Interviews Archives - Page 27 of 30 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

Grand Country Houses, Victorian England, Murder! Delicious! an Inteview with Tasha Alexander (part 2)

Tasha Alexander, best sellers, fiction, interviews — Burton Agnes Hall

Part 2…my Interview with Tasha Alexander

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing and for how long?

A. Writing a first draft is the most intense part of the process for me. When I’m doing research, kicking around or fleshing out plot ideas, or revising, I can interact with other people, run my household, etc. etc. But drafting is another story altogether. I have a daily word count goal when I’m drafting and will not stop until I have reached it. I get very focused on what I’m doing and am barely functional in other capacities. When I was in this mode last year, my son asked me to make him pancakes for lunch. I did. Unfortunately, however, instead of using the recipe I have made thousands of times, I randomly followed one on the opposite page of the cookbook, not realizing what I had done until I noticed the batter seemed weird. My head was completely in the book. We ordered pizza. Which just goes to prove that sometimes it’s better to let pizza boxes pile up than to try to cook.

Funnily enough, cooking is a huge part of my writing process—just earlier and later in the life of the book. It’s my favorite thing to do when I’ve got ideas percolating in the back of my brain. You think you’re browning meat for Julia Child’s boeuf bourguignon, but all of a sudden you realize Continue reading “Grand Country Houses, Victorian England, Murder! Delicious! an Inteview with Tasha Alexander (part 2)”

Lady Emily sails into the Salon to Find a Dead Body! Interview with Author, Tasha Alexander (1 of 3)

Let’s peek into Tasha’s writing world…. “any delay opens the door to the possibility of not writing at all.”

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR, TASHA ALEXANDER

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing?

A. Before I started to write, I had this idea—an idea many of us have at the beginning—that I would need the right sort of space in which to work. I had visions of lovely bookshelf-lined rooms with big windows and a large antique table. Reality was that I lived in an attic apartment in New Haven, where the only think that might be construed as an office or study was an unfinished section of the attic (no windows) where we had draped canvas to form a ceiling that would keep the bats from dive-bombing whoever was sitting at the computer. Not being a fan of bats, I learned quickly to be adaptable. It turns out where you write isn’t so important as it might seem. I can write in an airport lounge, a coffee shop, on a bench waiting for my son to come out of his drawing class. My preferred spot at home is my bedroom. For some reason, sitting in bed is the one place I can work without ever getting wrist or shoulder pain (you’d think it would be an ergonomic nightmare, but it’s not). Continue reading “Lady Emily sails into the Salon to Find a Dead Body! Interview with Author, Tasha Alexander (1 of 3)”

A Weirdly Wonderful Storyteller….(Part 2) an Interview with Cathy Lamb

Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative?

This is a job. People imagine writers are off on palm tree studded islands writing, or in tree houses, or at their darling cottage at the beach, no distractions except their pinging imagination. This is a false image. Almost all the writers I know have children, responsibilities, people who need them. Some have day jobs. You simply must get your work done as others do in every other profession on the planet.

Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?

A. Don’t procrastinate. Sit your butt down and write and quit dallying around. Do you want to publish or not? Seriously. Ask yourself that question. It’s a good one.

I can procrastinate, too. I’m quite talented at it. But for me, if I don’t meet my goals, I don’t let myself go to bed at night. I have very, very late nights sometimes. Getting books written is about dedication, focus and hard work. Not romantic. Not always fun. You may be in pajamas most of the day. You may not wash your hair when you should. But you do buck up and write. It is what it is.

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing and for how long?

A. I can get lost in my story, my characters, for hours. I’ll sit down upstairs, lean against the wall, my computer propped on my lap, and the next thing I know it’s three in the morning and the characters have taken me places I didn’t know we were going and done things that would get a normal person arrested.

Q. Who or what is your “Muse” at the moment (i.e. specific creative inspirations)?

A. I don’t have a muse. Can I get one somewhere? Are they on sale?

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. When I was sixteen. Truly. That was when I decided I had to be a writer. There was no other goal, professionally, for me. I couldn’t be anything else. I wrote for the school newspaper, I wrote my first romance at age nineteen at the University of Oregon as a freshman. (It was rejected.) I taught fourth grade from the time I was twenty – two to twenty nine. I became a teacher specifically so I would have time at night and during summers to write.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. I sold my first book in 2005. My road to publishing took a while. I went to college, then grad school, taught school, got married, had three kids, was a freelance writer for years for The Oregonian writing about homes, décor, people, events, fashion…the usual curvy road. When my kids were little I wrote late at night, too. It was the only time I had. I lived off about five to six hours of sleep a night for sixteen years.

Q. What makes a writer great?

A. A writer is great when they’re able to reach the reader through characters and wrench deep emotions out of them.

If you missed Part I, click here. Return to read Part 3 of this interview August 29th

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview with one once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Patrick Taylor, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Cathy Lamb, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Raymond Benson, Andrew Grant, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb. September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is November’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Raymond Benson is January’s author. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To receive my posts sign up for my On the right side you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

Don’t Miss Part II of my interview with author, Cathy Lamb

being different, outcasts, love, scorn, achievement — A captivating story about a young boy who teaches us what ‘normal’ really means

COMING TUESDAY! Part II of my Interview with best selling author, Cathy Lamb

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing and for how long?

To read Part I click here

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Cathy Lamb, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Raymond Benson, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

To receive my posts sign up for my On the right side you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

‘General Noggin and I Really want to play Basketball, Boss Mom!’ An Interview with author, Cathy Lamb

best sellers, books, fiction, Cathy Lamb — Photo by Marv Bondarowicz

An Interview with best-selling author, Cathy Lamb (Part 1 of 3)

CL: ‘ I became a teacher because I wanted to become a writer. It was difficult for me to become proper and conservative but I threw out my red cowboy boots and persevered. I had no choice. I had to eat and health insurance is expensive. I loved teaching, but I also loved the nights and summers where I could write and try to build a career filled with creativity and my strange imagination.

I met my husband on a blind date. A mutual friend who was an undercover vice cop busting drug dealers set us up. My husband jokes he was being arrested at the time. That is not true. Do not believe him. His sense of humor is treacherous. It was love at third sight. We’ve now been married a long time. I drink too many mochas. I love chocolate. I run. I walk. I love to read. I often cry when I’m writing my books, and I laugh, too. I love walking through the waves at the beach and I believe that daydreaming makes you a better person so I do it a lot.’

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Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing?

A. I write everywhere. Upstairs on my bed looking out the window at my maple trees, on my couch staring at my petunias and an

interviews, writing, best selling authors — the Deschutes River. my husband fly fishes. I journal.

occasional hummingbird, and at Starbucks. I write best late at night. Ten o’clock to two o’clock in the morning. It’s quiet. My kids are in bed. My brain stops buzzing. I can dive straight into my imagination and hang out there for awhile like a crazy lady.

Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (a neat work space, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)

A. I look at email and then I feed my small, but mostly healthy addiction to the New York Times. I get ticked off at what I’m reading sometimes and sit back and think what I would do if I was president and which politicians I would immediately get rid of. It entertains me.

Q. What is your mode of writing? (long hand? Pencil? Computer?)

A. Pretty journals. One journal to five journals per book for writing ideas, characters, plots, and working through all sorts of literary problems. I write the story, however, on my computer. I write straight through, 2000 words a day, 10,000 a week, for the first draft. I edit every book eight times before it even goes to my editor. I edit it another four times after that. Yes, twelve edits. I want to bang my own head through the keyboard just thinking about it…

Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative?

A. Waiting to “feel creative,” for me, is like waiting for the moon to drop on my head. Or for my flying Porsche to arrive. People who only write when they feel creative rarely get published. I make myself get creative. I give myself goals every day, every week and I meet the goals.

Don’t Miss Part 2 and 3 of this Interview on August 27th and 28th.

A REVIEW of “If You Could See What I See” Click here

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month. These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Cathy Lamb, Raymond Benson, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb. September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is November’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Raymond Benson is January’s author. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page. Enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

‘A is for..Alibi’ ‘B is for…’C is for’… An Interview with Sue Grafton (part 2)

Part II ** Interview with Sue Grafton In Loving Memory

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing and for how long?

SG. On occasion, but not nearly often enough. I love that feeling but most of the time it’s just struggle, hair-tearing, whining, and complaints. I’m easily distracted. If the work is going well…call it twice a week…then I’m happy. Most of the time I’m sitting here because that’s what it takes. Comfortable or uncomfortable doesn’t make any difference. I suffer because I feel stupid and clumsy and blocked most of the time, but so what? That is all part of the process. If you’re not willing to sweat it out, you’re in the wrong business. No short cuts.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

SG. When I was eighteen. I wrote seven full-length novels from the ages of twenty-two to thirty-eight. Novels four and five were published. The others have never seen the light of day. The eighth novel I wrote was ‘A’ IS FOR ALIBI and that was after a long stint in Hollywood where I wrote pilots, movies for television, and the occasional film script.

Q. How long after that were you published?

SG. My first novel was published five years after I began teaching myself how to write long form. ‘A’ IS FOR ALIBI took me five years to write. I’d say ‘five’ is the magic number. It takes fifteen years of being published before you can support yourself with the writing. This is not a career for sissies or cowards. You better get used to hard work. And rejection and frustration. That’s what teaches you. You can’t side-step the anguish.

Q. and the all important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like?

SG. As I’ve often described, I keep a series of journals or notebooks on my computer for every novel I write. The journal is where I keep plot possibilities, ideas, research notes, character sketches, dialogue when it occurs to me. The collective journals for ‘V’ IS FOR VENGEANCE came to 967 single-spaced pages. The journals for ‘W’ came to 1298 single-spaced pages on the day I finished the book, which was February 21, 2013. It took me a year to settle on the storyline . I work by trial and error which is why it takes me so long. After a mere thirty years at this, I know what doesn’t work but I don’t always know it in advance. I write and then I think, no. I write some more and think, don’t think so. I write some more and think, are you kidding me? I write some more and I think, well that stinks. And on it goes.

Q. Where/when do you first discover Kinsey and your other characters ?

SG. I am Kinsey Millhone so that was easy enough. Other characters I discover as I go along. Character and plot can never be separated. Both have to be developed at the same time, in tandem, or a story won’t come to life.

Q. What inspired your story/stories ?

SG. Sometimes a germ of an idea will come to me. In fact many times I have the germ of an idea. That’s the easy part. What’s difficult is figuring out what you can do with an idea, figuring out how you can develop it to the point where it will carry 660 manuscript pages. You need heft and complexity and major muscle. Not every idea will yield a novel. One of my big lessons, always, is learning when to let it go. I’m ruthless when it comes to that. I might work on an idea for six months. Once I realize it isn’t working and that I don’t know how to make it work, I dump it.

Q. Have you or do you want to write in another genre?

SG. I’ve written in other forms and formats; movie scripts, television scripts, short stories and novels. I’ve never written science fiction or erotica or romance or horror or westerns. I don’t know those forms and I wouldn’t do a good job of it. I love the hard-boiled private eye novel and I love crime fiction, which is…as it turns out…where I belong.

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Biography: I was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky where I graduated from the University of Louisville in 1961 with a degree in English. I worked in a variety of jobs in the medical field, writing after the family was down for the night. Sold a ‘mainstream’ novel, KEZIAH DANE, that was published when I was 27 and then a second novel, THE LOLLY-MADONNA WAR, that was published when I was 29. Altogether, before the alphabet novels, I wrote 7 books . The eighth novel I wrote was ‘A’ IS FOR ALIBI. Guess what I’ve been doing every since?’

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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? December: British writer, J.G. Dow. January: In Memory, Sue Grafton.

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PI, Kinsey Millhone is Hot on the Trail, Again! an Interview with Sue Grafton

An Interview with Mystery Writer, Sue Grafton (Part 1)

Author, John D. McDonald died suddenly back in 1986 and took Travis McGee with him. I owned and had read every book of McDonald’s…..Now what was I suppose to do?? I didn’t read many mysteries (back then) but I was especially fond of Travis and his bear-of-a-man friend, Meyer. So back in the eighties, (when you shopped at a real book store), I looked through the aisles for someone worthy of replacing John McDonald. There I found “A is for Alibi” with the formidable and quirky, Kinsey Millhone. I’ve been reading Sue Grafton ever since. TS
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this entry from Sue’s journals;

Dear Shadow . . . Self . . . and Right Brain, Doing everything I can here to make life possible. I’ve abandoned the old story . . . cleaned out my computer . . . sorted and tossed and filed away old notes and articles. Now I need help in launching myself again. Please speak to me. Please let me know where the new book is coming from. I really need your assistance and I’m hoping you’ll spark something so I can get to work.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Love & kisses,

Sue

Response from Shadow Self: How about an old-fashioned unsolved murder case? Parents are angry because nothing’s been done. Case is old & cold, with no new leads coming in.
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Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing?

best sellers, Sue Grafton, — Sue Grafton’s work space

A. I have an office in both my homes; Montecito, California and Louisville Kentucky. The two are different in terms of size and style but I can’t tell you that I’m more productive in one than in the other. I like lots of light. I like tidiness. I like space. I like quiet. When I’m working my desk is usually a mess, but I do make an effort from time to time to restore order. The creative process is messy enough. I don’t need to look at chaos as well.

Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)

A. Often I do a short stint of self-hypnosis which helps quiet the chatter in my head and helps me focus and concentrate. I learned the technique from a book on the subject that I got at a book store and it’s been a wonderful way to keep ‘centered’ if you’ll forgive the term.

Q. What is your mode of writing? (long hand? Pencil? Computer? Etc.)

A. A computer, of course. Which I claim has greatly improved my skills. In the ‘olden’ days of white out and cutting and pasting, I got hung up on whether the page ‘looked right’. I hated adding anything that forced me to repaginate because I didn’t like all the extra work. If I deleted 11 lines, I got so I could exactly replace the missing lines with something that would work as well so that I didn’t have to retype everything. To my way of thinking, this is not the key to writing well. On a computer I can and do write every line over and over until it suits me. The tinkering is infinite. I when a line is right and when it’s not, I revise and refine and cut and amend until it sounds right to my inner ear.

Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative?

A. I’m usually at my desk at 8:00. I check emails and make a brief visit to my Face Book page where I chat with readers. I never feel truly creative. I work until lunch time when I take a short break. go back until mid-afternoon when I usually take a walk with one of a number of friends. I work seven days a week because it’s easier to stay connected to the writing. In completing “W” I worked double-sessions, returning to my desk after dinner. I cut out our social life. I nixed all the walks which I found interrupted the work too often. I didn’t run errands. I didn’t stop to get my hair cut.

Part 2 of this Interview will be posted August 6th

And to read more in the fascinating Journals that Sue keeps for each book, go to: www.suegrafton.com
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Raymond Benson, Amber Winckler, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb later in the month. September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is November’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is my January author. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

World Renowned Mystery Writer, Sue Grafton visits my Blog!

DON’T MISS IT! Starting tomorrow, my interview with Sue Grafton, most famous for her best selling alphabet series!

August 1st and 6th, Sue shares with me and her readers her process as she writes her best sellers. Beginning back in the eighties she wrote “A IS FOR ALIBI” and the rest is history. What happens when we get to “Z”?? Will that be the end to Kinsey Milhone, PI? Oh, no!!!

The birth of CSI …an Interview with Rhys Bowen (part 2)

I SAT DOWN WITH Rhys Bowen (wish that were true) and HERE IS PART II of my INTERVIEW WITH HER.

Catch up with Part I of this great interview!

Q. and the all important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like?

A. I write historical mystery series so I come to a new book knowing a lot about my main character, a lot about her background. So I am not starting from a blank canvas each time. I usually start from a setting, an environment. I know I’d like to send Molly to an enclosed convent in search of a missing baby. I have no idea what will happen there or who I will meet until I start to write it. My books always go in directions I hadn’t suspected. (sound familiar?)

Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters ?

A.With Molly Murphy I knew I wanted to write a feisty first person female who didn’t know when to shut up. With Lady Georgie I wanted to write the most unlikely sleuth I could think of—royal but penniless.

Q. What inspired your story/stories ?

A. The Molly books were conceived because I visited Ellis Island and was so emotionally overcome by what I saw and felt there, I just knew I had to set a story there. The Royal Spyness books started from wanting to write something fun and funny and about British aristocrats in the 30s.

Q. When is your next book coming out? (or) What are you working on?

A.March 5. It’s a Molly book, The Family Way. My next Royal Spyness book will be out on August 6, called Heirs and Graces. (reviewed here in August). I’m currently writing the 13th Molly book, called City of Darkness and Light. It takes place among painters in Paris.

Q. As a fan of your work I am currently reading “Royal Blood” (from the Royal Spyness series). What inspired the story line? Had you visited ‘Bran Castle’? Met royals? Attended a royal wedding, perhaps?

A. I wrote Royal Blood because vampire novels were suddenly so popular that I wanted to write a spoof on all things vampire. I haven’t visited Bran castle but I have been to plenty of similar castles in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic so I had a good feel for it.

I have met plenty of real royals… all English. I had tea with the current queen. I was presented to the queen mother. I met Princess Margaret and saw Queen Mary when she was very old but still so regal and stately. But alas, no royal weddings. I’d have liked to be at William and Kate’s.

Q. Have you? Or do you want to write in another genre`?

A. I suppose like all writers I’d like to write that one definitive literary novel.

Click here to read Part I of this interview
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A review of Bowen’s “Oh Danny Boy”, another Molly Murphy mystery.
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name:: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Karen Robards, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Caroline Leavitt, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is November’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year.
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Interview * Rhys Bowen~~ New York City, A Brew of Immigrants and Mystery!

INTERVIEW *** WITH BEST SELLING AUTHOR, RHYS BOWEN

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing?

A.I have an office, set up to make everything go as smoothly as possible. Bookshelf behind my desk has all my research materials. On the walls are certificates for all my award nominations to inspire me when I get depressed. On my desk are silly toys to play with when I get bored.

Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)

A. I write two books a year. I have to be a professional, sit down at my desk every morning and write although I do sometimes do it in my robe and pjs!

Q. What is your mode of writing? (long hand? Pencil? Computer? Etc.)

A. Oh goodness, I’d never manage two books a year if I wrote longhand, nor would I be able to read my own writing. The day computers were invented was the happiest day of my life.

Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative?

A.I go to my desk as soon as I’ve made a cup of tea, answer emails then start to write. I give myself a target of 5 pages a day and I write until I’ve done at least that much. Sometimes it’s more. Sometimes I’m done by mid morning.

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing and for how long?

A. There have been mornings when I think “It must be eleven by now. I’d really like a cup of coffee and I look at my watch and it’s 2 p.m.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. Right after college when I started working for the BBC in London. I started writing my own radio and TV plays.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. The first play I took to the head of BBC drama was accepted and produced. I’ve been a professional writer ever since.

Biography. I’m the New York Times bestselling author of two historical mystery series: The Molly Murphy books are set in early 1900s New York City and the Royal Spyness books are about a minor royal in 1930s England. My books have won 13 awards to date, including Agatha and Anthony. I was born and raised in Britain but have lived in California for most of my adult life. Now I divide my time between California and Arizona (where I go to escape those brutal California winters). http://rhysbowen.com/
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Don’t miss Part II of this wonderful interview and get a look into this writer’s world! Friday, July 5th
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month .These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: : Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Karen Robards, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Caroline Leavitt, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

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