What a winter we’re having in the Midwest! It seems as if we’re in a never-ending snow pattern. So pull your chair closer to the fire and grab your favorite hot drink for a cozy chat with mystery author Norma Huss.
It’s so nice to see you, Norma. How do you take your coffee?
NH: Hazelnut cappuccino would be perfect.
Ally: I love the scent of hazelnut coffee! While I pour, please tell readers about your background.
I’m a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother who writes. I grew up in Washington (state) and moved to Pennsylvania to marry my husband. We raised five children who all married, and all but one produced two grandchildren. I’ve worked as a secretary in the distant past. Although retired, I’m more active writing now than I’d ever been. Besides creating imaginative stories, my second love is creating meals for my husband, me, and occasionally, for visiting friends and relatives. (And yes, my two loves combined when I released a book of short stories, with recipes included.)
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: “I began writing my first story in fifth grade. Unfortunately, I never finished it. The only mystery about it was, how would it end? (Couldn’t figure that out, or, perhaps, I just found something else more entertaining to take up my time. I was big with paper dolls. I had a whole trunk full.)”
Author contacts:
Amazon author page: https://tinyurl.com/nuy7ugv
Facebook author page: fb.me/writerNormaHuss
Twitter: https://twitter.com/normahuss
Website: http://www.normahuss.com
Blog: http://blog.normahuss.com
Goodreadshttp:/www.goodreads.com/author/show/5087868.Norma_Huss
Ally: What can readers expect to find when they open a Norma Huss novel?
NH: I write sort of cozy mysteries - more the Agatha Christie type: small Chesapeake Bay-side community rather than big city or international spies—although I do have a mobster returning home from prison in one book. There’s also a touch of the supernatural with ghosts in the two stand-alones and a mental sense of a talking cat in the series. (Romance is more in the future possibility stage.)
Ally: What makes a good mystery villain? Are there certain characteristics readers can look for while puzzling out "who dun it?” :)
NH: I prefer seemingly normal villains - someone pushed to the limit or someone who feels him/herself to be better than, or more qualified/superior in some way to others. Oh, I do have one rather mentally deranged person who is a villain. (Those previous statements fly in the face of my core belief that anyone who kills is mentally deranged - which means, I’m writing fantasy, I guess) Of course, using such a person makes it more logical that the villain I choose isn’t obvious to the reader. (I like to confuse them since, as a mystery reader myself, I love to be confused.) I may give several people characteristics that are hateful to further confuse the reader. And, I’ll spread a few lovable traits around as well. Most people are a contradiction of traits, I think. Also, each of us may find different traits lovable or hateable, according to the interaction among individuals.
Ally: Do you use a professional editor? If not, what do you do to ensure a quality book?
NH: Yes, I have used a professional editor. I so appreciated the editor who edited my first book for the small press who originally published it that I hired her for all my mysteries. I edited A Knucklehead in 1920s Alaska myself since, basically, I worked with my father and his words in an “as told to” memoir with my byline. My book of short stories was edited by my daughter, who is not only a traditionally published author, but a former magazine editor. (That was an unpaid perk given as a Christmas present, which I gladly accepted.) Not a paid editor, but my young adult mystery was also vetted by another daughter with teen children for appropriate teen language. (Aren’t kids great?)
Ally: What supernatural power or ability would you like to have?
NH: To live forever. And, at age 89, I’m really trying hard at that. After living from a pre-TV age, seeing the remarkable changes in so many things, reading historic books from centuries past with characters who believed everything had already been invented, I can hardly imagine what could happen next. Example, when we lived in an old house in the country when I was a child, we had a telephone that was a wooden box on the wall with a speaker to talk into, a receiver to hold to your ear, and a crank to ring central or one of the 15 neighbors on our party line. (Our ring was two shorts, a long, and a short.) And look at telephones now!
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?
NH: I’ve written and published short stories as well as books. Before writing for adults, I wrote and had published both fiction and articles in children’s magazines. I really enjoy writing for adults more than writing for children. I prefer the vocabulary - and I’m not talking adult content, but grade level. In fact, my books are perfectly fine for any age, content-wise. (I also must admit, I write letters to my local newspaper quite frequently.)
Ally: Give us the scoop on your next writing project!
NH: I’m writing a sequel to my current stand-alone, Death of a Hot Chick, to be called, Death of a Money Man. I’m going to commit to publication in December 2019. Which means I’ll have to get moving.
Ally: It’s time for a few quick responses to some personal trivia:
- an item on your bucket list - A vacation on a paddle wheel trip on the Mississippi. (I’d love to set a mystery there)
- high heels or sneakers - Please, sneakers.
- favorite quote - “There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don't want to, don't much like what you're writing, and aren't writing particularly well.” Agatha Christie
- favorite after five drink - Definitely the beer with an orange slice in it, but I keep forgetting the name.
- favorite place to write - My basement dungeon.
A Jo Durbin Mystery Series (3-book volume)
Genre: cozy mystery
Jo Durbin, frustrated business writer, cat believer, and accidental amateur sleuth wants to up her game—parlaying temporary lifestyle into a bestseller. She tries real estate promotion, the baglady life, and reenacting an 1813 woman at war. But the byline she scores, instead of “a killer caught,” might be “DOA.”
This collection includes the complete series: Hidden Body, a prequel novelette, Yesterday’s Body, Book 1, and Forgotten Body, Book 2. Jo is helped, or hindered, by her sister Kaye, by Mel, the man who wants to be more than a friend, and other characters, not the least of which are the police who seem to always be on her case.
Links:
Amazon - www.amazon.com/dp/B07KPL5SRZ
Nook: https://bit.ly/2BJtc8f
Apple: https://apple.co/2No4BKN
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-jo-durbin-mystery-series
D2D: (Including Nook, Apple, Kobo, and 5 other links): books2read.com/u/3nYaxe
Check out her Coffee Chat interview of May 21, 2014.