Welcome to Anne Grobbo, author of the Gloria Trevisi mysteries. As a part of our continuing series, Why I Write Mysteries, she tells us why she writes mysteries, why e-books and a little about the books, too!
POWER TO THE COZIES
A. R. Grobbo
Author of the Gloria Trevisi Mysteries
Picture yourself living in an old, rented farmhouse in the middle of the cornbelt. Take a good whiff of the worn out septic bed, and imagine that the contractor who was expected to repair it was just found murdered.
That’s how I began the Gloria Trevisi Mysteries, available from Double Dragon Publishing, a small but mighty e-publisher of fantasy and sci-fi, romance, romantic suspense, thriller/horror and mystery. As Donna’s small press/cozy guest blogger, I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to pass on my book news.
Why e-publishing? Why not? I didn’t set out to be e-published; like other writers, I began collecting rejections from major publishers until a popular e-romance author, and acquisitions editor at LTDBooks, told me how much she loved my first novel…exclamation marks included! Within months the first Gloria Trevisi Mystery was published in e-book form.
As a writer, it is much more fun to say I write trashy mysteries for an online publisher than it is to explain I have six or seven manuscripts stacked on my desk while I wait for a call from Random House. Instead, I’m learning a great deal about the publishing business.
When LTDBooks closed, I settled with another e-publisher, Double Dragon Publishing. There are now four published novels in my series. I’m proud of all of them; they’re cozies, the kind of mysteries that won’t give you nightmares if you read them at bedtime.
Why cozies? When I was growing up, I perused my parents’ paperbacks and devoured romantic suspense, mysteries and spy thrillers. When crime-writing trends turned to reality-based police procedural, I found it difficult to locate the type of books I enjoy reading, so I began writing one… and another, and then another, until it became habit-forming, like butterscotch. In the real world, police solve crime; cozies, however, empower ordinary people in the world of crime fiction.
In Gloria Trevisi I created a daughter, a young woman who shares my own taste for fine music and my respect for the written word. Naturally, Gloria has a love interest: her husband, handsome, talented, wealthy and frequently absent concert violinist Tony Lambert. Raised with a traditional (read “interfering”) Italian family watching over her, Gloria is determined to make this somewhat bumpy marriage work… while she flings herself into one calamity after another.
Rural Sprawl is the first book of the series. Gloria, two months married, has just lost her dream job in an economic downturn and taken the only post she could find, as editor of The Plattsford Sun, a small weekly newspaper in a rural area, while her husband is on tour. She discovers that the potlucks and strawberry socials in this quiet little farming community mask violent undercurrents. In One Woman’s Poison, death arrives in home-canned peach conserve while Gloria inves
tigates an unsolved crime that is decades old.
My mysteries are available in trade paperback at Lulu.com, or can be downloaded through any reputable e-book distributor. You can find excerpts at my publisher’s website, www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/ and in the Plattsford Sun itself, at www.angrobo.com .
Recently I commissioned a video trailer for my latest book, One Woman’s Poison. www.blazingtrailers.com/show.php?title=470
*Editor’s Note: It’s great to hear that the road to ebook publication has given Anne so much pleasure! Thanks, Anne!
I’d love to hear from readers whether they would read a book in e-book form if it sounded intriguing and you liked the premise? Do any of you have a Sony e-book reader or a Kindle?
I do not have a Kindle, but my sister-in-law does and she loves it. It would be very handy for travel but I can't imagine using it otherwise. I guess I'm old school but I love the feel of a book in my hand and the smell of freshly printed pages. I love hearing the page and/or spine crackle because the book is so new.
ReplyDeleteI do think it's wonderful, though, that e-books offer a fresh market for new authors who are trying to make it.
Great guest post, Anne! Thank you.
I love books, too, Lori. I love the look of them, the feel of them, the smell. I love used books stores, new books stores, out of the way book stores.
ReplyDeleteBut I will admit to wishing I had a Kindle. They look like a fun thing to have, and just imagine... you can carry many many books all at once!
Good point, Lori...as a reader of paperbacks, I can relate. The key is being able to switch from one to the other when the situation warrants... my ebook reader has a backlit screen which is really handy in a power failure since I can keep on reading without setting fire to my hair. :-)
ReplyDeleteKeep reading...
Anne