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Q&A is designed for readers to sound off, tell me I’m off my rocker or off to a good start. Send an email with questions
or observations about my reviews and interviews, or about the novels. They’ll be posted here, along with responses.
Readers of my reviews have always been invited to voice opinions. When I didn’t care for one book, I merely told
what happened, excerpted many quotes from the novel, typical of my “tapas” review style. A witty reader responded:
“I expected an opinion, not Cliff Notes.”
When the advance copy of R.J. Ellory’s A Quiet Belief in Angels arrived, there were no blurbs by famous authors
on the cover. Thus, I had to judge the book not by its cover but by the words within. I was floored, immediately caught up with the intensity of the writing and characterization. As a courtesy, the link for each published review is sent to the author. When Ellory responded with the following email, I was floored again. Never again will I be able to get a T-shirt over my swelled head. “I went through twenty-two novels and over a hundred editors to find one who ‘got’ what I was trying to do. You got it straight away, so that says everything that needs to be said.”
From Nancy Freedman, Tropical Audubon Society board member: “Had you not put the clever ‘spoiler alert’ on your home page, I would not have read the seemingly sad story further. What do you mean by ‘retroactively fired’?”
-- Response: When I couldn’t find a neurosurgeon with my firm’s insurance company, the firm sent
a letter terminating employment at some unspecified date in November 2003.
With writing, I jot down bits of philosophy. Sort of like sowing seeds,
I never know if anything will grow, but here are a few observations.
When writing The Art of Murder, I didn’t consider it a mystery and couldn’t understand
why The da Vinci Code and Sue Grafton’s novels were in the mysteries section at libraries.
Mystery Writers of America solved that mystery: “For the purpose of Edgar Awards judging,
the board adopted the following definition: A work of fiction in which a crime is the central element.”
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