Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve always loved writing, but didn’t have time to get deep into it until after I retired. Now, I can do little else. I’ve lost much of my vision to glaucoma, so I can’t drive, travel, work in my garden, or even clean house (darn!) But I can bump up the fonts on my computer and Kindle, so writing and reading are great outlets for me.
I started with short stories. The Saturday Evening Post published one of them, “Grandpa and Me,” in its 2015 online anthology of best short stories. Despite that, I wanted to write what I most love to read: mystery stories. My first book in my series is “Love, Murder, and a Good Bottle of Wine.” The second book is “Snowbound.” I’m presently working on the third book, as yet untitled. Sometimes the title doesn’t come to me until late in the book.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The last book I published is Snowbound, and if I tell you what inspired it, I may give away the ending. Suffice it to say, I picked up an idea from the Sunday comics, said “hmmm. I wonder if…” and I was off!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know if they’re unusual. I usually have the glimmering of an idea, and instead of doing it properly by sitting down and plotting it out, I just start writing. Invariably, I have to stop somewhere and at least do an outline. But I like my method because my characters come up with all kinds of little surprises I hadn’t expected, often leading the book into something better than what I had envisioned.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Oh, my! There are so many! I don’t know if they’ve influenced me, in that I doubt I can ever write like they do, but I’ve read everything by David Baldacci, Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, Greg Isles, Lee Child, C.J. Box, and several others. I’ve also read many outside the mystery genre. If they have influenced me at all, it’s pushed me to learn as much as I can about the writing craft and strive to write the best book I can.
What are you working on now?
Right now, I’m working on the third book in my series, but I also have a few chapters finished of the fourth book. I also keep meaning to get back to revising the first book I ever wrote and never published: a family sage of my own childhood. I wrote it for family, but orders kept coming in, along with encouragement to publish it commercially. I keep meaning to get back to it, but never quite seem to get to it.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m very, very new at promotion, so I don’t know yet. Until recently, I just wrote, putting off book promotion, and I still don’t pay enough attention to it.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Learn your craft. I don’t mean you have to get a degree. But take some classes, buy some good writing books, find good online sites and blogs on writing. A good critique group is essential. And the learning never stops. At least, it hasn’t for me. I’m, always finding a way to use description better, make better use of dialogue, etc.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
There’s so much of it. Elmore Leonard’s “leave out the parts nobody reads,” being one that comes to mind. But probably the simple old standard, BIC (keep butt in chair).
What are you reading now?
I just finished “In Farleigh Field,” and got little else done until I finished. I don’t read as much as I used to, or even as much as I should, because, if I find a really good book, I can’t put it down until I finish. Before that I read “Shadows of the Wind,” and “The Halo Effect,” but didn’t find myself as engrossed in them. Learning to write has a downside; you never enjoy reading quite so much, because you see all the flaws, and that detracts from the story. I didn’t have that distraction in “In Farleigh Field.”
What’s next for you as a writer?
The book I’m working on, then the next.
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?
That’s a hard one. Irving Stone’s “The Agony and the Ecstasy” comes to mind because I’ve read it so many time. But that may be because I re-read it every time I thought I was going to Italy, and I wanted to refresh my memory about Michelangelo and his work. Other than that, probably something like the three first Games of Thrones books because they’re so big and complex, I wouldn’t get so bored re-reading the same material over and over again. I’d do better to take pens and se4veral reams of paper because it would take much longer to writ my own.
Author Websites and Profiles
Chris Phipps Website