Around the Fire New Release Spotlight with Joyce Sanderly.

Hi, everyone and Happy Monday. Since my last check in, Pete and I spent some time in Corinth NY. We assisted in readying Cedar Brook Christian Girls camp for the upcoming season. I made meals for the crew which varied from 20 to 40 mouths to feed. I love to cook but this ole gal isn't used to 12hr days. Phew. Then DH and I stayed in the area and celebrated our 30th anniversary by touring around. I did pick up some new cheeses to try.  Now back in the Garden State, we are waiting for the next trip with our Grands to Knobels, an action/water park in Pennsylvania to celebrate their birthdays. I hope you enjoy today's guest and information about her new cozy mystery. Welcome, Joyce.  

WILD IRISH YENTA
by
Joyce Sanderly 

May 1, 2024
Cozy Mystery
PG-13

About the story.

Set against a backdrop of a suburban Maryland synagogue, Wild Irish Yenta dishes on interfaith marriage, misbehaving clergy, Biblical myth, and the beauty of religious traditions. When the body of custodian Roberto Gomez is found in Temple Israel’s parking lot, Patricia Weiss, nee Reilly, exchanges her suburban-mom sneakers for gumshoes to investigate the hit-and-run. An ardent new convert to Judaism, Patricia is grappling with her outsider status at the upscale Reform congregation. For Roberto, the stakes had been much higher. He was struggling to be adopted by a new country and learn a new language. Inspired by her detective dad, Patricia is compelled to find out who-dun-it and why. 
This novel takes a wry look at marriage, insular suburban cliques, and the politics of religious institutions. While poking fun at cultural stereotypes, the novel interweaves biblical stories with questions of contemporary concern. Can a nice Catholic girl find happiness with a Jewish cardiologist even if she converts? Can Patricia’s yenta patrol detect a connection between a custodian’s death and other troubling happenings at the Temple?

Get your copy today.
Available at Amazon  https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Irish-Yenta-Joyce-Sanderly-ebook/dp/B0CVXW6H8K           
Barnes & Noble   https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wild-irish-yenta-joyce-anderly/1144882468
Bookshop:  https://bookshop.org/book/9781509250936
  
Joyce's Inspiration for the Story.
My novel began with a focus on the conflicts surrounding an interfaith marriage. My own experience with the difficulty of finding clergy to officiate at my interfaith marriage was the impetus. I am a big fan of mysteries, especially novels by authors like Laura Lippman and  Megan Abbott who explore the multi-faceted relationships among family members and delve into the psychological impetus behind their characters’ crimes. My hope was to follow (at least a little bit) in the footsteps of these authors in crafting a story that explored the interlocking dynamics that exist within an interfaith marriage, a family, a friendship, and the politics of religious institutions. As the plot of Wild Irish Yenta began to form, I researched customs, doctrine and biblical interpretations of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, as well as relevant   securities laws and criminal procedures. 
The reader might ask:  What exactly is a yenta? As with most Yiddish words, there is no precise English equivalent. One of the book’s characters (Brenda) defines yenta as a wise and knowledgeable female who distributes essential information to parties who have a need to know, kind of like an analog version of social media. A less complimentary definition of the term yenta might be “busybody.” In any event Brenda and the book’s protagonist Patricia make a great detecting team with good intentions at heart as they try to unravel the novel’s mysteries.

About the author.
Joyce Sanderly is a Pushcart nominated poet and an attorney. She retired as a Senior Counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Her poetry (written under Ellen Sazzman) has been published in numerous journals, and her poetry collection, The Shomer, was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Blue Lynx Prize, a semifinalist for the 2020 Elixir Press Antivenom Award, and a semifinalist for the 2019 Codhill Press Poetry Award. She has lived in Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland for the last forty years where she raised her family and practiced law for the federal government. 
To learn more about Joyce Sanderly and her writing go to:
www.joycesanderly.com
https://www.facebook.com/JoyceSanderly.author/