Welcome to our Author Ask and Tell in which the published authors of Coeur de Bois Romance Writers of America Chapter respond to the questions of inquiring minds! This month we’re excited to bring you an Ask and Tell with Angela Abderhalden!
Watch for her newest release, Unintentional Victim in 2009.

Available now: Questionable Ethics: http://astore.amazon.com/coeurduboisch-20/detail/1934520004/104-5926588-7633542
“There’s a new PI in town–insightful and clever “Mel” Addison will win your heart as she pulls herself from the depths of grief to confront a ruthless murderer.
Angela Abderhalden has penned a mystery with emotion and intensity. I can’t wait for the next installment!”
–Joanne Pence, Author of the Angie Amalfi mysteries

1. Please describe your latest project.

My latest project is another mystery series, this one in the competitive world of chess. I have a manuscript under consideration from Ellora’s Cave and an erotic mystery that I am editing and will have out to publishers by the end of October.

2. What ONE other author do you think readers should read?

I don’t have just one author. I think writers should read lots of
classics. Most of them are classics for a reason. And from each one figure out why they are labeled ‘classic’ and try to incorporate that into your own writing.

3. Please share a passage from a favorite author of yours, and what do you like about it?

“We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed-only a little kind of a low chuckle. We had mighty good weather as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all-that night, nor the next, nor the next..” Ch. 12 ‘Huckleberry Finn’. This I feel is Mark Twain at his best. His imagery is awesome (the river as a metaphor for freedom from oppression, social injustice, broken family life, etc.) and you really do feel like you’re drifting on the Mississippi.

4. Who would you love to invite to dinner (living or not) and why?

I would love to sit down and talk with Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). I love his wit and the way he said what he thought. He’s always been a
favorite of mine since I grew up in Quincy, IL., which is just fifteen miles upstream from Hannibal, MO. Yes, I’ve been to the cave in which Tom and Becky get lost, at least the one that inspired him to write about it.

5. What’s on your playlist right now (music)?

I’m a very eclectic listener, so it really depends on my mood. Here’s what I’ve played in the past couple of days. Paramore (new age rock), Rascal Flats(one of the very few country groups I listen too), Don McClean, Billy Joel, AC/DC, Styx (am I showing my age here?), Tran-Siberian Orchestra’s Beethoven’s Last Night (rock/classical), Blue Man Group, Thelonius Monk (jazz) and Oscar Peterson(jazz). I don’t have a favorite. When I’m writing certain genres, I’ll play a certain style. Or a particular story will ‘require’ a certain kind of music. For example, when I’m writing on my erotic mystery, I play jazz and on my chess mystery I usually play new rock such as Paramore.

6. Have you had any interesting experiences with one of your readers– via blog, book signing, conference, correspondence?

I met a lady in Quincy, IL (this is where my book ‘Questionable Ethics’ is based, my hometown) who asked me questions about getting published. She wrote a book about caring for cats. Oops, sorry her ‘cat’ wrote the book. As part of my book tour there, I held a drawing for a free meal at a diner mentioned in my book. She won. I received a letter shortly after arriving home thanking me. Oops again. Her cat wrote me about how happy his owner was. I’m still thinking about sending her cat a small present of catnip!

7. Is there anything about being a published author that you wish you’d known before you were published?

I wished I’d have known how much work goes on after the book gets
published. I would have studied more about marketing along with learning the craft of writing. As it was I had to do a crash course in
marketing/promoting. I know I’ve made mistakes. (I’m still learning.) Being with a small publisher, all of marketing fell to me. I’d have done a whole lot more research a lot earlier so I would have been better prepared.

BIO:

Angela Abderhalden is a first time novelist who lives in Meridian, Idaho with her husband, two kids and a rascally beagle. She has been writing for fifteen years and is a member of several writing groups in the area. She is the 2008 President of Partners in Crime (a local chapter of Sisters in Crime), a Member-At-Large of the Popular Fiction Association of Idaho (who sponsors the annual Murder in the Grove Writers Conference) and a member of the Idaho Writer’s League and Romance Writers of America.
Visit her website at: www.angelaabderhalden.com