I’m so thrilled to have had the opportunity to interview author Trilby Kent! Trilby’s debut novel Medina Hill, was released on October 13th and I had a great time talking with her about her journey to publication and her writing process.

What is Medina Hill about? Set in 1935, Medina Hill is the story of 11-year-old Dominic Walker, who has stopped speaking. Life with an ailing mother, an unemployed father, and unanswered questions about the war that haunts his family have led him to retreat into a world of silence. But everything changes when his Uncle Roo invites Dominic and his little sister Marlo to spend the summer on the Cornish coast. Dominic soon finds himself taking a stand for justice and the victimized Travelers community, armed only with a treasured copy of Incredible Adventures for Boys: Colonel Lawrence and the Revolt in the Desert. In doing so, he learns what it truly means to have a voice.

I’m always so curious about authors’ writing processes, and I think the tale of how Medina Hill was created will definitely interest those of you out there doing NaNoWriMo. No, Trilby didn’t write Medina Hill for a previous NaNoWriMo, but she very well could have!

I also ask sone of my favorite questions: plotter or pantser? Revision process? Writing quirks and habits? Trilby answers all!

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MsBookish: Medina Hill is your first book. Could you tell us a bit about your publishing journey?

TK: I spent a couple of years working on my first children’s novel while I was at university. It was actually three books squashed into one, with storylines ranging from fifteen-century Venice and Egypt to nineteenth-century India and present day New York. Because I really didn’t know anything about the children’s market at that stage, I ended up with a beast of a book: it was about 400 pages too long and a structural nightmare. I had enough encouraging feedback from a couple of agents to know that the writing wasn’t bad, but it soon became clear that The Travels of Maris Fauré was destined for the bottom drawer. It was a really useful apprenticeship, though.

I spent a couple of weeks grieving before starting work on Medina Hill. Within a month, I had a first draft; a few months later, I started sending it out to publishers. I didn’t have an agent at that stage – it would be another three years before I signed up with Judith Murray at Greene & Heaton – and I knew that the chances of having a book picked up from the slush pile were incredibly slim, so I’d almost given up hope when I received an email from Kathy Lowinger at Tundra asking if we could talk. The rest, as they say, is history.

MsBookish: You chose an interesting time period in which to set Medina Hill: it’s 1935, on the Cornish coast. What drew you to this time period?

TK: I find the interwar years absolutely fascinating. There’s a delicious dichotomy at work: people were still coming to terms with the horrific losses of the Great War by the time the Depression hit, and yet there was also an incredible outburst of creative expression, a weird exuberance that accompanied groundbreaking social change. By 1935, you also have the dawning realization that another global conflict might be just around the corner, so there’s a real tension in the air. The long, hot summer before the storm has been a popular motif for many writers over the years, because it’s so ripe with creative potential. It’s a great time in which to set a coming of age story.

MsBookish: In addition to being set in 1935, Medina Hill also involves the story of Lawrence of Arabia, whose adventures serve to inspire your protagonist, Dominic. It’s an intriguing storyline. How did the idea for the novel come to you?

TK: I’d been interested in Lawrence ever since I saw David Lean’s epic 1962 film as a teenager, and I was already toying with the idea of writing a piece of fiction about the Arab Revolt when the idea for Medina Hill cropped up following a trip to Cornwall. By that stage, I knew that I wanted to write in the voice of a child with selective mutism. Somehow, these rather disparate ideas converged, and the book was born.

MsBookish: Whenever I think about writing historical fiction, the first thing that comes to mind is the research. Could you describe your research process? How long did you spend on research before you began writing your first draft? Was there a moment when you knew you had everything that you needed, or did you find that you continued to research even after you began writing?

TK: I love research. Typically, I spend a lot of time reading around a subject before putting pen to paper, but the research also continues throughout the writing process. Now and then, I’ll hit a point where I simply can’t continue until I’ve managed to clarify some historical detail, and it’s incredible how often I’ll start to look into something and discover some bit of information that throws a whole new light on things, or provides the inspiration for an unexpected plot twist.

I can’t remember how long I spent on research before starting to write Medina Hill – I wrote the book four years ago, and I’ve done a lot of unrelated research and writing since then! – but it was probably a few weeks in total.

Shortly after returning from a few days in Cornwall, I saw a documentary on selective mutism, and things started to come together very quickly after that. I make notes all the time, so I already had quite a few ideas in store that were waiting for a home. The idea for Birdie’s character was already there, for instance, inspired by an artist called Madge Gill whose work I’d discovered months earlier.

MsBookish: How long did it take you to complete Medina Hill, from the very beginning of your research to finishing your final draft?

TK: I’m slightly embarrassed to admit it, but very little time at all. The book came out in a great whoosh over a couple of weeks – I was only able to write in the evenings in weekends, so that concentrated me even more. It’s pretty atypical for me, actually. I spent a year researching my first novel for adults, and two years writing it. I’m currently revising another novel for children which took a year to write, and several months to research. To be honest, I’d love to get back into the “whoosh” style of writing, because I think there’s a lot to be said for working with that kind of momentum.

MsBookish: Some writers are plotters, and swear by outlines. Others start with a spark or an idea, and write to see how the story ends. Where would you place yourself along this continuum?

TK: Oh, I’m a plotter. Definitely. Partly because I enjoy it, and partly because, if I’m going to dedicate loads of time to a project, I’d much rather know that I’ve got a watertight plan at the outset, rather than start to discover leaks when I’m already 50,000 words into the thing. That was the lesson I learnt from my first failed attempt at a children’s novel. When I’m writing short stories, I’m much happier to start with an idea and see where it leads.

MsBookish: I’m fascinated by the writing process. Could you talk a little about your writing process during the writing of Medina Hill? Did you have a writing routine? Particular writing quirks or habits? Favourite places to write? How would you describe your revision style?

TK: When I wrote Medina Hill, I was working full-time, which meant that writing was pretty much limited to evenings and weekends. I believe quite strongly that there’s a lot to be said for having limited time to write, because it focuses the mind. I’ve been writing full-time for almost four years now (first as a freelancer, now as a PhD student), and I find it absolutely crucial to have a structure – otherwise there’s a real risk of wasting an entire morning on YouTube (this always starts as “research” but can quickly devolve into watching the entire first series of The Lawrence Welk Show).

I’ve always written on the computer in my study, surrounded by loads of books – reference material, but also novels that inspire me to be a better writer – and various fond possessions, such as my 1910 tabletop letterpress, a pink seashell from Juno Beach, and a silver samovar from a friend who lives in Oman.

MsBookish: What are you working on now? Is your writing process any different now that you’re working on a second book, with your first one now published?

TK: Since finishing Medina Hill, I’ve completed a novel for adults, a few short stories, several articles, and another two novels for children (one is now with my editors at Tundra; the other is sitting in a drawer). I’ve recently started a PhD, which will require me to produce another novel as well as a critical commentary, so I’m starting to write in a much more systematic way; at the moment, I’m working with a target of 500 words a day. Otherwise, the process hasn’t changed very much – it’s just intensified! I’m having a lot of fun, and I feel very lucky indeed to be where I am today.

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Thanks, Trilby, for a great interview! Interested in hearing more about Medina Hill? Check out all the other stops on the Medina Hill blog tour, sponsored by Tundra Books!

Okay, I’m having a real fangirl moment here. Seriously.

I just stumbled on Part 1 and Part 2 of an interview with author Chris Grabenstein at M.J. Rose’s Buzz, Balls & Hype, as part of Gregory Huffstutter’s The Ad Man Answers feature.

Thanks to Beth Fish Reads, my biggest reading “find” of the year so far has been the John Ceepak mystery series, authored by Chris Grabenstein – I was so hooked after listening to the first book in the series, Tilt-A-Whirl, I promptly bought the rest of the books in the series and indulged in a reading blitz (or reading listen, I guess, since I listened to all the books in audio, narrated by Jeff Woodman, one of my favorite audiobook narrators). I reviewed Tilt-a-Whirl here.

In the interview, Grabenstein talks about his 20 years of working in advertising before he started writing novels (James Patterson was his boss at one time), writing the Ceepak novels, and a little bit about marketing books. And I learned that the sixth Ceepak book, Rolling Thunder, is due out in May, 2010!

It’s a great interview for writers and readers alike. Here’s what Grabenstein says about book trailers (which he thinks are definitely worth the effort): ‘We do not watch TV or book trailers and think: “Isn’t that nice, they did the best they could with no money.”  We see a movie, we either like it or think it sucks.’

Chris Grabenstein Interview, Part 1

Chris Grabenstein Interview, Part 2

I hadn’t realized until reading the interview that Grabenstein also writes YA/MG novels. I’m adding The Crossroads, the first book in a middle-grade ghost story series, to my TBR.

Update: This page wasn’t loading properly, but all is fixed now. Enjoy!

Anastasia Romanov, the daughter of the last Tsar of Russia, is believed to be dead by the world, but she is alive. And when she sleeps, she dreams …

Anne Michaelson doesn’t know much about Russian history; she is more worried about getting into a good college. But then the dreams start …

Dreaming Anastasia is a fun young adult fantasy that takes the reader back and forth from current-day Chicago to the time of the Romanovs, and throws in elements of a Russian folktale for added chills. I am so thrilled to have had the opportunity to interview Joy Preble, author of Dreaming Anastasia, about her writing process! Joy is so smart and funny (something that pops out at you right away if you read her blog); I hope you all enjoy reading her answers to my questions as much as I did.

I’m fascinated by writers’ processes, how each writer has such a personal way of approaching the writing of his or her book. Could you talk a bit about your own writing process?

JP: You mean after the ritual goat sacrifice, right? Just kidding. You know, it’s probably less of a process than a ‘ooh, I’ve got a spare twenty minutes here so let’s use it wisely rather than checking Facebook.’ But in terms of inspiration – each book I’ve written has come from a different place. Dreaming Anastasia came from both my fascination with the Romanovs and my sense that like me, I had this character who was aching for something to change her life.

Another novel that I hope you see fairly soon, developed from two things – the suicide of someone I knew, and my endless fascination for Texas high school football, spurred of course, by the fact that my son was an offensive lineman and his buddies pretty much sprawled on my furniture for a number of years, gossiping like a bunch of girls and eating me out of house and home. (One time at eating group – which rotated houses each week the night before the big game and involved the parents feeding groups of seven players – Jake and his buddies consumed over eight pounds of brisket, three apple pies, untold amounts of potato salad, a couple loaves of bread and at least a gallon of ice cream.)

A third book is a love story set with the back drop of a family bakery – not too different from the one my aunt and uncle ran in Chicago for many years. (Okay the family breakups and the main character’s crazy and disastrous love life is all from my head.)

[MsBookish notes: That is an amazing amount of food!]

Some writers like to outline everything, some like to outline a bit, and some like to just start with the first word and where it takes them. Which type of writer are you? Have you always been this type of writer, or did you try a bit of everything before you found your groove?

JP: I’ve tried and tried to be an outliner. But I’m just not. Mostly I start with either an idea or a character and kind of noodle around from there, writing bits and pieces and seeing what I have. At some point later – maybe thirty pages in – I do stop to create at least a rudimentary bullet point outline. Especially with Dreaming Anastasia, which has a mystery element to it, eventually I needed to know where I was going or I was going to write myself into a corner. Even with the other books that I’ve written now, there is always a point where I do have to know where I’m going to end up – with the caveat that I don’t have to really go there if the muse decides that I need to make a detour.

Do you have an writer’s rituals or writing quirks, things that you absolutely must do or have around you before you start writing?

JP: Nope. I know a lot of people who do, but I think because I began writing seriously while I was still actively parenting a high school aged son and teaching high school at the same time, I was thankful to carve out time to write wherever I could get it. If I stopped to brew up my half-caff latte with soy milk in my special mug first, I’d have used up the spare ten seconds. So I pretty much find that I can write on demand most days.

The original title for Dreaming Anastasia was Spark. Could you talk a bit about the change in the title? What inspired your original title, and what led to the new title?

JP: Well, to be perfectly honest, once money changes hands between you and a publisher, they can pretty much title it ‘Jo Jo the Crazy Boy Goes to Camp’ and you’ll probably say, hmmm, sounds good to me. That being said, the original title did relate to Anne’s magic as well as to the nature of her role in the story – she’s the ‘spark’ to move everything from the stasis that it’s been in while Ethan’s been searching for the girl who can rescue Anastasia. However, my editor ultimately felt that Dreaming Anastasia more clearly branded the story with its historical fiction element. People would know what they were getting. And honestly, it would match the cover art Sourcebooks had been playing with. Once I thought about it for awhile, I realized he was right. Plus, it really is reflective of the dreams Anne and Anastasia both have. So I do think it was easy to embrace the change.

[MsBookish notes: Dreaming Anastasia definitely gives the reader a good idea about the historical aspects of the book. It also has such a beautiful ring to it.]

In Dreaming Anastasia, the narrative voice changes from that of Anne, to Ethan, and then back in time, to Anastasia. What led you to use this narrative structure? Were there any challenges to switching between the three different voices as you wrote?

JP: Interestingly, I wrote the first draft of this novel in third person. But I always alternated between the voices of Anne and Ethan and Anastasia. At one point, I’d even contemplated Viktor having a voice as well, but I discarded that idea early on. Every time I attempted to tell the story any other way, I ended up at a dead end. Each character brings such a specific point of view to the telling that I just wanted the reader to have that. Anne is such a snarky, funny, contemporary voice. Ethan has more of the gravitas of history behind him, and he’s just so serious and earnest much of the time. (okay, plus hot) And Anastasia gets to have this sad, mystical quality to her telling. I loved having all of that collide, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t challenging. Sometimes if I’d been away from the manuscript for awhile – such as the lengthy time between when I finished the final revisions and we finally headed into copy edits, which was a long number of months – I’d have to sort of warm up and just write dialogue between the characters for awhile until I knew I heard them. Anastasia was always the easiest to nail because she is so trapped in the past, more or less. And Anne is funny, although not nearly as funny as Tess. But she’s got that contemporary cadence that I hear every day. Ethan was always a little harder. I always wanted him to have something a little stiff and old-fashioned about him, even as he was trying to blend in. Sometimes that was tricky.

[MsBookish notes: Joy did an excellent job managing the three narrative voices; I can imagine how it could be tricky at times.]

What writers have influenced you the most as a writer?

JP: You know I don’t think there’s any one person who comes to mind but rather everyone. I think we all sort of stand on the shoulders of the greats, so to speak. Plus honestly, every writer I read rubs off in some way. So I guess the better question would be who hasn’t influenced me! I do think having studied the classics helps me get a sense of the roots of story telling. Those horrendously sad Greek tragedies. Shakespeare’s sense of the human condition. But I’m influenced by so much more than that. John Irving and Anne Tyler and what I see as her contemporary YA counterpart, Sarah Dessen. All three of those writers have taught me about what it means to be human as well. About the crazy patchwork of people that sometimes collide and fall in love or suffer or just live life large. JK Rowling taught me how to spin a tale over many, many volumes and make it work! So amazing. Judy Blume taught me that I need to reflect what it’s like to be sixteen even if someone might complain that it’s too edgy. That it’s important to honestly tell the story that needs telling. (Oh! I have such issues at school sometimes when teachers will tell students writing a personal narrative, “Well, if you can’t think of something, just make it up.” And sit there thinking, no! You are telling that student that his experiences, whatever they are, are not of value. That bothers me so much) And just so you don’t get the wrong impression, let me end this answer by adding that I’ve also learned a lot from television writers. I mean seriously – I think I owe a serious debt of gratitude to the Palladinos and their Gilmore Girls. And if Joss Whedon hadn’t combined westerns and sci fi in the late, great Firefly, I might not have had to guts to do a little genre bending myself!

[MsBookish notes: I for one am very glad that Joss Whedon  inspired Joy to do a little genre bending! I agree totally with Joy; television writers really are amazing. I’ve learned a lot about how to tell a riveting story from television, as well as the big screen. I love that Joy has included television writers as one of her influences!]

Thank you so much, Joy, for this wonderful interview!

To find out more about Joy and Dreaming Anastasia, visit Joy Preble. And make sure you stop by her blog, Joy’s Novel Idea – it’s a very fun blog, and she’s been sharing her publication journey there with her readers. You can also follow Joy on Twitter.

"What if your mother was a criminal? What if her crime was magic? What if magic ran in the family?" This is the intriguing premise of Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse, a middle grade fantasy novel written by Kaleb Nation.

Kaleb initially got the idea for Bran Hambric when he was fourteen years old; he wrote almost five hundred pages of the book in six to nine months, and then over the next four years, he rewrote the book multiple times. The result? A fun and fast-paced read that middle graders who love magic and fantasy will be sure to enjoy.

I had the opportunity to interview Kaleb about his writing process. It was fun and exciting to learn about what went into the writing of the book, and I hope you all enjoy this interview as much as I did!

In an interview with Sourcebooks, you talked a little about how the idea for Bran Hambric came to you. When you began writing, were you writing toward an ending that had already come to you, or were you writing to find out where your idea was leading you? Can you describe how your original idea grew to become Bran Hambric?

KN: When I first wrote the story, I didn’t really plot it out much. All I had was a big idea, and I knew basically where it was going and who it would include, and what happened to some of the characters at the end. So as I wrote the book, many of the characters totally surprised me! I think I wrote about 5-600 pages in the six months following the first big idea. After I had all of that, I rewrote the book many times over the following years, until it was transformed into the book it is today.

You originally wrote 500 pages of the book in six to nine months. Could you describe your writing process during the writing of this first draft? Did you outline, or did you just start writing and let the story tell itself to you? Did you develop your characters first, or did they develop as you were writing? What were some of the things that drove you to write that first draft?

KN: I didn’t outline it much with the first draft: I really just wrote it out for a long time, and kept going with the characters leading the way. I did get stuck somewhere, and at that point I started plotting out bits and pieces of the book, just so I had a road map of where I was going. It was very much character driven for that draft though.

You spent six years working on Bran Hambric. I’d love to learn more about your editing process, the ways you refined your initial draft into the completed book. Did you have an "aha!" moment, when you knew the book was complete?

KN: I had a strange editing process. For the first few years, I just kept rewriting the entire book, and I’d get so far in it, then suddenly go back to the beginning and start over editing there again! I am a perfectionist when it comes to writing, so I wanted the beginning to be really clean. I didn’t really have an "aha!" moment when I realized the book was finished, because I wasn’t even really sure it was: but I was ready to start hunting for an agent, so I sent it off!

[MsBookish: Just wanted to stick my nose in and say that Kaleb definitely accomplished a very clean beginning - the prologue that starts Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse is incredibly exciting, and pulls you right into the story.]

There is a lot of humor woven throughout Bran Hambric. Can you talk a bit about the humor in the book?

KN: I think my humor is derived from a lot of the radio dramas I listened to when I was very young, especially shows like Adventures In Odyssey and Jungle Jam And Friends, and from my dad, who was always making us laugh as kids. I think that having humor in a book makes it a far more enjoyable read!

Other than Bran Hambric, which of your characters did you enjoy writing about the most?

KN: Sewey was my favorite character to write about other than Bran. Sometimes even I find myself laughing as I write about his antics. He’s one of those characters that takes over the scene, so that it’s not like I’m even writing it at all, I’m just trying to keep up with what he’s doing.

[MsBookish: Sticking my nose in again to say that Sewey is very definitely a fun character; Kaleb has caught him so vividly, and I’m not at all surprised that writing the scenes with Sewey in them was more a matter of trying to keep up with what Sewey was doing!]

What are you working on now? Do you find your writing process is different than it was when you initially wrote Bran Hambric?

KN: I’m working on the sequel to The Farfield Curse right now. My writing process is quite different than with the first: far more organized, with a good amount of plotting and notes. That way I don’t have so much trouble with writer’s block… and I don’t take six more years on this one!

[MsBookish: I’m very glad to hear this, because I think once readers have read Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse, they’re going to be looking forward to the sequel.]

What authors have influenced you the most as a writer?

KN: Lemony Snicket! I think his humor has affected mine greatly, because I loved his books growing up.

[MsBookish: I thought one of the most engaging things about Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse was the humor – it added such fun to the excitement.]

Thank you, Kaleb, for taking us for this behind the scenes look at the writing of Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse!

You can read more about the book at Bran Hambric and visit Kaleb Nation at his blog, Kaleb Nation. He is also the Twilight Guy, and if you enjoy videos, be sure to visit his YouTube channel. And that’s not all! Kaleb’s composed a soundtrack for Bran Hambric, and you can listen to some of the tracks here!

Due to a glitch in my blog theme, it turns out I can’t go over a certain word count per post, so I’ve had to post my interview with Barbara Levenson in two parts. Here is Part 2 of Barbara Levenson’s interview (and here is part 1 of the interview).

MB: You had a rich and rewarding career in another field before turning to writing. What words of advice would you have for the aspiring novelist who is currently making a living in another profession?

BL: Most authors have had other professions before turning to writing.  It is rare that a person decides he or she is going to support themselves by writing alone.  Work in another field enriches an author’s writing.  For one thing, it brings an understanding of people in real situations.  (I am not sure what profession prepares you to write about vampires or other paranormal subjects.  Maybe a strange boss who reminds one of a werewolf?)  My advice is to steal as much time as possible to sit down and write.  It doesn’t matter whether you write short stories or plays or descriptive paragraphs.  The more that you write, the more your writing improves.  Secondly, aspiring writers should go to as many conferences and seminars as possible.  Interaction with other authors is very helpful.  These gatherings offer the opportunity to learn about the industry of publishing.  Publishing has its own set of quirks.  Preparation for dealing with a whole new profession puts the new writer ahead of the game.  Thousands of people are writing books, most of which won’t get published.  By studying the industry and learning from other writers, chances are good that you will be published.  The best things to keep in mind are that there are no set rules for being a good writer except the rule that says, “You will not get discouraged.”

MB: Could you talk a bit about the events leading up to getting the publishing contract for Fatal February? I was thinking that must be such an exciting moment in an author’s life.

BL: No moment can be more exciting to an author than an actual contract to publish a book.  It means that someone out there likes your work enough to gamble on readers liking it too.  It validates the hours spent slaving over a hot computer.

I began attending writing classes, seminars and conferences when I began working on my novel.  I was fortunate enough to be admitted to the Kenyon College summer wrting institute where I first gained valuable information about the world of publishing.  Two years ago, I attended Sleuthfest, the Florida Chapter of Mystery Writers of America’s annual conference.  Agents and publishers attend this event and share knowledge regarding how to contact them and others, and how to write a query letter that stands out from the thousands publishers and agents receive.

At the luncheon at Sleuthfest, I was lucky to be seated at the table with the editor and president of Oceanview Publishing.  We had a great discussion and they told me when my book was finished to contact them.  In early 2008, Fatal February was ready for the push to sell.  I had heard horror stories from other authors about the amount of letters necessary before publishing became a reality; one author said it took 250 letters.  Undeterred, I started with six letter, one of which was to Oceanview Publishing.  Five of the six responded promptly.  Four of them asked for a few pages, or a few chapters.  Oceanview asked for the full manuscript.  A few weeks later I heard from the editor at Oceanview saying she was sold on Fatal February, but had to have others of their readers sign off on it as well.

The next month, February in fact, there was another Sleuthfest.  While there, I talked to an agent and shared with him what was happening.  He happened to be a lawyer, as well.  He gave me excellent advice.  “You don’t need an agent.  You are a lawyer and have access to other lawyers to look over any contract.”  He also confirmed my impression of Oceanview as being an excellent small publishing house.  The next month, Oceanview offered me a contract and by April, I was signed up.  The first thing I did was to sit down and cry.  All the tension was released, but little did I know that there would be brand new tensions.

New authors need to understand that the process of bringing a book to the bookstore is long, arduous and needs preparation.  Art work, website design, advanced reader copies, blurbs for the cover , advance reviews, and finally a launch date.  It is easier and quicker to have a baby!  I must give Oceanview Publishing a big thank you for turning out quality products and for being a guiding hand every step of the way.  I never felt alone or without resources to guide me.  Also, I will always attend Sleuthfest. It started the process for me.

Fatal February Giveaway

A huge thank you to Barbara for such an insightful interview. This is Barbara’s first stop on her book tour for Fatal February. Check out the link to see other stops on the tour, which includes several guest posts and reviews of the book.

You also have a chance to win a copy of Fatal February. It’s a little bit more complicated than most giveaways, as you need a PIN number. If you’re clicking through to the giveaway link (the form is at the bottom of the page) before noon tomorrow (February 18), use this number: 6126. If you’re a little bit late, don’t despair! You can still enter the giveaway – check out the most current tour stop for a valid PIN.

Fatal February is the first book in a new mystery series featuring criminal defense attorney Mary Magruder Katz and written by Barbara Levenson.

In addition to being a writer, Barbara is also a senior judge in the circuit court of Miami-Dade County; prior to her election to judgeship, Barbara was a criminal defense and civil rights litigator. Fatal February is her first book, but she has already finished her second Mary Magruder Katz mystery and is hard at work on the third book in the series!

I recently had the opportunity to interview Barbara, an interview I enjoyed very much -it was interesting learning more about Barbara’s process in writing Fatal February, and how she manages to balance her career as a judge and her writing career.

An Interview with Barbara Levenson

MB: You’ve mentioned that the idea for Mary Magruder Katz popped full-blown into your head. How did her stories come to you? And what motivated you to put pen to paper to capture these stories?

BL: I guess that Mary had been in my subconscious for a while.  I have mentored young women attorneys and new judges over the years.  Mary is a compilation of their thoughts and problems, along with my own experiences as a new litigator.  Additionally, Mary personifies the melting pot people who populate the Miami area.  Something wonderful is afoot here. We have learned to appreciate our differences or to overlook those we can’t appreciate.  I wanted to share these areas with readers, and to tell the real Miami story that isn’t about tourism.  It’s about day to day living.  It’s just done in fabulous weather.

MB: Carlos is such a charismatic and interesting (not to mention sexy!) character. How did you get the idea for his character? Did you know right away that he would be perfect for Mary?

BL: The idea for Carlos actually occurred to me at the car wash that I go to.  I was there one day when I saw this amazingly handsome guy.  We chatted while we indulged in the free popcorn.  He was very charming.  Then I observed him being absolutely rude to the attendants and cashier; two personalities.  He fit right into the stories swimming around in my brain.  I thought he was the one person who could keep up with Mary (at least most of the time).

MB: You’re currently working on the second Mary Magruder Katz novel. Could you describe your writing process? How do you start each writing day? Do you have any writing rituals that you follow?

BL: Actually, the second book is finished and will be published in June,2010.  My writing process is simple;  sit down in front of the computer and write. Writing is not a job to me.  I love to write and look forward to the time spent doing it.  I usually try to get rid of the mundane things in my life early in the day.  things like straightening out the house, brushing the dogs, or going to the grocery.  I answer e-mails and then close my brain to anything but writing.  This may mean two hours or six hours of pleasurable time writing.

MB: You’ve spent 32 years as a litigator and then a circuit court judge. How have your experiences enriched your writing career?

BL: Being a lawyer or a judge requires many of the same traits as being a writer. Lawyers and especially judges must be excellent listeners.  You must concentrate on hearing what a client is saying or what witnesses are presenting.  When an author creates a book, she must listen to the characters.  Are their voices authentic?  After listening closely to so many voices in courtrooms, it gives an author the ability to develop voices of characters that readers can relate to and feel the characters emotions. A litigator must be immersed in her case and must create the story of the case in language that a juror can readily understand.  This is the same job that an author has in creating the plot and characters for the reader.

MB: Your writing style in Fatal February is very engaging – the reader is immediately drawn into Mary’s world. Was the transition from the dryness of legal language to the richness of fiction difficult or did it come easily?

BL: I never subscribed to the theory that legal writing must be wordy and boring.  My writing style has always been to be brief and clear, so I didn’t have to cleanse my writing style.  I believe more lawyers are moving away from verbosity as they understand that when you want a judge to find in your favor, writing clearly and persuasively will win the day.

Due to a glitch in the blog template I’m using, I’ve just discovered I can’t exceed a certain word count per post. My interview with Barbara Levenson is therefore divided into two parts: please click here for Part 2, and information regarding the giveaway.