PART TWO
The Poisoned Martini ‘s second author interview continues. Click here to read Part One. Then read on for the second and final part of my interview with Christine Wenger, author of the forthcoming mystery, Do or Diner.
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The PM: You’ve long worked in the criminal justice field. How have your experiences helped in your writing?
Christine: I’ve worked in various capacities at the Onondaga County Probation Department until I retired as a Probation Supervisor. I’ve dealt with various components of the criminal and juvenile justice fields.
I think my experiences will certainly help me with writing mysteries. I can draw on them for a lot of terminology and some police and court procedure. I’d love to do a series of books set at a fictional probation department, but I have a tendency toward comedy and probation is very serious work. Though I did write one book, drawing from my experiences.
The PM: Yes, you recently released an ebook, Stuck on You. From the description, it sounds like it could be considered a mystery as well as a romance. Tell us a little bit about the book and what the ebook process like?
Christine: Stuck on You is a house arrest story. Since I was the supervisor of the Onondaga County Probation Department’s Electronic Home Confinement Program, it was only natural that I write a house arrest story!
In this story, a cop is on house arrest and the heroine in charge of the program has a tough time getting him to cooperate. He can’t stay confined at home as he’s being set up and is a sitting duck there. He needs his freedom to investigate what’s going on in his town. She wants to make sure her program works, and with her high profile client, it’s getting a lot of attention.
E-publishing is such a new thing, but a friend of mine was starting a new business to help authors in different ways, and I thought that Stuck on You would be a good fit for an e-book, since it didn’t seem to fit the New York publishing market. She formatted it for me and did all the stuff necessary to get it e-published.
And you are absolutely right, Brian, there is a little mystery that revolves around the cop, but that’s all I am going to say.
The PM: What was your writing schedule like while working on Do or Diner?
Christine: It was a lot of starts and stops. It seemed like everything was conspiring against me to get Do or Diner done!
For the most part, I sat in a boiling trailer (our camp) in the hottest part of the summer and wrote, while everyone was having a great time on the beach. I know…whine, whine, whine.
The PM: Do or Diner is planned as part of a series, A Comfort Food Mystery. How did you decide to develop your series?
Christine: I knew that I wanted to do at least three books, so I thought of some other mysteries that Trixie would get involved in. In my next cozy mystery, A Second Helping of Murder, Trixie has to solve a double mystery—and old one and a new one—and figure out if they are connected or not.
The PM: And of course I have to ask … will there be any cowboys?
Christine: Thanks for asking! Of course there will be cowboys! As I said, Trixie’s love interest is a cowboy from Houston. Then I have a new romance coming out in July 2013 from Harlequin Special Edition books. Lassoed into Marriage is about a bull rider and an airline pilot who have to work together to raise their niece. They don’t even like each other! Can they put their differences aside for the sake of a little girl?
The PM: Again, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions.
Christine: Thanks for giving me the opportunity, Brian, and if I may add, you are doing a fabulous job with your mystery program at the Library and your reviews are just fabulous. I shall look forward to your review of Do or Diner soon. Be kind to me! HA!
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For more about Christine and her books, visit her site: http://www.christinewenger.com or “friend” her on Facebook.
