Michele J Drier Interview Published on: 24, Jan 2020

I think going to thre beach. I used to love to find long strings of kelp and pretend they were jumpropes

Well, it wasn't me, LOL. It was my great-great grandfather. He emigrated from Long Island and took a steamer around Cape Horn, arriving in San francisco in 1849. I suspect it was the lure of the gold rush. His wife joined him in 1852, traveling across the Ismuth of Panama on muleback.

Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates. It was about a poor boy who wins a skating contest in Holland using old wooden skates.,

I've always been curious about things...everything from politics to science, and journalism gave me the chance to ask questions, research and write about it

In today's media, there are very few daily newspapers left in thre United States. I still have friends I worked with there, more than 50 years ago, and we get together and lament the demise of good, local journalism. I was at the Mercury News when the Washington Post published the Pentagon Papers and started the fall of Nixon. Those were heady days when papers were uncovering a lot of government cover-ups. I cried when I saw the movie The Post. Those days seem to be gone.

I believe in change to improve the lives of those struggling. I began in working for organizations that trained women for work and provided day care centers for children. I think there need to be organizatiions that fight for social justice.

I can trace my family back to about the 1750s in Maryland, but being a fifth generation Californian, this state is part of my blood and bone. Both my maternal grandmother and grandafther lived in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake.

I think both the title and cover are very important...that's what grabs the reader first. I haven't designed any covers myself, but I do work very closely with my cover artist (she's designed 13 of my 15 published works and I love working with her).

I wanted to write a cozy, but discovered that I couldn't write a story without a serious theme, so Roz (Rosalind Duke) tries to hide away from the violence of her husband's murder in a tiny town in Oregon. Then she discovers violence is everywhere when one of her neighbors is stabbed to death...using one of her knives. I call it a dark cozy.

My daughter and I brainstromed about it. I wanted to write a paranormal romance, but didn't want the usual blood, violence and teenage angst. She suggested celebrities because "they alll wear dark glasses, drive around in limos with tinted windows and only come out at night. They could all be vampires."

I don't know if he's based on any particular person. I tried to get in the head of a 15th century man who was living in the 21st century. He's managed to become technically literate and is fearless, but has no idea how to have a relationship with a 21st century woman. He's charming, cultured, handsome, gallant and absolutly clueless. I tried to give him all the charactistics I'd like in a man.

Strong, capable, independent, but still open to relationships.

Write what you know but stretch your knowledge. Challenge yourself. Understand the English language, grammar, dialogue, simile and metaphor. Use a sense of wonder and humor towards the world around you, Tell a ripping good story with vivid characters.

I have an additional six books plotted out right now, more in the Amy Hobbes Mysteries, the Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, the Stained glass Murders and three stand-alones, one romance and two suspense. I try and write two books a year, but I'm currently swamped as the co-chair for the world's oldest and largest mystery convention, Bouchercon, this October. We expect 1,700 diehard mystery fans to spend four days talking to authors and celebrating mysteries.