There are some writers who excel in the short story form, such as Ed Hoch did, opposed to full length novels. Another is Carla Coupe whose short story pastiches of Sherlock Holmes have garnered critical and reader praise. Not that she couldn’t and won’t lengthen her work in the future–as she explains in this author interview. Carla gives us her take on Holmes and his fans, why she enjoys the short story form, and delves into her contributions to a Chesapeake Bay locale mystery anthology. Q 1. Carla, what is it about the short story form that draws you to it? As much as I enjoy gigantic, sprawling novels, in short stories I love the narrative focus, the need to cut away all extraneous
Author Interviews Archive
Denise Swanson is a character out of one of her books. A small town girl, intelligent, kind, and successful. Very successful. Her Scumble River soft boiled mystery series has been running for many years now, with appearances on the New York Time Bestseller‘s list and slews of award nominations, including a Best First Novel Agatha, from the Malice Domestic convention. Not too shabby. And with her second entry with protagonist Devereaux Sinclair she’s well on the way to having not one, but two hugely popular series. I met Ms. Swanson at one of those Malice conventions, and I remember standing in the back of an auction with her, marveling at all the other authors, and some of their rather high schooly ways. (schooly should also
I thought the succinct bio from author Robin Burcell’s webpage would do the trick in introducing her to those who haven’t already read her suspenseful novels. “Robin Burcell, an FBI-trained forensic artist, has worked in law enforcement for over two decades as a police officer, detective and hostage negotiator. She is the author of the Anthony Award winning SFPD Homicide Inspector Kate Gillespie novels and FBI forensic artist Sidney Fitzpatrick series. I’ve known her internetly (that should be a word), for over a decade and have come to respect the tough ex-cop, mother, and writer. Her experience says it all, and you know you’re reading the real deal the minute you pick up one of her books. As my new usual, I’ve asked Ms. Burcell
My greatest book selling acknowledgement came when Mr. Alan Beechey, author of one of my most favorite books ever, bestowed a town the name Plumley in his second book starring Oliver Swithin. After selling my page flicking fingers to the bone and making his first book An Embarrassment of Corpses named ‘most collectible’ by a now defunct hypermodern book collecting newsletter, and sending the book into a second printing (yes, I believe I single handedly am responsible, ha ha), Mr. Beechey and I became good friends. I named a ferret after his hero, another ferret provided a photo-shoot at a signing, and I’ve enjoyed Mr. Beechey’s sterling wit ever since. Rather than write my usual tedious and torturous (for me, I can barely remember what
I don’t write reviews on amazon. OK, I wrote maybe three–but I had to be highly motivated and passionate about what I was reviewing to dip into that cesspool of bizarreness. And I was. Elaine Viets, mystery writer, had begun a new series at the time, and I was wildly in love with it. Here is part of what I wrote: “Helen Hawthorne, once quite successful, is forced to lay low, changing cities and jobs as quickly as she used to change her designer shoes. Her new profession, salesclerk in a chi chi Florida boutique whose green door keeps out lowlife Sears Robuck rejects, forces her to do more than cater to collagen frozen faces. Underneaththe fashionable facade, a nefarious manager has embezzled bucks, and when