Hello and Welcome All!

Today we have Lana Lewis from Live and Let Grind here today to talk with us.

 
Please introduce yourself to our audience.

Hi! My name is Lana Lewis. I’m a former journalist, and the owner of Perkatory, the best coffee shop on Devil’s Beach. Well, that’s my opinion and obviously I’m biased, because I’m the co-owner. My father is the other owner — he and my mother started the cafe several years ago, and I feel like I’m continuing her legacy. I love coffee, small dogs, roller skating and reading. I was born here on Devils Beach and moved away for several years during college and my first job at a Miami newspaper. When I was laid off, I returned home to Devils Beach and decided to work at the family business. It was the best decision I could have made, and I’m thrilled to be here.

What’s it like going from being a journalist to a proprietor of a coffee shop?

I won’t lie, it was a bit difficult. I didn’t want to leave journalism. I was laid off from my job like so many journalists have been in recent years. But actually, it turned out to be the best thing for me. Shortly after I was laid off, my husband left me for a younger woman. Yeah, that makes me sound like a loser, but I’m not. Or maybe I am. I don’t really care. I came home to the island and my father, Peter Lewis, asked me if I wanted to manage the cafe. I started to really enjoy it. I hired an excellent woman named Erica, who’s become my best friend, and she’s the most talented barista I’ve ever met. It’s been a smoother transition than I anticipated, and now I feel as though I’ve found my place in the world.

What challenges are you facing in your relationship with Noah?

The biggest challenge is that I keep sticking my nose into places where it doesn’t belong. Surprise, surprise, I’m a former journalist. But when something happens close to me, like my next-door neighbor is murdered, or my best friend Erica becomes a suspect in a murder, I feel like I have to ask questions. It doesn’t help that my friends at the local newspaper keep asking me to poke around as well, doing freelance articles. It’s like I just can’t stop investigating. Erica says that I should write a book, maybe a true crime story about one of the murders that has happened here on Devils Beach, but I’m not sure that would go over well with Noah. Other than my nosiness, we don’t have any challenges. We have an amazing relationship and laugh and have fun together on the regular.

Tell use a bit about Stanley?

I wasn’t in the market to adopt a dog, but when my barista Fabrizio was murdered, someone had to take his puppy, and that someone was me. I couldn’t resist Stanley’s brown eyes or his soft fur or his little woofs. He is my heart dog. And he saved my life once, not long after Fabrizio died. I will forever be indebted to Stanley. He is my constant companion and I love him so, so much.

Last, how do you feel about your author and the events that she has happening to you in your book Live and Let Grind?

I think the author did a pretty good job considering there were so many suspects and red herrings that we had to wade through in this case. From what I understand, the author is a former journalist herself. So I felt like she accurately portrayed everything that I have gone through and the efforts I undertook to solve the crime. I also like how she didn’t make Noah seem like an incompetent cop because he’s not. But sometimes he just needs a little bit of my instinct to solve a case, and I really feel the author portrayed that quite well.

Lana thank you for visiting Angel’s Guilty Pleasures and speaking with me today.

 

 

Live and Let Grind

 
(A Coffee Lover’s Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Setting – Florida
Crooked Lane Books
(October 11, 2022)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages

 

 

 

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