Interview With Author Patricia Stoltey by Jacqueline Seewald

Patricia Stoltey loves books and authors and regularly features guest writers from a variety of genres on her blog (http://patriciastoltey.blogspot.com). Ruled by the fearsome Katie Cat, Patricia and her husband reside in Northern Colorado where Bill escapes to play bridge and enjoy ham radio while Patricia avoids her writing and blogging tasks (and Katie Cat’s demands) by meeting writer friends for coffee, mostly to talk about procrastination. In other times, Patricia has lived in Illinois, Oklahoma, Indiana, Florida, and the South of France. You can learn more about her and her novels at her website (http://patriciastoltey.com/). She can also be found on Facebook: (https://www.facebook.com/patricia.stoltey), Twitter (https://twitter.com/PStoltey), Google+ (https://plus.google.com/u/0/115494264819086899639/posts), and Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1105939.Patricia_Stoltey).  

Question: What is the title and genre of your novel?  Why did you select them?

Answer: First, let me thank you all at Author Expressions for letting me jump on board with news about my Five Star release. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Dead Wrong is a novel of suspense about a woman on the run but she’s dead wrong about who’s chasing her. You can see why I chose the title, but now that I know how many other novels have used that title, I wish I’d done a little more research first. If readers search for Dead Wrong, they’ll find a long list of books before they get to mine. Hopefully they’ll search on my name instead.

I chose to write a standalone suspense novel after my two Sylvia and Willie mysteries were published. I’m not sure writing a series is my primary interest, although I do have one more mystery Sylvia Thorn could solve. To me, standalones allow a greater mix of plots and characters…and I don’t have to keep track of all those important stats for the next book.

Question:   What inspired this novel? How did it come about?

Answer: I started with the “woman on the run” idea because I enjoy reading suspense, psychological suspense, and thrillers. At the beginning, my plot was big and included a threat to the whole country. Gradually I tightened the focus and used a real-life crime that actually happened to a company I worked for. The rest of the story came from my overactive imagination and the desire to write some of the novel from the bad guys’ points of view.

Question:  Could you tell us a little bit about the heroine and/or hero of your novel?

Answer:  My main character is Lynnette Foster, a young woman who recently lost her father and had moved from Indianapolis to Florida, thinking she had a new job with a major Miami newspaper. That didn’t work out, so there she was, alone and lonely, working as a cocktail waitress. To ward off the constant advances of drunks and college boys on spring break, she took a self defense class taught by a sexy cop. She impulsively married the guy, and a week later was on the run with a black eye and bruised nose. Lynnette runs into big trouble when she crosses paths with a really bad dude, Fat Ass Sammy Grick (more evidence of my overactive imagination).

Question:   Can you tell us about some of your other published novels or work?

Answer:  Five Star and Harlequin Worldwide Mystery published my Sylvia and Willie novels, The Prairie Grass Murders and The Desert Hedge Murders. The ebooks are now available for Kindle and Nook.

Sylvia is a 60-something former attorney and judge, and Willie is her older brother who suffers from a form of PTSD. In the first novel, Willie gets in trouble when he visits the old homestead in Illinois and finds a body. Sylvia travels from Florida to bail him out. In the second, Sylvia accompanies her mother’s travel club to Laughlin, Nevada, where they find a body in the hotel. Willie and their father fly to the rescue, but complicate matters more than they help.

My first published short story, “Three Sisters of Ring Island,” just came out in the anthology, Tales in Firelight and Shadow. It’s a creepy retelling of the Norwegian folk tale, “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” only now the three characters are humans instead of goats, and they don’t deal with their situation in quite the same gentle way.

Question:   What are you working on now?

Answer: I’m finishing up the second draft of another suspense novel tentatively called Out of Control.   It’s not a true sequel to Dead Wrong, but I have reused a couple of characters. The female police officer who plays a relatively small part in Dead Wrong had now been newly promoted to detective and she’s the main cop who’s dealing with the murder of a young woman in Glades, Florida.

I also have two sort of finished novels ready for revision and editing. One is an untitled mystery, and the other is historical fiction. I plan to submit that one to Five Star for the Frontier Fiction line.

Question:   What made you start writing?

Answer: I grew up with books, loved reading, and always wanted to try writing a novel. My brother had a story to tell about his years in the transportation industry, so we tried co-authoring an action/adventure tale involving unions and management. Once I had that first draft printed out, the sense of accomplishment was overwhelming. I churned out another novel, this time romantic suspense. Finally I knew what I wanted to do as soon as I could find the time. Not counting the writing classes and bad short stories and occasional mystery fan conventions along the way, the time didn’t come until I retired from my real job in the real world.

And just so you know, the action/adventure novel, The Troubleshooter, made it into audiobook about 14 years ago, but has never been in print (and probably never will be unless I find a spare year to do a couple of rewrites). That romantic suspense manuscript, Against Her Better Judgment, is still on my shelf with its wimpy heroine begging for a rewrite. It’s a better story, but needs a lot of character development.

Question:   What advice would you offer to those who are currently writing novels?

Answer: We learn best by writing, so write as much as you can even though most of it may not get published.

 And don’t throw away anything you write. It’s fun (and a little sobering) to go back and read it twenty years later.

Question:  Where and when will readers be able to obtain your novel?

Answer:Dead Wrong is available now in hardcover through most online booksellers. I’d also love to have you request the book at your local library. They will need the ISBN which is:  ISBN-13: 978-1432829865.

By the time you read this interview, it’s possible the ebook will be available as well.  

Dead Wrong:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1432829866/

Tales in Firelight and Shadow:  http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Firelight-Shadow-Alexis-Brooks-ebook/dp/B00O9BKXVM/

Pat, thanks so much for being our guest author today! Readers, your comments and/or questions are welcome here.

Interview With Author Pamela Nowak

Interview with Award-Winning Author Pamela Nowak

by Jacqueline Seewald

I’m very pleased to welcome Pamela Nowak here today. Pam was recently named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers writer of the year.

Pam’s awards for her first Five Star/Gale novel CHANCES are as follows:

Winner of 2009 HOLT Medallion for Best First BookRecipient of 2009 WILLA Finalist Award for Historical Fiction

Named as One of Booklist's Top Ten Romance Books of 2008

CHANCES received a rare starred review from BOOKLIST which is quite an honor.
Pam’s second novel, CHOICES, has also won critical praise and received a starred review from BOOKLIST. Both novels are currently available in hardcover, large print and Kindle editions.

Hi, Pam, thanks so much for joining us today at the Author Expressions blog.

Question: First, congratulations on your excellent Booklist reviews and all the honors you have been awarded. Could you tell us a little bit about Choices which received a 2010 HOLT Award of Merit for Historical Romance. I believe it’s a Western romance. Where is it set? Who are the main characters?

Answer: Thanks, Jacquie. Chances is a western romance, but it’s not your typical cowboy/ranch story. It’s set in Denver in 1876 and involves a spunky female telegraph operator and a straight-laced undertaker who unexpectedly find themselves on the same side of local politics. As they work together to battle violence and charges of prostitution, they discover passion and a love worth chancing everything on. I like to think of it as an “American Historical”.

Question: Are Chances and Choices part of a romantic series or do each of the novels stand alone? Are there many similarities between the two novels in plot, characters and settings? How are they different?

Answer: The novels stand alone but have related characters in that the heroines attended boarding school together. Both take place in 1876/77 and will be joined by a third related-character book, hopefully in 2012. Choices features a rebellious officer’s daughter who falls in love with an enlisted man and rejects the suitor favored by her hostile mother.

While the books are set in different places and have different characters, both settings represent places that existed as portrayed and are rich in historical detail. Chances includes a number of secondary characters based on real people. Choices uses real historical events. Characters in each deal with issues that we often don’t associate with the 19th century: professional jealousy, gender bias, substance abuse, and domestic violence.

Question: What inspired these novels? How did they come about?

Answer: Choices was actually written first and was inspired by the Fort Randall Archaeological Project. My late husband, an archaeologist, served as project manager for the dig and I went with him to the National Archives during the research phase. While there, I became intrigued by daily life at the fort and the relationships among officers’ families, enlisted men, and laundresses.

Chances grew out of a small biography of a female telegrapher that I found in a used-book store. I was smitten with the idea of a strong heroine. It seemed natural that a telegrapher might favor suffrage and that a conservative undertaker would be a perfect foil. Since I love Denver and its history, it was a perfect match, especially since Colorado held a suffrage referendum in early 1877.

Question: Have you written other things? Can you tell us about some of your other work? What are you currently working on?

Answer: I have completed a manuscript called Changes, the third in my related-character series. It centers on a part-Sioux librarian in Omaha in 1879 who is passing as white. When she is asked to help with research for the “Trial of Standing Bear”, she falls in love with the opposing attorney. She faces the realities of discrimination and he is forced to accept that true justice is not always defined by law.

I’ve also started a new series, set around the turn of the 20th century. The first book takes place in 1905 Denver at one of the city’s early amusement parks, Elitch’s Gardens.

Question: What made you start writing?

Answer: I think I’ve always written. I was crafting stories in elementary school and started writing Judy Blume-influenced young-adult novels in high school (which I never finished) but was always drawn to history. In 1983, while working at the Wyoming State Pen, an inmate told me he had signed with an agent to get a western published. I thought, “I can do that,” and sat down to write a story of my own. Then, I spent years learning to master the craft of writing.

Question: As a successful author, what advice would you offer to those who
have novels they would like to submit for consideration?

Answer: Take the time to learn. How-to books are a great starting place but one must write in order to learn the craft of writing. Join a writers’ organization and a critique group so you can learn the craft by having others read your work and teach you “hands on.” Go to conferences and workshops. Know that it often takes years to learn to write and that becoming published almost never ever happens instantly.

Question: Excellent advice. Finally, could you tell us where to order your novels?

Answer: Both books can be ordered from local bookstores or purchased on-line at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. Kindle versions are also available. Or, visit my website at http://www.pamelanowak.com/ and follow the links.

Pam, thanks so much for being our guest today. Those of you who have comments, please know that they are very welcome here. So feel free to join the conversation!