Friday Favourites…
Who Killed the Bride?
The Butterfly House series
by Lily Malone
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With the paperback release of The Vineyard in the Hills recently out, Lily tells us all about a new rural novella, just released, that’s a little bit different…
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Cally Minter is a woman on the verge of wonderful things. With her best friend Sienna, Cally is about to launch a new tourism venture—Murder Mystery At Butterfly House—in the country town of Cowaramup. All that remains is a final weekend trial with their friends and one very special guest, Brooke Sherman, who represents a prestigious tourism association. A five-star review from Brooke will set the business on its way.
But when Brooke turns out to be different from what Cally expects, the future of Butterfly House teeters on a knife edge. Then Cally’s not-quite boyfriend casts doubt on Brooke’s true motives. One of the famous fibreglass Cowaramup Cows goes missing, and Cally suspects a thief covets more of Butterfly House’s secret treasures.
While their guests solve the mystery of Who Killed The Bride, can Cally and Sienna find the missing cow, catch a light-fingered thief, and make sure their new business doesn’t crash before it can get off the ground?
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Welcome to Cowaramup! (Hard to spell, harder to say – so must of us go with ‘Cowtown’.)
If you’ve ever visited Cowaramup it’s that little dot on the far south west corner of Western Australia, snuggled in the middle of far more famous cousins such as Margaret River, Busselton and Dunsborough… and for years and years when I was growing up if you blinked driving through on the Bussell Highway, you missed it.
Not anymore.
Now you blink because you think some farmer just let his prize herd of dairy cows escape out the farm gate… Cowaramup has a herd of 42 fibre-glass cows that line its parks and main street.
Little known fact: Cowaramup was actually named after the purple-crowned lorikeet – the Cowara Bird… but most people think it got its name from dairy cows.
The cows have been wonderful for retail businesses that might otherwise have had to close their shop doors as our town got bypassed for the bigger, more touristy places. Now people have a reason to stop, take photos, and enjoy so much of the community spirit that makes Cowtown, such a cool town.
So I thought, how much fun would it be to write a book set in Cowaramup and include the Cowaramup cows? That’s how the idea for my new series called Butterfly House was born.
Lily Malone (centre) with Wendy and Kerry Sibly of the giftshop Mukau in Cowaramup. Kerry designed the Butterfly House book cover.
In the first of the Butterfly House books, Who Killed The Bride?, we meet Cally Minter and her best friend, Sienna Devereux, just as they are about to launch their new business: Murder Mystery at Butterfly House.
Do you remember those old fashioned how-to-host-a-murder mysteries that were a ‘thing’ about 20 years ago? I wrote one once (incidentally). It featured Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Sylvester Stallone, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Angelina Jolie and Jack Nicholson. (My hubby played Jack).
I wrote scripts for everyone and the game ran on the clock. People had to be some place at a certain time and say something to another character. Or some other character might see them leaving the garden, or the shed, or the house (with a dripping bloody dagger in their hand) kind of thing.
In the game I wrote years ago, ‘Tom Cruise’ was found dead in the front yard of our garden and it turned out Angelina and Russell were the dastardly pair who combined to knock him off. (Russell was jealous because he’d missed out on the lead in The Last Samurai, which Tom went on to get…). We played the game and ate, drank and made very merry… we had a blast.
Butterfly House kind of takes off where that fledgling idea began.
Adding to the Cowaramup theme of Who Killed The Bride? the cover was designed by local artist Kerry Sibly who runs the gift shop Mukau in Cowaramup main street. This man is a genius! I have had so many comments from people who love the quirky pink book cover and whenever I look at the cover I can’t help but be happy.
Butterfly House books are meant to be fun, quick reads that are perfect for holidays, or rainy days, or spending an evening in.
As I imagine it, Butterfly House is a grand old stone, double-storey house set on a hill, with a backdrop of grey-green Australian bush and a sweeping view over the lush property to vineyards on the hills beyond. I walk past a great-looking property that inspired this image of Butterfly House most days, and dream up antics for Cally and Sienna as I walk.
If you are interested in reading Who Killed The Bride? you won’t find it on Amazon or in the regular places. Copies are available by contacting me on [email protected], and if you are in the local area of South West Western Australia, you can call in to Barefoot Books in Fig Tree Lane, Busselton; or Mukau in Cowaramup, or the Margaret River Bookshop in Margaret River. They will do their best to track down a signed copy from me, for you.
Meanwhile, you can follow the cows on Twitter if you’re interested: @cowtowncows and they have their own Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/cowtowncows/
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Hi Lily. That you are/were a script writer makes me just have to check out your books. As I’m in the aspiring author category, I’m hungry to learn and know that approaching scenes from a filmic perspective is a great tool. I lived in MR back in the late 80s, my partner worked in the pottery in Cowaramup and we generally hung with other craftspeople in the area. It must have changed so much since then. (As I have)!
Cheers from a Western Victorian with itchy feet that yearn for sand. Jay
Hi Jay! Thanks heaps for touching base, how cool that you lived in Margs? Yes - it’s changed heaps. I was away from here for 12 years through the 2000s, and returned in 2013. Hardly recognised my old haunts.
Just to clarify - the ‘script’ I wrote was purely for fun way back then. I definitely wouldn’t describe myself as a script writer, although there are great tips for authors from screenwriting for sure.
Good luck with your writing. Keep in touch - I’ll try to find you on Facebook and friend you if you’re on there, and if you’re interested in Butterfly, drop me a line at [email protected]
xx Lily
It sounds fabulous. We hosted a couple of those murder mystery parties, they were so much fun! I’ll make sure to stop in at Cowaramup when we travel through 😊
I was a guest at a murder mystery and that’s what inspired me to write my own. Thanks for visiting Kerry 🙂