10 Nov 2023 at 12:50 | Published by: PatPenguin | Views: 39644 | News search

Foul Play at the Seaview Hotel  (Photo by Glenda Young)

United Kingdom - This past year a new book hit the shelves (both physical and virtual) that featured the world of competitive minigolf (or crazy golf as it's often known by in the UK) as a backdrop to a wonderful murder mystery at the English seaside. Foul Play at the Seaview Hotel is part of the Scarborough cozy crimes series and is a fun little romp that has a little fun with the quirkiness of the international minigolf community. After reading the book, our editor Pat Sheridan had a chance to catch up with the author, Glenda Young, for a short email interview after it's debut.

Minigolfnews (MGN): At what point did you think crazy golf would interact with your writing or was it something you always had in the back of you head that you wanted to incorporate?

Glenda Young (GY): I'm an avid crazy golfer and one half of Two Crazy Golfers with my husband Barry. We love playing crazy golf everywhere we go on holiday around the world and it seemed inevitable that the game would make it into my writing at some point. Don't they always say "write what you know!" It's such a fun, entertaining game. However, events take a sinister turn in Foul Play at the Seaview Hotel where one team aims to win by fair meals or foul... then the captain of the rival team is murdered. I think it might be the world's first ever cosy crime crazy golf novel!

MGN: What is your background with the competitive aspect of the sport? Besides Richard Gottfried, who you acknowledged, were there others from that side that you drew on to help with your characters?

GY: The competitive side of the sport was new to me and Richard Gottfried helped a lot, as did the British Mini Golf Association. I also researched using Andy Miller's book 'Tilting at Windmills', which was fun and informative. It opened my eyes to another side of crazy golf. I'd always thought of it as a fun game but once I learned there were others who took the game very seriously, a team of ruthless, obsessive characters began to form in my mind that I knew I needed to write about.

MGN: Your minigolfers played well on some of the quirkiness that is out there amongst us competitive players but did you worry at all that you might have made them too over-the-top so that the more casual reader still won’t take competitive players seriously?

GY: The characters are a little over-the-top but in a good way, I hope! Cosy crime novels are all about the whodunnits with red herrings littered through the book. To keep the reader entertained and guessing who the murderer is, I knew I had to make the characters memorable. The cosy crime genre has humour running through it and I hope I've captured all of that in this book. I had a lot of fun writing it.

MGN: Minigolf has been used a decent amount in movies and televisions shows as place settings but you don’t see it much in written stories. Why do you think that is? Do you think it’s because perhaps its just more visually appealing to show courses versus trying to get people to imagine them?

GY: I think most people can imagine what a crazy golf course looks like, and in Foul Play at the Seaview Hotel, I fashion each hole on the course around a landmark in the Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough, where the book is set. It's easy to imagine the coloured balls, putters and I really try to whip up the atmosphere so you can smell the sea, hear the gulls and enjoy a trip to the seaside... even if there are deadly consequences!

MGN: What commonalities do you see between being a minigolfer and an author?

GY: Oh, good question! Lots of practice and patience needed in both!

MGN: Is there space for more minigolf based stories in your future?

GY: Watch this space! To tie in with the paperback launch of the book on December 9 in the UK, I've written a crazy golf short story for 'My Weekly' magazine. It's about a Christmas-themed crazy golf course and it's a lot of fun, heartwarming and seasonal too.

Thank you to Ms. Young for the interview and for the fun of including crazy golf in her story. The link to purchase is below and we encourage everyone to check it our for an easy read while traveling to the next minigolf tournament!

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