When did you realize you wanted to write novels?
I’m a former newspaper reporter and freelance writer for magazines – all nonfiction. I’ve also written and published several nonfiction books. I became curious about writing fiction when I learned about indie publishing. I didn’t want to go through a traditional publisher for a long list of reasons. My first mystery was published late in 2017.
How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?
About a year to get the first book, Desert Jade, written and published.
Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?
Indie all the way.
Where do you write?
In Tucson, Arizona.
Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?
I almost always listen to jazz. For writing, I prefer jazz pianists like Keith Jarrett.
How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?
That’s an interesting question. I never, ever make any of my characters to be like a real person, either a well-known person or someone I know personally. Nor do I tell stories from my life. I do hear stories from all sorts of people about something that happened to them, and I will incorporate some parts of their stories into my plots.
Describe your process for naming your character?
I try to find names that are well-enough known and easily pronounced, but not really super common. For example, the main protagonist in Take Four is named Logan.
Real settings or fictional towns?
Always real settings. My Letty Valdez series is set in Tucson and in other parts of southern Arizona, including the Tohono O’odham reservation. The Cat Miranda series is set in Bisbee, Arizona, on the Arizona-Sonora border. The new series, Iron Horse, is set in a neighborhood in Tucson.
If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?
Any book by Ursula K. Le Guin, especially her science fiction books. Favorites are The Left Hand of Darknessand The Dispossessed. She was a brilliant, insightful writer. Logan in Take Four named his cat after the protagonist in The Dispossessed, Shevek.
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
People who only think about themselves and getting what they want for themselves, no matter the effects on others.
You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?
Water, food, and a dog.
What was the worst job you’ve ever held?
Working in a sawmill. I lasted one day.
Ocean or mountains?
Desert!
City girl/guy or country girl/guy?
Country, for sure.
What’s on the horizon for you?
I’m an artist as well as a writer. So I’ll be painting and writing tomorrow and every day until it’s time to go over the Rainbow Bridge.
Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?
Readers may be interested to know that I’m committed in my works to:
1) telling tales that provide a fun and entertaining read. One of my readers thanked me for helping her get through a hard time with her family because she had my stories to read before she went to sleep.
2) creating fictional characters that are not always present in fiction and who overcome various obstacles, including solving a mystery. Examples are Letty Valdez, a Mexican American/Native American private investigator and Army veteran, and Cat Miranda, an art galleriest who is bi-cultural, lives on the border and (spoiler) falls in love with an Englishman.
In my new Iron Horse Mysteries, I decided to play around with the conventions of cozy mysteries. The protagonist in a cozy mystery is usually a woman and an amateur sleuth. I made my protagonist a man, a fairly young man who is a single parent and father of a five-year-old boy. Logan is my amateur sleuth. As in any cozy, he calls upon a group of friends in his community to help him solve mysteries. At the same time, he does his best to be a good father to a charming handful of a boy named Charlie. Logan is also trying to figure out why he blushes every time he looks at Zoey Corban. (spoiler: Logan really likes Zoey and Zoey really likes Logan.)
I should mention that my mysteries typically have a romantic subplot, but the mystery always comes first.
An Iron Horse Mystery, Book 1
Logan Reid, resident of Tucson’s Iron Horse neighborhood, joins forces with visiting Canadian Gwilym Havard to stop assaults on jazz pianist Nina Perry and her band members, all of whom have become targets of a gun-toting killer. The heat rises when the shooter goes after each band member, and when Gwilym and Nina discover they have a growing attraction for each other. This cozy mystery that includes a real love of jazz is a fast, page-turning and captivating read. Take Four is a stand-alone story and #1 in the Iron Horse Mystery series. And let’s not forget five-year-old Charlie who really, really likes ice cream.
