Getting to know Susan Whitfield

Today we have mystery author, Susan Whitfield, with us. I recently read her novel, Sin Creek, and it was sensational. I’m looking forward to reading many more of her books. In the meantime, let’s get to know Susan.

Susan, where did you grow up? Did your childhood contribute to your desire to be a writer?  

I grew up in eastern North Carolina and I’m still there. My parents loved to read and I always met the Bookmobile with my arms full of books to turn in so that I could get more. Little Women was my favorite. I suppose the fact that my parents kept books accessible had something to do with my desire to write. The seed was planted early and I actually wrote a 40-page outline while I was in high school. It’s still around here somewhere even though I never picked it up and went with it. Once I finally started, I started fresh.

Where do you live now? Do you use that locale for settings in your novels?

My Logan Hunter series is scattered around North Carolina, the first novel, Genesis Beach, along the Crystal Coast. The second mystery in what became a series is Just North of Luck, set in The Smoky Mountains. I went back to my childhood home in Atkinson to set Hell Swamp at The Black River Plantation I’ve loved since I was a child. The fourth mystery, Sin Creek, is set in Wilmington where I lived for too short a time, but my love for that city will never diminish. I’m working on the fifth mystery now and it’s set along the Inner Banks. I just completed my first women’s fiction and it’s set in Wayne County where my husband and I have lived for 44 years.

What inspired you to write your most recent novel?

Slightly Cracked is about two lifelong friends enduring hot flashes, marital tiffs, and concerns about sagging and aging. I was so full of feelings about these issues that it seemed the right thing to do. I’m blessed to have some wonderful friends and we’ve been through good, bad, and ugly together. Now that I’m on the backside of hot flashes, I tried to make theses sometimes embarrassing situations humorous.

Did you plan to write a series before or after you wrote the first book?

I never thought about writing a series, but when I got stuck in the middle of Genesis Beach, I simply started writing another book with the same protagonist, Logan Hunter, a gutsy quirky strong woman.

Name three of your favorite authors in the mystery genre.

James Patterson, Lisa Scottoline, and Tess Gerritsen.

What are your favorite things to do when you’re not reading or writing?

Those are definitely the top two. Let’s see, I enjoy cooking and entertaining and attending baseball games for my three grandsons.

Do you like to travel? If so, what are some of your favorite places to go?

My husband and I took off in his truck five years ago and headed to Yellowstone and then over to Mount Rushmore. It was a fabulous trip and we said we’d go back. We’re planning to go to Jackson Hole in September to celebrate our 45 years of marriage. So far nowhere I’ve been has topped the majesty of Yellowstone.

How would you describe yourself personality wise?

I’m a complex individual but most people think I’m a crack-up. Not sure if that’s good or bad. LOL.

How would you finish this sentence? If I won a million dollars, I would . . . share it with my two sons and their families, perhaps buy a vacation home, and put the rest in savings.

Pat, thanks for the interview. It’s been a treat.

Yes it has, Susan. Thank you!

To read more about Susan’s books, here’s the link to her Amazon Author Page. 

http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Whitfield/e/B002G57DBG/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4?qid=1341406784&sr=1-4

Getting to know Lorraine Bartlett

Today, we have mystery author, Lorraine Bartlett, with us. I’ve read her Victoria Square mysteries and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Now, let’s get to know Lorraine. 

 

Lorraine, where did you grow up? Did your childhood contribute to your desire to be a writer? If so, how?

I grew up in Rochester, NY. My childhood was pretty boring. I watched a lot of television, but often was dissatisfied with the stories of the day. I remember lying in bed at night and rethinking whatever episode of whatever show I’d watched that day that disappointed me and wondered how it could have been “fixed” to be more entertaining.

Where do you live now? Do you use that locale for settings in your novels?

I still live in Rochester (about 2 miles from where I grew up). One of my series, The Victoria Square Mysteries, is sort of set in this area. I picked a town a little farther west than my own, but have mentioned the suburb where I grew up. (In fact, I let my protagonist graduate from the same high school I did.) It’s much easier to write about a locale you know intimately.

Why do you write under three different names?

My first published series, The Jeff Resnick Mysteries, came out with a small press. My agent at the time believe that men wouldn’t buy books written by women. (She appears to have been partially right) and suggested I should write under my initials. When it came time to write the Booktown Mysteries, my publisher requested I write it under a pseudonym (Lorna Barrett). I now write both series, plus a third: The Victoria Square Mysteries, which has come out under my own name.

How do you create the characters in your books?

Most of my characters just appear on the page. I might think of someone’s face or mannerisms, but generally my characters are pretty much original, and I like it that way. (I wouldn’t want to be sued because someone thought I’d captured them a little too clearly.)

Did you plan your series before or after you wrote the first book?

I guess I figured each of my three series would be a series from the get-go. In fact, I wrote the first three Jeff Resnick books simultaneously. (Not that I’d recommend that.) But as I wrote something in book three, I thought I’d best go back to book one to lay the groundwork. In the end, it worked out well.

Name three of your favorite authors in the mystery genre.

Do I have to limit it to three? I love and still reread several of Barbara Michaels books. In fact, I recently reread “The Dancing Floor.”  I’m a big fan of Dick Francis and have reread “Straight” at least a dozen times. I love the work of Ellery Adams (Jennifer Stanley) and Leann Sweeney, too.

What are your favorite things to do when you’re not reading or writing?

I’m a “junker.”  I used to have a booth in an antiques arcade (for 12 years). You can take the girl out of the business, but not the business out of the girl  I still go junking most every weekends. My plan is to open an Etsy store for “girly” stuff (mostly hand painted dishware and old linens) one day.

Do you like to travel? If so, what are some of your favorite places to go?

I like to go on a cruise. On my last one, I wrote for six to eight hours every day (for three weeks), longhand. I got a LOT of work done. So much so, that I’m planning on going on another cruise. It wasn’t so much the ports of call, it was being at sea and being away from the internet. I didn’t have to cook or clean or worry about the bills. I just sat on the shady side of the deck and wrote. Then I’d have gourmet meals three times a day and didn’t have to wash any dishes or clean up. It was heaven.

How would you finish this sentence? If I won a million dollars, I would ------

Have the cleaning lady come every week, not every two weeks. Let someone else do the laundry. I’d update my kitchen …  I’d buy a mini van with stow-and-go seats. My aspirations aren’t all that high, I guess.

What’s your favorite color? Why?

Blue. It’s the color of the sky.

Describe yourself – not physically – but personality wise.

Ambitious. I never thought of myself as that way until I became a full-time author. I have a lot of goals I’d still like to make, and I wonder if I ever will. But I know for sure that I’m going to keep working at attaining them.

Thanks for spending time with us today, Lorraine. It’s been fun getting to know you.

Lorraine Bartlett writes the New York Times bestselling Victoria Square Mysteries. She's done it all--from drilling holes for NASA to typing scripts in Hollywood.

She also writes the Jeff Resnick Mysteries as L.L. Bartlett, and the New York Times Bestselling, Agatha-nominated Booktown Mysteries as Lorna Barrett. Murder On The Half Shelf, Book #6 in the Booktown Mystery series, will be released on July 3rd.

For more information and a list of other available titles, visit 

www.LorraineBartlett.com 

Getting to know Sandra Gardner

My guest this week is author, Sandra Gardner. Let’s get to know her!

Sandra, where did you grow up? Did your childhood contribute to your desire to be awriter?

I grew up in small-town Massachusetts, about an hour north of Boston – Maldenin early childhood till high school, then Medford, the next small town. I read constantly, since the age of six, stories, fairy tales, later, novels. So I imagine that contributed to my desire to write – started writing poetry in highschool. In my senior year, I was lucky enough to have a wonderful teacher in English class. She had us write what she called a “theme” every week, at home.

I’d lock myself in the family bathroom and write whatever came into my head tillI was done. My teacher really encouraged me, for which I will be forevergrateful. My dream was to become a reporter, preferably a foreign correspondent,traveling to exotic, dangerous places and reporting on the news.

Where do you live now? Do you use that locale for settings in your novels?

I live in a rural section of Woodstock, NY (THE Woodstock). It’s a wonderful community of tolerant, laid-back people, lots of writers and artists.  So far, I haven’t used it for a setting.  My first mystery novel of my series, Mother,

Murder and Me, is set in NYC.

What inspired you to write your most recent novel?

Ah, this is strange.  I had a bout of bronchitis and was lying on the sofa inthe living room, when I had a sense, a feeling, of my mother standing over me. Ihad the sense to drag myself to my computer in my study and start typing. Twentyor so pages later, I had a daughter in her late 30s and her mother, recently deceased, who’d been the bane of the daughter’s existence in life.  A few days later, I realized that I couldn’t base a whole novel on a ghost-mother and

daughter’s relationship. Since I’m a mystery novel fanatic, I decided to try and make it into a mystery. Besides the murders, suspense, red herrings,relationships, etc., it had to have lots of humor, since that’s the way I think.

Did you plan your series before or after you wrote the first book in the

series?

Yes and no. I didn’t plan on it, but while I was revising the first book, I kepthaving ideas for future books with the two main characters, and I’d jot them down on little pieces of paper and shove them into a folder. So it had to happen.

Name three of your favorite authors in the mystery genre.

Kate Flora, Karin Slaughter, Kate Atkinson. (there’s lots more but you said three.)

What are your favorite things to do when you’re not reading or writing? 

Playing the piano – I took four years of classical piano when I was a preteen into my teens, played in competitions and recitals, which I hated.  But I loved my piano teacher. I finally (!) have acquired a rebuilt Steinway baby grand, which is my most valuable possession. I also like to meditate, do dance exercise, yoga, hang out with girlfriends, go to concerts and other things with my husband, occasionally visit my grown kids,  take care of my many houseplants, knit stuff, watch True Crime and old movies on TV and keep up with national politics, mainly on TV.

That’s quite a long list! Do you like to travel? If so, what are some of your favorite places to go?

London. We finally got to spend two weeks there last fall and both of us didn’t ever want to leave.  I really fell in love with all that wonderful history, tradition, everything.

How would you describe yourself personality wise?

Mostly extrovert, but I do like spending time with myself, too.

What’s your favorite color? Why?

Purple, and shades of blue-purple, like periwinkle. Maybe it’s a little magic and a little “Woodstock.”  My favorite Woodstock spiritual person, who introduced me to the teachings of the Divine Mother, Sri Kuranamayi, often wore purple—we sometimes dress very similarly – I even own some of her clothes I got at her yard sales --- recently died, and I really miss her.

What’s your answer to this question – If I won a million dollars, I would ------

buy a second home in London.

For a sneak preview of Mother, Murder, and Me or to order a copy in paper or Kindle format, go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Mother-Murder-Me-Sandra-Gardner/dp/0984311386/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337352036&sr=1-1