CTP BooksAuthorsWeekApril2026D (S3EAprSpecial6) SCANDALnavian writing?

CTP BooksAuthorsWeekApril2026D (S3EAprSpecial6) SCANDALnavian writing?
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond   
We sit down with A.L. Jensen to get into cozy mysteries, Nordic culture, and why tiny writing choices like commas can change everything. We also hear how Midsummer Marriage and Murder builds a charming town, a midlife sleuth, and a lakeside crime into a series readers can jump into anywhere. 
• Books Slash Authors Week setup and a quick behind-the-scenes intro 
• Why punctuation choices like the Oxford comma matter 
• Using run-on sentences and fragments on purpose in fiction 
• The Hygge House Cozy Mystery Series premise and tone 
• Midsummer Marriage And Murder plot setup with a wedding and a body by the lake 
• Mina Halanen as a detail-driven amateur sleuth in midlife 
• Nordic and Scandinavian influence plus a glossary of terms for readers 
• How earlier historical fiction connects to a move toward lighter cozy mysteries 
• Book coaching, writing groups, and getting your story told 
• Where to find A.L. Jensen online at aljensen.com 
CTP BooksAuthorsWeekApril2026D (S3EAprSpecial6) Scandalnavian writing?

A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

Transcript

Books Authors Week Kickoff

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Hello, welcome to another episode of First Two Shaw's Podcast. I am your host, Joseph M. Winer. That's L-E-N-A-R-D at the French at Snodit's Wonderful. Thank you for tuning in. As Fremd used to say on his show, let's get on with the show. For those looking on the five behind the scenes video channels, sneak peek videos, you will see. Oh, first let me say, this is a cheat intro again. Kinda like I do on Saturdays if I'm presenting a video exclusive from prior the same cheat. You'll see the same or here on the 40-ish audio-only platforms. This same mini intro, but I am wearing the Book of Kennedy Project Carpe Beam's bookshirt because welcome to Books Slash Authors Week. Just one week for April of 2026. Prior I had Bookslash Authors Weeks this time to get caught up on some back interviews of authors. I'm doing a singular book slash books slash authors week for April 2026, Monday through Friday. Also, I want to say at the end of each episode, I will check on one of my newer, more recent pseudo-created songs. If you remember, uh my dad kids on a junior in poker kings, Chinaur L.com. The Poker Kings to see that tribute page there. He had a record deal. I used to write and record music the old way. You know, get out a piece of sheet music and write out the actual song on the sheet music, the chords, the notes, the lyrics, the butt of all my equipment's been lost. Thanks to Suno AI music system, I'm back to writing lyrics and releasing music again. Thank you, Suno. So each day, Monday through Friday of books slash authors week 2026 April, I will check on a Suno Aid Creed new song from Joseph and Leonard, J Leonard Detroit on Suno. So thank you to them, and I'll read a thing. So without further ado, let's get to an author. Joining me today is A.L. Jensen. And no, this is not a baseball show. This is not American League Jensen. We'll get to eventually what the AL is for, but she is the author of Midsummer Marriage and Murder. And I want to read this part from the release I got from Mickey Mickelson, a mutual friend. Escape to the charming small town of Lakewood, not Texas, in this delightful Scandinavian-inspired cozy mystery. Scandinavian, but is it and you could borrow this if you haven't thought of it yourself yet? Is it Scandalnavian?

SPEAKER_01 4:13

But I'm dead one. I'm totally using that.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

Please, by all means, yes, I graciously give that over. Just remember where you got it. Yeah. Before we get into what is the AL?

SPEAKER_01 4:34

My actual first name is Anna Lisa. And I go by Lisa, and my historical fiction is written as Lisa Kovala, which is my name. But my husband's last name is Jensen, my kid's last name is Jensen, so I'm using all the names.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Yes, I could see on the release the cover of the book, A. L. Jensen. And I'm gonna I want to go into this release in a minute, but first let's do the where were you born and raised? Where are you now? Significant places you may have been in between. Speaking of scandal, maybe how much time did you spend in prison for what?

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Oh yeah, winter stories to tell, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:24

For the benefit of the transcript, that's a joke. She gets it, she's laughing.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

No, I was born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario, which is uh a mining town north of Toronto.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

I know it.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

You do.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah, I've been through there.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Yeah. No kidding. It used to be considered when I was when I was little, uh like a moonscape. There were very few trees. And now it's gorgeous, it's beautiful, it's green.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Um, but so we joking because of the Canadian beer being much more alcoholic. Yes, we we jokingly call it Sudsbury, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:05

That's right. Yeah, we say suds. And there's that song um Sudbury Saturday night. The girls are playing bingo while the boys are getting stinko. So we have all kinds of fun. And I I'm I'm living here now in Sudbury uh for the last 25 years, but there was about a decade where I was uh living in Ottawa and going to school, and I lived in New Zealand for a year and a half in my first teaching job. And my husband and I like to travel, so we traveled a lot, and especially when our kids were little, we traveled a lot with them. So I've been all over the place, but you know, after I had my daughter, we came home because there were um, you know, the grandparents, and you know how it is, you need to be in your family. So now my kids are grown and doing their things. Um, and we're living in sort of a small area called Notton outside of Sudbury, and it's delightful. So it's it, you know, they say you can't come home again, but you can, it just looks different.

Oxford Comma And Writing Style

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Okay, now I want to get into the release, and here's why from Mickey. Is it Mickey hates Oxford commas or what? Because it at the top, midsummer, comma, marriage and murder. But your book cover, in my opinion, has it correct. I'm a big fan of the Oxford comma. Midsummer, comma, marriage, comma, and murder. They are three separate things, all separated, but not midsummer, stop, right, marriage and murder, stop. They are three separate things.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

They are, and I'm gonna tell Mickey that uh listen, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

You call it my title, yes. But yeah, hey, you gotta keep a sense of humor, but it does lead to that serious uh grammatical question. Do you believe in the Oxford comma or not? And I would buy on. Yeah, me too. Me too. Absolutely. There because when I want to say this plus that and the other thing, there's no comma after that because it's that and the other thing, those go together. But if it's this, that, the other thing, there's gotta be a comma separates all of them.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Yes, great. I know. And the M-dash. I'm sorry, AI. I don't care if you like to use it. I've been using it way longer than the AI has, so I'm not gonna give it up. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Yeah, so we both agree, and I I get I I don't really delve into it in how to write a book and get it published. I probably should have, because indeed, I mean, that's an that's been an argument forever. It's how long, yeah. I mean, especially since Shakespearean times, it's been an ongoing argument, and all these decades, century plus, centuries later, we still still have a divide.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Absolutely. We're still arguing about the comma. And at the end of the day, as long as it makes sense and it's the communication is clear. But the problem is if you don't have it, sometimes that really changes the sentence, and it means something completely different.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

It does, absolutely. Where you put the commas and the periods and the semicolons parentheses, it all changes the flow, and more importantly, it could change the entire context of a statement.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

I agree. I love how passionate you are about punctuation, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Oh, not not that oh. When it comes to English, math was my favorite subject. I like to joke.

SPEAKER_04 10:11

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

But yet, here I am an author. Uh, but that's why we have editors to help with that too. As long as someone understands what you're trying to say at the end of the day, is ultimately the thing. But and the other thing, since since I'm on my soapbox ranting about grammar, and I'll try to remember to stick a meme I have in there of to the grammar Nazis, it says T H E Y I R Apostrophe R E Narr. And it says under that, take that, right? So I love that meme. I'll try to remember to put it in post, but while I'm on my grammar, so uh-oh, I'm I'm losing my train of thought. Uh-oh. But yeah, along those lines it was. As long as they understand what you're trying to say at the end of the day, is what oh, run-on sentence. Thank you. There's no such thing in the AP, Chicago, or Oxford style guide books that define more than 12 words or is a run-on sentence. It's like beauty. I've got to show beauty is in the eye of the holder, a run-on sentence is in the eye of the beholder. In some places, you may want a long sentence because it's kind of part of the character development. So, right, what are your thoughts on run-on sentence?

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Well, I think that's the beauty of fiction because we get to play with language. And so you can have run-on sentences that reflect what the character's thought process and how they talk. Or you can have sentences that are incomplete because they're also like, you know, we do speak in incomplete sentences. So for dialogue, I think, you know, it's it works for fiction. There are some forms I wouldn't use it. Like, I would just not use it in an in a I don't know, a non-fiction book where I'm writing, I don't know, something uh really important and uh researched. No, but in fiction, you can use it.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Technical manual. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Right, that might be confusing. But for fiction, we get to have fun with language. And we know the rules, but we can play with them. And uh it becomes more authentic. So it's fun to do that.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

The grammar police, uh, I would imagine the if you remember Flowers for Algernon, yeah, that book, I would imagine that drives them crazy. And I would imagine the person who wrote that giving it to an editor, it drove that editor crazy. Right. Well, where am I supposed to be correcting the grammar? And where am I not supposed to be? Because that's part of the story.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

A hundred percent. And that changes over the years, like the styles change and and what readers want and um what we feel is accessible, like it's gonna change like 50, 60 years ago, that looked different, and now we're like, ah, we don't like that so much. You know, so we have to kind of like language is always changing, and how we express ourselves is always changing. So I think we have to kind of pay attention to that too. Yeah, but at the end of the day, knowing the rules, knowing how language is structured, then when you play with it, it makes sense when you're doing it purposefully, you're not just making mistakes, which is a whole other thing. That's when you need your editor to pop in there.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

I'm gonna tell my Shakespeare joke because it'll set up something else. But this is a good place to interject. A Joe original jokester Joe joke. To be or not to be is truly the question. Because if it's to be, I got bingo. But I'm bugged. But I I tell the joke to set up the point. I've been in this argument with others, and therefore I recorded a Christitutional's video exclusive on it, tinyurl.com slash ctp on bit shoot. I am not Shakespeare. These are not Shakespearean times. I write like uh I it was an argument over my the book of Kennedy, Project Carpentio. I'm not writing, I'm not trying to be Shakespeare. If you want to read Shakespeare, read Shakespeare. Those were different times. I write for the people in the here and now.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

That's right. Yeah. And and you're always gonna find your readers, like every style, every genre, every whatever the content is, there are people out there who want that. So, you know, you're not writing for one specific audio, like uh like all audiences, you're writing for a more specific audience and who will appreciate what you're doing. So I think that's amazing.

Inside A Scandinavian Cozy Mystery

SPEAKER_02 15:17

In fact, I may quote Shakespeare in the book of Kennedy, Project Carpentine, Henry the Eighth, but I'm not writing like Henry the Eighth book. Oh, okay. So now a whole lot of ranting and raving about stuff I would have never actually intended to ask you. So conversations go. Let's actually talk about midsummer comma, marriage, comma, and murder. What was the genesis of that book? And we hinted to it the delightful Scandal Navian-inspired cozy mystery.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Uh, so I'm actually, this is the second book in the Hookah House Closed Mystery Series. I'm Finnish Canadian, so I'm of Nordic descent and I love all the Nordics. Right. Thank you. Yes, thank you very much. You know how it is. And uh so I love all that stuff. I love the the style, I love the traditions, I love all of it. Um, so I wrote book one, Hookah and Homicide, which uh takes place in this, you know, Lakewood, this small, quaint town that is fictional, uh very cozy, and uh a midlife woman comes back to her hometown to start this business with her friend called Hookah House, and it's like an event center. And so in book two, Midsummer Marriage and Murder, uh, they have their first wedding on site. And of course, they're very excited about it because they've already had one murder at Hookah House. They don't need any more problems. So they're waiting, like this this wedding is gonna be great, and it is, it's amazing. However, shortly after, they do find a body in an escoka chair by the lake. And now they're steeped into a new murder mystery case. And um, and that is again having to be an amateur sleuth and figure out um what happened.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

I envision this as could be the next knives out movie.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Would that be fun? Oh, I would love that. Amazing. All the director.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Who's the primary character? Want to be careful to not give spoilers, but at the same time, enough of a tease to interest people in the book.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Yeah, so the primary character is Minda Halanen. She is a Finnish, Norwegian, Canadian who uh has been a designer, like a Scandinavian designer in Toronto for uh decades. And she's divorced and her child has grown up and she comes back to her hometown. And she, you know, she's got a really good design eye. So attention to details, which is great for an amateur sleuth. And her best friend Christy is like organized and plans events and is all into that kind of thing. So the two of them kind of have always gotten into some scrapes together, even as kids. And now they're back together in their midlife. Not that much has changed. One is getting in, getting into scrapes, the other one's supporting the other one. So Mina is really sort of steeped in her um Nordic and Scandinavian cultures, and I love to just infuse the story with those little things. But at the end of the day, she's she's figuring things out again. She's, you know, at a new stage in her life. She needs to like get the confidence and trust herself to start a start a new um venture here with her business partner. So it's been really fun to write her because I can see her in a lot of the midlife women I know.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

This is a second installment. So it is there a third book in the works.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

There is. The third one is gonna be at an August. It's called Murder by Nordic Design. So I love that. And I don't know if you know about Finns, but they love their saunas on the property. They're gonna build a sauna. There's going to be obviously something bad will happen during that event as well. So it's fun to just come up with new ideas for what can happen on the property as they're developing it, as they're trying to make it successful. And then these kind of incidents happen that pull them, like Mina has to like figure out what happened. And it, but but you'll see the community, you'll see different characters reappearing, and there's some fun ones that different, like uh there's uh the Northern Spirit Band, and they have some really quick characters, and the local coffee shop, and all the kinds of things that Cozy Mystery fans love infused into this town of Lakewood. Yeah, uh, but a little bit of a spin because it's got that Nordic and Scandinavian influence.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

But it is a true and proper series where the primary main characters carry over. Unlike my Life and Living series, I'm writing my fifth one and it will drop in May. There's different primary characters in each the it's a series in name only, so to say. They're all life and living related, but different characters. So, but yours is a true traditional way people would understand a series, like a Potter, the Potter series carries over Clancy that Jack Ryan carries over through all the books.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

I think so. I think you can think of it like you can read one individually and the whole entire story is there, but the next book brings those characters forward and both like internally, how they're changing as people and growing and their relationships are growing through each book, but then the story itself is standalone. So you can read them in any order, but if you read them in the sequence, you will see how all the characters are growing and changing.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

Right. None of them, at least so so far, have gotten to the point where you feel like a book has to be an actual continuation of the same story of a previous.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

You can absolutely stand alone. But like in book one, one of the like the victim's sister, Grace, you know, she was involved in the story because she was the victim's sister. In book two, she's the bride. So she's again showing up and it's about her wedding, but of course, it's actually about the murder of some.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Poor Grace. She's had a I'm gonna have to give her a break in book three because she's had enough time.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

You're gonna show Grace some grace.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

That's right. Exactly. She needs a she needs a break now, that poor girl. She needs a good life now.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Couldn't resist the pun, of course. Haig, hey, hegy, huh. Huh?

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Hookah, hookah.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

That's spelled H-Y-G-G-E and Hookah. Housey Mercery. Okay, yeah. That's right. I don't know how to pronounce it, but I know.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

And I had, I knew that that would be an issue because it's it's kind of a concept that's been around a long time. It's all about closiness and like creating that lovely feeling of just relaxation. And that's what they want from this house and this event center. But I knew that readers would have a hard time with the pronunciation. So I have like even in the first book, I have a little few little jokes about the way they pronounce the name because it's a great way to broach that through humor and joke about it.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

But because that was going to be my question. Do you indeed explain in a way how the proper pronunciation is? And you say you do, yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

I do. And in the beginning of every book, I also have Nordic terms and concepts. So like a little glossary of words with little explanations because they are using all kinds of words: Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Finnish. And so I just have the word and a description. So if anyone's reading and they're like, oh, what's that? Again, they can flip to the front. But it's just introducing some of the vocabulary and some of the words that you may have heard somewhere along the way, but just don't really necessarily understand what it means. So I thought, oh, class three will be helpful, you know?

SPEAKER_02 23:30

Yeah, I'm sure that drove an editor crazy too. It's like, do you really want to use that word? Yes, I really want to use that word. Don't change it.

Nordic Culture Glossary And Hygge

SPEAKER_01 23:41

It's there for a reason. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

Did another series or another book precede this?

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Yeah, so actually, I have written um three published books before this. The first one was Creative Nonfiction, and it's about my dad. He was 16 when he was on a he was a Finnish merchant marine sailor during World War II. His ship was captured and they were sent to Sujithov concentration camp. So that's a completely different story. Cozy mysteries. And then the second two books, survive um, Sisters Winter War and like Water for Weird Souls are historical novels. And uh the the most recent line, like Water for Weird Souls, is a historical mystery. So there was a mystery involved in in that book. Um, but not a cozy, it was much more literary historical.

From Historical Fiction To Cozy

SPEAKER_02 25:31

But in in a way, it's a little related in that there is a mystery there that yeah, it doesn't directly relate to this series, but in a way it almost sets up this series.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Yeah, yeah. Well, what was nice was um because I was writing um this historical novel and it became this mystery, and I just really enjoy. I've always loved reading mysteries, I've always loved watching them. I like Nordic Noir, I like thrillers, I like suspense, I like cozy, I like all of it. And I've been writing historical fiction for a long time. And then when I was like, what do I want to do next? I just wanted to write something lighter. And I thought, okay, I know I need to write the cozy because that is a genre that I love so much. And historical fiction, I love it so much too, but it's there, you know, it's years and years of research, it's years and years of writing, and it's uh can be quite dark. Whereas cozies are just light and fun, and I think we all need that right now. So that's why I was I'm leaning into that for I I've been there.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

What what like most of my books come to me in a dream, but I do ask what do I want to do next? But usually it's given to me in a dream what I'm gonna do next. But yeah, I can't I never dreamed in a well, bad word to use there, but I never thought in a million years terror strikes book would turn into a life, ongoing life and living series, but yet that's the dreams that came. And while they're different characters, I do like you, you know, Martin from Terror Strikes shows up in the other books, but isn't a primary character, and likewise, Kennedy in the third book shows up in the fourth book, but not the primary character in the fourth book. So there is a little continuity, but yeah, I would have never contemplated at the time doing terror strikes, it would turn into a life and living series, and just right that that's how it happens sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

And I love that your readers will read a book and rec recognize that character and be like, oh yeah, yeah, he was in that other story. It'll bring back those stories for them, and readers love that when those things are connected, even if it's not like a traditional series.

Where To Find Lisa Online

SPEAKER_02 27:57

In a way, it's an Easter egg. You don't I I say all the time, you don't have to have read the other books in this series. Each book, as you said, is a standalone, but yeah, it kind of can help in a way. Uh anyway, that's yeah. Uh we're kind of like I said, I had my how to write a book and get it published. So I love talking like this and giving people hints, tips, and techniques behind the scenes kind of things, because everybody's got a story in them, whether they publish it or not, is another thing. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Totally true, right? We all have a story to tell. And and sometimes we need a little bit of assistance getting that story told, whether you find a friend to talk to or a writing group. Uh, I'm a book coach, so I work with a lot of new authors who are just like learning how to write. It's so fun, right? Like it's just a delight to connect with people who um have that story and want to tell it and need to learn just how to tell it.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Okay, so let's start. I try to keep shorter shows because as I say, coined today's Twitter and TikTok attention span, right? I love it. Because like with all my guests, we could talk for three hours, but then the show would be too long. So to wrap things up, do you have a website for where people can find you?

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Yeah, I think people can go to Lisa Bookcoach uh at GM. Oh sorry, Lisa KovlaBookcoach.com. And that's where Lisa has two eyes, and Kovla is K-O-V as an Victor, A L A. And they can find, like even if you look for Lisa with two eyes, you're gonna find me. Um and that's where everything is. My historical fiction, my uh closing histories, the coaching, all the stuff in my website. I decided that would be easier for people.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Yeah. Yeah. Since it says AL Jensen, I'm glad we had that discussion because yes, nowhere in here do I see Lisa with two eyes. That is G, right? Very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Yes. If you go to aljensen.com, it will bring you to the same place. aljensen.com brings you to um that same website. So I just tried to make sure people can find it no matter which words they use which name they use. Um for all the things.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

I in the scroll and post edit, I will put aljensen.com just because it's easier than expecting them to remember Lisa with two eyes.

SPEAKER_04 30:47

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

That's indeed rather odd and unique. What's the origin of the two eyes in there?

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Yeah, so Lisa with two eyes is a very actually common name in Finland. Um, so common that I have friends named Maya Lisa, I'm Elisa, say Elise like this. Uh, Lisa is a name that's like Mary. It's not unusual in Finland. But here people have to do a double take. And often they say, Well, I know you have two something. Is it two S's, two A's? Like they don't know.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

Oh, now that would be funny. One L, two I's, two S's, and two A's.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

I've had almost that. Almost. I'm just doubling up a couple things just in case.

SPEAKER_02 31:32

Yeah, so aljensen.com will be a lot easier for people to find.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

A lot easier for folks to find. Absolutely. Yes. And Substaff. I'm on Substack.com at womenwriting. So also very easy to find. Women writing on Substaff.

SPEAKER_02 31:46

Okay. Thank you, A.L. Jensen. And next time you talk to Mickey, tell him to get his titles correct.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Yeah. Yes. I'm going to give him that note. He's going to love it.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

All right. Take care, God bless.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Thank you. Great to meet you. Bye for now.

SPEAKER_03 32:23

Nothing to stop this ad. Just go away.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

In the book of Kennedy, Project Carpe Diem, a young woman stands alone at sunrise by the ocean. Her hair moves with the wind. Faint superimposed text. Was life just a collection of mediocre days with a few random happy times? Flashbacks. A girl laughing as a child, then crying as a teenager, pondering about her future. Lighting shifts from golden to shadowed. Slow motion. She walks through crowds, offering a soft smile to a stranger. In the book of Kennedy, Project Carpe Diem, available now on Amazon in ebook, paperback, and hardcover editions.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned into another Christitutionalist podcast show. I really appreciate that you stop by. Again, please like, share, subscribe. We need you to help spread the constitutionalist movement. Thank you again. Take care. God bless. Love you all.