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Read some interviews from past editions:
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Elisabeth Rose
October, 2008
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Sherry Lynn Ferguson
August, 2008
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S.J. Stewart
June, 2008
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Zelda Benjamin
April, 2008
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Shirley Marks
December, 2007
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Donna Wright
December, 2007
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Carolyn Brown
August, 2007
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Roni Denholtz
June, 2007
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Tara Randel
April, 2007
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Sydell Voeller
February, 2007
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Sheila Robins
December, 2006
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Ann Holt
October, 2006
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Cynthia Danielewski
July, 2006
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Jane McBride Choate
March, 2006
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Kathryn Meyer Griffith
January, 2006
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Mel Taylor
November, 2005
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Kathleen Fuller
September, 2005
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Tracey J. Lyons
July, 2005
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Ludima Gus Burton
May, 2005
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Holly Jacobs
March, 2005
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Sandra D. Bricker
January, 2005
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Kathryn Quick
November, 2004
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Cheri Jetton
September, 2004
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Heather S. Webber
July, 2004
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Shelley Galloway
March, 2004
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Ilsa Mayr
January, 2004
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Kathy Carmichael
November, 2003
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Dorothy P. O'Neill
July, 2003
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Joani Ascher
May, 2003
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Patricia DeGroot
March, 2003
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Nancy J. Parra
January, 2003
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Barbara Meyers
November, 2002
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Christine Bush
September, 2002
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Debby Mayne
July, 2002
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Jean C. Gordon
May, 2002
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Charles E. Friend
March, 2002
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Norma Seely
January, 2002
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Glen Ebisch
November, 2001
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Gina Cresse
September, 2001
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John Paxson
July, 2001
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Terri Alcock
May, 2001
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Clifford Blair
March, 2001
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Amanda Harte
January, 2001
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Kent Conwell
November, 2000
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Carolyn Brown
September, 2000
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Annette Mahon
July, 2000
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Marjorie McGinley
May, 2000
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Jack Lewis
March, 2000
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Amanda Harte
January, 2000
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Joyce and Jim Lavene
November, 1999
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Return to the current Author! Author! interview:
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Sue Gibson
December, 2008
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Author! Author!: May, 2004
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Click on images to learn more about these books.
An Interview with
Karl
Fieldhouse |
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How do you name your characters?
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I stole my daughter’s name for the heroine of Miss Howell’s Employment, though they don’t look or act alike. In general, I choose names I think fit the character or make an ironic comment on the personality. (No one would mistake Angela for an angel.)
Sometimes the character insists on a particular name. Ike Eichelberger, the state trooper in my Avalon mysteries, still hasn’t let me in on the secret of his real first name. (In spite of his insistence, it’s not Ellen.)
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Have you ever used real people as characters?
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Even if I did, they would only be my perceptions of those individuals. But I don’t. I may borrow a single feature from someone I know or have met, but I always flesh out the person to become a new creation.
Charlotte the craft enthusiast sprang from a real person, but in Lethal Lent I gave her my limited handiwork abilities and questionable decorating taste. In Lethal Lent, she gets a chance to redeem herself.
Sometimes I give people in my books problems friends of mine have had--other than finding a body.
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Where do you get ideas for plots?
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From the characters. I start with a character with certain strengths, hesitations, limitations, and beliefs. Then I make as much trouble for her or him as I can within the boundaries of his or her world. What the character needs to learn presents possible events. Things that happen to people I know also become plot fodder, after I’ve added a few twists.
Plot ideas are like germs: They’re everywhere, and they can pop up and infect you from unexpected directions.
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How did you start writing?
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After doing some writing as an English major in college, I had a lot to unlearn when I returned to writing fiction a couple of decades later. When my wife saw me longingly examining a notice at a local public library, she gave me a birthday present of a class taught by Nancy Springer, who’s won the Edgar Award in both juvenile and YA categories.
I joined RWA, its local chapter Central Pennsylvania Romance Writers (I now also belong to NJRW and KOD), and the multi-genre organization Pennwriters. Those groups gave me information on writing fiction, encouragement, and a chance to practice.
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What’s the hardest part of writing?
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My day job as a reading specialist can become consuming, particularly at the beginning and end of the school year. Finding the time and energy to keep writing consistently has always been the hardest part of writing for me. Actually, the frustration of not writing during those times is the worst.
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What can you tell us about your latest book for Avalon?
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Pastor Abby Shaw is back. Will she mend her relationship with a state trooper or build a future with a new man who enters her life? Can she help her good friend and supporter Barb Johnson fend off prosecution for the murder of Barb’s sister on the church Lenten retreat? Can she survive a visit by her mother? Will it be a Lethal Lent at more than one level?
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Are you working on anything else for Avalon?
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Next up for Avalon is another Pastor Abby adventure. My wife and I took a Reformation tour of Germany and Switzerland for an anniversary celebration two summers ago. Abby leads a group on a similar trip, but not all the travelers get to come home.
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What do you do for fun - other than writing?
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I take an active part in writers’ groups, sing in a church choir, attend my professional saxophonist son’s gigs, take walks, or use our treadmill. My wife and I get to an indoor pool about twice a week and love to travel. My biggest addiction is reading. I have three, not one, tall To Be Read piles.
I love to spend time with my family. Then there’s playing with or reading to our granddaughter, who at four already has her own suggestions about what would make a story better. (Maybe our daughter and son-in-law are rearing a future editor.)
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