Ask the Author: Shelley Costa
Answered Questions (12)
Shelley Costa
Like many other folks, it's a DNA "reveal" through 23 and Me. Why is my aunt actually (now) my first cousin? How is it I have a set of first cousins I have never heard of pre-DNA testing? Ah, family secrets. So tantalizing. But I'm finding that, unless the newcomers choose to connect, the DNA matches get you just so far.
Shelley Costa
All humor, all the time. I'm putting together a reading list for an eight-week course I'll be teaching on American humorists. Right now I'm rolling around in the work of David Sedaris, Dave Barry, Dorothy Parker and Fran Lebowitz. How to choose, how to choose!
Shelley Costa
I'd travel to Jasper Fforde's Swindon and Bookworld in his brilliant Thursday Next series. There I'd apprentice myself to Thursday in her job as a Jurisfiction agent. It's Jurisfiction's role to police the "inside stories" of books to put a stop to bad behavior outside the bad behavior written into their plots. Great gig!
Shelley Costa
Hi, John. Thanks for asking. I have started the next book in the Val Cameron series, "In the Hall of Broken Things," but (1) I will need a new publisher for it, and (2) contractually, it can't come out before mid-2019. *sigh* We'll see what happens. I will let the Goodreads community know when there's news.
Shelley Costa
Hi, Zoe!Glad to hear you've enjoyed CANNOLI and BASIL. Yes, I would certainly consider writing more books in the series, but Eve and the gang would first have to find a home other than Simon and Schuster, who haven't pursed it. Possible? Yes. But right now I'm working on Book #3 of a three-book contract with Henery Press for the Val Cameron Mysteries, and my plate is full. . .with or without cannoli! Be patient. We never know. Thanks for getting in touch. I appreciate your loyalty!
Shelley Costa
So glad you loved it! Practical Sins is the first book in the Valjean Cameron series. A Killer's Guide to Good Works comes out in Sept. 2016. I get her out of the Northwoods for that one -- back in her native New York, where the murder of her best friend makes Val feel like she's in a wilderness of a different sort. Ancient documents, holy relics, and some very bad people. Thanks for writing!
Shelley Costa
In one sense, nothing new: read as much as you can (in and out of school) and write regularly. Beyond that, navigate your way through those periods when your determination flags, when you take all those rejections too much to heart, when paying the bills of daily life feels more in your face than your art. These things will always continue to be true, in varying degrees, and we've all been there. Develop patience and a sense of humor about difficulties and impediments. Remember that your through-line is that you are a writer -- you get to bring truth and beauty out of nothing. Steady on.
Shelley Costa
Creating whole worlds and giving life to what I hope are worthy fictional characters.
Shelley Costa
I address the issdue in "Your Writer's Block is Smarter Than You," in the roll-out of my new MONTHLY newsletter, THE EVIDENCE LOCKER, which debuts next month. Please go to my website www.shelleycosta.com and sign up on the homepage to receive it. THE EVIDENCE LOCKER features pieces on mystery writing and literature, writing tips, announcements of services, upcoming events, and. . .giveaways!
Shelley Costa
Ah! Book Two in my new traditional mystery series from Henery Press. Book One, PRACTICAL SINS FOR COLD CLIMATES (January 2016), introduces Valjean Cameron, my fish-out-of-water New York editor sent to the wilderness. Book Two, A KILLER'S GUIDE TO GOOD WORKS (September 2016) brings Val back to her native New York, where she discovers a murder that comes close to home suddenly makes the place she knows best feel like altogether unfamiliar ground -- this time, a city wilderness!
Shelley Costa
Some stories just find you, choose you, and when you feel that catch in your throat, inspiration isn't far behind. Naturally, though, there are days when you as the writer may show up but the characters don't. Or your descriptive abilities. Or almost anything. When that happens, I tell myself just get the words down, it's just a draft. And you can always go back the next day when, say, beauty and inspiration return.
Shelley Costa
I started percolating the idea many years ago. As a gal who loves, lived, worked and studied in New York, moved away and now vacations up in the Canadian Northwoods, I discovered I was really out of my element. And it seemed no matter how many experiences I was having "up north," I was never really more than a fish out of water. (Still, I keep going.) This truth struck me as a great premise for a heroine of a mystery series: New York City editor gets sent to the wilderness to sign a reclusive best-selling author of thrillers to a book contract. And murder ensues. Lots of opportunities for tension, danger, humor.
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