Character Guest Post: Christmas Cupcakes and a Caper by D.E. Haggerty

Character Guest Post
Combining German literature and cupcakes ~ It’s totally a thing
Christmas Cupcakes & A Caper
D.E. Haggerty

People are often surprised when they hear I own a cupcake bakery as well as being an adjunct professor of world literature at the local college. Cupcakes and literature professor – not exactly a common combination of professions. What literature professor owns a bakery? Aren’t lit profs supposed to be stuffy old men sitting around in tweed jackets smoking from a pipe and reading obscure artistic works?
I didn’t set out to be a professor who owns a bakery. It just kind of happened. I started working at the bakery after my parents passed and I found myself in a financial mess at the tender age of seventeen. Financial mess is a total understatement by the way. The bakery owner, Gretchen, became a surrogate mother to me. I don’t know how I would have survived those first scary years of being an emancipated teenager without her.
The bakery had been in Gretchen’s family for at least three generations. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any children to inherit the business. I was shocked when I found out she’d left the place to me. She never mentioned it! Not only had she left me the place, but her will instructed me to sell it to pay for my living expenses while I finished my PhD.
No way was I selling the place to some stranger. It felt too much like home. Instead, I moved into the apartment above the bakery, revamped the café, and hired Anna to be the baker. Anna may have studied accountancy at college, but she is a baking phenomena. We turned the place into a cupcake bakery and renamed it Callie’s Cakes.
When I finished my PhD, I was lucky enough to be asked to teach Introduction to World Literature. Since it was only the one course, I kept the bakery and did my teaching gig on the side. Then, the powers that be asked me to teach Intro to German Lit as well. Teaching German Literature at college was my ultimate goal! I was super excited for the opportunity.
I’m now an adjunct professor teaching two courses per semester. Unfortunately, teaching two courses is not enough to pay the bills, so I continue running Callie’s Cakes. Although I did make Anna a partner, so my workload has reduced somewhat. Somewhat! Anna is often too busy experimenting with new cupcakes – like how much bourbon she can add to a cupcake before it turns to liquid – to take over the boring administration duties.
So, really, it’s not a matter of how a boring, stuffy literature professor became a bakery owner. It’s actually how a bakery owner became a literature professor. Hopefully, not a boring and stuffing one!

 

About Christmas Cupcakes and a Caper

Christmas Cupcakes and a Caper (Death by Cupcake)
Cozy Mystery Novella
4th in Series
Independently Published (November 1, 2019)
Number of Pages: 80
ASIN: B07XMF4L35

It’s all candy cane cupcakes and peppermint coffee until you find a dead elf on your doorstep.

Only the elf wasn’t a real elf, because elves don’t actually exist – not even at Christmas time. A college student dressed like an elf decided taking a nap in sub-zero winter temps was a good idea. It wasn’t. Anna, the pink-haired baker extraordinaire of Callie’s Cakes, is convinced the student’s death was not an accident. She drags Callie and Kristie along with her as she attempts to discover who killed the elf … um… student.

Will the gals of Callie’s Cakes find the killer before Christmas is ruined?

Cupcakes not included, although you’ll find recipes for all the delicious Christmas cupcakes Anna baked.

About D.E. Haggerty

I grew up reading everything I could get my grubby hands on, from my mom’s Harlequin romances to Nancy Drew, to Little Women. When I wasn’t flipping pages in a library book, I was penning horrendous poems, writing songs no one should ever sing, or drafting stories which have thankfully been destroyed. College and a stint in the U.S. Army came along, robbing me of free time to write and read, although on the odd occasion I did manage to sneak a book into my rucksack between rolled up socks, MRIs, t-shirts, and cold weather gear. After surviving the army experience, I went back to school and got my law degree. I jumped ship and joined the hubby in the Netherlands before the graduation ceremony could even begin. A few years into my legal career, I was exhausted, fed up, and just plain done. I quit my job and sat down to write a manuscript, which I promptly hid in the attic before returning to the law. But practicing law really wasn’t my thing, so I quit (again!) and went off to Germany to start a B&B. Turns out running a B&B wasn’t my thing either. I polished off that manuscript languishing in the attic before following the husband to Istanbul where I decided to give the whole writer-thing a go. But ten years was too many to stay away from my adopted home. I packed up again and moved to The Hague where, in between tennis matches and failing to save the world, I’m currently working on my next book. I hope I’ll always be working on my next book.

Author links
Website: http://dehaggerty.wordpress.com
Blog: https://dehaggerty.wordpress.com/category/mymusings/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dehaggerty
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dehaggerty
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dehaggerty/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7210211.D_E_Haggerty
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/D.E.-Haggerty/e/B00ECQBURU/
Newsletter signup: https://mailchi.mp/027b2768aa1c/newsletter-sign-up-for-a-writers-life-by-de-haggerty
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/denahaggerty/
Bookbub author page: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/d-e-haggerty
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-e-haggerty-4b49a29/

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