Historical Q&A: Donna Mumma (First Comes Marriage…Then Comes Murder)

Donna Mumma is an award-winning author, a native Floridian, farm kid and dreamer. She was blessed with two wonderful parents who taught her how stories enable readers to learn, escape, connect, and be inspired.

Donna shares extensively about the research for her book, as well as her four main characters and how they surprised her when she was writing their stories.

FF: What inspired the story in your book?
When I wrote The Women of Wynton’s, the first book in the series, I loved creating the character of Miss Vivien. As she came to life on the page, there was so much about her that reminded me of my mother and her friends when I was growing up. She’s strong, smart, kind-hearted but takes no nonsense, and loves her job. A classic southern lady of the 1950s. I wanted to step into the world of her bridal salon and explore how she uses psychology, encouragement, and her own special brand of wisdom to help brides find just the right gown to start them on their journey to being a wife.

FF: What can you tell us about the main characters in your book?
The story focuses on Vivien Sheffield, the owner and designer of Miss Vivien’s bridal salon located in Wynton’s department store. She has a sterling reputation as a businesswoman and designer. But she’s also in her fifties, an age where she is expected to step away from being a businesswoman and settle down to be a grandmother. She feels she still has much to contribute and loves working with brides. When someone starts murdering young women who have worn one of her wedding gowns, she calls her on her friends Audrey, Mary Jo, and Gigi, also employees of the store, to help her save her beloved brides.

Audrey Penault is a former fashion model who traded that life for business school and the opportunity to work in the retail world she now loves. She’s been promoted from her job as Mr. Wynton’s secretary to clothing buyer for ladies fashions and must now balance the choice to train her replacement against settling into the demands of her new position. Audrey is incredibly business-smart, stylish, and focused on her career. Due to her promotion, she faces the challenge of stepping back into the fashion world she left behind.

Mary Jo Johnson is a housewife and mother who had to make the difficult decision to take a job at the store when her husband was disabled in a construction accident. Staying at home to be a wife and mother was her dream, but now she fights against her own weariness to support her family, her aging parents, especially her hard-to-please mother, and the demands of her job.

Gigi Woodard has been knocked down by life more than once, but she always rallied and pushed on. It seems things are finally coming together for her when she’s promoted to a position as a clerk in Cosmetics, one of the most prestigious departments at Wynton’s. But her own insecurities threaten to ruin this new chance unless she can find a way to overcome them.

FF: Which character surprised you the most?
I was surprised by all four of the main characters. In this second book, I dug deeper into who these ladies are and what keeps them going. The surprise came from how much I saw of my mother and her friends in them. They were women of the south, in 1950s Florida. This wasn’t a conscious decision, or planned, just something that flowed from memories of my childhood. I came along in the mid-sixties, and when I was young, I went with my mother to wedding showers, baby showers, Tupperware parties, and other “all-girl” get-togethers with her friends. I’d soaked in far more about women at that time than I realized. Bits of conversations about their outlooks on life, the rules they followed on how to dress, keep house, do their hair and makeup seasoned what I wrote, giving this book a much richer look at what life was like back then.

When editing this book, it became undeniably clear to me how much their strength, determination to always be ladies, their faith, and undying love for family and friends seeped in. I loved the surprise, but also how their legacy helped to make this story better.

FF: Why do you think storytelling is such a powerful way to share truth?
Stories can reach those deep places in our hearts that no one ever sees. They speak to things we all experience like love, anger, forgiveness, redemption, and enlightenment in simple ways that everyone relates to. Jesus taught through parables because we are drawn to the elements of a good story. When we connect to the characters and their situations, we learn more about ourselves, life, the world, and ultimately God.

FF: What can readers expect from the rest of this series?
These ladies will have much to face. The 50s are a decade of determined optimism, but underneath there is a realization that the old systems of the south are not sustainable. The 50s were a time when old and new traditions were revered, but the winds of change were starting to blow across Florida. Expectations for women, Blacks, along with Florida’s identity were being stretched and challenged as the state grew. Seeds for the societal changes that came about in the 60s were being planted, and these ladies are tasked with figuring out how to adapt as they find their own views being questioned. The women of Wynton’s are ready to see what comes next and figure out their place along the way. And as always, they’re dedicated to solving the crimes that seem to keep involving those they care about at Wynton’s Department Store.

FF: What kind of research did you do for this book?
I am a firm believer there is never too much research. For this book, I read about the history of the bridal business, the top gown designers of the time, and studied the sales practices of the popular salons at department stores. I studied wedding gown styles, especially the work of Ann Lowe, a Black seamstress who was loaded with talent and designed the wedding gown Jackie Kennedy wore in her marriage to JFK. A local museum hosted a vintage wedding gown exhibit, so I dragged one of my friends there. She was very patient as I took hundreds of pictures with my phone, then pored over the lace, pearls, sequins, yards of fabric, and embroidered flowers on those gowns.

There was a need to understand what went into the specific jobs I’d assigned to certain characters in this story, so I read up on what a department store’s fashion buyer’s role entailed, secretarial skills and standards of the day, as well as how a store’s cosmetics department was run. I love to dig deep into the content and go down rabbit trails that look interesting. This pointed me to many great sources that rendered fun details for this story. I learned how clothing is bought and ordered at a designer’s fashion show, what eating at the Automat in New York City was like, make-up tricks of the day, and how stores compensated clerks who outsold their peers. I became fascinated with all the behind-the-scenes services the bridal salons made available to their customers, and how those bridal consultants shaped the traditions we still celebrate today.

Since this series takes place in the 1950s, I took time to read about the experiences of the African American community at that time. I wanted to correctly represent what was going on, showing the good and the bad. Books by Zora Neale Hurston, articles and personal accounts from others who lived in those days helped me understand what was going on from many different points of view.

Being an arm-chair history buff, this process of research was great fun, but I finally had to take a break from digging up details so I could write the book.

FF: What do you want readers to take away after reading your book?
I want readers to see that talent isn’t confined or defined by age. It’s refined by years of practice and experience that bring a special kind of wisdom you cannot earn any other way. Also, I want them to see that aging often brings maturity that appreciates and understands the necessity of humility.

FF: What are the biggest challenges for you as an author writing in the 1900s?
Finding the delicate balance between writing good characters who accurately reflect this time period, presenting the historical facts without sounding like a history book, while also crafting a great mystery in a world that keeps readers guessing and engaged. Crafting a satisfying ending that ties up the solution of the crime in an entertaining way is a must, and rarely a simple thing for me to execute.

FF: What authors or books have inspired you as an author?
I love James Herriot’s stories of his time as a veterinarian in Britain. He blended humor with heartbreak in ways that draw a reader in and make you fall in love with his characters. I dearly love classic movies and have probably been inspired by them more than anything else. I’ll watch a favorite and study how the characters are formed, what makes certain lines of dialogue memorable, or how the story was crafted and then figure out how to apply what I learned to my own writing.

FF: How has your faith or world view impacted the way you tell stories?
There is much in the world today to be stressed about. God’s ways, his love, and grace, are the only thing that will bring true relief from all the negative noise around us. I want my stories to offer readers an escape from the chaos while also giving them a look into how God’s people live out their lives. My style may not be outwardly profound, but I do write from a Christian worldview. My characters may not always be as open about their faith, but they do turn to the Bible for guidance, rejoice in God’s blessings, ask for forgiveness when they mess up, and cry out to him when they’ve reached their limit. It is my hope that through them, readers may find a little fun, faith, and the Father as they get caught up in my story worlds.

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First Comes Marriage…Then Comes Murder
Donna Mumma
Publisher: Barbour Fiction
Genre: Suspense/Mystery
Released: September 1, 2025
Available Formats: Paperback, eBook

ASIN: B0DQLWH16Y
ISBN-13: 979-8891511750

Book Summary:
Mid-century glam meets murder mayhem in a series of cozy mysteries at Wynton’s Department Store.

It is 1956 in Levi City, Florida. Vivien Sheffield, renowned bridal gown designer and consultant for Wynton’s Department Store, is facing the greatest challenge of her career. Someone has been killing brides who wore one of her custom gowns in their wedding! Vivien’s fellow employees and close friends—Audrey, Mary Jo, and Gigi—and her assistant Mirette spring into action to save Miss Vivien and the young brides of Levy City before the murderer succeeds at destroying Vivien’s business at Wynton’s. . .and her reputation.

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