Jax sits down for a question-and-answer session with dru’s book musings so that we, the readers, can get to know her better.

What is your full name?
My full name is Jacqueline Renee O’Connell. Jacqueline is so complicated—I prefer Jax.

How old are you?
I’m on the long, slow slide toward fifty. Still young enough to have fun or find a murderer now and then.

What is your profession?
I am a glass beadmaker. That means I wield a 2,000-degree torch to melt glass. Then I form that glass into beads. I also make jewelry with my handmade glass beads for fun and profit.

Do you have a significant other?
Yes. I have a cat named Gumdrop. Oh, you mean a human? Yes, I have one of those as well.

What is his name and profession?
His name is Zachary Grant. He is a stern homicide detective with the Seattle Police department. I’m working hard to help him be less serious and have made some progress in loosening him up. Zachary doesn’t like it when I stumble into a murder investigation, but sometimes I see patterns—in the same way I design a necklace—that help me find a culprit.

Do you have any siblings?
I do! My sister Connie is a real estate agent in Florida. Her knowledge of real estate comes in handy from time to time. I also have a brother named Andy, a computer programmer in San Francisco at a software startup called Pook. He’s helped me many times with online sleuthing since he knows all the sneaky backdoors into digital records.

Are your parents nearby?
My parents are in Florida, where I grew up.

Who is your best friend?
My best friend is Tessa Ricci, a feisty Italian mother of three. She is punctual, bossy, and petite. In other words, she’s the opposite of me in almost every way. Tessa often tries to dissuade me from doing something stupid, but I usually ignore her, to my detriment.

Do you have cats, dogs, or other pets?
I have a cat named Gumdrop. He came with me when I moved from Florida to Seattle. He is a grumpy grey fluffball who is addicted to catnip and goes crazy when I give him his special catnip-infused ice cube. I have a new kitten named Ginger, the latest member of our family—a tiny, fierce orange tabby. It’s also worth noting that I share responsibility for a poorly-trained basset hound named Stanley.

What town do you live in?
I live in Seattle, Washington, also known as the Emerald City—not because of how lush the landscape is, but because of all the green Starbucks signs everywhere you look. I love it here, not just for the coffee but because Seattle is a mecca for glass art.

What type of dwelling do you own or rent?
I inherited a bungalow from my Great-Aunt Rita. Years ago, she split the house down the middle to create a duplex. I’ve lived in this funky fixer-upper for nearly three years, and they have been some of the best in my life. I live on one side of the duplex, and Val lives on the other. She’s the former Miss Jr. Porkchop of Iowa and enormous in every way—big red hair, big bones (I say with the utmost tact), and big jewelry—the glitzier, the better.

What is your favorite spot in your home?
I have a glass studio that runs across the back of my house. It’s the absolute best place for me, any time of the day or night. I work there, but I also love to play by exploring new techniques and color combinations.

What is your favorite meal and dessert?
Val’s fried chicken is to-die-for. She’s is a great cook as long as she doesn’t tinker with the ingredients—she once exploded a cake in her oven by using too much baking soda! Val often brings food to me since I’m not much of a cook.

Do you have any hobbies?
My hobby is the same as my job. I love working with beads and jewelry. That’s the best feeling in the world—when you can’t tell the difference between work and play.

What music do you listen to?
I like to listen to the music of my teen years—1980s new wave—turned up to 11 on the speakers in my studio while I’m working.

What is your favorite color?
I love red—that’s the color of my beloved Ladybug. She’s a VW Beetle convertible and the most luscious shade of fire engine red. It’s also the color of fire, and I love fire because that’s what I use to melt glass.

What is your favorite vacation spot?
My dream vacation is a trip to Venice, Italy. Venice is famous for its glass art, but I’d also love to experience the food, wine, shopping, romantic canals, and beautiful architecture.

Are you a morning or night person?
Is there such a thing as a mid-day person? I am definitely not a morning person. On occasion, Tessa has found me still in bed when she arrives to take me somewhere. She once brought me a breakfast muffin and threatened to eat it if I didn’t get out of bed immediately. I pulled myself out of bed because I simply can resist a blueberry muffin from Muffin Madness.

What is your idea of an enjoyable time?
I like staying home and eating take-out food with Zachary. It seems so simple, but it’s hard to pull off with our busy schedules. We have a nice glass of red wine, and the cats come to snuggle up against us while we sit on my vintage velvet couch in the living room.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
Plays with Fire because, well, I play with fire for a living by using a torch to melt glass.

Amateur or professional sleuth, and whom do you work with?
I’m an amateur sleuth. I really don’t mean to get mixed up with murder, but it happens from time to time. I’ve been known to work with my boyfriend, a homicide detective, but that usually leads to stress in our relationship. The last thing we need is stress!

What is a typical day in your life like?
Most days, I get up around nine and wander out to the kitchen where my cats, Gumdrop and Ginger, are impatiently pacing back and forth, waiting to be fed. I start the coffee maker. I honestly don’t know what I’d do if I ever ran out of coffee. Often Val comes over and brings me a treat, which I appreciate since cooking is not one of my talents. Sometimes she’ll sit with me at my round oak table and tell me about her latest boyfriend. Then it’s time to go to my studio to pull out the glass beads I made the day before from the kiln. It’s always fun to see the beautiful, shiny glass colors of my beads, ready to be turned into jewelry. Then I fire up my torch and start making a new batch of beads or perhaps take some new pieces to a local gallery to be sold. Around dinner time, Zachary calls me, and we figure out whether we can get together. Sometimes it works out, and sometimes not—it all depends on what kind of murder investigation he is involved in. If I’m lucky, he’ll come over and bring pizza. Otherwise, I’ll stop by Val’s and see if she could feed me dinner. And if that fails, then I’ll make myself a grilled cheese sandwich and drink of glass of pinot noir in my PJs while Ginger chases Gummie around the living room.

Born to Bead Wild, A Glass Bead Mystery #5
Genre: Cozy, Humorous
Release: January 2023
Format: Digital
Purchase Link

Something is strange at Full Moon Farms—and it isn’t just Val’s Eggplant Surprise for dinner. Jax, Tessa, and the rest of the arts and crafts retreat attendees are shocked when they find charred bones in a glass kiln. Are the remains human or animal? The camp owners insist the bones in the coffin-sized kiln are from a deer, but Jax finds a clue that leads her to believe the owners are lying. After Tessa’s least favorite person turns up dead, there is no doubt that a killer lurks somewhere in the deep forest of the Olympic Peninsula. As clues lead Jax and Tessa down mysterious paths, they hope they live long enough to find the culprit and make it out alive.

About the author
Janice Peacock is a cozy mystery author specializing in craft and hobby mysteries. She loves to write about artists who find new ways to live their lives and perhaps catch a criminal or two along the way. While working in a glass studio with several colorful and quirky artists, she was inspired to write the Glass Bead Mystery Series. The Ruby Shaw Mysteries, set in a small hillside mining town, were inspired by her trips to Jerome, Arizona, and Jacksonville, Oregon.

When Janice isn’t writing about amateur detectives, she wields a 2,000-degree torch to melt glass and create one-of-a-kind beads and jewelry. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two cats, and an enormous white dog. Visit Janice online at janicepeacock.com. On social media at Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest: @JanPeac.

All comments are welcomed.