Korina Moss is the author of the Cheese Shop cozy mystery series set in Sonoma Valley.
She loves creating quirky characters who live in idyllic small towns.
Moss grew up on a healthy dose of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie novels, which developed her passion for solving mysteries and eventually writing her own.
She lives in a small New England town with its own share of quirky characters.
Jill: What inspired you to select cheese as your theme and a cheese shop as your setting?
Korina: The cheese shop theme was my editor’s idea, and what a great one it was! Cheese is relatable – most everyone has a passionate opinion about it, and you don’t have to know anything about it to love it. However, there’s a lot to learn about it, some of which I sprinkle in throughout my books. It also brings people together – most gatherings include a cheese plate – and cozy mysteries are very much about community. And it’s a comfort food, and comfort equals cozy. For all these reasons, it makes for a great theme.
Korina: I continually research cheese, its history, and how it’s made. I’ve made mozzarella once, which is why my first book, Cheddar Off Dead, has a cheese-making class where they make mozzarella. Cato Corner Farm is near me, where they make farmstead cheese. The cheese-monger, Nina Newton, from Fairfield Greenwich Cheese, helps me with my cheese facts, and she has a wealth of cheese knowledge. The more you learn about cheese, the more you want to know.
Jill: The title of your debut mystery is clever, “Cheddar Off Dead”, and that of your latest, your fourth in this series, Case of the Bleus equally so. How do you come up with these great titles?
Korina: Coming up with cheese pun titles is difficult, especially because they have to be short and look similar on each cover. My editor is great at them, but now we get help from the whole St. Martin’s (my publisher) team. The title of my upcoming fifth book, Fondue or Die, is the product of their suggestions. It’s a group effort and we have a lot of fun with it.
Jill: You live on America’s East Coast, in Connecticut. Why set your books in Sonoma Valley, California?
Korina: When I was researching cheese, I discovered the California cheese trail, where people can follow a map that shows all the dairy farms, creameries, and cheese shops in California. Most people know northern California as wine country, but to my surprise, it has hundreds of family-owned dairy farms (although, unfortunately, they have been rapidly decreasing in number). I liked the idea of setting my series in a fictional small town in the Sonoma Valley and focusing on the cheese. After all, cheese and wine go perfect together.
Jill: How do you handle your research?
Korina: I began the series just as Covid caused us to go into lockdown in 2020, so my initial research was done online. However, since then, I have relied a lot on the great cheese shops in Connecticut and the cheese-monger, Nina, I mentioned earlier. The two sisters who owned Spread Cheese Co. (which has since closed its doors) were also terrific sources of information and inspiration.
Jill: What is your greatest challenge writing cheese mysteries?
Korina: My protagonist is a cheese-monger and she owns a cheese shop, but I also try to keep each book’s plot related to cheese. The more books I do, the more that becomes a challenge, but so far I haven’t run out of ideas.
Jill: How many different cheeses have you used in your mysteries thus far, and how many more do you plan to feature?
Korina: I talk about cheese throughout my books, whether it’s a quick description or a fun fact. My protagonist also makes cheese-centric dishes in the story, whose recipes are listed in the back of the book. So I couldn’t begin to count the different cheeses I’ve talked about in the books. Case of the Bleus is the only book where the actual cheese is central to the plot. I’ll always talk about cheese in the books. Although the mystery is at the forefront, readers love to read about the new cheeses they may want to try.
Jill: Is your fictional cheese shop modeled after a real one?
Korina: No. I took ideas from several cheese shops, and made them into one I thought would be cozy and pretty and French-inspired.
Korina: That’s like choosing a favourite child. They’re all so different and yet each spectacular, it’s impossible to compare. I love Challerhocker, Brabander Gouda, Manchego, goat cheese, Rogue River Blue, and Montbrú Curat de Bufala, which is a Buffalo milk cheese from Spain. But I always say my favourite cheese is likely the next new one I try.
Jill: How many cheeses for their texture and flavour did you sample to write your first cheese-monger mystery?
Korina: My books have a lot more cheeses in them than I’m able to try. As I mentioned, my first book was written during Covid lockdown, so getting cheese was difficult. I think I tried about four kinds, although I’ve been a cheese eater all my life.
Jill: Which countries did you travel to for info on international cheeses?
Korina: I’ve been to England, France, and Italy, but all prior to writing my series.
Jill: Your books include recipes with cheese ingredients. Are they your own creation, and which is your favourite?
Jill: Was it difficult for your agent to place your first mystery?
Korina: My first cozy mystery was a mom blogger mystery that did not get picked up by publishers. However, it got excellent feedback (they just didn’t think it was right for the target audience). This led to the opportunity to do a proposal for the Cheese Shop Mystery series for St. Martin’s Press.
Jill: What is you publishing history?
Korina: My first published story was in Chicken Soup for the Kids’ Soul. Then I won a state-wide Connecticut Christmas Short Story contest, which was published in the Hartford Courant. With the help of the director of the Hartford Ballet, I turned it into a short ballet, which was professionally performed at the Bushnell before the Nutcracker the following Christmas season. I also have a few freelance articles in magazines and I was hired to write weekly humorous essays about being a mom in a small town for a local newspaper for almost two years. When I turned 50, I decided I’d better stop dreaming of “someday” becoming a mystery novelist, and make it a priority. So within eight months, I finished a manuscript I’d been working on for eight years and the following year, I had three offers of representation and signed with my dream agent, Jill Marsal of Marsal Lyon Literary. As I mentioned before, that manuscript didn’t sell, but I wrote a proposal for the Cheddar Off Dead, and received my first 3-book contract to write the series. After writing the first three books, I received my second 3-book contract to continue the series. I’m currently working on book 6.
Jill: Your best marketing strategy or tip?
Korina: Authentically connect with readers. Let them get to know you beyond your book, so you’re not constantly in salesperson mode. Same with networking with other authors—look at it from the perspective of getting to know them and making friends, and the rest will come.
Jill: Is social media worth the time and effort?
Korina: In my experience, absolutely. But again, it has to come from a genuine place. If your IG only has the cover of your book, how long will that hold someone’s interest? Think about what interests you when you look at social media. I stay on brand (cheese and mysteries) but I also show some of who I am, as well. I post daily and I interact. It does take a lot of my time and energy, but where else can you get an audience of thousands?
Jill: Do you provide cheese bites at your book signings?
Korina: Not unless it’s one of my Murder Mystery and Cheese Pairing events. Those signings are coordinated with a cheese shop where their cheese-monger leads a group cheese tasting -- everyone gets a cheese plate with accompaniments and the cheeses are taken from the ones featured in my books. Then I talk about my book(s) and there’s a signing afterward. Those are pre-paid events.
Jill: Have you had any kitchen disasters while trying out a new cheese recipe?
Korina: No disasters, but some fails where I had to tweak the recipe.
Jill: You have stories published in anthologies. What inspired you to write short stories?
Korina: My first short story, Little Miss Cupcake, in the anthology Death By Cupcake, was written before I got an agent. I saw the call for stories with the cozy cupcake theme, so I wanted to challenge myself, since I find short stories difficult to write. I had a lot of fun writing about a kiddie beauty pageant during the town’s annual cupcake festival and mystery of who murdered the no-nonsense pageant director. My second short story, On the Boardwalk, in the anthology Crime Travel, was written for the same reason – to challenge myself. The theme was to blend a crime with time travel, which I found especially difficult, but satisfying once it came together. In my story, two unlikely friends travel to the summer of 1975 to the Jersey boardwalk to stop one friend’s twin brother from his deadly fate at thirteen.
Jill: Do you focus on a specific cheese for a specific way to kill someone, or as a protective weapon?Korina: Neither. I never poison the cheese. The cheese is the cozy element of my series. The murders happen through other means where the protagonist is involved, but never in the cheese shop. In Cheddar Off Dead, for example, my protagonist, Willa, finds the body of the victim in the alley next to her cheese shop with one of her engraved cheese knives in his neck.
Jill: How has your life changed since your success as a several-award-winning best-selling author?
Korina: My life pretty much revolves around writing and the mystery community now. Writing the books on deadline keeps me very busy. Marketing them includes interviews, book signings, panels, and events. I just
returned from a weekend in Bethesda, Maryland where they hold the annual Malice Domestic fan convention. It’s a fabulous weekend of mystery readers and authors, and an awards banquet. It’s where I won the Agatha Award (named after Agatha Christie) for Cheddar Off Dead and was nominated again this year for Case of the Bleus. The best part is hearing from and meeting readers, plus seeing my book in libraries and on the shelves of bookstores like Barnes & Noble.
Jill: Do you visit the UK to promote your books or attend conferences there?
Korina: I wish! I haven’t been to the UK in years.
Jill: Any new series planned?
Korina: I’ve always got ideas for other books, but right now I’m still concentrating on the Cheese Shop Mysteries in hopes that I’ll get another contract to write even more in the series.
Jill: Tips for budding authors?
Korina: Join a writing community in your genre. For mysteries, I recommend Sisters in Crime and your local chapter of SinC. Take advantage of everything they have to offer. Don’t be afraid to go to conferences just because you’re not yet published. You’re a writer—you belong! Learn the craft of writing. Natural ability is great, but there’s always more to learn, especially within your genre. Learn what you can from people who are where you want to be in your career. There are so many different paths to publication, so the most important thing is to keep writing and keep moving forward in your journey. When you look back, you’ll realize you needed all of the experience you’ve acquired.
Jill: What’s next?
Korina: Fondue or Die, book 5 in the Cheese Shop Mystery series, releases on October 22, 2024. It’s available for preorder everywhere books are sold. You can go to my website
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