By Edith Maxwell, north of Boston
Dru Ann, we are so pleased to welcome you to the Wicked Cozy Authors blog. For those who don’t know, Dru Ann Love is the mystery author’s biggest fan. She not only reads prodigiously, but also reviews and blogs about the books she likes over at Dru’s Book Musings. She regularly hosts authors who present a day in the life of a character in that character’s voice. She announces new releases on Facebook. And she’s a really nice person I’ve had the pleasure of meeting at more than one mystery conference lately.
So I wanted to get to know her better, and let our readers do the same.
E: Tell us how you came to love to read mysteries.
D: I always loved doing puzzles, especially finding the right piece to fit in the right spot. That’s what reading a mystery is, finding the right clues to solve the puzzle. The first mystery book I read was Encyclopedia Brown and I loved them all. Here was this young boy looking for clues, it was fun following along with him, and I loved when I solved the puzzle before he did. From that moment on, I love reading mysteries, growing up with Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and of course Encyclopedia Brown.
E: Have you ever thought about writing a crime novel yourself?
D: No
E: I think you live in New York City somewhere. Tell us about your neighborhood. Did you grow up there? Do you ever see stuff happening in real life where you think, “Somebody could write a book about that!”?
D: Yes, I live in Brooklyn near the Atlantic Ocean and I love watching the tankers, cruise ships, and watercrafts pass by. My neighborhood is typical of a city with lots of noise and people on the streets, but yet quiet enough where you can sit on the bench outside and read. I’ve always lived in Brooklyn, but where I live now is not where I was raised.
You can walk down the same block every day and see something different and every time I see something out of place, I wonder where did it come from? Who put it there? Why did they put it there? The other day I walked by a renovated building and watched them bring out part of a wall and my first thought was, “What’s hidden behind the wall and what stories could it tell?” Sometimes when I see a caravan of flashing cars, I wonder who is in there and where are they going?
D: Yes, I work at a large corporation in the city that I refer to as the “daytime situation.” I have a one-hour commute each way, which is prime reading time.
E: I know you’re an avid quilter (as was my mother, but that’s a different post). Tell us about how you design a quilt – it might have something in common with designing a story!
D: Just like in a book, I need to have an idea of what the final project will look like before I start working on a quilt. Once I know this, I pick out the fabric color scheme and decide which quilt block(s) to use and once I gather the necessary tools such as the template rulers, stick pins, quarter-inch ruler, the marker and the rotary cutter then I’m ready to begin the quilt process. Step by step, piece by piece, I build up each level and as the quilt begin to take shape, I know once the binding is done, the quilt will be on its way to the new owner. Just like a book.
E: Okay, time for the fun question. What’s something about you, your experiences, your life, that would surprise us and our readers (and that you’ve never revealed in an interview before)?
D: I’m an introvert, but can hold my own in terms of conversations in a small crowd. But if a very extroverted person joins the conversation, I get very insecure and all I want to do is hide and in fact, I do hide by not saying a word, even in the presence of that same crowd.
E: We have a few introverts in this group of bloggers, too! Now, what are the top three books on your To-Be-Read list?
D: As of this interview, The Double Wedding Ring by Clare O’Donohue, Poisoned Prose by Ellery Adams and No Way Out by Alan Jacobson.
E: Thanks SO much for hanging out at the Wicked Cozy water cooler today, Dru Ann. Final question: when are you coming to the New England Crime Bake? We’d love to have you.
D: I would love to attend the New England Crime Bake but I have a funny feeling that it may conflict with Bouchercon 2014. Thanks for letting me hang out with the Wicked Cozy authors.
Readers: Any questions for Dru Ann? Leave her a comment!