Welcome to this week's Coffee Chat!
Today's guest is mystery author Sharon St. George, featuring her upcoming new release, Primary Source.
You're very brave to visit the frozen Midwest, even virtually, Sharon! Can I get you some hot coffee to drink?
SSG: Of course. At home I mix half regular and half decaf beans and grind them fresh for each pot. I prefer black, with no sugar. If I'm eating out in a nice restaurant, I sometimes treat myself by adding cream to my cup.
Ally: Black coffee coming right up. While I'm doing that, please introduce yourself to readers.
Today's guest is mystery author Sharon St. George, featuring her upcoming new release, Primary Source.
You're very brave to visit the frozen Midwest, even virtually, Sharon! Can I get you some hot coffee to drink?
SSG: Of course. At home I mix half regular and half decaf beans and grind them fresh for each pot. I prefer black, with no sugar. If I'm eating out in a nice restaurant, I sometimes treat myself by adding cream to my cup.
Ally: Black coffee coming right up. While I'm doing that, please introduce yourself to readers.
Bio:
Author of the Aimee Machado Mystery series, Sharon St. George has been an avid reader since childhood, when the books in Walter Farley's Black Stallion series were her favorites. As an adult, she was captivated by the medical thrillers of Michael Crichton, Michael Palmer, Tess Gerritsen and others. After spending twenty years working in administrative positions in medical offices, hospitals and libraries, she turned to writing hospital-based mysteries full time. Sharon maintains the Sisters in Crime Guppy Small Publisher list, and is a regular proofreader of First Draft, the Guppy newsletter. She enjoys posting on her blog about facts she's learned by writing fiction. www.sharonstgeorge.com
Something unique that isn’t in your regular bio: “I have a degree in Theatre Arts and enjoy acting occasionally in one of our local theatre company's productions.”
Contact Links:
Website: www.sharonstgeorge.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/SharonStGeorgeauthor
Twitter: @SharonStGeorge
Author page: amazon.com/author/sharonstgeorge
Author of the Aimee Machado Mystery series, Sharon St. George has been an avid reader since childhood, when the books in Walter Farley's Black Stallion series were her favorites. As an adult, she was captivated by the medical thrillers of Michael Crichton, Michael Palmer, Tess Gerritsen and others. After spending twenty years working in administrative positions in medical offices, hospitals and libraries, she turned to writing hospital-based mysteries full time. Sharon maintains the Sisters in Crime Guppy Small Publisher list, and is a regular proofreader of First Draft, the Guppy newsletter. She enjoys posting on her blog about facts she's learned by writing fiction. www.sharonstgeorge.com
Something unique that isn’t in your regular bio: “I have a degree in Theatre Arts and enjoy acting occasionally in one of our local theatre company's productions.”
Contact Links:
Website: www.sharonstgeorge.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/SharonStGeorgeauthor
Twitter: @SharonStGeorge
Author page: amazon.com/author/sharonstgeorge
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Why did you write your featured book?
SSG: I grew up in a family where grandparents on both sides spoke with accents. My father was a first-generation American. His parents immigrated from the Portuguese Azores Islands. On my mother's side, her step-father was an immigrant from Switzerland. As a small child, I assumed everyone's grandparents were immigrants who spoke with accents. As an adult living in New York City for a time, I made more than one trip to Ellis Island. It was quite exciting and awe-inspiring to realize the sacrifices and hardships involved in starting a life in a new country. In recent years, as our nation's emphasis on immigrants began to show up regularly in the news, I began to wonder how I might write a story about that polarizing topic. It would have to somehow fit with my protagonist's position as a hospital employee who is charged with managing the medical staff's Ethics Committee. My research led to three issues that came together in the story: immigration, organ donation and private prisons.
Ally: Do you write with a theme or message in mind?
SSG: Only after writing at least three of the books in my series did I realize the theme, if there is one, might be the empowerment of women, and how much they can accomplish by standing together. (Sort of like Sisters in Crime.) I found myself writing about women in demanding careers. My female characters include a corporate pilot, a surgeon, and other women with careers in hospital administration. These are powerful women who must balance their professional and personal lives. Most of them have men in their lives, and in some cases, children. To be fair, I've also written women as villains in some of my stories. To avoid spoilers, I won't say more about that here. And I do give the male characters plenty of credit for their roles in helping Aimee solve each mystery.
Ally: If you could travel through time and meet author Jane Austen, what would you talk about?
SSG: I would thank her for inspiring women to believe they have a place in the world of literature. I would tell her of my pilgrimage to Bath, England to visit the residences she inhabited while living there. I would acknowledge that she deserves most of the credit for the literary prize I won in college for my paper examining the theme of women's limitations in a patriarchal society in Sense and Sensibility. I would ask her to tell me all she could about her life and her writing, beyond what I was able to research for my paper. Finally I would tell her of how her legacy has endured through the ages and will most likely continue on after today's generation of women writers have joined her by taking their own places in literary history.
Ally: Have you written or considered writing in other genres or other forms, such as short stories or screenplays? Why or why not. Would they be easier, harder, or just different?
SSG: As a college student and beyond, with other courses and seminars, I've studied several genres. They include the short story, the essay, playwriting, the novel, and screenwriting. For a number of years, I worked as a college writing tutor, and even worked with faculty members who needed editorial help in preparing their doctoral theses. A number of years ago, I wrote a one-act play that was produced by the theatre department of the university where I studied. In my hometown, I was lead writer for a city centennial pageant commissioned by the mayor of the town. Several years later, I was commissioned to write a "Meet the Authors Mystery Night" production as a library fundraiser. In spite of my interest in playwriting and in the screenplay genre, I was more drawn to the mystery novel and ultimately decided to keep my focus there.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
SSG: I've just begun work on the sixth book in my Aimee Machado Mystery series. It is in early stages, and all I'm sure of right now is who the victim will be and that there will be enough potential villains to keep my readers guessing. I plan to weave the problem of drug addiction into book six more fully than I have in the first five. I recently heard a statistic on the news that surprised me. It seems that for the first time in our country's history, Americans are more likely to die of an opioid overdose than from a traffic accident. Since book five is being released in February 2019, I would estimate another year to eighteen months before book six comes out. Maybe in late 2020.
Ally: How would you answer the following quick response questions?
Ally: Why did you write your featured book?
SSG: I grew up in a family where grandparents on both sides spoke with accents. My father was a first-generation American. His parents immigrated from the Portuguese Azores Islands. On my mother's side, her step-father was an immigrant from Switzerland. As a small child, I assumed everyone's grandparents were immigrants who spoke with accents. As an adult living in New York City for a time, I made more than one trip to Ellis Island. It was quite exciting and awe-inspiring to realize the sacrifices and hardships involved in starting a life in a new country. In recent years, as our nation's emphasis on immigrants began to show up regularly in the news, I began to wonder how I might write a story about that polarizing topic. It would have to somehow fit with my protagonist's position as a hospital employee who is charged with managing the medical staff's Ethics Committee. My research led to three issues that came together in the story: immigration, organ donation and private prisons.
Ally: Do you write with a theme or message in mind?
SSG: Only after writing at least three of the books in my series did I realize the theme, if there is one, might be the empowerment of women, and how much they can accomplish by standing together. (Sort of like Sisters in Crime.) I found myself writing about women in demanding careers. My female characters include a corporate pilot, a surgeon, and other women with careers in hospital administration. These are powerful women who must balance their professional and personal lives. Most of them have men in their lives, and in some cases, children. To be fair, I've also written women as villains in some of my stories. To avoid spoilers, I won't say more about that here. And I do give the male characters plenty of credit for their roles in helping Aimee solve each mystery.
Ally: If you could travel through time and meet author Jane Austen, what would you talk about?
SSG: I would thank her for inspiring women to believe they have a place in the world of literature. I would tell her of my pilgrimage to Bath, England to visit the residences she inhabited while living there. I would acknowledge that she deserves most of the credit for the literary prize I won in college for my paper examining the theme of women's limitations in a patriarchal society in Sense and Sensibility. I would ask her to tell me all she could about her life and her writing, beyond what I was able to research for my paper. Finally I would tell her of how her legacy has endured through the ages and will most likely continue on after today's generation of women writers have joined her by taking their own places in literary history.
Ally: Have you written or considered writing in other genres or other forms, such as short stories or screenplays? Why or why not. Would they be easier, harder, or just different?
SSG: As a college student and beyond, with other courses and seminars, I've studied several genres. They include the short story, the essay, playwriting, the novel, and screenwriting. For a number of years, I worked as a college writing tutor, and even worked with faculty members who needed editorial help in preparing their doctoral theses. A number of years ago, I wrote a one-act play that was produced by the theatre department of the university where I studied. In my hometown, I was lead writer for a city centennial pageant commissioned by the mayor of the town. Several years later, I was commissioned to write a "Meet the Authors Mystery Night" production as a library fundraiser. In spite of my interest in playwriting and in the screenplay genre, I was more drawn to the mystery novel and ultimately decided to keep my focus there.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
SSG: I've just begun work on the sixth book in my Aimee Machado Mystery series. It is in early stages, and all I'm sure of right now is who the victim will be and that there will be enough potential villains to keep my readers guessing. I plan to weave the problem of drug addiction into book six more fully than I have in the first five. I recently heard a statistic on the news that surprised me. It seems that for the first time in our country's history, Americans are more likely to die of an opioid overdose than from a traffic accident. Since book five is being released in February 2019, I would estimate another year to eighteen months before book six comes out. Maybe in late 2020.
Ally: How would you answer the following quick response questions?
- a. an item on your bucket list: Another trip to Portugal and The Azores Islands
- b. favorite movie: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- c. hiking or sunbathing: Hiking in the Northern California wilderness with llamas.
- d. Do you believe in love at first sight? No, love takes time, but I do believe in attraction at first sight.
- e. Your pets - type and names Two llamas: Smoke and Quartz. Two cats: Willow and Fluffy.
Primary Source: (Aimee Machado Mystery #5)
Genre: Mystery/hospital based
Rating: romantic/PG
A young doctor, new to Timbergate Medical Center and eager to make a name for himself, is appointed chairman of the Ethics Committee. He requests that Aimee Machado, the committee's coordinator, arrange an emergency meeting to discuss organ donation. When pressed to elaborate, he refuses, claiming the details are highly sensitive and require the legal protection of a medical staff committee. Aimee agrees to arrange the meeting, but later that night, the doctor suffers a catastrophic fall down an unlit hospital stairwell, leaving him brain dead.
The suspicious timing of the doctor's accident troubles Aimee and starts her down a treacherous path. When she discovers an outrageous black-market scheme that spans the U.S. and beyond, her quest to save innocent lives puts her in mortal danger.
Buy Links:
Pre-order buy link for Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/y9ddtx5s
Pre-order button for Amazon not yet active. https://www.amazon.com/Primary-Source-Sharon-St-George/dp/160381583X/
RSS Feed
