Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I published five short stories about Cinnamon and Burro investigating crime in New Mexico, and my readers asked for a novel. Two novels exist now in the Cinnamon Burro series: In Gallup, Greed and In Albuquerque, Abandoned. Next I started the Cotton Lee Penn historical mysteries. Two books start the series: Gone on Sunday and Premonition.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Coming soon is from Solstice Publishing, fraud investigator Molly Donovan escapes a boarded up house and avoids drowning in Cochiti lake. No Way Out is suspense-filled pleasure. A desire to add a little romance to my mysteries inspired this book, plus, like all my books, characters with disabilities appear as part of the plot, not objects of sympathy or heroes for not giving up on life.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write in short bursts if I need to, I write on the patio in good weather, and I push to get 1500 words a day (but in the end, it varies a from 500 to 2000).
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Tana French, Ruth Ware and Tony Hillerman all influence me. I love all the mystery writers from Raymond Chandler to Agatha Christie to Walter Moseley and Elmore Leonard…and more.
What are you working on now?
I am working on the second book in the Molly Donovan trilogy. Molly is a former fraud investigator in love with a New Mexico PI whose Spanish heritage leads him to follow after a distant cousin in Spain. Feeling abandoned, Molly falls for a Navajo FBI agent investigating a local kidnapping. Everybody hears drumming and nobody is safe.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
So far, for me, nothing works like promoting free or discount books through at least five promotion newsletters at once. I try to stay on the cheap, but when I have the money, I go with the big guys who charge $50-100. I use paid advertising with Amazon and Bookbub, but my budget has dwindled. Hoping my new book will add some promotion money to the coffers. Sales are a combination of work and luck. Once I sold a couple thousand copies in two months, but it was word of mouth and luck.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write and don’t give up. Everybody says this, and it’s the only good piece of advice I’ve gotten. I did get a traditional publisher eventually, and that allows me to keep writing and have an audience — at least for now!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Keep writing and don’t give up. Keep trying to publish any way you can and get an audience. It builds slowly, but it does build.
What are you reading now?
Standing in Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin
What’s next for you as a writer?
Traditional publishing is next. I am excited a publisher is willing to take a risk on me, but I am working on my own promotion, too. I try everything, waiting for luck to swing my way.
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?
Shakespeare’s works, a book of Emily Dickinson’s poems, and a book of Eudora Welty’s short stories. And anything by James Baldwin.
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