Q: Let me start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.
A. Stan and I have been married 49 years. We have 4 children and 11 grandchildren. I’ve been writing for more than 30 years and have produced more than 40 books. Most of those books deal with my passion for British history in some way, even my contemporary mysteries have history in the background.
Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
A. The thing was, I wanted to be a reader. Nothing made me happier than for the rest of the world to leave me alone and let me get on with my reading. The irony, of course, is that when I became a writer I found I never have enough time for reading.
Q: Could you give us the highlights of your professional writing career including how you got your first writing break?
A. In a way, every published book is a milestone, but I’ve had 3 that really stand out over the years:
1) I was sitting with Carole Streeter from Victor Books at a writer’s conference when I got the news that the publisher that had accepted my first novel was going out of business.
“What do I do now?” I asked Carole.
“Send it to us,” she said.
“You don’t publish fiction,” was my reply (surely one of the world’s all-time hard sells).
“We’re just starting a new fiction line,” she said. That launched my six-book Cambridge Chronicles series.
2) I had sent out a proposal for a six-book series on Arthurian England, then I read Edward Rutherfurd’s Sarum and saw how I could structure my series as one book. On the morning of the Fourth of July Jan Dennis from Crossway Books called to say he was interested. “Wait, I’ve had a better idea,” I told him. He had just read Sarum as well and wanted to publish an epic of that type.
Glastonbury will come out in January 2013 in its fourth edition from its third publisher in 20 years.
3) After a 10 year hiatus in my career (I was still writing, but not publishing) I got a new agent who sold A Very Private Grave, first of my Monastery Murders to Monarch Books. That relaunched my career in 2010. In the meantime the whole electronic revolution had taken place. It’s a very steep learning curve, but I’m loving it. I have three suspense series going with three different publishers.
Q: Would you tell us about your current book release An Unholy Communion?
A: In this, the third of the Monastery Murders, A Quiet pilgrimage across Wales becomes a life-and-death struggle between good and evil:
The body plummeted from the tower, rolled down the hillside and landed at Felicity’s feet. So much for her plans for a quiet summer holiday.
In an attempt to escape the horror she accepts Antony’s plea to help him guide a youth walk along an ancient pilgrimage route in Wales. But then the strange emblem clutched in the dead man’s hand appears on crumbled medieval churches and strange things start happening in the land of dragons and ancient saints. Felicity feels haunted. Surely a few nightmares are a natural reaction to the harrowing experiences she has had in the past months. Or is this something more?
Q: Where did you get your inspiration for An Unholy Communion?
A: I have wanted to tell the story of Christianity in Wales for many years. Wales is a “thin place.” Its Christian roots are very ancient and very deep. Equally so are the roots of darkness. This seemed like the perfect place to set this somewhat paranormal story of the cosmic struggle between the ancient power of good and evil.
Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this story?
A: That evil is real and very powerful, but God is more powerful.
Q: What is your favorite scene/chapter from the book?
A: I’ll have to admit I loved writing the culminating scene of the black mass that gives An Unholy Communion it’s name. It is set in the amazing ruins of the Bishop’s Palace in St. David’s out on the very western tip of Wales. I spent a lot of time prowling over those crumbling stones, climbing the parapets and examining it all from every angle, picturing the nefarious goings-on that I knew I wanted to set there. When I came to the writing I could simply play it all back in my head.
Q: What inspires you to write?
A. The true stories behind my fictional plots. I love telling the stories of holy men and women of long ago. I think it’s so important to our world that these stories not be lost. It’s a great honor to be able to recount some of them for the next generation to see that times have been far darker before than they are today, but the light has always triumphed because holy people have stood strong in God’s strength.
Q: How has being a published novelist differed from your expectations of the profession?
A: Oh, my goodness! After my first book was finally published I thought I was set. I had an editor and a publisher and I thought life would just go on smoothly from there. I didn’t realize that the market is in continual flux. Editor’s change. Publisher’s change. I changed. Every book is its own unique journey. Nothing can be taken for granted.
Q: What advice or tips do you have for writers who are just getting started?
A: READ! Read the very best in the genre you hope to write. It’s like preparing dinner— the quality of your meal will depend on the quality of your ingredients. When your “refrigerator” is full of the highest quality write from your passion.
Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?
A. I’m working on book 3 in my Elizabeth & Richard Romantic Suspense series. Richard and Elizabeth are both literature professors so each book in the series has a literary figure in the background. This one is A Jane Austen Encounter. Last summer I toured all the places Jane Austen lived and am constructing a mystery plot around that experience.
Q: When you’re not writing what do you like to do?
A. Read. Watch old movies curled on the sofa in front of the fireplace with my husband. Drink tea with friends. Work in my rose garden. Play with my grandchildren.
Q: Where can readers find you on the internet?
A. I would love to have readers visit my website to see my book trailers, read about all my books, see photos from my research trips and visit my garden: www.DonnaFletcherCrow.com
You can click the little orange B in the upper right corner of my homepage to go to my blog, or go directly to “Deeds of Darkness; Deeds of Light” http://ning.it/dhRSDI
I would also love to have you follow me on Facebook: http://ning.it/QoC9bv
Or Twitter https://twitter.com/DonnaFletcherCr
Q: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us?
A. Thank you so much for letting me visit you here on The Suspense Zone. I love the chance to meet new readers. One of the things we read novels for is to expand our experience. I hope my stories will take readers into new experiences.
Thanks for the fun interview, Susan! It’s lovely to get to share with your readers.