Q: Tell us about your writing journey. When did you know you wanted to become a writer and how did you get there?
Teresa: I'm a late bloomer. I always wanted to write but was busy with raising my children and my job. When I hit 50, I decided it was now or never and I'd rather face failure than regret for not chasing my dream. It still took me a couple of years to go from telling people "I write" to telling people "I am a writer.” I started with a "how to" guide of sorts, The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery by Robert J. Ray and Jack Remick. This was the first time I had seen writing broken down into achievable units of time and effort. I might not be able to figure out an entire story, but I could focus on my heroine and what motivates her. Then I can concentrate on the villain. My first book started out in bits in pieces, but then the story started forming within the desires and needs of my characters. Now, don't for a minute think this first effort was any good, because it wasn't, but by breaking the process down, I had more confidence in myself that I could actually do this thing.
A funny aside: To this day I find I write well to video game music because, as I wrote in the early days, my son was in the next room playing video games.
Q: Why did you choose the mystery genre?
Teresa: Mystery was a good fit for me because I grew up reading Agatha Christie and watching all the great movies and TV series of her work. I also loved Murder She Wrote, Columbo, and watching Dragnet
reruns. Weird, right? If they had a trivia contest on Dragnet, I'd do well. The way I see it, this was the forerunner to the I.D. Channel and all the true crime out there now. I enjoy creating the mystery puzzle, sprinkling the clues, and making the characters grow with each scene.
Q: Your latest novel, The Twist and Shout Murder, is set in the 1960s. Why did you choose that era?
Teresa: The Twist and Shout Murder takes place in 1962. This is a time when Camden, Texas, is on the cusp of so many things that will change our world. A restaurant called McDonald's has just opened with the revolutionary idea of food that is fast. Telephones have cords and rotary dials. Everyone has one phone, and only one in their house, usually located in a central location. There is no internet, but plenty of newspapers, and social media means people go somewhere and talk to each other face to face to get updates. This all sounds very nostalgic, but remember, there were some not so great things happening. Women's rights were not what they are today, and my main character chooses secretarial school because that's the thing to do for a young unmarried woman. She doesn't even think of majoring in business in college. Her friend Mary Oliva joins the police force to become an investigator and is immediately assigned to full-time filing because not only is she a woman, but Mexican. Mary is smarter than most of the men she works around, but it doesn't seem to matter.
Dot's cousin Ellie has been dating the same guy for five years. She's in her thirties and never married and she starts scheming ways to get him to the big "I do". She's thinking about becoming more intimate with him, but again, it's 1962 and it's not so easy or accepted.
Q: What or who inspired your main character, Dot Morgan?
Teresa: My mother inspired me to write Dot. I grew up in a military family and both of my parents had to work to pay the bills. My mom was a switchboard operator and found work wherever we were stationed and then later, after my dad retired, who, like Dot's dad, took a post-retirement job in the local courthouse. She eventually became a successful realtor and owned her own agency. My mom was smart. I would watch her do math in her head that I still can't do today. I wanted Dot to be that intelligent young woman ready to take on the world.
Q: What do you do when you are not writing?
Teresa: I am a full-time caregiver to my adult son who has Down syndrome and is autistic. Because of his health, we've been sticking close to home during the pandemic, so there are days when I go from writing crime scenes to making crafts with him at the kitchen table!
Q: What are you working on now?
Teresa: I'm working on the second book in The Swinging Sixties Mystery Series, titled If I Had a Hammer. This book will take place in 1963 and opens with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I believe this is a time when our nation suffered great disappointment and disillusion and my characters are fighting through it as well.
Q: Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Teresa: I always have two answers to this question. First, write and rewrite every day. Nobody is good at first, so take heart and keep writing and learn your craft.
Second, read as much as you can. Read books in your genre as well as any other genre that interests you. Every writer, like every individual, is different and there are so many things you can learn from other authors.
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