Cathy Elliott Books In Order
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| A Vase of Mistaken Identity | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Chicken Soup Books
Publication Order of Annie's Attic Mysteries Books
Publication Order of Quilts of Love Books
Cathy Elliott is a full-time author from California where she creates her inspirational fiction and mysteries.
Before she became a bestselling author, she used to work a 9-5 as a Library Information technician. However, writing with serious intent is something that she has been doing with serious intent since 2000.
Prior to that, she was a writer in training but still considers the craft of writing to be a lifetime pursuit that needs to be continuously honed.
While working her job at the community college, she used to read all the popular books and educated herself along the way. As such, the library provided much of the education she needed to write.
She published “A Vase of Mistaken Identity” in 2006 and has not looked back since. In 2017, Cathy Elliott started contributing to “Every Day With Jesus” on “Guidepost’s Devotional.”
Just like with everything in her life, faith has always been a critical component in her writing and impacts the characters, plots, and settings of her novels.
As for her earliest beginnings, Cathy Elliott first realized that she wanted to be an author when she was in high school. During this time, she used to team up with her friends and write stories that they swapped with each other.
The longing to become a writer continued well into adulthood, which is when she joined a writer’s group.
For years, she had been reading all manner of books about writing and used to order “The Writer Magazine” that she pored over every month, in addition to attending author talks.
While Elliott is best known for her cozy mysteries, she has also penned numerous book reviews, written at least ten educational books for kids, and been a contributor to several publications and anthologies.
She got her first break when she attended “Night Owl” the writer conference and learned about writing children’s fiction from an instructor she admired.
During one evening session, she signed up to receive emails about upcoming presentations and a few weeks later, she got an email from a publisher that needed a story.
It turns out the instructor was an editor at the publishing house and together with several others on the list, they submitted their stories. She was lucky that hers was accepted and published in the “Stories for the Heart” anthology.
Outside of her writing, she has a daughter who is married and blessed her with two grandkids.
Similar to her protagonist in “A Stitch in Crime” and “A Vase of Mistaken Identity,” Cathy loves to quilt and collect a lot of cool fabric.
She also loves buying all manner of antiques and is still recovering from an addiction to eBay that still comes back with a vengeance from time to time.
Once upon a time, she used to play music with a country rock band as a guitarist, before she became a member of a gospel trio.
She now plays a 12-string at church and sometimes plays the violin with friends and even came in second in the local “Old Time Fiddler’s Contest” of the Ladies Division.
Elliot is very active in the writing community and is a member of The Writer’s Forum, Mystery Writers of America, Oregon Christian Writers, and American Christian Fiction Writers among several other groups.
Cathy Elliott’s novel “Medals in the Attic” is an intriguing work that tells the story of Annie.
She still misses her husband whom she recently lost but then learns that her grandmother left her an old but gorgeous Victorian home on the Maine coast after her death.
Upon arriving in Maine, she meets Alice, her best friend who has no children and is recently divorced.
They are soon reliving the old times as Annie works on her house alongside Waly, her workman, trying to bring it up to modern standards without losing its Victorian style.
However, Leanne her daughter wants her to go back to Texas since her grandkids miss her and Leanne worries about her living in Maine all alone.
However, Annie is having a good time as she has joined the “Hook and Needle Club” and made many friends. They usually meet up to crochet and knit articles and donate the proceeds of their work to the church that is in dire need of a new roof.
But things get interesting when Annie finds in her attic a box containing a Purple Heart and a Medal of Honor, yet her grandfather’s medals are all in the living room.
In “A Stitch in Crime,” we are introduced to Thea James.
She has just been appointed Larkindale quilt show’s co-chair. She had hoped everything would go smoothly but then things began unraveling on the night of the preview at Mary Alice’s Wentworth Garden, leaving her stressed.
Things only get worse when Renee Fowler the co-owner of “The Heritage Inn” who is newly married and is hosting most of the guests criticizes her fashion sense.
She also criticizes her dessert buffet contribution and says that she made a bad choice in Blueberry Tartlets for the crust.
Thea keeps her cool and holds her tongue, pretending everything is fine as she has better things to do including finding Dr. Cottle the well-known expert and guest judge.
Since she cannot find the judge, she starts looking for Mary Alice, only to find her frustrated, as she cannot find an important letter she seems to have misplaced.
Mary Alice decides to search the upstairs rooms but a few moments later, Thea hears a scream and arrives to find her friend on the floor and unconscious, with a strange woman standing over her.
“A Vase of Mistaken Identity” follows the life and times of the proprietor of the “James and Company Antiques Emporium” Thea James.
Thea never once believed that Larkindale her small former Gold rush town would ever be visited by murder.
However, she reads that a body had been discovered while workmen were renovating the Larkin Lake Resort and soon finds herself caught up in the mystery.
Her world becomes even more chaotic when a homeless person in town sells her a vintage purse. Inside the vase is a puzzling list with four names, two of whom are summer camp friends, then there is Rosie her sister, and herself.
Things get very interesting when one of the friends ends up comatose and another goes missing under mysterious circumstances.
Thea knows that she needs to act fast to protect her sister and herself from harm. But her attempt to keep herself and her sister safe takes her to places she never once imagined visiting.
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