Dru and I have a few things in common… namely quilting, love of fabrics, and books. So when she invited me here to write about Harlow Jane Cassidy, the sleuth in my new Magical Dressmaking Mystery Series (book one, Pleating for Mercy just came out this week), I was thrilled!

Harlow really speaks to me. She’s the person I’d like to be if there was magic in the world. To be gifted with a charm, to sew and create and design, to live in a quaint old farmhouse off the town square… all of these are little dreams of mine. Which made writing Harlow so fun and easy!

So, what’s life like for Harlow (aside from the murders that keep interfering in her life)?

They are filled with sewing, and what is better than that?! She eats, drinks, and sleeps design. She could hold her own against any Project Runway contestant. She is creative, original, eclectic, and a down home country girl. She sketches her designs, plays with fabric, organizes her notions (particularly the mason jars filled with buttons and bows, something the Cassidy women have always collected), creates patterns, fits dresses, tries to communicate with the ghost of Meemaw, her great-grandmother, and she’s beginning to spend just a little time with Will Flores, a man she find pretty intriguing.

Of course, living in the cozy mystery world means she also spends quite a bit of time trying to solve crimes. In Pleating for Mercy, it’s all about weddings. A dead bridesmaid in Harlow’s front yard is not good for business at Buttons & Bows, her little custom dressmaking shop.

But never fear. Harlow has gumption and spirit. Every day is an adventure in Bliss, Texas, for Harlow Jane Cassidy.

Thank you for having me here today, Dru!
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You can read more about Harlow in Pleating For Mercy, the first book in the new “Magical Dressmaking” mystery series. Click here to read an excerpt

The life and times of Harlow Jane Cassidy is written by Melissa Bourbon who sometimes answers to her Latina-by-marriage name Misa Ramirez, gave up teaching middle and high school kids in Northern California to write full-time amidst horses and Longhorns in North Texas. She fantasizes about spending summers writing in quaint, cozy locales, has a love/hate relationship with yoga and chocolate, is devoted to her family, and can’t believe she’s lucky enough to be living the life of her dreams. She is the author of the Lola Cruz Mystery series with St. Martin’s Minotaur, A Magical Dressmaking Mystery series with NAL, and co-author (with Tonya Kappes) of The Tricked Out Toolbox.

Visit Melissa’s website at www.misaramirez.com

Books are available at retail and online booksellers.