Guestpost by author Duffy Brown

I really love the Consignment Shop cozy mysteries by Duffy Brown, so when she offered to do a guestpost for me, I jumped at the chance. I love everything Southern, and her books are so much fun to read. So, take the test Duffy has made for us, and tell me what you are. Sadly, I am neither …

Southern Belle or Northern Deb? Which are you?

Granola or Grits…Big hair or Flat…Pearls or Beads

I live in Cincinnati, right on the border of granola and grits. The Ohio River is not very wide I mean people swim across the thing...usually after a few beers but that’s another blog.

On the south side of the Ohio River sushi is and always will be bait and granola is squirrel food. On the north side if you order sweet tea they toss you a packet of sweet-and-low. I don’t have big hair but I use hairspray, I love sweet tea and pork is the food of the gods but it has to be free-range pork where they treat the piggies nice.

So, am I North or South? The reason this is important, is my Consignment Shop mysteries are set in the South, so what part of my life goes into to the story and what gets ditched? I made a checklist to find out want part of me was Belle and what part was Deb.

So my question is... Who are you? Are you a Deb or a Belle?

-Do you never wear white after Labor Day or before Easter or do you go by the weather?

-Do you own a strand of real pearls and wear them with pride or are you into beads?

-Do you drink sweet tea and love it when they have it on the menu or do you order Coke Zero?

-A part of you truly believes in damn Yankees or are the Yankees the baseball team in NYC?

-Civil War? What Civil War? That there was the unfortunate Northern Aggression!

-Do you have Lee as part of your name or your children’s name or is it Kaitlin?

-Are GWTW and Steel Magnolias and Fried Green Tomatoes, Something to Talk About your favorite movies and do you recognize all the places or are you a Sex and the City girl and watch The Wire?

-Do you have a tiara hidden in your panty drawer? Do you know how to twirl a baton, or do you have a hockey stick in the closet beside your down coat?

-Do you have a dad or a daddy?

-Do you have an umbrella that looks a bit like a parasol or a North Face rain jacket?

-Does the term red-eye go with gravy or taking a picture?

-Biscuits from the bakery or from you grandma’s cookbook?

-Prime real estate is NYC or the mall, country club and the beauty salon?

-White gloves or black leather?

-Southern Living or Martha Stewart?

-Shorts or sundresses?

-Pineapple doorknocker or lion’s head?

-Mind your business or mind your manners?

-Follow NFL or NASCAR?

-Drive a hard bargain or drive an SUV?

So, how do you measure up? Is a part of you a Southern Belle? Part of you Northern Deb? All of one or the other? Do you know someone who is?

I am definitely a closet Southern Belle! I do make fried chicken and bathtub gravy. That’s what my kids call my cream gravy because they could eat a bathtub full of it. I do make my own pies, have white gloves, crab at my kids if they don’t mind their manners, buy extra-hold hair spray, subscribe to Southern Living, have a fancy umbrella that I’ve been known to twirl from time to time and I do know how to twirl a baton for real. I even took lessons and still have the baton!
On the Southern Belle scale I’m about a 7. Well, maybe an 8. Guess that’s why I wanted to write a book and set it in Savannah. What is your Southern Belle Score? Your Deb score?

Ya’ll have a good day now, ya’ hear.

Hugs, Duffy Brown


Thanks Duffy! I really enjoyed reading this. You can find my reviews of Duffy’s books here:

Iced Chiffon: book 1



Killer in Crinolines: book 2



Pearls and Poison: book 3



And that is not all folks, Duffy is so kind as to give away two Pearls and Poison totes to two lucky commenters on this blog. Be sure to leave your email address if I don’t know you already. And Duffy will also send Pearls and Poison swag to anyone who wants it, if they email her at: DuffyBrown at DuffyBrown dot com
I have a tote bag for Killer in Crinolines, and I love it, and use it almost daily.



Duffy Brown loves anything with a mystery. While other girls dreamed of dating Brad Pitt, Duffy longed to take Sherlock Holmes to the prom. She has two cats, Spooky and Dr. Watson, and conjures up who-done-it stories of her very own for Berkley Prime Crime.

Iced Chiffon, out October, 2012, is the first book in the Consignment: Murder series. Duffy writes romance as Dianne Castell, is a USA Today bestselling author, won Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, HOLT-Medallion Award, has been on the cover of Romantic Times Magazine and the Waldenbooks Bestseller list.

Ya’ll can find Duffy here:
Website: DuffyBrown
Facebook: here
Twitter: Twitter

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian