Nancy Smith
Some people are born storytellers. Get them started on some adventure or person they knew, and the story just flows.
Michael Connelly was a reporter for the L.A. Times before authoring a Pulitzer prize winner. And Steve Martini was a trial attorney and correspondent before writing his suspense novels.
Some writers, like Susan Wiggs, are former teachers. Lisa Scottoline, winner of the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, also teaches at a Pennsylvania law school.
It would be very interesting to sit down and visit with true crime writer Ann Rule. She is an instructor for the National Institute of Corrections, has been on task forces and gives seminars to law enforcement professionals. Ann is a former Seattle policewoman.
Many best sellers are the result of “author teams,” like Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. These are stand-alone stories featuring special agent Pendergast. Douglas Preston worked in the American Museum of Natural History, New York. Lincoln Child was a trade editor with St. Martin’s Press, New York. (All their books are located in the fiction section under P.)
We all enjoy William Johnstones’s westerns, but did you know he tutored his nephew J.A. Johnstone at an early age. J.A. was the typist and researcher for his uncle William. J.A. eventually went on to author his own westerns.
My grandfather was a mining engineer in the early California days. He loved to tell stories about the people, the work and the adventure. I was too young to appreciate what could have certainly been a best seller book. So, hats off to the storytellers, the weavers of fiction and the magic imagination you give us.