mbinterview

How did you get started writing?

I was one of those nerdy bookwork kids. I wrote my first novel when I was seven years old. I wrote fiction all through high school and college and after I was married. My first published novel didn't happen until I was almost forty--alas.

Why did you decide to write mysteries?

I began writing mystery after my husband and I did a reverse on the usual scenario and fled the suburbs in order to live in Baltimore's inner city. As I wandered around the historic neighborhoods that border the harbor I began speculating about the people who lived in them. That's how my first mystery protagonist, Toni Credella, was born.

How do you develop your protagonists?

Toni came after Maryland's then governor Schaeffer pardoned a group of women were pardoning for killing their abusive husbands. I wondered how a formerly battered woman would go about putting her life back together and how she would deal with the guilt of having defended herself by killing her husband. Oliver Redcastle, the protagonist in my historical mysteries came after I researched the Baltimore's role in the Civil War and read about the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Oliver is an ex-Union sharpshooter and ex-Pinkerton.

What role does setting play in your fiction?

They say write about what you know, and I live in downtown Baltimore. It's a great place for mystery.

What are you working on now?

I've just finished a third Oliver Redcastle historical mystery and I'm in the middle of a fantasy novel. I'm planning to start a new Toni Credella mystery.