looming over our horizon, though. A horrible new industrial plant called Plastisource is being built in a field right outside town and blotting out the Blue Lake sunrise. I’ve asked Doug Heller to look into it, but I don’t imagine we can avoid it. That’s what Lena and I are facing in Death With A Dark Red Rose.

Death with a Dark Red Rose is the fifth book in the “Writer’s Apprentice” cozy mystery series, coming February 25, 2020.

Writer’s apprentice Lena London is enjoying life in Blue Lake and being newly engaged, but is soon drawn into the terrifying disappearance of one of her closest friends. . .

Lena is starting to feel like having it all may actually be possible! She and suspense novelist Camilla Graham are busily plotting their next novel and she’s got a brand-new diamond ring on her finger thanks to her fiancé, Sam West. The only blot on her Blue Lake life is a strange new corporation that has come to town called Plastisource. They seem to be intent on gobbling up prime real estate and changing the landscape of Lena’s lovely adopted home.

When she and Sam get a call from their good friend (and Blue Lake detective) Doug saying that his girlfriend–and Lena’s pal Belinda–isn’t answering her phone and missed a date with him, they all head out to her home. The trio is shocked to discover that Belinda’s purse and phone are at her house, along with a single red rose on her countertop–but Belinda herself is missing. Has she been abducted? Could the strange new corporation play a role in her disappearance? Lena is determined to find out and rescue her friend because she knows that the truth can be stranger and much more deadly than fiction. . .

Purchase Link
# # # # # # # # # # #

About the author
Julia Buckley is a Chicago mystery author. She writes the Writer’s Apprentice Mysteries, the Undercover Dish Mysteries, and the Hungarian Tea House Mysteries. Her novel A Dark and Stormy Murder was named “a noteworthy traditional mystery” by Writer’s Digest, and her novels The Big Chili and Cheddar Off Dead have both been translated into Japanese.

Julia is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Chicago Writer’s Association.

To learn more about Julia, visit her website at juliabuckley.com.

All comments are welcomed.