Getting to know Mystery Author, Holli Castillo

I'm pleased to have Holli Castillo, author of Gumbo Justice and Jambalaya Justice, with us today. I've read both of her novels and included them on my "Best Of" list on Shelfari. Let's get to know her.
Patricia: Holli, what are your favorite things to do when you’re not reading or writing?

Holli: When I’m not reading or writing, I like watching TV or movies. I love just about any series with prosecutors and cops, mysteries of any kind, and sci-fi. In movies, I enjoy an occasional romantic comedy, but my first choice is a good action thriller. Ordinarily I’m begging for time to read and write because I have two daughters and a husband who demand most of my time, as well as a house full of pets.  So the question may be a little backwards for me, because when I’m not fulfilling my obligations, I love to read or write. There’s seldom time for anything else.

Patricia: What’s your favorite color? Why? 
Holli: Red. It just feels like me. I love red clothes and red rooms and red furniture.  Some people think it’s an angry color, but I think of it more as exciting, full of life, and only slightly volatile.

Patricia: How would you describe yourself, personality wise?

Holli: I think I’m painfully shy, but no one else seems to agree.  I’m also a big worrier, which nobody believes because I tend to be very direct with people.  They don’t understand that the whole reason I am so direct and occasionally confrontational is because if I think someone is angry with me or has a problem with me, I have to get it out I the open or else I will worry myself sick over it. I am also somewhat of a typical Sagittarius, always with a bright new idea but have trouble on the follow-through.  I try to plan things out because if not I don’t get much accomplished, but I often end up flying by the seat of my pants anyway.  My current mantra is lead, follow, or get out my way.

Patricia: Do you like to travel? If so, what are some of your favorite places to go and/or what was your favorite vacation? 
Holli: My whole family loves to travel.  We love Vegas, especially my daughters (11 and 13.) They have loved it since they were little.  All that bling I guess. We also love the beach, although I don’t love actually going out on it. I burn easily and don’t like to sweat or dig sand out of body parts, but I do love to watch and listen to the gulf and the ocean. I prefer to the beach at night.  It always seems so mysterious walking along the water’s edge in the moonlight. I think my favorite beaches are the ones on the gulf coast of Florida.  One of my other favorite places to visit is San Antonio, Texas. I loved their Riverwalk. One of my favorite vacations was when my father flew to Charlottesville, Virginia, with me so I could interview for graduate school at the University of Virginia. I wanted to enter their directing program, but didn’t make it in. It was still a great vacation, because it was the first time I had ever flown, and my father and I walked all around the University area, the shops and the restaurants, and had a great time. He never took vacations because he owned a business and refused to take off of work. My mother would take us to the beach every summer and he would bow out, afraid the business would fold if he was gone for a week.  While this wasn’t strictly a vacation, it was one of the few times I can remember that he took off of work to travel. He’s dead now, but I will always remember that trip even though I didn’t get into the graduate school.

Patricia: How would you complete this sentence? If I won a million dollars, I would  ------

Holli: pay off all my bills and pay One Direction to play a show for my daughters and their friends.  Either that or produce one of my own screenplays.  It would have to be a low budget one, though, because a million dollars doesn’t go far in the film industry.  

Holli Castillo was born and raised in New Orleans. She is a former prosecutor and current appellate public defender.  Her first novel, Gumbo Justice, was delayed when she was in a near-fatal head-on collision with a drunk driver right as the novel was scheduled for release. While on her back recovering for seven months, she wrote an award-winning screenplay and worked on her second novel, Jambalaya Justice, which was published in 2011. She is nearing completion of the third installment in the Crescent City Mystery Series, Chocolate City Justice, which is scheduled for release summer, 2013.  She lives in metropolitan New Orleans with her husband—who is the model for the character Big Who in the series--her two children, two dogs, guinea pigs, and deaf cat, who is featured in Jambalaya Justice.

Gumbo Justice and Jambalaya Justice available in paper and Kindle at Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_at_ep_srch?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Holli%20Castillo&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank

Also available in paper and Nook at Barnes and Noble http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=book&SZE=10&ATH=Holli%20Castillo&SRT=S

Or get a signed copy of either or both from my website at http://gumbojustice.net/pages/buy-the-novels.php

"Best Of" Mystery/Suspense Novels by Small Press Authors

        Every time I see another commercial on TV advertising a new book by James Patterson, I can't help thinking: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if authors published by small presses (including myself) could afford that kind of publicity?  But, the sad truth is, we can’t and neither can our publishers.  
        I realize that we can’t all achieve the fame and fortune of James Patterson. But I think we deserve a shot, a chance for readers to discover our books. That’s why I created my “Best Of” list on Shelfari. It’s my humble attempt to draw attention to the many, many wonderful mystery novels I’ve read by small press authors. But I need your help.

Before I write another word, I want to clarify something. My “Best Of” list is in no way complete. At this point, it’s a sample of some of the best mystery/suspense novels (published by small presses) that I’ve read in the past year or so. I’ll be adding new books to my list as time permits. I hope you’ll check the list periodically to discover new treasures.

So, how can you help to promote small press authors? The most obvious way, of course, is to buy our books. You can also join Shelfari, if you’re not already a member, and click the “recommend” button on my list. Then, spread the word to your friends about the list and the wonderful books you've discovered there. After all, word of mouth is the most powerful advertising there is!

http://www.shelfari.com/Best-Of/10560/Best-of-Mystery-Suspense-novels-published-by-small-presses

Mystery Author of the Month, Jenny Milchman

I'd like to welcome mystery/suspense author, Jenny Milchman.

Jenny, where did you grow up? Did your childhood contribute to your desire to be a writer? 
I was born in Manhattan, and grew up in a suburb in New Jersey. I would say that the place I grew up contributed to the places I now write about in a paradoxical kind of way. Living outside an enormous city gave me a fascination with small towns and the closeness of the people who live in them, whether they like being that close or they don’t.

Where do you live now? Do you use that locale for settings in your novels? 
I live in another suburb, a little farther west, and I haven’t written about it yet. Small towns with dramatic topography—mountains, rivers, woods—consume me. My first novel, Cover of Snow, takes places in the Adirondacks. And my next novel begins in Idaho before traveling back to the Adirondacks. However, the novel I have kicking around for my third just might start out in New Jersey!

What inspired you to write your most recent novel?

The idea behind Cover of Snow was a question that grabbed me around the throat and just wouldn’t let go. What would make a good man do the worst thing he possibly could to his wife? Of course, first I had to figure out what that ‘worst thing’ would be, but once I did, I had a premise and an opening scene that persisted over many years and about twenty-two drafts. (Oy). Another way to describe Cover of Snow is with this log line: When her police detective husband commits suicide in the middle of a frozen Adirondack winter, Nora Hamilton must lay bare the secrets a town has always kept...as well as her own.

When did you “know” that you wanted to be a writer? 
My mom says that when I was two years old, I would tell her bedtime stories, and she would write them down. I just know that I always wanted to write. But practical considerations interfered and I went to college and graduate school to study psychology. I realized at some point that I couldn’t stop writing, but it’s good I didn’t know how hard it was going to be. It took me thirteen years to get published.

Name three of your favorite authors in the mystery/suspense genre. What makes them your favorites? 
Oooh, this is so hard. Winifred by Doris Miles Disney is one of my all-time favorite mysteries. I think it contains the best last line ever written. The others I’d choose are not strictly mystery authors. I think that Pet Semetary by Stephen King is as existential a horror story as anything by Camus. And ‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson is absolute perfection as a short story that hides the reveal until the very end.

Jenny Milchman is a suspense novelist from New Jersey whose short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Adirondack Mysteries II, and in an e-published volume called Lunch Reads. Jenny is the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, and the chair of International Thriller Writers’ Debut Authors Program. Her first novel, Cover of Snow, is published by Ballantine.

Jenny can be reached at http://jennymilchman.com and she blogs at http://suspenseyourdisbelief.com

Mystery of the Month by Marja McGraw

This is the third in the Bogey Man Mysteries (and my personal favorite), featuring Chris and Pamela Cross, along with their son Mikey and two Yellow Labs, Sherlock and Watson.

Marguerite Turnbal was a bestselling gothic mystery writer in the 1950s. A little on the eccentric side, she had her home renovated, adding secret compartments. In her later years she told her twin daughters, Coral and Carol, that there was a treasure to be found, and she gave them only one clue to its whereabouts. 

Over twenty years after Marguerite’s death a young woman is murdered in the old empty house. Chris Cross’s parents have come for a visit. His mother, Judith, and his son, Mikey, want to solve their own mystery in true Cross family tradition. Judith, also a little eccentric, breaks into the house after seeing strange lights and finds the body – not quite the mystery she was hoping to find. The Bogey Man and his family are soon gumshoeing their way through life again, looking for a murderer and hidden treasure.

Buy links:

http://www.amazon.com/They-Call-Ace-Bogey-Mystery/dp/1610090675/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361716945&sr=1-1&keywords=they+call+me+ace

Oak Tree Press: http://oaktreebooks.com/Shop%20OTP.htm

Bio:

Marja McGraw is originally from Southern California, where she worked in both criminal and civil law enforcement for several years.

Relocating to Northern Nevada, she worked for the Nevada Department of Transportation.  Marja also lived in Oregon where she worked for the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and owned her own business, a Tea Room/Antique store. After a brief stop in Wasilla, Alaska, she returned to Nevada. She’s also worked for a library and a city building department.

Marja wrote a weekly column for a small newspaper in No. Nevada and she was the editor for the Sisters in Crime Internet Newsletter for a year and a half. She’s appeared on television in Nevada, and she’s also been a guest on various radio and Internet radio shows.

She writes the Sandi Webster Mysteries and the Bogey Man Mysteries, and says that each of her mysteries contains “a little humor, a little romance and A Little Murder!”

She currently resides in Arizona with her husband, where life is good.

Website : http://www.marjamcgraw.com/ and Blog: http://blog.marjamcgraw.com/

A bonus! Ms. McGraw has just released another mystery! It's available on Kindle at the link below and will soon be available in paperback. You won't want to miss this one!

http://www.amazon.com/Mysteries-Holt-House-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00BDTQ5NS/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361123657&sr=1-1&keywords=mysteries+of+holt+house