There are a few things I need to confess. As a child, I never read much for pleasure because I was a painfully slow reader. I went faithfully to the bookmobile and library, but rarely finished a book. Then, after I married, my husband read The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Reader’s Digest condensed version) to me and from then on, I took off as a reader, devouring books non-stop when I wasn’t doing my college homework. I learned to love reading and the ability of a good story to transport me to other worlds.
Other things I love—
I love to watch the leaves change from green to shades of yellow, orange, and red as the days shorten and the wind nips at my cheeks. Then, when a gust of wind sends them whirling through the air, raining down or surfing the breeze—that’s awesome, too.
I love sightseeing with my husband, who provides the history behind the sights. I love places with mountains, seashores (the sound of the waves is mesmerizing), rolling hills, manicured gardens, desert sunsets, architecture—you name it.
I love spending time outdoors—even if it’s just mowing the lawn or shoveling snow, but my favorite things to do are hiking, archery, gardening, rock climbing, canoeing, drawing, and just gabbing with my husband and kids.
I love researching for my stories and concocting a blend of history and fiction to produce the finished novel. My favorite part of the research process is spending hours rummaging through nineteenth-century newspapers in the special collections room in the local library and finding some gems hidden in the lines that make my stories more real.
I love being the mother of four wonderful kids and the grandmother of six amazing grandkids. My hope is that they will grow to love reading and writing as much as I do. My recent reads have been by Sarah M. Eden, Julie Klassen, and Josi Kilpack. I also love the works of Jane Austen and Lucy Maud Montgomery—two truly brilliant trailblazers. I feel grateful for their friendship—shared with me through their literature.
Tell me about yourself. What inspired you to write?
My mother was a creative writer, as were my grandmother and great grandfather. So I suppose my desire is somewhat innate. I wrote my first story when I was in third grade—some absurd tale about Dracula. (For some reason, I was very obsessed with Dracula at that time.)
Describe your desk / writing space.
I write at my kitchen table, which has to be somewhat organized or else I have to stop and clean up my workspace. I also need it relatively quiet to keep my train of thought as I become easily distracted. I usually play music to match the mood of what I am writing, but it must be instrumental and must be background music, not blaring from my speakers.
Do you have a writing routine, or do you write when inspired?
I try to write every day—whether it is on my own work or editing the work of others. I also keep my computer or a notebook handy so I can jot down ideas that occur to me. I’ve also been known to get up in the middle of the night to write down a scene or dialogue that occurs to me because I know I’ll forget my inspiration by morning. Sometimes I read these jottings and wonder why I thought they were inspirational and sometimes they are truly golden.
How do you come up with the title to your books?
This is my true weakness. Usually my sister, who is my beta reader, shoots down my first ideas for titles. Sometimes she even suggests one. I bounce ideas off my family members until I hit on one that everyone thinks works.
What was the hardest scene for you to write?
What types of scenes are your favorite to write? Fight scenes are always my nemesis. They take many rewrites and much consultation. I like to write dialogue and have playful banter take place. Thinking up snarky comebacks is always fun.
What inspired your book/series?
I actually wrote Ninety-Nine White Horses, Book 2 in my Gilded Age Romance series first. The creative seed for this book was planted in my brain the moment I thumbed through the book, What They Say in New England; a Book of Signs, Sayings, and Superstitions, by Clifton Johnson, published in 1896 by Lee and Shepard Publishers. This was way back in 1988. At the time, I was working as a student assistant at Eli M. Oboler Library at Idaho State University. Dusting, shelf reading, and book shifting can become very tedious tasks, so when I came across this gem, I sat down to take an unofficial break. It was then that the superstition about the ninety-nine white horses started to gallop through my mind. That was over thirty years ago, and shame on me for having taken so long to write this story. Some seeds just take longer to germinate, grow, and bear fruit than others, I guess. The Gilded Age has always interested me, and when I began researching it for fun, I knew I’d found my niche.
What are you working on next?
For my next book, I will be following one of the characters from Little Eden to Montana and Wyoming and focusing on an adventure on the copper mining kings and cattle baron wars that took place there around 1890-1900. I am still in the planning stage but am anxious to get started.
What authors or books have influenced you to start writing?
I love classics, like Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, as well as everything Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and Elizabeth Kleghorn Gaskell. In my writing, I seek to bring my characters alive as these women did. I also love Julie Klassen’s works. For my upcoming novel, I find inspiration in Kirby Larson’s Hattie Big Sky.
If you had to compare your writing to another author which one would that be?
I would have to say that my novels are a blend of the works of Lucy Maud Montgomery and Edith Wharton—heartwarming, clean fun combined with the outrageousness and selfishness of Gilded Age society.
Is there genre you’d like to write but never have?
I would like to attempt a cozy mystery series.
Do you enjoy writing short stories or long form i.e., manuscripts? And why?
I have found short stories harder to write than a novel. In fact, my book, Pearls & Steel, started out as a short story prequel to Ninety-Nine White Horses, but I found that I needed to tell the whole story of Sheridan Baird and Elinor Taylor. So, consequently, it grew into a novel length story. I think I prefer writing novels because I like to flesh out the stories and their characters and follow them to their end.
What advice would you give to unpublished writers?
Studying how to write a good book has helped me become a better writer and editor. The Great Courses offers a course called How to Write Best-Selling Fiction that really helped me understand what needs to go into a story and where it needs to go in order to be a successful and satisfying read. That was where my schooling in writing began. I’ve since continued to study other instructors, like Dwight Swain, Deborah Chester, Lisa Cron, John Truby, Shawn Coyne, Sol Stein, and many more. By studying the craft, I find my own work improving with every book I write.
Do you have a new book coming out? If so, what’s the title and when?
I have just completed my third novel, Little Eden, which takes place in Gilded Age Newport. It is still in the revision stages, and I hope to have it out later this year. I also completed a short story, Angelica’s Tale, which is a prequel to my first book, Pearls & Steel, and will be out for distribution soon.
Gage Greenwood is the best-selling author of the Winter’s Myths series and Bunker Dogs, and he’s a proud active member of the Horror Writers Association.
He’s been an actor, comedian, podcaster, and even the Vice President of an escape room company. Since childhood, he’s been a big fan of comic books, horror movies, and depressing music that fills him with existential dread.
He lives in New England with his girlfriend and son, and he spends his time writing, hiking, and decorating for various holidays.
Tell me about yourself. What inspired you to write? My mother. She was a poet in the 80s. She had multiple published works, and I always enjoyed watching her clack away at her typewriter. I was an avid reader as a kid, and it didn’t take long before I wanted to tell my own stories just like Mom. Of course, I didn’t get into poetry. I can thank my brother and sister for my love of all things dark and creepy.
Describe your desk / writing space. I write on the couch with the laptop on my lap. Or I sit at the kitchen table and look out the sliding glass door to the woods surrounding my house. One day, I’ll have my own writing office. Until this, this is peace.
Do you have a writing routine, or do you write when inspired? I write whenever I have free time. I am a stay at home dad, so time shows up at random points, and when it arrives, I have to take all the advantage I can.
How do you come up with the title to your books? I try to think about something that would catch my attention if I scrolled past it, but also something that wholly defines the story without telling the reader too much, making them wonder what THAT title is all about.
What was the hardest scene for you to write? What types of scenes are your favorite to write?
There’s a scene in Winter’s Myths where the main character has a flashback to his last moments with his wife before she died, and I pulled from my real life experiences with my mother’s last moments. That scene was an emotionally draining scene to write, and I still have trouble reading it.
My favorite scenes to write are emotionally cathartic ones, the kind of scene that shows up just after the tension fully drains the reader, and then I unload on them even more.
What inspired your book/series? Winter’s Myths had a lot of inspiration coming from a variety of places. It all started with the age-old question of “How would our society look under the eyes of someone seeing it for the first time?” It’s a story of a family trying to survive in an apocalyptic Earth, but they were raised underground, never having seen or heard about a car before, or a movie, or much of anything. They have to navigate and survive while also trying to make sense of their surroundings. In the meantime, the father tells his daughter quirky and weird mythologies/fairy tales based on his misunderstandings of our world. I really wanted to write something that mocked humanity in its current state, while also expressing hope and love for it, and I thought the best way to do that was to show it from an outsider’s perspective.
What are you working on next? I have a bunch of anthologies I was asked to submit to, so I am working on some short stories, and after that, I will be finishing up my next novel, “On a Clear Day, You Can See Block Island.” It’s a story about a group of siblings who witness a tragic event in their Block Island home. Years later, they are all still suffering from what they witness, so they decide to go back to the island to confront their past.
What authors or books have influenced you to start writing? Cliche, but it’s hard not to mention Stephen King. I grew up on his books, and Pet Sematary remains one of the most haunting books I’ve ever read.
I would also say Gaiman, who travels outside the bounds of genre in his writing. That’s something I do a lot. I like to toy with genre and tone to create an intentionally jarring effect on readers. A tragedy might be followed up by something completely bizarre and comical, or something whimsical and light might suddenly get struck with something shocking and bleak. My fans joke that I have invented my own genre, and we’ve been calling it DreadPop.
Lastly, Sarah Langan, whose book The Keeper changed the way I viewed horror. It’s not all about the chills and scares. There’s something deeper there, and when you strike it, it follows you forever.
If you had to compare your writing to another author which one would that be? I’m not sure. I really work to have my own voice. Certainly Neil Gaiman in terms of playing with genre and tone, but I would also say my voice would work well with a lot of comic book artists, guys like Colin Bunn. I write short chapters, big cliffhangers, and books with mini-arcs all hovering under a larger arc’s umbrella.
Is there a genre you’d like to write but never have? I’m toying with as many as I can, but someday I would love to write a really dark space opera. Something wild, long, and epic, but also really horrific and bleak.
Do you enjoy writing short stories or long form i.e., manuscripts? And why? I prefer novels. With longer novels, I get to intertwine so many dots, and it’s always a blast to watch them all connect. With short stories, I have to keep the subplots to a minimum.
What advice would you give to unpublished writers? Writing is one job. Publishing is one hundred. Be prepared to work. It’s hard, but it’s a lot of fun. And make sure you go out of your way to show gratitude and respect to your readers. They are your lifeblood. Writing is a solo job, but publishing is a collaboration between you and the reader. Let them know you’re on the same team, and they will never stop supporting you.
Rose Grey’s work ranges from standalone contemporary romance (Not As Advertised) to romantic suspense (Hot Pursuit) to small-town sci-fi romance. The Durrell Brothers Trilogy, beginning with award winning Waiting For You, is a captivating contemporary romance series about three brothers and the women who win their hearts. The Heart Thief is a small-town sci-fi romance, the first in the Valora Series.
Rose’s idea of an emergency is realizing that a long weekend is coming and that the library is closing in an hour. She loves finding cool seashells, knitting sweaters which start out right but inevitably turn out too large, and petting stray dogs. She lives with her husband, the love of her life, and suffers from the sin of boundless pride when it comes to her four grown children.
Tell me about yourself. What inspired you to write?
At first, I intended to write just the one book. I swear. I think I thought I would get it out of my system that way. But knowing a character well is addictive. I want to see what will happen to him or her. And there is always at least one side character in each story I want to explore further. Which leads to another book.
Describe your desk / writing space.
I have an attractive, perfectly useful, and ergonomic desk near a lovely window. Instead, I do most of my writing hunched over a small rickety table facing the wall or, on pleasant weather days, at that same rickety table on my front porch.
Do you have a writing routine, or do you write when inspired?
I think if one waits for inspiration, one is likely never to accomplish anything. So, I do set expectations for myself which I try to meet. I find I only receive the blessing of inspiration when I have put in the requisite amount of sweat equity.
How do you come up with the title to your books?
Titles can be a challenge. For my most recent book, The Heart Thief, first I thought about themes I wanted to highlight in a title. Then I considered the typical length of fiction titles I saw online and narrowed the list of my possibilities to about a dozen. Finally, I asked trusted author friends for input on those remaining title candidates. I asked them which titles grabbed them and why – that input was invaluable.
What was the hardest scene for you to write? What types of scenes are your favorite to write?
The hardest scenes for me to write are the dark moments about three quarters of the way through a book. I already know these characters and am rooting for them, so I dislike thinking up ways to cause them pain. Having said that, whenever I am not sure where to go next in a chapter, one sure way of priming the pump is to ask myself, “What is the worst thing that could happen to these characters right now?”
I love writing scenes which show a character growing and figuring something out. One of the privileges of writing is being able to observe a character’s thought processes and motivations from close up. It’s a bit like when I am with young children. If I stay sufficiently unobtrusive, they forget I am there and I can listen in. That is a good way to learn about both children and book characters and about how they see the world and their place in it.
What inspired your book/series?
I am fascinated by the bride boats from World War II. My mother-in-law came to this country on one of those boats. She was already married, of course, but coming to America this way took a lot of courage. I am also intrigued by women who traveled across the United States in the late 1800s hoping to marry virtual strangers. I wondered how that would work on a distant planet in the year 3080.
What are you working on next?
Right now, I am writing the second book in the Valora series. The first book, The Heart Thief, followed the fortunes of a fugitive and the marshal who falls in love with her. The Searcher’s Heart follows the bounty hunter (the searcher) who fails to capture that fugitive. Here is what it’s about:
Being a Searcher is all Jens Nonam has ever wanted. So, when he fails to capture his quarry for the first time in his life, he is shocked. Worse than that, the guild puts him on indefinite leave and because he does not have the funds to take a shuttle back to his home planet, he is stranded in Sector 1065.
Luli Carvanserei is in a bind. If she doesn’t find someone to care for her grandfather until his broken leg heals, she may lose her job. Normally, she would never consider hiring a searcher, even an ex-searcher, especially one as stilted and rule-bound as Jens. But desperate times call for desperate measures and after all, Jens plans to leave as soon as he can earn enough money to buy shuttle fare.
Guild life is the only life Jens has ever known. But as he finds his way through the pitfalls of small-town life, he begins to wonder what making his home in the sector might look like. And if he were to stay, what that might mean for him and Luli?
What authors or books have influenced you to start writing?
Robert Parker (for his exactness and brevity), Ellie Griffiths (for her delicate use of suspense), Kristan Higgins (because her characters seem so human), J. D. Robb (for her gutsy persistence in writing backstories which are not miraculously solved by love), and Jennifer Crusie (because she makes me laugh). I enjoy Mike Carey’s fantasy series about a ghost hunter. The writing is delicious and you feel a bit as though he is whispering the story in your ear with snarky asides just for you.
If you had to compare your writing to another author which one would that be?
I still love, and reread once a year, A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson. There’s an elegance to Ibbotson’s writing and all her characters whether major or minor have depth. But her most important attribute, I think, is that just a story appears to be sliding toward the saccharine, she slips in some wry observation about life or a sharp commentary about a character. This particular book was written in the 1980s. I, too, would like to write books which remain fresh fifty years from now.
Is there genre you’d like to write but never have?
I’ve started to mess with horror, which one would think would be the polar opposite of romance. But in a sense, horror is just a dark reflection of a love story.
Do you enjoy writing short stories or long form i.e., manuscripts? And why?
Recently, I have been writing short stories as palate cleansers when I get stuck on my longer manuscripts. But I do like the long manuscripts best. They give me a chance to explore my characters’ growth more deeply.
What advice would you give to unpublished writers?
Don’t put the manuscript in a drawer and decide writing is a self-indulgence you can’t afford. Go for it. Sit down and write. Then write some more. Notice the bones of the books you read. Ask good questions about why you like or dislike specific books and apply that information to your own writing. Don’t be afraid of criticism – use the criticism that is useful and let go of what isn’t. Aim high. Forgive yourself for being an amateur. It turns out, we are all amateurs
Do you have a new book coming out? If so, what’s the title and when?
The Searcher’s Heart, the second book of the Valora Series will be available for purchase by the end of the year.
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Lockwood and Co has been canceled and before Netflix disappears it due to the Writer’s Strike, I highly recommend going and watching it. If you liked Buffy then you’ll like the television series and the book series.
Silo on Apple TV is perfect. Everyone is raving about it. Go read the series and then watch the show.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 on Paramount Plus drops the middle of June. It’s the second Trek show to get a good first season, the first being DS9. Also, you can now stream all of season 1 for free, legally on Youtube. Go watch the series, it’s fun!
Marvel’s Secret Invasion on Disney + arrives mid-June. This looks fun and probably sets up Marvels in November (just in time for RI Comic Con)
Movie News:
June is a busy month with so much geek movies coming out 1 a week if anyone complains about the box office numbers then someone needs their head examined:
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – I’m happy to see the Bumblebee sequel, I’m happy to see G1 Transformers. I’m less than thrilled that the Maximals voice actors in ROTB and Netflix series weren’t the original actors from Beast Wars. I know, I know, I should be happy to see the Maximals on the screen but when you can’t tell one voice actor from another in the Netflix series and while I’m happy the celebs voice over actors are there, I’m purist. I’m waiting for Peter Cullen to voice the directions on Waze cuz c’mon.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – First movie was great. Trailers for the second one look awesome.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – It’s been 15 years since the misfire that was Crystal Skull. I holding out hope it won’t nuke the fridge, again. A phrase that shouldn’t even exist.
The Flash – I want to enjoy this. I want to embrace it. Keaton’s Batman returns and a surprise cameo they let out the bag that I won’t reveal here. But the private life of star Ezra Miller hasn’t been so private.
Asteroid City by Wes Anderson looks fun with enough A-List stars to shake a stick at.
Local Convention News: The Warwick Public Library is having. Vendor and Craft Fair on 6/17/23 from 10am-2pm. I’ll be manning the ARIA table.
Class of ’09 o FX and Hulu: If you’re a Person of Interest Fan then Class of ’09 on FX (Hulu) is right up your alley. The series skips back and forth between 2009, 2023 and 2032 and keeps the plot rolling along quite well. I highly recommend it.
Air on Amazon Prime: Someone mentioned the musical rights for Air must’ve set them back a lot. The movie directed by Ben Affleck includes many A-List stars about the making of Air Jordans in 1980s. It is not Money Ball. It’s an enjoyable and uplifting movie.
Katrina Thornley resides in rural Rhode Island on a family farm that has been in her family for generations. It is situated in the Arcadia Management Area, a location that has greatly influenced her writing. She has had short stories and poems published in numerous anthologies over the years and is currently publishing the Arcadians Collection of Poetry. She graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2016 with a BA in English. In her free time she enjoys hiking, swimming, and reading thriller novels.
You can follow Katrina through her social channels:
Tell me about yourself. What inspired you to write?
I can’t pinpoint what exactly it was that inspired me to write. I think it was a combination of quite a few things. Growing up, my parents and grandfather got me hooked on reading. I loved literature and using the writing of others to create images within my mind. And then I started creating my own stories to use as distractions from life. I suppose that has continued into adulthood.
Describe your desk / writing space.
I tend to enjoy writing outside more than sitting at a desk because I’m stuck inside for my day job all day. I miss the sunshine! I have a small table beside a fire pit under a massive Pine Tree that is growing out of a large rock in our front yard and my chair has a little cup holder and shelf attached to it. It’s the perfect spot to sit in silence. I also go to a local park and sit on a rock that just out into the water to create poetry.
Do you have a writing routine, or do you write when inspired?
I’ve been working on cementing a writing routine, I feel like I have steal hours here and there. I definitely get more writing done between the hours of 5 and 7pm and throughout the day on Saturday. I prefer working in silence.
How do you come up with the title to your books?
My poetry collections are all inspired by nature and one of my favorite places to go is the Arcadia Management Area. It’s a beautiful place to hike and there’s so much history hidden within the management area. It’s such a wonderful area that truly gets the creative juices flowing. As “Arcadia” means “harmony with nature” I thought “Arcadians” would be a wonderful term for those of us that find peace within the woods, perhaps with a book of poetry. My novel “Kings of Millburrow” gained its title from the family that seems to run the small town. Their last name just happens to be “King” and the plot circles around the patriarchs seedy past even though he is not the main character. He put things in motion that could not be stopped.
What was the hardest scene for you to write? What types of scenes are your favorite to write?
At the end of Kings of Millburrow I had to kill off one of my favorite characters. I debated whether or not it was the right move or not, but after receiving feedback from readers I think I made the right choice.
I honestly love writing the scenery for scenes, any scene. I love putting myself into the store and picking out details from the world my mind is creating. Its therapeutic.
What inspired your book/series?
Kings of Millburrow was inspired by a creative writing class at the University of Rhode Island. We had to draw a map of a fictitious world or town and create a story that went along with it. I created Milville which eventually turned into Millburrow. The map led to the creation of a back story of the feud between the Kings and Crofts family and then I heard a Carrie Underwood song that fit perfectly into the plot between Albert King and Randall Croft.
What are you working on next?
I am currently working on a murder mystery set in a small town. I can’t give away too much, but I can promise there is a bit of a plot twist at the end and relationships are torn apart.
What authors or books have influenced you to start writing?
I would have to say J.K. Rowling and her work played a part in influencing me to start writing. Her ability to create worlds and relatable characters is amazing. I have since been inspired by books like Bittersweet (Miranda Beverly-Whittemore) and A Good Idea (Cristina Moracho).
If you had to compare your writing to another author which one would that be?
I would say my writing is similar to Cristina Moracho and Lee Smith.
Is there genre you’d like to write but never have?
I have dabbled in a little bit of everything, I have a collection of short stories available that has stories that span through different genres (26 Brentwood Avenue & Other Tales) including gothic thriller and romance. However, I would love to be able to devote more time to a fantasy series I’ve been thinking about for about five years.
Do you enjoy writing short stories or long form i.e., manuscripts? And why?
I enjoy writing both, if I am crunched for time and feel that I need to get a story out I will write a short story. I do enjoy writing novels more though as I can give the characters their full breadth and show readers different sides of them. Kings of Millburrow started out as a 5-page short story about James and Lilly (who was originally named Tristan) and then became this full-length novel to include Lilly’s sister and James’s best friend.
What advice would you give to unpublished writers?
Keep writing and keep reaching out to publishers. The worst anyone will say is “no thank you” and you’re going to hear that quite often. If you choose to self publish, spend time editing yourself before sending it off to an editor. (And reach out to your local mom and pop shops to see if they will carry your book or if you can host an event within their facility!).
Do you have a new book coming out? If so, what’s the title and when?
I am currently working on 2 projects actually! One of the projects is the 3rd installment in the Arcadians poetry series and this should be available in November of 2023. This collection will again include poetry inspired by rural Rhode Island and the beautiful nature we have to offer, but it will also hold an array of photographs taken during my escapades through the wilderness. I am also working on a murder mystery set in a small town. There isn’t yet a release date for this particular novel, but I am looking for BETA readers if anyone is interested!
And talking about Association of Rhode Island Authors (in full disclosure I’m on the board), ARIA’s Writing Academy had our first class and it went well. So well, we’re doing 2 in May! The first class instructed by ARIA’s VP, Tabitha Lord. The class is on May 11th at 7pm via Zoom.
The second class is by J. Michael Squatrito, Jr., he’s ARIA’s President and the class will be in-person on May 25th at 7pm.
Television News:
Well, The Mandalorian finished it third season, Bad Batch finished up their second and third season of Picard nailed the landing even if I have nitpicks about who survived the finale. It’s funny they tried to stay away from the fan service for two seasons and look what happened. They turn into the fan servicing skid and they nailed it. I think this is why Discovery took so long to find itself as a show not for the fan servicing but finding people who liked Star Trek.
The Diplomat on Netflix is worth watching if you’re missing on West Wing-type of show that doesn’t slow down so the audience can catch up.
Silo on Apple TV on May 5th is based on book series written by Hugh Howey. If you’re into sci-fi/post apocalyptic and if you haven’t read the Silo series, I’d suggest tracking it down. The trailers look great and a lot of A-List stars.
Reading News:
I finished up Lockwood and Co. and enjoyed the series. I’m guessing from the lack of news of season 2 on Netflix means no season 2 but you never know, one can hope. It’s unfortunate that with all the attempts to create a Buffy-esque show on Netflix, Lockwood nailed it in the first episode, having a thought out universe helped.
Free Comic Book Day is upon us on May 6th just in time for the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie. May sure to support your local comic book store!
Rhode Island based psychologist, J. L. Doucette is the author of the Dr. Pepper Hunt Mysteries. Her new novel, On a Quiet Street, is the second in the series following her award-winning debut, Last Seen. After earning a doctorate in counseling psychology from Boston University she moved to southwest Wyoming. The stark landscape of the high-desert, where a constant wind stirs crimes of passion, is the setting for her psychological mysteries.
Tell me about yourself. What inspired you to write?
I have always loved stories and the beauty and effectiveness of words to convey meaning. The first adult book I read was Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I was moved by the insight the book provided into the character’s internal experience. I wanted to be able to do that.
Describe your desk / writing space. My desk is in front of a large window that overlooks a river. On the desk I have lots of small mementos of Wyoming the setting for My mystery novels.
Do you have a writing routine, or do you write when inspired? I write most mornings. I used to be a night writer, but the timing switched organically for no particular reason I can point to. I like morning writing it gives me a sense of accomplishment. I feel more alive on the days I write in the morning I think because of the mental boost from being creative.
How do you come up with the title to your books? The titles, Last Seen, On A Quiet Street, and Unknown Assailant are all terms I read in newspaper reports of murders.
What was the hardest scene for you to write? Which scene was your favorite to write? In my last novel there are two love scenes because the relationship between the two main characters progressed to that level of intimacy. These scenes were hard to write because I wanted them to convey the various levels of intimacy experienced. My favorite scene was in the first novel, where one of the detectives visits the crimes scene, which happens to be on the top of a mountain, and he is confronting the desolation of the landscape and the corresponding desolation of the crime.
What inspired your book/series? True crime stories which I then altered and amplified into fiction I am drawn to rime with strong psychological context.
What are you working on next? Book 4 in the Dr. Pepper Hunt Mystery Series. The working title is Innocent Bystander, which begins with an infant kidnapping.
What authors or books have influenced your writing? Tana French, the Irish author The Dublin Murder Squad Series and Jane Harper, the Australian suspense author. author. They both create ensemble characters that develop through the series.
If you could live anywhere, in this world or fantasy, where would you live? A tropical island in the 1930’s
What is your favorite meal? Steak Frites
Coffee or tea? Wine or beer? Coffee, wine
Describe yourself in three words. Curious. Persistent. Resilient.
What a difference a month makes, Picard Season 3 is firing on all thrusters, The Bad Batch finishes up Season 2 with a big episode and for those who read Hugh Howie’s Silo, Apple TV dropped a teaser trailer for the series and it looks really good.
Season 2 of Shadow and Bone dropped on Netflix and while I’d gobbled up season 1, I need to read the books to see how much they changed since there’re been some grumblings about them rushing through season 2 (and the books?) with a possible Six of Crows series in the wings.
Paramount+ has announced Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks and Prodigy renewals and Starfleet Academy while season 5 of Discovery will be the last season of the show.
I’m happy to see Trek embracing its episodic roots with expanded storytelling model aka television instead of attempting another condensed attempt at a movie since we don’t need another Nemesis. Trek, in my mind has always been episodic while the movies only get it right when it’s a movie and not an expanded two hour episode. I’m impatiently waiting for them to give up on Nu-Trek movies even if the actors are perfect, the stories just aren’t there.
The Star Wars franchise is thankfully using Disney+ properly for it’s expanded storytelling even if some of the shows don’t land well i.e. Book of Boba Fett since the condensed format of Episodes 7, 8, and 9 didn’t fair well. I think if they hadn’t gone with the LOTR schedule of a movie per year it’d be different story all together.
All of this feels like geek/superhero overload but for the most part the quality of the television shows have been good. It’s the movies that’re coming in dead on arrival, I haven’t seen a Marvel movie in the theaters since No Way Home and I’ve been a fan since Blade 1.
Movie News:
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: It’s not trying to be Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. It’s a fun, family movie with little swearing, little violence and enjoyable A-List actors knowing full well what movie they’re in. It’s worth seeing and sit through all the credits.
Reading News:
I’ve finished Lockwood Books 1,2+3 and moving onto Book 4. I’m hoping for a season 2 pick up from Netflix. I recommend checking your local library if you’re interested in the series.
I’m coming back to The Atlas Six later, it didn’t click with me.
Last Crosleigh Standing (LCS) is still being plotted out. I’m trying to figure out if I want to do a novella or a full sized novel. It’s a prequel to Where Weavers Daire and takes place sometime before. You won’t need to read Weaver to figure out what’s going on.
April eBook Promos
Sci-Fi & Fantasy eBooks for everyone!Looking for a new sci-fi book? Check out these fun ebooks!A plethora of books looking for reviews!
Novelist and historian Diane Josefowicz is the author of Ready, Set, Oh, a novel published in 2022 by Minneapolis-based Flexible Press. A novella, L’Air du Temps (1985), is forthcoming from Regal House in 2024. Her fiction and essays have been widely anthologized and have appeared in Conjunctions, Fence, Dame, LA Review of Books, and elsewhere. She is also the author, with Jed Z. Buchwald, of two histories of Egyptology, The Riddle of the Rosetta (2020) and The Zodiac of Paris (2010), both from Princeton University Press. She lives in Providence, RI.
Tell me about yourself. What inspired you to write?
The summer I was thirteen, I wrote a novel from start to finish on a yellow legal pad while hiding out from the rain—it was an incredibly wet summer—at the Cranston Public Library on Sockanossett Cross Road. What I loved—and I want to be absolutely honest about this—was the way those finished pages felt, their heft and texture. I’m left-handed, so writing in ink results in a smeary, messy page, and I loved that too. In my family I played the role of the unfailingly steady person, the reliable producer of good grades and athletic accomplishments. I wasn’t supposed to have an inner life, to respond in any authentic way to anyone or be unpredictably moved by anything. The page was one place where I could be freely imperfect, even messy. I threw those pages away because I didn’t want anyone to know I’d written anything.
Describe your desk / writing space:
I work at my grandmother’s make-up table, which I inherited after her death. It’s a delicate piece of furniture with thin legs and ball-in-claw feet. I’ve got my own office, with a wall full of bookshelves and a separate work table where books and papers tend to pile up. I’m usually working on a few things at once, and the projects are organized over there.
Do you have a writing routine, or do you write when inspired?
I write in notebooks, so I can jot things down when I’m out and about. I try to write every day, and I make a point of getting a few hours of dedicated writing time into just about every weekday. I sometimes write on weekends, but I like to keep those days free for reading and doing other things that don’t involve screens.
How do you come up with the title to your books?
My publishers have titled most of my books so far. It’s a marketing decision.
What was the hardest scene for you to write? Which scene was your favorite to write?
They’re all hard. Most of my writing happens through intense revision.
What inspired your book/series?
Ready, Set, Oh is a novel that takes place in the late Sixties in and around Providence, Rhode Island. It’s about two families in very different economic circumstances and what happens when two of their children become seriously romantically involved. The Vietnam war threatens one of those children, who is vulnerable to the draft; the other character gets in trouble because she’s pregnant and can’t get the abortion she might otherwise want. They’re in a terrible bind, both as individuals and as a couple, and the story unfolded naturally from their struggle inside this crucible of history and circumstances. I should add that I spent my early adulthood getting a PhD in history of science at MIT. One of my professors told me this: “The five years before your birth are the site of your biggest historical amnesia.” So I had thought a lot about that period, the late Sixties. I wondered what I could actually know about it. My parents had many fights about the meaning of those times; weirdly, so did all my professors. It was as if they were all trying to deal with some huge ongoing invisible trauma. So this struck me. Then, when I began writing Ready, Set, Oh, it was 2003, and the US was slipping into what was, to me, a very questionable and poorly justified war in Iraq. There was a lot of talk, too, about Vietnam, especially as the first casualty reports came back. I realized that war had informed so much of my life and yet, I had spent almost no time interrogating this, thinking about it. But I’d just had a baby, and her arrival sort of drew a line under my ignorance. I was worried about her future while being newly confused about the past. The book came out of those feelings.
What are you working on next?
L’Air du Temps (1985) is coming out next year, and that’s a story of a teenager named Zinnia Zompa who is stuck in a Rhode Island suburb in 1985. Weird things are happening—a neighbor is brutally murdered, everyone’s going crazy trying to make their lawns as green as possible, and Lincoln Continentals are parked in every driveway despite the skyrocketing price of gasoline. Zinnia’s just trying to make sense of it all, and along the way, she has a few adventures. I’m also finishing a revision of a novel about the housing boom and the beginnings of the opioid epidemic of the early aughts, though I would not necessarily say that on the jacket cover. Remember when everyone was in the business of “flipping” houses? There was so much manic energy around that, so much attention paid to it. And yet, behind and beneath it, there was also this wildfire of addiction and despair. How did that happen?
What authors or books have influenced your writing?
I went to Brown in the 1990s, when the creative writing program was deeply imbued with the fabulism of Robert Coover, Angela Carter, Rikki Ducornet. These were my first teachers. At MIT I worked with Anita Desai, whose sharp eye for narrative structure helped me clarify the difference between good storytelling and kinds of history I had been reading and writing. I love the moody Europeans: Péter Nádas, Bohumil Hrabal, Stefan Heym, Claudio Magris, Eugen Ruge. As far as contemporaries go, I’m a huge fan of Daisy Hildyard and Helen Dewitt.
If you could live anywhere, in this world or fantasy, where would you live?
I would live in Paris, where I spend part of every year.
What is your favorite meal?
Potato chips and Chardonnay. I don’t have this very often, for obvious reasons, but it is my favorite.
Coffee or tea? Wine or beer?
I once met a powerful businesswoman who made a fantastic recommendation: For dessert, always have coffee and another glass of Chardonnay.
