An Interview at Bookbrowsing

Today, Publicist PJ Nunn has posted an interview she conducted with me on her bookbrowsing blog. She asked some interesting questions, many with a promotion/publicity slant, so I hope you'll go to her blog and read my responses!

Also, I'd like to make sure that all of my blog readers have a chance to enter a contest for a free copy of my new Wicked Eddies release along with a lot of other cool crime fiction. The International Thriller Writers is sponsoring a book giveaway on the Book Bitch website, and Wicked Eddies is one of them. To enter the contest, go HERE.

Interviews, interviews, interviews!

Every time I release a new mystery book (as I did Tuesday with Wicked Eddies), I receive a lot of requests for interviews. Many have appeared on-line recently. The interviewers ask different questions, and I try to vary my responses to similar questions, so I hope you'll read them all and find them to be interesting. Please let me know in a comment here if I say anything that surprises you!

International Thriller Writers featured me in their The Big Thrill webzine. Read the interview HERE.

My whitewater river ranger sleuth, Mandy Tanner, was interviewed on the Killer Characters blog HERE.

I was interviewed on the Inspiration Forum HERE.

I was interviewed by B.R. Stateham HERE. 

And lastly, this isn't an interview, but I applied the "Page 69 Test" to Wicked Eddies and reported on the result (which was VERY interesting) HERE.

More interviews are coming up, so stay tuned!

An Inspirational Interview

Fiona Mcvie interviewed me for the Inspiration Forum recently and posted it today. To read it, go HERE.

An Intriguing Interview!

B.R. Stateham asked me some thought-provoking questions in an interview he just posted to his blog, In The Dark Mind of B.R. Stateham. Check it out, and let me know what you think!

A Blogtalk Radio Interview at GZONE

Today at 2 PM MST, 4 PM EST, I will be a guest on Giovanni Gelati's GZONE Blogtalk Radio program. I hope you will listen either during the broadcast (when you can phone in with questions) or later from the archives. You can find the program HERE.

An Interview in the Salida Citizen

As many of my blog readers hopefully know, I have been asked to be the VIP in the Parade for the FIBArk (First in Boating on the Arkansas) whitewater festival in Salida, Colorado this coming Saturday morning. It's a match made in heaven, because Salida and FIBArk are both featured prominently in my March mystery release, Deadly Currents, the first book in my Rocky Mountain Outdoor Adventures mystery series featuring whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner.

To publicize my involvement in FIBArk, I will be interviewed on the local radio station, KSBV, "The River Rat," on Friday. Also, I was interviewed by a local writer for the Salida Citizen, the community's on-line newspaper. You can read the interview HERE.

I'll be checking for and responding to comments on the interview over the next few days, so please let me know what you think of the interview--and feel free to ask a question of your own!

An Interview with the Dames of Dialogue

Today I am a guest on the Dames of Dialogue blog. They presented me with their "Dames Dozen" interview questions, and I had a fun time answering them. They had some atypical questions such as how my husband and I met and about my pets. I hope you'll take a look at my answers there. I'll be responding to comments there today, so feel free to ask me some questions of your own in the comments!

Also, a librarian from the High Plains Library District interviewed me for their website. You can read it HERE. Page down to "Meet Colorado Author Beth Groundwater" and click on the "Meet the Author" link. Being a Colorado library, they were interested in how/why I became a resident of the state, of course.

An Interview and A Visit with the Barnes and Noble Mystery Book Club

Today from noon - 12:30 MST (11:00 - 11:30 PST) on my virtual book tour, I will be interviewed by Sylvia Dickey Smith on her Writing Strong Women blogtalkradio show. Listen in to see what questions she has for me! If you can't listen to the interview live, you can always listen to it later once it's archived. I hope you'll leave a comment or question of your own for me there. Every comment will be an entry into my virtual book tour contest for a free copy of Deadly Currents.

Also, today will start my one week visit with the Barnes and Noble Booksellers Mystery Book Club on-line. I will answer questions from members, AND I'll be providing reports about my experiences at the Left Coast Crime conference in Santa Fe, NM, that starts on Thursday. It should be a fun week there, and I hope you'll join me.

These will be the last two stops on my virtual book tour, but you can still read all of the posts if you're joining the tour late. You can find the complete tour schedule HERE. I hope you'll read each day's post and leave a comment on each one. And I hope you'll spread the word about my book and my VBT to your mystery-reading friends. Good luck in the contest!

An Interview on the River Ranger Blog

Today on my virtual book tour, I am interviewed by Brett Fisher, a river ranger in Oregon, on his River Ranger blog. His blog contains news of interest to fellow river rangers or those who want to become a river ranger. He had some interesting questions for me, coming from his unique perspective of working in the same occupation that my sleuth Mandy Tanner does. I hope you'll read the post and leave a comment or question for me there. Every comment will be an entry into my virtual book tour contest for a free copy of Deadly Currents.

You can find the schedule of my complete virtual book tour HERE. I hope you'll read each day's post and leave a comment on each one. And I hope you'll spread the word about my book and my VBT to your mystery-reading friends. Good luck in the contest!

An Appearance on Red River Radio

Today, I am scheduled to be a guest on Red River Radio, a blogtalkradio host. I will be talking to Dellani Oakes on Dellani's Tea Time show at 4:00 PM EST, 2:00 PM MST. You can tune in then and listen to me and Dellani's other guests in real-time, or you can listen to the show later after it's archived. Follow the link and the directions given there to listen. Also, I hope you'll ask a question or make a comment while you're listening!

I'm Interviewed on Writers Who Kill, Part 2

Last Wednesday, the 12th, and today, the blog Writers Who Kill is posting a two-part interview that E. B. Davis (Elaine Douts) conducted with me recently. She got into the nitty gritty details of my three publishers and why I chose each one and asked me about my upcoming Deadly Currents release. It should be interesting reading for anyone who is trying to get a book published these days or who wants to learn more about what authors go through to do so. I hope you'll read today's interview as well as last week's. I'll be checking for and responding to comments there, so if you have a question, ask it!

I'm Interviewed on Writers Who Kill

Today and next Wednesday, the 19th, the blog Writers Who Kill is posting a two-part interview that E. B. Davis (Elaine Douts) conducted with me recently. She got into the nitty gritty details of my three publishers and why I chose each one. It should be interesting reading for anyone who is trying to get a book published these days or who wants to learn more about what authors go through to do so. I hope you'll read today's interview and return and read next week's. I'll be checking for and responding to comments there, so if you have a question, ask it!

My thriller author guest: Timothy Hallinan

As promised yesterday, thriller author Timothy Hallinan is visiting my blog today to answer my interview questions and ones asked by my blog readers. Above is the cover photo for the fourth book in his Poke Rafferty series, The Queen Of Patpong, which was released yesterday to rave reviews.

Life in Bangkok looks good for American expat travel writer Poke Rafferty and his little family – his wife, Rose, is happily running a domestics agency that offers bar girls an alternative to The Life, and their adopted daughter, Miaow, once an abandoned street child, is now enrolled in a good school and trying desperately to conform. And then, out of nowhere, comes the nightmare customer from Rose's life in the bars, who threatens not only their lives but their emotional relationships as well. To do battle with him, Rafferty needs to know more about Rose's past, and there are things he may be unable to confront as we follow the path that took a shy village teen to Bangkok and turned her into the queen of Patpong.

“You won't read a better thriller this year.” NY Times Best-seller John Lescroart

See what Timothy Hallinan has to say in response to my questions below, and feel free to ask him additional questions in comments. And readers, he has agreed to award copies of Breathing Water and The Queen of Patpong to a lucky winner whose name will be drawn from those who ask a question or comment on his interview here today. So I expect lots of comments!


1. Who or what inspired you to start writing and when did you start?

I started writing when I was eight or nine. Adventure stories featuring boys who were a lot braver and smarter than I was. Essentially, what I'm writing now. I was alone a lot – we changed houses 22 times before I turned 18 – and shy, and a total book junkie, so it was a small step to move from hiding inside other people's stories to hiding inside my own. And I learned early – probably earlier than was healthy – that in my stories I could do all sorts of things to people I didn't like.

2. What tools and process do you use to “get to know” your characters before and while you’re writing the books?

None at all before. I learn who they are by writing about them. I regard my first 10,000-15,000 words as circling the drain – I spiral inward until I eventually figure out what and whom I'm writing about. Then I toss most of it and start over. As new characters pop up (and boy, do they) I just listen and watch to make sure I know who they are and that they don't sound just like everybody else in the book. Generally speaking, I let the characters emerge and define themselves and then I follow them into the story.

Having said all that, it's partly a lie. On my first series, back in the 90s, I finished the first book and three weeks later I had a 3-book contract. For the rest of the series (five more books) I had to work with bad choices I'd made in the first book. When I got the idea for the Poke Rafferty books, I wrote an entire novel, Bangkok Tango, just to make sure I knew who I was writing about and what their relationships were. The second book, A Nail Through the Heart, was the one I submitted for publication. It made an enormous difference to have already written 100,000 words about Poke, his wife, Rose, and their adopted daughter, Miaow.

3. How do you construct your plots? Do you outline or do you write “by the seat of your pants”?

I start with a situation. In The Queen of Patpong, it's very simple: Just when it looks like Poke's little family is finally safe and sound, a nightmare customer from Rose's life in the bar materializes and threatens everything – even their emotional stability. Because of this, we go back in time and learn what really happened to Rose, whatever that was. Then there's some sort of ending.

That's every single thing I had. The book flowed through me as though it already existed and my job was to find the words for it. Some things brought other things with them: at the beginning of Rose's story, a girl who's come back to the village from Bangkok throws Rose – then seventeen years old – a sapphire earring. I had no idea that earring was coming, but the moment it appeared, I saw its entire story. In a way, Rose's run to Bangkok, her introduction to the life of the bars, and the first major betrayal are all the story of those sapphire earrings. That doesn't happen often, but when it does I grab it with both hands.

4. In the age-old question of character versus plot, which one do you think is most important in a mystery or thriller and which one do you emphasize in your writing? Why?

Character is everything. Plot is what characters do. I read to meet characters and if they interest me, I'll read their stories. If they don't interest me, it doesn't matter what the story is. I think when people generalize snottily about “genre fiction” they're talking about plot-driven writing in which the characters are essentially hand puppets.

5. What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a writer and what inspires you and keeps you motivated?

The biggest challenge is finishing whatever I'm writing. In every book I go through periods of absolute certainty that this is the one I won't be able to finish, the one that's just junk piled on top of junk and covered with frosting. And, sometimes, it is. So I keep my butt on the seat and my fingers on the keys, and if I have to write it twelve times to find out what I actually mean, I'll write it twelve times. And twelve more, if I have to.

What keeps me motivated is the fun of writing the thriller aspects of the books and the joy, which is obviously a different thing, of writing the relationships.

6. What is a typical workday for you and how many hours a day (or week) do you devote to writing?

Seven days a week (unless I have a book coming out, in which case I do a lot of what I'm doing right now). In Southeast Asia, I take my laptop and about nine hours' worth of batteries and go to a coffee shop and drink coffee and write until (a) I make a minimum of 2000 words, or (b) my batteries run out. Every day of the week. It's the only way I know to keep the world of the book open and alive. If I leave it too long, it turns into a little diorama where I have to reach in and move the weensy people around. If I write every day, they're already in motion by the time Windows boots.

7. What advice do you have to offer to an aspiring author?

Start writing today. Write tomorrow and the day after. Write the book you would most like to read. Don't wait for inspiration. As Picasso said, “Inspiration exists but it has to find you working.” Write on tiptoe; try to do things you're not certain you know how to do. And remember, the less you want to write, the more you probably need to.

8. Now here’s a zinger. Tell us something about yourself that you have not revealed in another interview yet. Something as simple as your favorite TV show or food will do.

My wife and I met Bill Clinton at an event in the White House. As it turned out, I talked to him for 30 minutes nonstop, one-on-one, even though there were about 100 people there. The White House photographer shot picture after picture. And in every single one of them, my wife was gazing adoringly up at President Clinton. I didn't get a glance.

9. What are you working on now and what are your future writing plans?

The next Poke, which is tentatively called The Fear Artist, and a very odd book called Pulped, which brings together fictional detectives from the 1900s to the early 70s. It's pretty funny but I have absolutely no idea in the world where it's going. And I've got a standalone thriller based on Scheherazade that I'm messing around with.

10. Is there anything else you would like to tell my blog readers?

I'll talk to anybody. Put two book buyers in a room and I'll be there. Mostly, I'm just enjoying the response to The Queen of Patpong: starred reviews in the trades, Mystery of the Month in BookPage (making me the first writer ever to get Mystery of the Month three years running), a nice review in the Washington Post, a Notable Book in BookSense, and a bunch of other nice things. Oh, yeah, and here's the video for the book (Turn up the volume.)


What a video! Fire away folks!

Interview on Mysterious Musings

Today Julia Buckley, author of The Dark Backward stand-alone mystery and of the new Madeline Mann mystery series, posted an interview with me on her blog, Mysterious Musings. She had some interesting, unique questions that I've never answered before, so please go read the interview. And, if there's something you've always wanted to know about me, go ahead, ask it in the comments!