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Read some interviews from past editions:
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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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Karl Fieldhouse
May, 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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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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S.J. Stewart
April, 2008
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Author! Author!: July, 2000
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Click on images to learn more about these books.
An Interview with
Annette
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You've written several romances for Avalon. Why the change to mystery?
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You've written several romances for Avalon. Why the change to mystery?
Sometimes a writer gets an idea that just can't be pushed aside. Romance and mystery are my two favorite categories to read. I'd always wanted to write and my first ideas for books were romantic stories.
Readers often ask authors where they get their ideas. This can sometimes be an easy question to answer—perhaps the initial idea came from a newspaper article. But more often, the ideas just appear in my head. That's how it was with the St. Rose Quilting Bee—though, of course, I didn't know they would be called that at the time. I had an idea—older women sitting around the quilt frame, talking and solving mysteries. The women of the Bee began to live in my mind, until I knew them very well. It took many years before the idea finally evolved into A Phantom Death, but I knew that I would have to write a mystery novel so that I could introduce these wonderful ladies to my readers.
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So are you a quilter?
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Oh, yes. I've done sewing of one type or another since I was a child. But quilting is probably my favorite type of handwork. I especially love appliqué work—Hawaiian quilting and Baltimore album style, in particular. In addition, I enjoy doing embroidery and often use it to embellish my quilt blocks. I have also been doing a lot of redwork, which is enjoying a resurgence in popularity right now. When I do piecing, I generally use the sewing machine.
I also quilt with a group at my church. Every year I stitch a top for our Women's Club to quilt. We raffle it off in the fall at our Christmas Boutique. We quilt together every Monday night, and while we don't solve mysteries, we have a great time. This wonderful camaraderie over the quilting frame is part of what I hoped to portray in my book. It's something that women have experienced since pioneer days.
The Phantom of the Opera tour passed through Tempe while I was doing the final rewrite of A Phantom Death. So I took that opportunity to wait at the stage door with a stack of quilt blocks to be autographed and have made my own version of the quilt Maggie and the Bee make.
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The victim in A Phantom Death is an actor in The Phantom of the Opera. Was there a reason you chose this particular play?
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The Phantom of the Opera is definitely my favorite play. I volunteer at Gammage Auditorium in Tempe where Phantom has played in the valley, and I've gotten to see it almost forty times. I love it!
Besides including my favorite play in the book, I also felt it was particularly good for a murder mystery. The play's main character is a mysterious person, accused of murders... He can be alternately charming and deadly. It seemed a good character for the alter ego of my victim. In addition, people are intrigued by the "Phantom of the Opera" character. When I tell people that the victim in my new book is the "Phantom of the Opera", the response is generally a fascinated interest.
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A Phantom Death is set in the Southwest. What made you chose this area of the country?
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I live in the Southwest myself—in Scottsdale, actually, where my book is set. The desert is such a great area for finding a dead body—I just couldn't resist.
There are also a lot of people who have retired here to the valley, and that fit in well with the characters I had in mind. Since the St. Rose Quilting Bee would be meeting every morning to quilt—and to discuss the solving of mysteries—I decided to make them "mature" women. They couldn't have babies at home, or jobs to go to, or they wouldn't be able to fit into my scheme for them. Also, I wanted them to have a variety of interests and experiences to draw upon for crime solving.
The Southwest also fit perfectly into my plan for daily meetings for the Quilting Bee. Since the weather in Scottsdale is nearly perfect all year round, they could meet daily without the inconveniences caused by snow and ice. And with the lovely weather, they could sometimes quilt outdoors. My own church group has done this—though we don't have an old olive tree for shade—and it is a very pleasant experience.
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