I’d
like to welcome mystery author, Holli Castillo.
Patricia:
Holli,
where did you grow up? Did your childhood contribute to your desire to be a
writer?
Holli:
I
grew up in the suburbs in what is considered the metro New Orleans area but is
really just outside the city. I have
wanted to be a writer since I wrote my first story in kindergarten, when I was
five. I don’t know that anything
significant in my childhood contributed to my desire to write, but my
imagination was encouraged by my parents and my teachers. If anything, the fact that my childhood was
kind of mundane and boring made my imagination even wilder. I wanted drama—I got decent to good grades,
my parents weren’t divorced, my mother didn’t work, we had the normal pets. I would create stories and scenarios for
everyone I met. A car backfiring was a gunshot, a baby crying was being
kidnapped. I hated normal.
Patricia:
Where
do you live now? Do you use that locale for settings in your novels?
Holli:
I
live pretty close to where I grew up, although I did live in different parts of
New Orleans when I was in college and law school. Everything I write is set in New
Orleans. At first I tried to avoid the
cliché New Orleans settings, such as Bourbon Street and Mardi Gras, but one of
the criticisms I received on my first novel was that there wasn’t enough New
Orleans in it. I had New Orleans food, our dialect, areas of town in New
Orleans, but I think people expect to see those clichés when the story is about
New Orleans, so I’ve incorporated more of that in the second and third novels.
Patricia:
What
inspired you to write your most recent novel?
Holli:
Hurricane
Katrina inspired Chocolate City Justice. I wrote the first novel, Gumbo Justice, prior
to Katrina. Before I got a contract,
Katrina happened. I stopped looking for
an agent or publisher for a while after Katrina, trying to get everything back
in order at home. During the interim, I started to think that maybe agents and
publishers wouldn’t be interested in novels set pre-Katrina, so I had to make
the choice of either updating the first novel to incorporate Katrina, or writing
a whole new novel. I started working on Chocolate City Justice, planning to
then make Gumbo Justice the second book in the series instead of the first, and
Jambalaya Justice, which I had already started, the third, instead of the
second. Before I got very far into it, I ended up getting a contract with Oak
Tree Press on Gumbo Justice, so Chocolate City was put back in queue to be the
third book.
Patricia:
When
did you “know” that you wanted to be a writer?
Holli:
I
always knew I wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t feel like I could seriously
consider it as a career until after I quit the New Orleans D.A.’s Office, where
I was a prosecutor, to stay home after my daughter was born. I ended up getting a position with an
organization appointed to handle criminal appeals, a job I could do from home,
and finally had the time to start writing.
Patricia:
Name
three of your favorite authors in the mystery/suspense genre. What makes them
your favorites?
Holli:
John
Sandford is one of my favorites, mostly because I am in love with Lucas Davenport. Reading the Prey Series was one of the things
that motivated me to finally start writing, so I owe a lot to John
Sandford. I also like Janet Evanovich,
because I really like the interaction between Stephanie Plum, Ranger, and Joe
Morelli. I also like the zaniness of her novels, although some of her plot
devices are recycled from earlier works.
My third would be Tami Hoag, mostly for the dash of romance in her
traditional thrillers and mysteries.
Bio:
Bio:
Her first novel, Gumbo
Justice, the 2011PSWA award winner for Best Published Novel, was released by Oak Tree Press after being
delayed when she was incapacitated for almost a year due to a head-on collision
with a drunk driver. This was followed by the second in the Crescent City
Mystery series, Jambalaya Justice,
which received honors for best unpublished novel in the PSWA 2011 writing
competition. The third installment, Chocolate City Justice, is scheduled for
release at the end of 2013. Holli
resides in the metropolitan New Orleans area with her husband, who is the model
for Big Who in the series, her two daughters, two dogs, and two deaf cats, one
of which is featured prominently in Jambalaya
Justice.
Holli Castillo is a Louisiana
appellate public defender and former New Orleans prosecutor.
Purchase Links:
Jambalaya Justice www.amazon.com/Jambalaya-Justice-Holli-Castillo/dp/1610090209
or purchase signed copies at
Holli is offering a giveaway of both Gumbo
Justice and Jambalaya Justice to
one person drawn randomly from anyone who leaves a comment at the end of the
interview.
