Interview With Author Carmen Amato
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a retired intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency who has made writing danger and deception into a second career. I’ve written 8 novels and a dozen short stories in the award-winning Detective Emilia Cruz series set in contemporary Acapulco, plus two standalone thrillers. My new 4-book historical fiction Galliano Club series jumps back in time to 1926, when Al Capone ruled Chicago and Prohibition made beer king!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Revenge at the Galliano Club is the last book in the historical fiction Galliano Club series. The books are best read in order and Revenge wraps up the riveting storyline spanning 4 books. We’re in upstate New York, where an Italian immigrant bartender and a gun-toting Chicago bootlegger are battling for control of the Galliano Club, a local hangout for mill workers. In walks a woman looking for the man who killed her sister. As you can imagine, trouble ensues!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m a dedicated plotter. Every book starts out as an outline recorded on sticky notes. The notes are color coded for the main crime, the sub plot and a personal angle that will complicate solving the crime.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m a mystery reader as well as a mystery writer. I especially love books that take me to new places like Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko series set in Russia. As far as influences go, Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series is a lesson in writing great dialogue.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on Viva Acapulco, the 9th Detective Emilia Cruz mystery set in Acapulco. I love writing the squabbling between Emilia and her partner (now boss) Lieutenant Silvio.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Advertising price drops across multiple platforms and in-person talks to book clubs and writing groups.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep polishing that draft! Find a few trusted people who read your genre and use them as beta readers. Don’t ask people who don’t read that genre for feedback.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write the next book while you wait for the current one to “take off.”
What are you reading now?
Slough House by Mick Herron.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Many of my readers love to read series and write reviews, but find most book journals have tiny print and cluttered pages. So I created the Mystery Ahead book journal, with recommended mysteries to read and easy-to-use prompts with clean design just for them! I’m really excited to share it.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’d bring volumes of collected works! Shakespeare, Herman Wouk, Ian Rankin and of course, Robert B. Parker.
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