MLC: What did you do for a living before writing mysteries?
AUTHOR: I was in the video business and worked at ABC and WNET.
MLC: What's your average day like?
AUTHOR: Nothing is average! But it’s some combination of working out, writing, too much time online and playing with my dog.
MLC: Do you have pets?
AUTHOR: I have a golden retriever named Max who my husband and I rescued from Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue in MA. Max came right over to me and licked my face and it was love at first slurp.
MLC: Are you a morning person or a night owl?
AUTHOR: I’m an everything person..I kind of hate to go to sleep.
MLC: What groups are you a member of that you feel are important for you as a writer?
AUTHOR: MWA-NYChapter and SINCNE.
MLC: When did you start writing?
AUTHOR: Six years ago
MLC: Have you taught writing classes?
AUTHOR: No
MLC: Have you taken writing classes?
AUTHOR: No
MLC: What are your views on critique groups?
AUTHOR: Not for me
MLC: What is your favorite subgenre of mysteries?
AUTHOR: I’m all over the place
MLC: What has been your biggest challenge in being published?
AUTHOR: It’s more work than I ever imagined. The tour never ends and the revising never stops.
MLC: Why did you decide to write the mysteries you're writing?
AUTHOR: It was an accident
MLC: How did you choose the setting for your mysteries?
AUTHOR: I live there
MLC: What was the inspiration for your mysteries?
AUTHOR: An article in the NY Times
MLC: What writers have inspired you?
AUTHOR: Sue Grafton, Carl Hiaasen
MLC: How do you come up with your plot ideas for your mysteries?
AUTHOR: They generally start with something I’ve read in the news
MLC: How do you research for your mysteries? How long does it take?
AUTHOR: Each book has been different. Because I write an amateur sleuth, I don’t have the forensic detail that would require a lot of research on my part. The research I do is historical, cultural, etc. But it is after all, fiction.
MLC: Is the setting of your mysteries imaginary or real? Why?
AUTHOR: Springfield is a fictional town is CT, very much like any town in Fairfield County where I live, but I didn’t want to use a real town, because I didn’t want to get bogged down with non-issues like “did the train really stop there in 1976?” It happened anyway, but I prefer to have a fictional town that’s near real towns, so I have the best of both worlds.
MLC: Do you live where you set your mysteries?
AUTHOR: Yes.
MLC: Tell us about your latest mystery.
AUTHOR: Paula Holliday says yes to an all expenses paid weekend with a good pal at a hotel in CT’s wine country. When her pal is inexplicably detained and a would-be suitor is killed it starts to seem like less of a good idea. “..a nifty puzzle featuring native American casinos, mysterious Russians and a stinky, slow-blooming flower.” Publishers Weekly
Website: www.rosemaryharris.com
E-mail address: rosemary@rosemaryharis.com
Blog: http://rosemaryharrismysteries.blogspot.com/