murder.booklocker.com

Following the advice posted all over the web, I created a press kit. I have dutifully included these with copies of the book that I have sent out for review. I also posted copies of my press release to several local newspapers. Wonder of wonders, this week I received a call asking if I could come in for an interview!

Denise Fleischer from the Journal-Topics newspaper immediately put me at my ease. May all interviews go so well. She’s a fellow author so the questions she put to me were probably a little different than they might have been. Things like how long have you been writing, do I have a fixed schedule for writing. She asked about who helped to edit the book (Linda Mowry and Holly DeVogt) and who did my cover (Julie Sartain). She also asked about the self-publishing process - was I happy with BookLocker? The answer is yes.

I told her about Cheryl Peterson’s comments about the fun of reading about places that you recognize, even to the interrogation room at the police station (“More from City Hall”). We went off-line as it were to talk about the book which Denise is working on. Part of her research involved going to the Des Plaines Police station. She assures me the walls of the interrogation room are pink (which is supposedly to unsettle those being interrogated).

This morning she called to let me know that the interview was running this week already. I had expected it to appear in the Des Plaines version but to my delight it is also in the Rosemont, Mount Prospect and Park Ridge papers. The headline reads: “Senior Center Writing Instructor Turns Assignment into Novel.” It fills a half page and carries my photo as well as the book cover. Ah me. A few minutes of celebrity status.

The text of the interview is here