Is Willow a real town in Ohio?
No. Willow is actually a combination of two places: Athens, Ohio, where I went to college, and my hometown of Springfield, Ohio. What mystery writers have inspired you? I’m a huge fan of Barbara Neely’s Blanche White series, and I adore Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins and Paris Minton series. I also love Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books. There are so many other writers who’ve inspired me that I don’t have room to name them all. What is your writing schedule like? I work full-time so I try and write at least a few hours a day. Having deadlines that have to be met has helped me be more productive but I’m still not as disciplined as I should be when it comes to my writing. Why do you think there are more mysteries by African-Americans being published in recent years? The bottom line is money. Publishers finally realized that black people read and saw that there was a huge untapped market. How hard was it for you to get a book deal? Very! I started writing THE COMPANY YOU KEEP in Octobe
