Avalon Books - Author! Author!


	Read some interviews from past editions:
		Zelda Benjamin April, 2008
		Shirley Marks December, 2007
		Donna Wright December, 2007
		Carolyn Brown August, 2007
		Roni Denholtz June, 2007
		Tara Randel April, 2007
		Sydell Voeller February, 2007
		Sheila Robins December, 2006
		Ann Holt October, 2006
		Cynthia Danielewski July, 2006
		Jane McBride Choate March, 2006
		Kathryn Meyer Griffith January, 2006
		Mel Taylor November, 2005
		Kathleen Fuller September, 2005
		Tracey J. Lyons July, 2005
		Ludima Gus Burton May, 2005
		Holly Jacobs March, 2005
		Sandra D. Bricker January, 2005
		Kathryn Quick November, 2004
		Cheri Jetton September, 2004
		Heather S. Webber July, 2004
		Karl Fieldhouse May, 2004
		Shelley Galloway March, 2004
		Ilsa Mayr January, 2004
		Kathy Carmichael November, 2003
		Dorothy P. O'Neill July, 2003
		Joani Ascher May, 2003
		Patricia DeGroot March, 2003
		Nancy J. Parra January, 2003
		Barbara Meyers November, 2002
		Christine Bush September, 2002
		Debby Mayne July, 2002
		Jean C. Gordon May, 2002
		Charles E. Friend March, 2002
		Norma Seely January, 2002
		Glen Ebisch November, 2001
		John Paxson July, 2001
		Terri Alcock May, 2001
		Clifford Blair March, 2001
		Amanda Harte January, 2001
		Kent Conwell November, 2000
		Carolyn Brown September, 2000
		Annette Mahon July, 2000
		Marjorie McGinley May, 2000
		Jack Lewis March, 2000
		Amanda Harte January, 2000
		Joyce and Jim Lavene November, 1999
	Return to the current Author! Author! interview:
		S.J. Stewart April, 2008


Author! Author!: September, 2001
Click on images to learn more about these books. An Interview with Gina Cresse

Have you always wanted to be a writer and how did you get started?
	People ask me this a lot. I hear other writers talk about how they’ve had this passion to write ever since they were small children. I guess I’m a late bloomer. My first recollection of thinking it might be fun to try my hand at writing was when I was about 35. I was leafing through a People magazine during my lunch hour at work, and came across a short bio about John Grisham. He has always been one of my favorite authors, so I read it with interest. I learned that he was a lawyer who’d written a book in his spare time, and with some effort, managed to get it published. The rest is history. I thought, Gee, I wonder if I could do that? Not long after, I found myself wide-awake at 1 AM suffering from insomnia. I had this story idea running around in my head, so I got out of bed, powered on my PC, and started writing. A year later, A Deadly Change of Course—Plan B was complete.
Your Devonie Lace Mysteries are set in San Diego. Why did you pick that location, even though you don’t live there?
	I live in the San Joaquin Valley, where summertime temperatures regularly exceed 100 degrees. I’ve visited San Diego a few times, and the weather has always been absolutely beautiful. I’ve heard it referred to as the Land of the Short Thermometer because it never gets very cold and it never gets very hot. I’ve often thought I would like to live there, except I have this naturally curly/frizzy hair that turns into something like a Brillo pad whenever it’s exposed to sea air. Someday, I may throw vanity to the wind and find a little house overlooking the Pacific to call home. So the answer to the question is, even though I’ve heard that you should always write what you know, I tend to write what I wish.
Devonie lives on a sailboat. Are you a sailor?
	Again with the “write what you know” questions. I have been sailing, let’s see...once. Yes, a total of one time in my life, but I really enjoyed it. The reason this doesn’t get in the way of my stories is that Devonie hasn’t a clue how to sail either, at least in the beginning. That’s part of the humor in the first book. Here she is, this brave woman who leaves a high-paying job, sells her house, and buys a sailboat to live on. She doesn’t know the first thing about sailing, but she does it anyway. Not many people would take such a daring leap.
What do you think the appeal is for readers to Devonie?
	I don’t know about the readers, but for me, the appeal is that she is brave, independent, and caring. She may be just as afraid to take on a challenge as anyone else in the world, but the difference is that she doesn’t let her fear stop her. That’s the real difference between a courageous person and the “average Joe.” She’s sure that she doesn’t really need anyone’s help, but as she grows as a character in the series, she comes to realize that letting someone help doesn’t mean giving up her independence. She starts out with a lot of walls around her—walls that not just anyone can get through.
Devonie is an unusual name. How did you come up with it?
	I have a very dear friend who has a granddaughter named Devonie, pronounced Dev-a-nee. It’s an unusual name that I’d never heard before, but I really liked it when I heard it.
Can you tell us a little about your latest book, A Deadly Change of Heart?
	Devonie gets involved in an investigation into the death of a woman whose body is found at the base of the Sunset Cliffs. Everyone believes the woman’s husband is the culprit, including Devonie, but there’s no proof. Devonie sets out to uncover the truth about how the woman actually died, and discovers there are more suspects and more motives than she originally thought.
What are you working on now?
	I’ve just finished up A Deadly Change of Power, which gave me a chance to take some potshots at the oil industry during this current energy crisis. I’m afraid my true feelings about the industry (greedy, unscrupulous, controlling) came though loud and clear. Writing it gave me an outlet for my frustration every time I filled my gas tank and considered taking out a loan to pay the bill. I’m hatching the idea for the next book, tentatively titled, A Deadly Change of Luck. I’ll have to buy a few lottery tickets for research. Maybe I’ll win and then I’ll be able to pay that gas bill that just arrived.