Q&A with Sallie Bissell!

This week, we sat down with Sallie Bissell, author of the Mary Crow Novels. Her latest, A Judgment of Whispers, is out now!

Midnight Ink: How long have you been writing? 

Sallie Bissell: My parents gave me a typewriter the Christmas I was eight. I’ve been writing at something, ever since. I was an advertising copywriter for a while (this was in Nashville—I wrote radio commercials for the Grand Ole Opry). Then I was a ghost writer for Bonnie Bryant’s Saddle Club series.  I started seriously writing under my own name about twenty years ago.

MI: What influence have other authors had on your writing?

SB: I read all of William O. Steele’s work when I was a girl—that got me into the outdoor adventure mode, which I guess I’ve never really left. I learned a lot about the scope of a novel from Gail Godwin.  Pacing from Elmore Leonard. Language from John Steinbeck.  Suspense from Richard Wright—I think his Native Son is a masterpiece. Margaret Atwood, Barbara Vine and Sara Paretsky have also expanded my view of what fiction can accomplish.

MI: If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing? 

Sallie at work on her typewriter

SB: Something in art, probably. My mother was a painter and I have a modest bit of talent in that area.  I entered college as an art major. My faculty advisor looked greatly relieved when I transferred to the English Department! In my fantasy life, I’d like to be a jet pilot or Serena Williams.

MI: If you have a job outside of writing, what is it? 

SB: I’ve kept my hand in advertising, on a freelance basis. I love birds and I’m helping a local bird seed company expand its customer base. I write their newsletter and mind the shop a couple of afternoons a week. It’s fun and totally different from writing fiction.  Birders are interesting people, always with good stories to tell, usually about squirrels or bears.

MI: What is/are your favorite thing/s to do when you’re not writing or working? 

SB: I love to play tennis, and do so as often as I can. I’m also on a Trivia team that plays at a local restaurant once a week. Writers are good at trivia—we have minds that are stuffed with esoteric information, like what’s the longest river in Chile. I once catapulted the team to victory by knowing who wrote Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. (Dee Brown.) I have no idea what the longest river in Chile is.

MI: Who is your favorite mystery sleuth and why? 

SB: Probably Sherlock Holmes. I think Conan Doyle took  themes that other writers (Poe, Dickins, Wilkie Collins) had touched on and made a terrific character. It was a perfect storm for success, in a way—you had spiritualism, industrial revolution, scientific discovery—plus the serial formal. The work has endured because the writing is good—the puzzles (plots) are ingenious and the characterizations are interesting, too.

MI: Do you have a favorite murder case from a book (either yours or another author’s)?

SB: My favorite murder case was one my aunt was questioned in (though not as a suspect).  It happened in Nashville in the early '70s and was only recently solved, and not to everyone’s satisfaction.  I used it as the basis for the murder in my next book, A Judgment of Whispers.  Older Nashvillians will know exactly what I’m talking about!

MI: What was your inspiration for this series?

SB: The idea of Mary Crow came about after I moved to Asheville, NC. I went from an urban lifestyle to a rural one, in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. Also I’d never seen a Cherokee Indian before, and I became fascinated with their culture. In writing the first book, In The Forest of Harm, I re-entered the fictional world I’d loved so much as a girl—woods and forests and trails that led who knows where.

MI: Tell us about Mary Crow.

SB: Mary Crow is a woman of color; a woman with a foot in both the white urban Atlanta culture of her father and the rural Cherokee culture of her mother.  She was orphaned early and bears the scars of losing the people she’s loved. She is smart, a little to the introvert end of the spectrum and is beautiful when she smiles.  She has been in love with Jonathan Walkingstick since the day she first saw him, but can’t quite figure out how to live with him. She loves a good joke, drives a black Miata and owns a Glock 9 that she’s not shy about using. If you were in trouble, she’d help you out, then go kick the butt of whoever got you in trouble in the first place. She’s someone I’d love to have as a friend.

 

MI: How does this book/series compare to your past works?

SB: A Judgment of Whispers is the most reality based novel I’ve ever written. I use the above mentioned murder case, mixed with the autistic son of a dear friend of mine. Mostly, it’s a novel about how hard people can be on people whose only crime is being different.

MI: Do you have a pet? Tell us about him/her.

SB: I’m the proud owner of Peyton Manning Bissell, a rescue pup who has grown into my 70 pound personal body guard.  Also Princess Tingaling, a rescue cat. If Peyton were human he’d drive a pickup, drink Pabst beer and wear an orange Tennessee baseball cap. If Ting were human she’d sit on a throne and eat caviar with a little spoon. We have some fun times at our house.

Sallie and Peyton Manning Bissell

MI: If you don’t have a pet, do you have a favorite animal?

SB: I can’t think of an animal I don’t like, but I have a particular fondness for elephants and horses. Elephants because they are amazingly smart but overly hunted; horses because I’ve ridden them all my life. Animals, I think, behave far more decently than most humans.  I make a point not to hurt them in my books.

MI: What food could you live off of for the rest of your life?

SB: Pizza. Hot for dinner, cold for breakfast. It’s all good!

MI: Do you have a favorite recipe?

SB: There’s a pie we eat in Tennessee called Chess Pie. I got my grandmother’s recipe for it before she died, but I think she forgot a few key ingredients. Mine has never come out as good as hers did. I don’t make it often, since it has about ten million calories a slice.

MI: What’s your favorite part about being an Inker?

SB: Writing stories that people get excited about! The long haul of writing—the sitting down and working for hours and weeks and months is a lot like shouting down a well. It’s lonely, isolating and has driven braver folks than me over the edge. To have colleagues who care about your work and are looking forward to the next rabbit you pull out of your hat makes things a lot more fun!

A Judgment of Whispers is available online and in bookstores now!

Midnight Ink | Indiebound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Your local bookstore

Visit Sallie online here.

Q&A with Laura DiSilverio!

This week, we sat down with Laura DiSilverio. Her first suspenseful stand-alone, The Reckoning Stones, is out now!

Midnight Ink: How long have you been writing?

Laura DiSilverio: I've been writing all my life, starting with short stories about horses and Viking princesses in a collection I called Let Your Imagination Run Free. It had a construction paper cover on which I drew a picture of a horse and a girl with long, flowing black hair (research wasn't my long suit). As I recall, I spent more time on the drawing than the writing. I started writing for a living when I retired from the Air Force. My first mystery hit bookstore shelves in May 2010, and The Reckoning Stones is my fourteenth published novel.

Laura's Desk

MI: What influence have other authors had on your writing?

LD: Last year, my New Year's resolution was to read a bunch of classic books I'd never gotten around to (whether or not they were assigned in school). Along the way I rediscovered Steinbeck and he's having an influence on my writing. I aspire to prose as crisp and descriptive as his, and characters as haunting.

I couldn't possibly name all the other writers, living or dead, who have influenced my work in one way or another, whether by brainstorming with me, offering me advice, or blazing a trail so women mystery writers writing about female sleuths could get published and recognized. If I try, I'll leave someone out, so I'm not going to write them down.

MI: If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?

LD: Don't laugh, but I think I might be an event organizer or a personal trainer. I enjoy working out and have worked with trainers off and on. I enjoy helping folks learn how to get more out of their gym routines. I am also very organized and a multi-tasker, and I get a kick out of putting together events for hundreds of people. 

Despite twenty years in the military, I don't think I could go back to being an "employee" again, unless financial necessity dictated. I like being able to set my own schedule and wear sloppy duds while working. I like the fact that my job doesn't usually feel like work. Please buy The Reckoning Stones so I don't have to work on my delivery of "Do you want fries with that?"

MI: If you have a job outside of writing, what is it?

LD: Unless parenting counts as a job (which I think it does), I don't have another job. I write full-time and am grateful to be able to do so. My hat's off to writers who juggle day jobs and bushels of kids and still write books.

Pikes Peak at Sunset

Laura's Wirehaired Pointing Griffin, Marco

MI: What are your favorite things to do when you’re not writing or working?

LD: I read, of course, but I also work out, hike, walk my Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, volunteer at my church, go to wine tastings or out to dinner with my hubby, and travel.

MI: Who is your favorite mystery sleuth and why?

LD: That's  tough question. Hmm. Can I mash up a couple of sleuths? I like Elvis Cole, Vicky Bliss, and Myron Bolitar for their humor, Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot for their intellectual processes, Kinsey Millhone and Barbara Havers for their grit, Adam Dalgleish for his sophistication and melancholy, Annie Laurance and Max Darling for their solid and long-term marriage, and lots of others for relationships or personal struggles that carry through many books.

MI: What was your inspiration for this book?

LD: This is the first book I've ever written that had its genesis in a news story. I read a brief article years ago about police trying to find a girl who had run away from home as a teenager. She'd been abused by her pastor and forced to apologize publicly when she got up the nerve to tell her parents. The police were trying to find her long after the fact because a raft of other girls had come forward more recently with similar tales about abuse.

I started thinking about how awful such a situation would be, and wondering where the girl was, and Mercy/Iris and The Reckoning Stones grew out of that.

Laura's First Stand-alone
Suspense Novel

MI: Tell us about Iris Dashwood.

LD: Iris is a complicated character. The victim of sexual abuse by a person of trust (her pastor), she ran away at fifteen and encountered a lot of the ugly situations you'd imagine a runaway teen might face. She washed up in Portland, Oregon and is lucky enough to be taken in and mentored by Jane, an art gallery owner who recognizes her potential and helps her get training in jewelry design. When the story opens, she's successful, driven, and still prey to demons that make her seek out men who prey on young girls and punish them. She's never had a successful romantic relationship and prefers one-night stands with very young men (early twenties) who don't want marriage or long-term. 

Laura's Debut Novel

When she learns that her abuser has come out of his two decades long coma, her muse deserts her and she must return to her insular community to confront him and learn what really happened the night she left. As she reconnects with her parents, best friend and former boyfriend, she begins to understand herself better, heal some relationships and unearth some secrets.

MI: How does this book compare to your past works?

LD: My previous thirteen books are traditional mysteries or humorous private eye novels. They're all much funnier and more lighthearted than The Reckoning Stones. I greatly enjoyed the challenge of writing The Reckoning Stones, although I finished each day in a somewhat grimmer mood than when I write humorous mysteries.

MI: Do you have a pet? Tell us about him/her.

LD: Our dog is a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon. He's eleven years old and still active and spry. He's bred to be a hunting dog, but we don't hunt, so he contents himself with stalking squirrels and bunnies. It's hysterical to watch him stalk bunnies in slow motion. I swear you would never believe that a dog could move so slowly, like a movie-maker working with claymation.

Marco the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Marco on Deck

MI: What food could you live off of for the rest of your life?

LD: No one food would do it. I like variety. Salmon, chocolate, natural peanut butter, pasta, peaches, tea . . . there are too many to confine myself to one.

MI: Do you have a favorite recipe?

LD: Nope.

MI: What’s your favorite part about being an Inker?

LD: I love being part of a community that celebrates good writing and creativity. From the editorial staff to art (the book has an amazing cover!), production and sales and marketing, everyone has been so professional and helpful. I also like how supportive all the MI writers are of each other. It's a blessing to be an Inker.

The Reckoning Stones is available online and in bookstores now!

Midnight Ink | Indiebound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Your local bookstore

Visit Laura online here.

Q&A with C.S. Challinor!

This week, we sat down with C.S. Challinor, author of the Rex Graves Mysteries. Her latest, Murder Comes Calling, is out now!

Midnight Ink: How long have you been writing?
C.S. Challinor: I was a freelance writer in the mid-nineties, writing for Florida lifestyle and real estate publications and selling short fiction to US and UK magazines. I started writing full-time and full-length works in 2006, when I came out of new home/community sales.

MI: What influence have other authors had on your writing?

CSC: I've probably absorbed a lot from such mystery writers as Christie and Simenon, since that's what I read a lot of growing up in Great Britain and France outside of the classics we studied in school. I like Agatha's smooth, unpretentious style and Simenon's atmosphere and humanity in his Maigret novels.

MI: If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?

CSC: Real estate, which I still do a bit of...

MI: If you have a job outside of writing, what is it?

CSC: Resale: Listing and buying for friends and family.

MI: What are your favorite things to do when you’re not writing or working?CSC: Reading, of course! Movies, playing guitar, live music, traveling, gardening, home improvement.
 
MI: Who is your favorite mystery sleuth and why?
CSC: Well, it's not Lord Peter Wimsey or Holmes, or even Miss Marple, great creations as they are. I'd have to say, probably, Poirot. There's just no forgetting the fastidious little Belgian sleuth!

MI: Do you have a favorite murder case from a book (either yours or another author’s)?
CSC: The most riveting fictional police procedural I've read so far is Mr. Hillary Waugh's "Last Seen Wearing," published in 1952. It's about a college freshman who goes missing from her dorm. Check it out!

MI: What was your inspiration for the Rex Graves series?
CSC: I really have no idea! I had decided to write a mystery, and Rex Graves, QC, just came to me, complete with name, appearance, and personality. I thought a Scottish barrister might be fun. I lived in Edinburgh for seven of my most formative years, and still go back. It's a beautiful, historic city and I enjoy employing settings from there, for instance, Ramsay Garden, which features quite prominently in my forthcoming novel. 

MI: Tell us about Rex Graves.
CSC: He's a big teddy bear, with a logical brain and a good heart. People tend to trust him and thus confide in him, which gives him an advantage over the police. His mission in life is to seek justice in court and in his private cases.

MI: How does this series compare to your past works?
CSC: I wrote romantic suspense before. I like writing these mysteries better. 

MI: Do you have a pet? Tell us about him/her.
CSC: Othello (see photo). He's an enormous, plush, all-black cat, about four and a half years old. I got him from a shelter two and a half years ago, and it was mutual love at first sight. My son says I'm about 15 years away from being a batty cat lady. 

MI: What food could you live off of for the rest of your life?
CSC: Thai.

MI: Do you have a favorite recipe?
CSC: Not for Thai. I have a good one (it's not mine) for lemon cream pie, using the spectacular lemons from my tree. I don't profess to be a great cook, but I can usually rise to the occasion as long as I don't have to prepare a meal for more than six people. 

MI: What’s your favorite part about being an Inker?
CSC: Being published :)

Murder Comes Calling is available online and in bookstores now!

Midnight Ink | Indiebound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Your local bookstore

Visit C.S. Challinor online.

Q&A with Steve Hockensmith & Lisa Falco!

This week, we sat down with Steve Hockensmith and Lisa Falco, coauthors of the Tarot Mysteries. Their latest, Fool Me Once, is out now!

Steve Hockensmith: I'm approaching this Q&A tag team style. I'll wrestle with every question I can until I find there's one I can't handle. Then I'll slap hands with my partner on the Tarot Mystery series, Lisa Falco, and she'll jump into the ring to save me.

Midnight Ink: How long have you been writing?

SH: Forever! I began creating my own (horrible) once-act plays and comic books and old-time radio-style audio dramas when I was in fourth or fifth grade. (How I pray no one ever finds those old cassette tapes.) I was very ambitious but also very lazy—great combo, eh?—so I started a lot of projects I never finished. I didn't get really serious about writing fiction until I was in my twenties. That's when I finally developed some stick-to-itiveness. I put in a few years writing bad short stories I couldn't sell, and then an amazing thing happened: The stories stopped being bad, and editors started buying them! Quite a coincidence how those two things happened at roughly the same time….

MI: What influence have other authors had on your writing?

Steve: My mystery novels get called "quirky" a lot, and I think maybe that's because my biggest influences come from outside the genre. When I was a 15 or 16, I stumbled onto a Kurt Vonnegut novel in the school library—thank you, Bridgeport High School!—and that ended up having a huge impact on me. I can't remember which book it was, but it doesn't really matter because within a few months I'd tracked down and read everything else the guy ever wrote. I completely gorged myself on Vonnegut. That'll have an effect on an impressionable young mind. Around the same time, I read Catch-22 and fell in love with the bleak, cynical, surreal humor of it. But I've always been a lover of genre, too, so I had this weird mix of influences stewing in my head: dark, strange, funny "literary" fiction simmering alongside plot-driven adventure stuff. So when I finally started serving up my own stories, they tended to be a little . . . different.

MI: If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?

SH: Dreaming of being a writer.

MI: What was your inspiration for this series?

SH: I'm going to bring Lisa in for this one, because doing a series about a tarot reader who uses the cards to help her clients was her idea. Tag!

Lisa Falco: I LOVE reading mysteries. I always have. As a child, I’d spend my summers plowing through entire mystery series: Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew. I still read mystery series as an adult. I love how all the elements of the mystery at hand weave in and out of the main characters’ lives, each subsequent book revealing a little bit more about them—their own story advancing just enough to keep me impatient for the next book. And since tarot has always been a mysterious fascination of mine, it only made sense to marry the two.

MI: What has it been like to work on the Tarot Mystery series together?

LF: What an amazing experience. There were definitely hiccups along the way—through no fault of our own, of course. But it all worked out in the end, and winding up at Midnight Ink was a huge benefit! As far as creating the books together, thank goodness for the Internet. Even though we live in different cities, it’s easy to shoot ideas to each other. This is my first truly collaborative writing experience. I love talking through plots on the phone—winding down one path, retracing our steps, trying another. It’s great fun!

SH: Tag! I’m back in! Although I don’t really have anything to add except maybe “Yeah—what she said!”

MI: How does this series compare to your past works?

SH: The tarot element sets it apart, obviously. But it's a change of pace for me in other ways, as well. My first mystery series, the Holmes on the Range books, were historicals set mostly in the Old West. They were in first person written from the point of view of an 1890s cowboy, so the voice was both earthy and a bit old time-y. My next books were Jane Austen-inspired zombie novels set in Regency England, so I was working in a deliberately old-fashioned third person voice. After that, I moved on to a series of third person middle-grade mystery/science books (which I do with "Science Bob" Pflugfelder). Those were my first books in a modern setting. And then came the Tarot Mystery series, which is both set in the present day and written in first person. So finally I'm writing books with a modern narrator. I think that's part of the reason they feel so easy and fun for me to do. Lisa does all the research and deep thinking when it comes to the tarot, then I get to amuse myself by turning that into a story told from the perspective of a twenty-first century smart-ass.

MI: Who is your favorite mystery sleuth and why?

SH: There are a lot that I love—Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe, Jim Rockford, Nick and Nora Charles (and Asta), Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe, I.M. Fletcher, etc. etc. etc. But if I could only pick one to watch at work, it would have to be Lt. Columbo of the LAPD. He personifies the mystery genre in a really beautiful way: He's someone who thinks and thinks and thinks and can't stop thinking and thinking and thinking some more until he finally understands. He's not about flashy shows of unbelievable genius or tough-guy heroics. He's just a schlubby little guy who won't stop asking questions because the official story doesn't add up. What's not to love about that? I'll tag Lisa here not because I need help—I could obviously drone on about my favorite detectives all day—but because it's a fun question. Lisa?

LF: I’m partial to the sleuths on British TV like Inspector Lewis and Foyle’s War. The lead characters are human with just the right amount of unpolished edges. I do like the women sleuths as well, my favorite being Precious Ramotswe from the Ladies No. Detective Agency.

MI: What’s your favorite part about being an Inker?

LF: I love how Midnight Ink does the layout of our books—not an an easy feat given all the tarot card positions, etc. I’m sure Steve has his own favorite aspects of being an Inker….

SH: I love the layouts, too. And the covers. But I think my favorite aspect of working with Midnight Ink is just how easy everything is. Once we’ve submitted our final draft, the design, copy editing, proofreading, and publicity wheels turn incredibly swiftly and smoothly. A publishing company can feel like a lumbering behemoth at times, but that hasn’t been our experience with Midnight Ink at all. And it helps that so many people there have a genuine interest in tarot. You can tell they care about what goes into these books and appreciate the final product. Again—that’s something you don’t always get from your publisher. It’s a real bummer when you don’t . . . and fantastic when you do!

Fool Me Once is available online and in bookstores now!

Midnight Ink | Indiebound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Your local bookstore

Visit Steve Hockensmith online. 

Q&A with Maegan Beaumont!

This week, we sat down with Maegan Beaumont, author of the Sabrina Vaughn Novels. Her latest thriller, Promises to Keep, is out now!

Midnight Ink: How long have you been writing?

Maegan Beaumont: Geez . . . a long time. My first real writing memory is from the third grade. I was 10 and entered a story I’d written into my school’s Young Author’s program. I lost to my cousin which stung like a mother. I still think about it.

MI: If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?

MB: I’d be a forensic psychologist. Why is a question I’ve always wanted to be able to answer.

MI: If you have a job outside of writing, what is it?

MB: I’m a stay-at-home mom of four so, my days are pretty busy. I start at 5:30 a.m. and don’t close my eyes until sometime around midnight.

MI: What is/are your favorite thing/s to do when you’re not writing or working?

MB: Reading is at the top of the list. We spend a lot time with friends and family. It’s summer and fruit season is in full-swing so I’m canning jams and jellies like there’s no tomorrow.

MI: Who is your favorite mystery sleuth and why?

MB: I really like Brenna Spector from Alison Gaylin’s Brenna Spector series. She’s wonderfully complex and doesn’t let much stop her. I like that in a female protag.

MI: Do you have a favorite murder case from a book (either yours or another author’s)?

MB: The book I’m writing right now (Sabrina’s fourth installment) is developing in some pretty interesting way. The murders involve some religious elements that I find fascinating and there are some twists that even I didn’t see coming!

MI: What was your inspiration for this series?

MB: I think my inspiration for Sabrina and co. comes from what interests me. I’ve always been intrigued by murder—what drives a person to commit it and how it effects the people it leaves behind.

MI: How does this book compare to your past works?

MB: Promises to Keep is a different sort of book from both Carved in Darkness and Sacrificial Muse. The most obvious difference is that Sabrina isn’t my main protagonist—Michael is. PtK is very much his book. We finally get a chance to see where he comes from and the events of this life that lead up to the death of his sister and ultimately, what leads him back into Sabrina’s life. Genre-wise, I’d say PtK is more of a suspense, rather than a thriller. We know who the bad guys are—its figuring out how they all fit together that’s the mystery.

MI: Are any of your characters influenced by people you know?

MB: I think most of my characters share personality traits with people I know. There are parts of Sabrina, that if I look at them objectively, I can see in myself… but if you want blatant personality hijacking, there is a character in Sacrificial Muse based on a friend of mine—name and everything. When mutual friends read SM, they always call or message me to say, holy cow, you nailed him!

MI: Do you have a pet? Tell us about him/her.

MB: So. Many. Pets.

We have six dogs—the smallest being a 4-pound toy poodle named Sadie and the largest being a 70-pound Rhodesian Ridgeback named Jade. We also have chickens—last count at 15—and yes, they all have names. We live on a few acres so, there’s plenty of room for everyone.

Jade and Zoe

Sadie

Some of Maegan's chickens...

MI: If you don’t have a pet, do you have a favorite animal?

MB: I’m a dog person for sure. If you’re talking exotic animals, I’m partial to lions. We have a big cat park here in Arizona called Out of Africa. In high school, I was set to enter into their volunteer training program but before I could start, there were some land issues and they had to re-locate to a northern part of the state. A thirty-minute drive had suddenly turned into a 3-hour trek so, I had to drop out. I’m still bummed about that one.

MI: What food could you live off of for the rest of your life?

MB: This is probably really boring but I love a good sandwich. They’re easy to make and the possibilities are endless.

MI: Do you have a favorite recipe?

MB: It’s a toss-up between my pumpkin squares and my sautéed Brussel sprouts. Both recipes have been published, so you know they’re good! I also make and can my own BBQ sauce from a recipe I developed a few years ago.

MI: What’s your favorite part about being an Inker?

MB: My favorite part of Inker-hood is being affiliated with such a fantastic bunch of writers. So much talent and such a willingness to share what they know. I wear my ink spot proudly!

Promises to Keep is available online and in bookstores now!

Midnight Ink | Indiebound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Your local bookstore

Visit Maegan Beaumont online.

Q&A with Elizabeth Perona

This week, we sat down with the father/daughter writing team behind Elizabeth Perona. Their series debut, Murder on the Bucket List, was released earlier this month.

Midnight Ink: How long have you been writing?

Elizabeth Perona (Tony): I remember the first time I got a good review for something I wrote. It was back in grade school at St. Christopher’s. The teacher—I think it was Mr. Click—asked us to write a fictional story where an inanimate object came to life. Mine was about the tree that gave its life to become the manger the Christ child slept in. I enjoyed writing the story, got really good feedback, and was hooked. I also remember writing tortured poetry in high school (I think it’s in the attic somewhere), co-writing a couple of musicals in graduate school that were produced, and how exciting it was when my first novel was published in 2002. So I feel like I’ve been writing for a very long time.

Elizabeth Perona: Tony and Liz

MI: What influence have other authors had on your writing?

EP (Tony): I’m going to mention someone you wouldn’t think would influence a mystery writer, but Thornton Wilder is the author who has had the most influence on my writing. His body of work is limited, but what he accomplished in those works is not. His novels (I particularly like The Bridge of San Luis Rey and Theophilus North) and especially his plays (Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, and the Matchmaker) have universal themes that will always resonate with humanity. I aspire to write something that will endure and touch others. Haven’t gotten there yet and may never, but I think Murder on the Bucket List is a step in the right direction. I hope Thornton would approve.

MI: As a father/daughter writing team, what is the writing process like?

EP (Tony): The stuff we do together is scout out locations, talk about plot, and other general things like that. From that point on, I’m the straight-ahead, write-to-the-end-of-the-story guy, and Liz is the detail supplier. I hate details. But the process is evolving from book to book.

MI: If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?

EP (Tony): Probably the day job I have now! (see below)

MI: If you have a job outside of writing, what is it?

EP (Tony): I’m currently serving as the Interim Town Manager for the Town of Plainfield. When they find a new Town Manager, I look forward to get back to being the Assistant Town Manager. It’s much less stressful and also conducive to my writing. :)

EP (Liz): I stay at home with my two kids, Lucy and Isaac.

MI: What are your favorite things to do when you’re not writing or working?

EP (Tony): I love to be active. My wife Debbie and I enjoy hiking and riding our bikes. I also like to run and work out.

EP (Liz): I love to sew. It is amazing to me that I can start with just some fabric laying on the cutting mat, and end up with an outfit for me or my kids.

MI: Who is your favorite mystery sleuth and why?

EP (Tony): Robert B. Parker’s Spenser. I love and admire the code of honor he works from. Also, he’s funny, tough, and very cool.

MI: Do you have a favorite murder case from a book (either yours or another author’s)?

EP (Tony): Not really. I enjoy a lot of murders. <grin>

MI: What was your inspiration for this series?

EP (Tony): I heard about a bridge club made up of retired women who were doing adventurous things—not on a bucket list, but just things the members of the club had always wanted to do. It sounded like they were a fun group. I realized that even though they were getting older, their lives had never been richer. And I thought, why not write about this group?

They had the kind of outlook I aspired to have. Not just when I retired, but now. I view it as a mission now as I write to encourage people to keep looking ahead and be excited about life.

MI: Tell us about Charlotte, Francine, Joy, Alice, and Mary Ruth.

EP (Tony): Francine is a retired nurse who is the point of view character. We see the story unfold from Francine’s purview. Francine is a lot like my mom, Frances. She died from cancer when Liz was only 4 years old. Writing in her voice is a real joy for me because I get to remember her again. She always saw the best in people, which is how Francine is able to cope with Charlotte’s wilder side. Charlotte is Francine’s best friend. I based Charlotte somewhat on my Grandma Bonte, who was quite a character. She cheated at cards, for example. Playing euchre with her was hilarious. If she was partners with her sister, my great-Aunt Annie, there was a lot of table talk we couldn’t understand because they both spoke Slavish as well as English. They also had elaborate hand signals.

Joy is the go-getter in the group, a divorced woman who is still trying to prove her worth to her ex-husband. Alice comes from privilege, but there are things she wishes she had like a family of her own. She and her husband were older when they married and never had kids. Mary Ruth is a hard worker. At 70, she still has to work and is a caterer. Obviously she knows how to cook!

MI: Do you have a bucket list?

EP (Tony): Does making it onto the NY Times bestseller list count? <grin> Actually, I do have a bucket list, mostly places I want to travel to. My top destinations are New Zealand, Italy, and France.

EP (Liz): Not so much, I just in survival mode right now with two kids, two and under. If I had to choose something though, I’d like to travel to Italy with my husband.

MI: How does this series compare to your past works?

EP (Tony): This is very different from my past novels. I wrote a series about a stay-at-home dad/freelance reporter who has a knack for solving mysteries with a supernatural element. It was more detective-like than amateur sleuth. I also wrote a thriller. So this cozy series is a major departure.

MI: Do you have a pet? Tell us about him/her.

EP (Tony): Yes! I have a cat. Her name is Ginny. She’s a six-year old red tabby. She became a lazy cat very quickly in life. She’s never really played with toys, she’s not a good jumper, and she doesn’t tolerate strangers. She constantly hisses at guests. Her two good points are that she’s very affectionate toward my wife and me, and she has beautiful markings. So there’s that. At any rate, she’s our cat and we love her.

Tony and Ginny

EP (Liz): Yep!  I have a cat named Gizmo. She’s also six years old, but is black and white.  She’s still pretty active, but isn’t so into kids. She hides upstairs most of the day, and comes down during naptime and after bedtime. We love her!

Gizmo

MI: What food could you live off of for the rest of your life?

EP (Tony): Coffee. I already do live off it, at least in the mornings. <grin> Actually, and this goes back to my Italian heritage, I could live off spaghetti the rest of my life. I never get tired of spaghetti.

EP (Liz): Can I pick two? Pizza and ice cream. I guess I’m a kid at heart. Both have so many flavor options, so I’d never get bored!

MI: Do you have a favorite recipe?

EP (Tony): Yes, my mom’s spaghetti sauce recipe. I make it all the time!

MI: What’s your favorite part about being an Inker?

EP (Tony): I love the support we get from the Midnight Ink team! They are awesome to work with!

EP (Liz): Getting to do it with my dad :)

Murder on the Bucket List is available online and in bookstores now!

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Visit Elizabeth Perona online.