Ask the Author: Elena Hartwell
Answered Questions (13)
Elena Hartwell
Hi Vickie,
I'm so sorry! I had no idea there was a question here. I would have responded a year ago. Book 3 was not released on audio, but you can get it in paperback. If you have any trouble finding a copy, and would like to get one, do let me know. Thank you for asking.
I'm so sorry! I had no idea there was a question here. I would have responded a year ago. Book 3 was not released on audio, but you can get it in paperback. If you have any trouble finding a copy, and would like to get one, do let me know. Thank you for asking.
Elena Hartwell
I heard a sound downstairs, had I locked the door? Got out my gun, no bullets.
Elena Hartwell
I would go to Narnia or Middle Earth. If I went to Narnia, I'd want to hang out with the Centaurs. I'd bring my two horses with me. If I went to Middle Earth, I would seek out Beorn. I'd love to meet a shapeshifter who can become a bear. Having the opportunity to communicate with animals through an interpreter would be fascinating.
Elena Hartwell
I'm reading a lot of the International Thriller Writers Debut Author novels. I'm this year's program chair, so I'm trying to read them all. I'm enjoying them very much and they run a gamut from cozy to thriller. I think next up is Walt Gragg's The Red Line, a military investigation of a fictional world war three.
Elena Hartwell
When I was in Elementary school - around fifth grade - I had a belly dancing teacher named Delilah. She taught a kids' class one day a week, but spent most of her work life dancing at a hotel bar not far from where I lived. I would be in a car on the freeway and see her name up on the marquee of the hotel and I loved that I knew her personally. One day, she didn't show up to teach us. She left no messages with the dance studio, and no explanation ever came. Her name disappeared from the marquee. I've always wondered what happened to her and thought it would make a great plot for a novel.
Elena Hartwell
Couples in the mystery genre can be very tricky. Sexual tension adds a lot to a story or series, but once it's consummated it can get flat. In novels, I think Dennis Lehane does a fantastic job with the Gennaro/Kenzie dynamic. In the TV world I love Castle and Beckett and Murdoch and Julia. My private investigator Eddie Shoes is slowly developing a relationship with her ex-boyfriend, homicide detective Chance Parker. It's been a balancing act to figure out what happens in which book to start the tension between them and keep it building.
Elena Hartwell
Hi Brandi, for some reason, I never saw your question here, I apologize for not answering you! To be honest, I'd like to be more involved on Goodreads. It's one of my goals for this year. Do you have a group you participate in? Perhaps one that you can recommend to me?
Elena Hartwell
I'm lucky. The need to write drives me. I rarely need inspiration because I'm always feeling compelled to do it. It's like an addiction, but one that isn't fattening, life-threatening or makes me take my clothes off in public. (For which we're all grateful)
Elena Hartwell
Book two in the Eddie Shoes Mystery Series is almost finished. I have it out with a few beta readers. So while I'm waiting for their feedback, I've started on book three.
Elena Hartwell
Write, write, write, read, read, read, repeat. Get a few people who write better than you, and whom you trust, to critique your work. Listen to what they have to say. Even when you don't agree with it, take it in. Don't worry about fads, agents, book covers, or financial success, just write your story the best you can, then rewrite it until you can't rewrite anymore. Then start the next one while you look for a home for your first.
Elena Hartwell
Fame, fortune, power... okay. I don't really have any of those things. What I do have is the freedom to create something people connect to. There's nothing better than having someone say to me "that was me you put onstage" (my writing career started in the theater, where I still sometimes work as a playwright). To know that a person or a situation I invented made a person in the real world feel understood is an amazing feeling. Also to know I've entertained or enlightened someone is pretty great too. Plus I get to wear yoga pants and old sweatshirts for work and spend afternoons with my horses.
Elena Hartwell
I think writers suffer from writer's block when they try to rush to writing their story. Many years ago, a friend and I came up with the expression "honor the mull" - and by that we meant, you have to allow time for the story to start to unfold in your imagination. Or start to get to know your characters. Or at least get an idea for a scene. Once your imagination has started to work on more than just a vague idea that you want to write, that's the time to sit down to the computer or pick up your pen. When you have scenes and moments and situations already working in your mind, you can just record them on the page. If you sit down, with no idea about what you're going to write about and say "today I'm going to write my book" you are going to have nothing to say. Any time I get stuck, I honor the mull and simply find a quiet place to work over the story in my mind.
Elena Hartwell
My husband and I were on a road trip, and he came up with the name Eddie Shoes. I can't remember the context, but I remember thinking "That's a great name for a private eye." So I started to think about what a person named Eddie Shoes would be like. Had she picked the name for herself? Who was she? What did she want? That's what got me started.
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