Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m 66 years old, a scientist , writer and editor living in North Carolina. For most of my life I worked as a scientist and technical writer and I still have an active freelance science and medical writing business. I’ve been writing fiction as a hobby since I was a kid. Now I’ve finally decided to publish my one detective series. So far, I’ve written two novels (one is unpublished) and am at work on a third.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Stripper! is my latest book. I’ve been a mystery and detective fan forever, and I wanted to create a new and different detective. I also wanted to take the challenge of writing about someone as different from myself as I could. Welcome Natalie McMasters, Nattie for short, a 20-year old college student who doesn’t realize she’s bisexual, who is working as a private detective trainee at her Uncle’s detective agency while she’s in school at a large state university in the southern USA. Nattie was inspired by a guy I met years ago who had a job with a detective agency while he was in college, which mainly involved watching people who had filed disability claims with an insurance company to ensure they were actually injured. I wrote a short story, Stakeout!, which you can read for free on Wattpad (https://www.wattpad.com/564938180-stakeout-part-1 ), that tells of Nattie doing that job. Then while on stakeout, she sees something she isn’t supposed to see…
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. I’m a pantser, which means that I write by the seat of my pants. I generally know the beginning and the end of my story when I start it, but I let it go where it will rather than trying to meticulously plot it out. That makes the writing process non-linear, which inspires creativity.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Too many to mention. The great detectives: Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe, S.S. Van Dine’s Philo Vance, John Dickson Carr’s Dr. Gideon Fell and Sir Henry Merrivale, Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammet’s Sam Spade. Great storytellers including Louis L’Amour, Edgar Rice Burroughs and the pulp authors Lester Dent (Doc Savage) and Walter Gibson (The Shadow). F. Paul Wilson’s Repairman Jack is a contemporary favorite, as is Preston & Child’s Agent Pendergast and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on the next Natalie McMasters novel, the sequel to Stripper!, entitled Revenge! The title says it all. Look for it this fall.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I can’t recommend Awesomegang too highly. Booksbutterfly and Freebooksy are good too.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write! Then get a good honest evaluation of your work. Use your beta readers and listen to them when they’re all telling you the same thing. Find a good editor or do it yourself if you can, then self-publish when you’re ready – don’t waste years of your life with query letters.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Work hard and believe in yourself.
What are you reading now?
The Giant Rat of Sumatra, by Alan Vanneman, a great Sherlock Holmes pastiche.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to take Natalie from a wannabee P.I. to a mature career P.I., which will take several books. After that, we’ll see.
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?
The Annotated Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William S. Baring-Gould
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein
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