An Interview with Sue Owens Wright

MM2: Sue, take us through your typical writing day.

Photo by Aniko Kiezel

I have two senior basset hounds who demand a lot of my time and attention these days, but I write for a few hours every afternoon while my hounds are getting their beauty sleep (bassets are great sofa warmers; they sleep a lot no matter what age they are). Sometimes I write late at night after the house is quiet.

MM2: How many genres and how many books have you written? 

I’ve written both fiction and nonfiction.  Besides the Beanie and Cruiser Mysteries, five in all now, I’ve also written a paranormal romance novel set in England. I wrote it after being inspired by a magnificent Tudor estate we visited during our travels. I have also written books on pet care: What’s Your Dog’s IQ? and 150 Activities for Bored Dogs.  In addition, I wrote chapters in People’s Guide to Dogs for Borders Books.  Several of my dog stories have been published in anthologies, one most recently in PEN Oakland’s Fightin’ Words, where I’m proud to share the pages with such literary icons as Norman Mailer.  I was thrilled to learn that my mysteries are on the American Kennel Club list of Best Dog Books (http://www.akc.org/akc-dog-lovers/looking-for-a-good-dog-book).  I was especially honored to be included because many of the classic dog books I grew up reading are also on that list. 

MM2: Where is your favorite place to write? If it is your office, describe your office.

I have a home office with a large-screen Apple desktop computer, but I don’t work there much because there are usually too many distractions and interruptions at home.  If I need a big screen for editing or other projects, I will work there on occasion.  Most of the time, I prefer working on my laptop at cafés. I find I can focus better while writing there and sipping tea, so that’s what I do every afternoon. My favorite café is Peet’s Coffee & Tea. They usually play classical music there, which boosts my creativity. Mozart and mystery, a perfect blend.

   

MM2: Tell us about your latest book. 

A fifth book in the series is complete but not yet released.  I don’t want to give away too much, but here’s a peek: 

Trouble crops up in Native American Elsie “Beanie” MacBean’s neck of the woods at South Lake Tahoe one Indian summer during Tahoe’s worst drought of the century. Beanie already has her hands full dog-sitting Calamity, her daughter Nona’s rescued basset hound. She’s feeling overwhelmed dealing with her crazy new boarder’s behavioral problems and chronic ear infections while juggling writing deadlines, including one on ear cropping in certain dog breeds, but things are about to get deadly. She becomes involved in a murder investigation while on a woodland hike when Cruiser and Calamity sniff out the body of Chuck Sweet, one of Buzz Baxter’s ax men who harvested lumber in the area until he was cut down. Beanie hates that Baxter Lumber has begun clear-cutting pine trees near her tranquil mountain cabin to make way for an upscale alpine resort, but someone is dead set on putting an end to the project.

MM2: What are your words of wisdom when writing a series?

Don’t be too eager to jump at the first offer of publication. Be patient. Shop around.  Once you sell the first book in a series, it’s hard to place subsequent books with another publisher. Most want to get in on the ground floor of a series, so hold out for the best contract.  It’s also good if each book can stand alone so readers don’t necessarily have to start with the first one in the series to get to know your characters.

MM2: Do you belong to a critique group or writers’ group?

I’ve tried joining a few critique groups over the years, but I never seemed to have much luck finding the perfect one.  There’s usually too much idle chit-chat, and it can even get a little weird sometimes, like the group where a guy only wrote stories about collecting human body parts in Mason jars in his basement.  He was starting to creep me out, so I dropped out of that group pretty fast.

Truthfully, I think you can learn more about the writing craft from books and classes on writing, but mostly by actually writing. I’ve always felt like the time spent in groups talking about writing was time I could have better spent writing.

I’m a member of the Dog Writers Association of America, based in New York, too far away for me to attend workshops.  I do occasionally participate in a local writer’s social group called Writers Who Wine.  I find it’s most useful for networking, and wining, of course.  It’s nice to chat with your own kind now and then, because writing is a lonely profession.

MM2: Now for fun, what is your favorite movie or television show?

My favorite movie?  Gosh, it’s hard to choose just one; there are so many I could name because I have always loved going to the movies. Dances with Wolves, Braveheart and Titanic stand out.  The musical scores are amazing. My TV favorite is Law & Order SVU, especially the older episodes with hunky Chris Meloni.

Your favorite meal, dessert?

My mom, who will be 92 this August, used to cook her famous Swiss steak and mushy white rice for my birthday every year.  Also, her banana pudding and chocolate cake were the best.  Anything chocolate for dessert is a winner for me.

Your favorite place to vacation?

Besides beautiful Lake Tahoe, where my mystery series is set, or at the coast, I’d love to go back to Ireland.  I was there in 1998 for five weeks while studying writing at Trinity College in Dublin.  Best vacation ever!

MM2: Do you have a favorite book you like to reread?

James Herriot’s stories of a country vet are still my all time favorites.  In the early 90s, when I visited the charming Yorkshire village of Thirsk, on which his fictional Darrowby was based, I discovered a lovely little bookstore, just a few doors down from his real-life surgery; we also toured the TV set for “All Creatures Great and Small.”  There on the shelf were autographed copies of his books.  I bought his latest books at that time, “Every Living Thing” and a collection of children’s stories. While in Yorkshire, my husband and I stayed at a charming bed & breakfast owned by a family friend of Alf Wight, which is James Herriot’s real name.  We were told he walked past there every day on the way up to Sutton Bank, a craggy promontory that affords a spectacular panorama of the Vale of Pickering.  This landscape must have provided great inspiration to the author for writing those unforgettable tales of his life in the Yorkshire Dales.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to meet Mr. Wight.  Sadly, he passed away not long after our visit to Yorkshire. 

MM2: In closing, what would you like to say to your readers?

Thank you for reading and rereading my books.  I love writing them, and it pleases me greatly to know that people continue to enjoy them.  I always like to close with a little Cruiser wisdom, which applies to sniffing out crime, writing books, or life in general: “Stay on track, and follow where the path leads you.  Stop to smell the roses, and leave your mark along the way.”

MM2: Last, do you have a pet project? 

Besides exploring my artistic side with pastel painting (dogs are frequent subjects), I’m currently working on a memoir and short story collections about what else? Dogs!

Hair

I took the scissors to my hair this morning. All I can say is it's shorter and now my summer cut. LOLOLOL
Anyway I hope everyone has a marvelous Monday. I shall endeavor to be more productive before the rain starts this afternoon/evening.
What are your Monday plans? Are you reading anything good?
I have a book I need to start reading for review. I also need to sort out my author inquiries and whom I have not sent interview questions.
After all of this and laundry then it will be time to cross stitch. That is my reward for all the to-do list today.
Huggable,
Pam

Review: Played by the Book by Lucy Arlington

Title: PLAYED by the BOOK:
By LUCY ARLINGTON

Lila Watkins is considered by everyone but her "The Murder magnet." She is not thrilled but is less than thrilled to find a skull in the bushes in her backyard.
Bentley her boss has a new idea. When Bentley has an idea she doesn't expect anything to go wrong.
This time it's Damian York, who is a hometown boy all grown up. To launch his new gardening book Bentley wants Lila To add her backyard to the garden club contest tour. Damian is to be the judge.
However things start to pile up and soon everything and everyone is spread thin.
at home Lila's mother decides to stay a few days and her son has his own problems.

PLAYED by the BOOK, is not only wonderful but the characters, series and setting are interesting enchanting with a touch of flavor.
Not only is the whole series fun to read but you will enjoy every page turning moment.
I give this review a *********** star review.

Pamela James
Mayhem & Magic.

An Interview with Elaine Viets

MM: Elaine, you have been writing successful series for quite some time now.  How have they surprised you over the years as they developed and grew?

I’ve written 27 novels so far. I started writing dark mysteries. My first series, the Francesca Vierling mysteries, was set at a St. Louis newspaper. After four books, that series ended, though the Francesca books are still in print. I wrote the Dead-End Job mysteries next. Those are traditional mysteries. Penguin asked me to write a cozy series, the Josie Marcus mystery shopper mysteries.

I’m now going back to my dark beginnings. I’ve started a new mystery series, the Angela Richman Death Investigator series. A death investigator is a trained civilian who works with the medical examiner’s office. At a murder scene, the DI has charge of the body and the police handle the rest of the crime scene. Janet Rudolph, with Mystery Readers International, says this is the only series featuring a death investigator.

Brain Storm, the first book in the new series, is being shopped around New York right now. Angela will make her debut in the November Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine in a short story called, “Gotta Go.”

          Don’t worry, Dead-End Job fans. I’m also working on a new Dead-End Job mystery, The Art of Murder.

MM: You certainly create the realism in your Dead End job series by the jobs you take as research.  Do you have a favorite one you have taken?  A least favorite?

I loved working in a bookstore for Murder Between the Covers. I didn’t consider that a dead-end job at all. I also enjoyed being a volunteer shelver for my local library to research Checked Out, my new Dead-End Job Mystery set at a library. I like being around books and the people who read them.

My least favorite job was working as a telemarketer for Dying to Call You. Everyone, even so-called “nice people,” are rude to telemarketers. Please don’t torment them. Nobody ever says, “I want to be a telemarketer when I grow up.” It’s a job for people down on their luck. Many telemarketers are women in their 40s and 50s who divorced badly and couldn’t find work anywhere else. Others are people trying to stay off welfare.

If you don’t want a telemarketing call, say, “Take me off this list.” The telemarketer is required to remove your name or the company is fined $20,000, and they are strict about this. It takes about 30 to 60 days to get off the list. 

MM: As for Josie Marcus, how did you come up with the mystery shopping idea and have you done any of it yourself?

          Penguin asked me to write a mystery shopper series. It was supposed to be a two- or three-book series, but last November I turned in the tenth Josie book, A Dog Gone Murder.

          I’ve never been a mystery shopper, but my mother was one. She mystery-shopped Kroger stores and also a fried chicken chain. My father was old school and didn’t want my mother working outside the home, but he thought mystery shopping was okay because it was “shopping.” Mom would drive more than a hundred miles a day with her best friend. They would slog through stores and be back by three-thirty, when we kids got home from school, so Mom could fix dinner for the family.

MM: You have also done some paranormal works.  Did you get any resistance into branching from what you have been so successful in?  Will you be doing more?

          The paranormal stories were a break from my usual mystery writing. I enjoyed writing “Vampire Hours” and “The Bedroom Door” for Charlaine Harris’s anthologies, but I’m really a killer at heart. I enjoy crossing over to the other side sometimes.

MM: What makes up a satisfying workday for you?

          I get up about eight in the morning, have breakfast with my husband, reporter Don Crinklaw, and my two cats, Harry and Mystery, then settle into my office and work on my latest book. I stop for tea about noon – I like Dragonwell green tea and animal crackers from The Fresh Market. Then I work until about three or so and eat lunch.  About six I’ll have a snack – my favorite is dark chocolate and cherries -- and go back to work until eight or so, when I break for the day. At night I usually go for a walk by the water near my home or work out at the condo gym with Don. 

MM: How much time do you spend traveling for author events and conventions? What are the parts you enjoy most? Least?

          I try to go to Malice Domestic and Bouchercon. I may go to Sleuthfest, given by the Florida chapter of the MWA. When I’m promoting a new hardcover, I usually tour for about two weeks in May. This year, Checked Out, my new Dead-End Job hardcover,   debuted at Malice. I got to have breakfast with Dru Ann Love and Terri Parsons.

Then I signed in Baltimore and toured North Carolina with mystery writers Marcia Talley and Frances Brody. From North Carolina, I went to St. Louis, my hometown. After that, I had several signings in South Florida, and signed at the American Library Association in San Francisco in June.

I spend a lot of time alone at a desk, so I enjoy meeting readers, but after a couple of weeks of signings and talks, I’m ready to go back to my writing routine.

   

MM: What are you reading these days?

        I’m enjoying two British authors – Ann Cleeves and Frances Brody. I just finished Frances’s A Woman Unknown, set in 1920s UK. Frances’s detective, Kate Shakleton, lost her husband during World War I. A fascinating period series. I’ve also been reading Ann Cleeves’s Shetland series. Highly recommend Raven Black.

   

MM: What does the rest of the summer hold for you?

          I’ll be working on my May 2016 Dead-End Job mystery, The Art of Murder, set at a wonderfully whimsical museum in Fort Lauderdale called Bonnet House. The mansion was owned by two artists and it’s one of the few rich people’s houses that actually looks fun to live in. More about that later.

MM: What is the best writing advice you have received?

A writer writes. It’s fun to talk about writing, but if you’re serious, you won’t wait for inspiration to strike. You’ll go to your desk and work at writing – and at improving your craft.

MM: Even as an author, you are also a fan of other authors.  What was your biggest fan moment?

The time I met Miss Manners, Judith Martin. I’m a big fan of her etiquette books and columns. She’s so witty. My agent, David Hendin, represents her, and we were at David’s daughter’s wedding. “Come on and meet, Judith,” David said.

I was in a panic. “I can’t,” I said.

“Why not?

“I’m wearing a sports watch with an evening dress,” I said. “She just wrote about that.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” David said. “Put your watch in your purse and meet Judith. She’s too polite to say anything.”

She was, too.

         

MM: If you could have any food prepared just for you at all for a day (with someone else cooking it), what would you have?

          I miss my grandma’s cooking. I’d love to have her pork chops again, and her homemade jams and jellies. She made the best grape pie. Her biscuits were like warm, buttery clouds. I wish I could cook like her.

MM: Any great movie, TV, music finds lately?

I loved the new Jurassic World movie. It was fun to watch. I forgot about everything for two and a half hours. But how the heck did the female star, Bryce Dallas Howard, manage to run in high heels – and never get them dirty?

I’ve been listening to classic Rolling Stones lately, especially “Gimme Shelter.”

MM: What are your current projects?  

          I’m writing my fifteenth Dead-End Job mystery, The Art of Murder, set at a quirky museum in Fort Lauderdale called Bonnet House, owned by artist Frederic Clay Bartlett, who had three wives. The first was an artist who gave up her career to be part of the 19^th century Chicago social whirl – and it killed her.

Helen, his second wife, was a poet and musician whose father owned beachfront real estate in 1920s Fort Lauderdale. He gave the newlyweds 35 acres to build a Caribbean plantation house, a place of color and sunlight. Helen died young, alas, and then Frederic met Evelyn, another artist and the divorced wife of Eli Lilley (yeah, the drug family). Evelyn and Frederic had an amazing life on the beach, and their house was filled with friends and pets, including a band of Brazilian squirrel monkeys and exotic birds. Frederic died in 1953, but Evelyn lived to be 109 and left her estate to Fort Lauderdale.

          I’m volunteering at the Bonnet House gift shop, and it’s great fun. I’ve met the squirrel monkeys – they come down from the trees to eat cashews the staff feeds them, and a handsome caique parrot named Buddy. Buddy’s colors are beautiful: his head is peach and yellow and his feathers deep green. He lives with Jimmy the caretaker. Buddy and Jimmy ate a Snickers bar at the gift shop. Unfortunately, Buddy also ate a copy of the history of Bonnet House. It’s a delightfully quirky place, and the perfect setting for a novel. The Art of Murder will be published in May, 2016.

          Meanwhile, my agent is shopping my new death investigator series around New York.

MM: Lastly, please have Harry share some words of wisdom with us. Since he helps on the books, it is only fair after all!

          “Quit playing around on Facebook and go write your novel,” Harry says. “But give me a hug first. There’s always time for hugs.” Harry is a very wise cat.

                   

An Interview with Jeri Westerson

MM2: Jeri, tell us the backstory on how you began your writing career?

It began by necessity. I was never interested in a writing career prior to 1992. The novels I wrote were just for fun and no one knew I even wrote historical and fantasy novels. I was a graphic designer doing pretty darned well freelancing in Los Angeles. When I semi-retired to have a baby, I thought that when he became a toddler I’d get back into the biz. But it those brief two years in the very earl 90s, the entire graphics industry had turned to computers, whereas I had not! So I began to think of possible careers where I could still stay home and raise my son. That’s when I got it in my head to become a novelist. How hard could it be?

Yes, after you finished laughing…

I did my research and discovered there were quite a few steps and none of them guaranteed publication though I felt my stories could find some modest success. But even after some ten years of writing, getting three agents, and piles of rejections, I began to see that editors just didn’t seem to want to publish the kind of historical novels I liked to write: ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Other authors were writing about the court life of the nobles and I thought it was more interesting in the trenches.

But as the years past (and I supplemented this writing addiction of mine with various jobs, including working in a winery as a tasting host and tour guide, theology teacher, choir director, and finally journalist) I decided to take the advice of one of my former agents and try to write a medieval mystery.

Mysteries are a big market what with some publishing houses devoted strictly to producing them, with some independent bookstores selling them exclusively, and numerous mystery fan conventions to attend and sell directly to readers. So I sat down and learned to write a mystery and decided that I wanted my own unique protagonist, someone who was a cross between the hardboiled detective and your standard Brother Cadfael-type medieval mystery. And that’s how my ex-knight-turned-detective Crispin Guest was born. After I wrote one novel after the other with this character and after a mere three years I finally got my contract.

So far, the series has been nominated twelve times for various industry awards.

MM2: How many books have you written?

All told, I’ve written 30 novels. Only fifteen of those have been published so far, with an upcoming Crispin book to be published by the end of the year. Some of the books on that list—including the first novel I ever wrote way back when I was sixteen—will never see the light of day. But some of them I have been pulling out, reworking them, and self-publishing them. The first true Crispin book, CUP OF BLOOD, and two historical novels THOUGH HEAVEN FALL and ROSES IN THE TEMPEST have been the first with only a few more to come. I also publish with MLR Press an LGBT mystery series, the Skyler Foxe Mysteries, under the name Haley Walsh.

MM2: Where is your favorite place to write?

Right in my home office. My husband is skilled with building, and he custom built my desk and shelves. It’s my little sanctuary as I write full time now.

MM2: Do you ever re-read your favorite books?

Yes! I’ve read the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries loads of times, the Lord of the Rings books, and a few others, including Mr. Shakespeare. It’s always inspiring reading wonderful prose.

MM2: Do you watch any television or movie series regularly?

I have a very eclectic interest in television and films. I like action adventure, mysteries, sci fi, fantasy… as long as it grabs me and has interesting characters with depth. Though my husband says as long as anyone on the show has an English accent I’ll be watching it. I’m afraid more often than not he’s right.

MM2: What is the favorite writing advice you ever heard?

Most writing advice is pretty general and is made up of good working practices, like write every day, be consistent, take the advice of professionals like one’s editor and agent. And concrete advice about writing craft and technique can be tailored to the individual (write by the seat of your pants or outline everything or some combination of both), and usually there are never hard fast rules etched in stone.

But there is one piece of craft advice that I suggest that could very well be etched in stone: Never end your chapter with your characters going to sleep. That’s a sure-fire cue for the reader to close the book and go to bed themselves. No, you want your books to be un-put-downable. “I stayed up all night because I couldn’t put it down.” Don’t give the reader an excuse. Always end the chapters on another high, another climax and they will have to keep reading.

MM2: What would your characters have to tell us about you?

Crispin might tell you how arrogant I am, how much of a know-it-all I think I am. But Jack might tell you that I’ve still got a playful side. The rest is just whole cloth.

 

MM2: Where is your favorite place to vacation, your favorite meal, your favorite movie, your favorite song and favorite time of day?

We’ve always done a lot of camping because we’ve never had much by way of funds, so Mammoth mountain camping by a creek is one of our favorite places. He fishes and I read.

A favorite meal could be something as simple as fried chicken, and something as elaborate as lobster.

Favorite movie hands down—and I believe the best ever made is Casablanca, but I like the Indiana Jones movies as well as Ghostbusters. I am a huge old movie fan.

I don’t think I have a favorite song though I do like music, from classical to contemporary, but whenever I hear “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles, it always cheers me.

And favorite time of day has always been the late afternoon when the sun is at a nice angle. Though when my hubby walks through the door and says, “Honey, I’m home,” I have to say, that that is my most favorite time of day.

MM2: Tell us about where you live and why you like living there?

I’ve lived all my life in Southern California. I was born in Los Angeles and have lived all over the southland. Where we currently live and most likely will retire is called the Inland Empire, a little too far away from the ocean. We moved here for my husband’s job and I’m afraid what I always considered a temporary stay has become permanent. But we’ll be high and dry when the arctic ice melts completely so it isn’t all bad.

MM2: Is there someone you would like to thank ?

My husband, Craig. My first critic, my supporter, my knight in shining armor. When I told him that I couldn’t go back to design but thought I’d like to try my hand at being a novelist, like the trouper he is he said, “Sure, honey. I’ll support you in anything you want to do. But, uh, do you write novels?”

MM2: Lastly, is there something you would like to say to your readers?

I appreciate every last one of you guys. That’s why it’s so fun interacting with you on Facebook (you can find me at https://www.facebook.com/crispin.guest) I love to come to local book clubs and have done quite a few by Skype, so don’t be afraid to contact me. And lastly, authors desperately need reviews, particularly on Amazon where the algorithms make it possible for well-reviewed books to be seen by more people. But in the end, I’m just grateful for all my readers, whether they buy the books for themselves or check them out from their local libraries. Please support your libraries! Librarians are, of course, readers, too, and I am grateful for their constant support as well.

Please take a look at my website where there are book excerpts, discussion guides for you book clubs, a book trailer of the series, and all sorts of other interesting things.  http://www.jeriwesterson.com   

An Interview with Eva Gates aka Vicki Delany

An Interview with Eva Gates

By Pamela James

MM2: Eva, let's start with how and when you became an author?

Way back in the mists of time, I was working full time (I’m a computer programmer/systems analyst) with three children, and I thought I’d like to try writing for children. I signed up for some creative writing courses at the local community college. I quickly found I didn’t want to write for kids after all, but I was enjoying the courses so much, I decided to switch and try to write what I like to read. Which is mysteries.

MM2: Take us through your writing day?

When it comes to my writing, I am a total creature of routine. I get up every morning, seven days a week.  I go to my main computer in my office, and read e-mails, read the papers online, spend a bit of time on Facebook or Twitter.  Then it’s time to start to write.  I walk into the dining room and stand at my Netbook computer which is on the half-wall between the kitchen and the dining room and boot it up.  (In the summer I might sit outside on the deck) As I pass through the kitchen, I put one egg on to boil.

I always write, standing up, on the Netbook.  I read over everything I did the previous day, doing a light edit as I go.  I then take my egg into the study and eat it while checking email.  Then back to the small computer for several writing hours, usually finishing around one. And that’s pretty much it.  I can’t write in small chunks. I can’t write as the spirit moves me. If I didn’t have a strict routine, I wouldn’t get anything done.

MM2: I adore your title series and cover. Let's talk about your books?

Happy to! The Lighthouse Library books are published by Penguin Obsidian, set in the real-life Bodie Island Lighthouse near Nags Head, North Carolina. The lighthouse is exactly as described, except for the minor fact about there being no library inside, nor is the interior big enough for one. I sort of think of it as my own Tardis or Hermione Granger’s beaded handbag. The books are about the lives and characters of the people who work in the library, and their families and friends. They are very cozy, and intended to be a light read.  The first is By Book or By Crook, and concerns the theft of first edition Jane Austen novels and the murder of the chair of the library board; in the second (to be released September 1^st), Booked for Trouble, Lucy’s mother comes to the Outer Banks to try and convince Lucy to return to Boston and marry the man the family approves of. When an old school friend of her mother is found murdered, Mom is the chief suspect. Lucy runs a classic novel reading club at the library and a trace of what the club is reading runs though the books.

MM2: Do you ever re-read books? If so what genre and titles?

I very rarely re-read, even favourite books. I read crime fiction most of all, I particularly love the English-style police procedurals. I am the current president of Crime Writers of Canada, and I try to read a lot of what’s being produced in Canada these days.  Some, I might add, very good stuff.

MM2: Where is your favorite place to write?

I described it above. I stand at the counter between the dining room and kitchen. It’s not the location that’s important, but the standing up part. It’s not only better for your health, but I find it much more conductive to slipping into that occasional ‘creative space’ we are always searching for. In the summer, I will often sit at a table out on the deck though.

MM2: Fun questions: What are your favorite movies? Dessert, place to read, place to vacation and your favorite meal?

I don’t go to movies much, but perhaps my all time favourite is “Murder by Decree” with Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes and James Mason as Dr. Watson. Love that movie. I also really loved the “Lord of the Rings” movies, although I didn’t care for the “Hobbit” ones at all.

Dessert? Probably my world-famous (as I modestly call it) hummingbird cake. I like to bake, but rarely get the chance to do it.

Place to read: On the beach or out on the deck at my house. In the winter, I just like to curl up in my wing-back chair, next to the wood-burning stove, while the snow falls outside.

Vacation: Best vacations I have ever had were the two safaris I went on in Africa in 2011 and 2013. First to Kenya, and second to Uganda. Perfect in every way. I am hoping to go back to South Africa next year.

Favourite Meal: Probably the traditional turkey and all the trimmings with my family at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

MM2: Tell us about where you live and a little about your family life?

I live in Prince Edward County, Ontario, which is almost due north of Rochester NY. It’s an island in Lake Ontario. I have a little place in the country.  My three daughters are all grown up now and have moved away.  Two live not too far from me, but one is out in British Columbia.

MM2: What is the best writing advice you ever received?

Stephen King says: if you want to be a writer you have to do two things. You have to write, and you have to read. I’d add, read a lot and read widely. How else do you expect to learn and improve your craft?

MM2: Do you have a hobby?

I do jig-saw puzzles. Lots of them. I read, I work in my garden. When I’m not travelling, I lead a very quiet life.

MM2: What comes first the plot, characters or setting?

In the lighthouse library series, it was definitely the setting. A library in a lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Then the characters began to form, and only then the plot.

MM2: What advice do you have for mystery authors?

Read. Read a lot and read widely. I’d also advise taking a creative writing course. You can’t learn talent, but you can learn the craft of writing.

MM2: What would Lucy tell us about her creator?

That she’s a diabolical task-mistress. Here I’ve come to the Outer Banks looking for a nice quiet life, and what do I get? Murder and mayhem, that’s what.  Although she has arranged to have two extremely eligible men paying attention to me.

MM2: What are your future writing plans?

The third Lighthouse Library mystery, Reading up a Storm, is finished and will be out in April. After that, hopefully if the series does well (hint, hint) Penguin will offer me a contract for more.  Under my real name of Vicki Delany, I am writing the Year Round Christmas mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, and the first in that series, Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen, will be released November 3^rd. AND, Vicki Delany has just finished the eighth in the Constable Molly Smith series from Poisoned Pen Press. Titled Unreasonable Doubt, it will be out in February. So I am kept busy!

MM2: Lastly leave us with a favorite writing memory.

Too many to mention, really. I love all the friends I have made and the people I have met since I’ve been doing this. I travel a lot on book tours and to conferences, because I really enjoy it. In September, I’m going down to the Outer Banks for some book signings. Hope I can meet some of your readers there.

Eva Gates is the author of the National Bestselling Lighthouse Library cozy series from Penguin Obsidian, set in a historic lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The first in the series is By Book or By Crook, and Booked for Trouble will be released September 2015.  Eva is the pen name of bestselling author Vicki Delany, one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers.  Eva can be found at www.lighthouselibrarymysteries.com and Vicki at www.vickidelany.com. Facebook at evagatesauthor and twitter: @evagatesauthor

Monday Blog

Good Morning,

What shows do you feel have the best script writers? I love Big Bang Theory writers because they surprise us every season. Of course I enjoy Midsomer Murders, Vera, House of Cards, Criminal Minds and there are more but I need more coffee.

Have a great Monday,
Pamela