Murder Mystery Author Makes Appearance

Retired Watsonville High School English teacher Vinnie Hansen has been a writer her entire adult life.

She'll celebrate that work at in Watsonville with . Hansen will be autographing her novels from her five-book murder mystery series just in time for the holidays.

The books feature Carol Sabala, a baker and private investigator and are set in Santa Cruz County venues readers will recognize.

“I think it’s a great place," Hansen said. "It’s rich in history. It has a very diverse community. It’s beautiful. It has a lot of different geography.”

Hansen, a Santa Cruz resident, has lived in the county for nearly three decades and knows the area well. She renames privately owned venues that appear in her books, such as restaurants, but public places are fair game. In One Tough Cookie, there's a murder at Watsonville's famed .

Although Hansen moved to the county just as its reputation as the murder capitol of the world was fading, she said her novels don't use local true stories.

“The murders are completely fictional," Hansen said. "I don’t know of any murder that resembles the ones in my books.”

Her characters also are totally invented, but “people just assume that they recognize the characters too," Hansen said.

Hansen is working on the sixth book in the series, due out next fall. Titled Art, Wine and Cheesy, the novel is set during the .

The author explained why she put Open Studios in the latest murder mystery plot:

"It’s a big event for our county and my husband participates so I know how jealous some of the painters can be, how miffed they can be if they’re rejected so I thought there could be some good motives for murder in there," Hansen said, adding that art makes a great sub-theme to the book.

Hansen self-publishes her novels through a Santa Cruz company. Her other writing includes numerous published short stories and articles.

She was first published as a San Francisco State student; this year, three of her short stories that were published won writing contests. In between, Hansen sometimes used her short stories as curriculum in English classes during her 27 years teaching at Watsonville High.

Hansen said some former students have told her years later that they recall a profanity-laced short story she redacted for class.

“I don’t know if they remembered the short story or the blacked out parts," she joked.

Hansen books are published as ebooks. They also can be found in paperback at Bookshop Santa Cruz, Captiola Book Café, Crossroads and online at smashwords.com. She plans to make them available for Kindle soon and used copies are for sale on amazon.com.

Visit www.vinniehansen.com for information.