Interview With Author Jackie Ross Flaum
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a water aerobics enthusiast, an amateur jewelry maker, a devoted grandmother, and a writer of mystery, suspense, and thriller books. I’m active in my writer’s group, Malice in Memphis, my church, and my bridge club. My husband, a retired newspaperman, and I volunteer with a second-grade reading program, which you can read about on my website. I’ve written a novella of love and murder in another time of American epidemic called “The Yellow Fever Revenge” and two Sterling Brothers Ltd novels of the turbulent civil rights era South, “Justice Tomorrow” and “The Price of a Future.” In addition, my short stories have appeared in such magazines and anthologies as “Low Down Dirty Vote II and III”, “Now There Was a Story (crime fiction based on the songs of Johnny Cash), ” Lies Along the Mississippi” and “Modern Magic. I have one husband, two adult daughters, five grandchildren, and one disobedient dog.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“The Price of a Future” is the second in the Sterling Brothers Ltd series of two murder investigators for a civil rights group who work in the 1960s South. The series sprang from a newspaper story I read years ago about a Black couple and a white couple who tried to buy houses in the same cities. They exposed housing discrimination. I thought at the time, what if there were teams of Black and white investigators who gathered evidence against the killers of civil rights workers? Madeline Sterling and Socrates Gray grew from that. I’ve used them in two novels and two short stories so far.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My house is usually cleanest when I’m suffering from writer’s block. Somehow dusting and cleaning get me back to the story I’m working on.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Harper Lee, SA Cosby, and JD Robb (Nora Roberts) If someone compared me to one of them I’d be flattered beyond belief. I fell in love with “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zoe Neal Hurston by accident–I was helping my granddaughter with a high school essay on the book.
What are you working on now?
I need to finish the third book in the Sterling Brothers Ltd series: “Wigs, Mustaches, and Other Disguises.” It’s all but done…..which means the editing and rewrite is underway. Those are my least favorite parts of writing. I’m also working on two short stories I want finish.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m terrible at promotion. I’d say Amazon ads or Facebook ads.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
The late best-selling author Carolyn McSparren once told me that every villain has to have something good about him and if nothing else, give him a dog.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t go to sleep on a quarrel. It was meant to be advice for a new bride and groom, but I find it applies to anyone you’ve argued with.
What are you reading now?
Southern Man by Greg Ilse
What’s next for you as a writer?
I need to finish my works in progress then polish up some short stories that are in rough draft.
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?
To Kill a Mockingbird
Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Holy Bible (some great stories in there)
Author Websites and Profiles
Jackie Ross Flaum Amazon Profile
Jackie Ross Flaum’s Social Media Links
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