Anita Page Interview and book Give Away

Anita Page’s debut crime novel, Damned If You Don’t (L&L Dreamspell), is set in the Catskill Mountains, where she worked as a freelance journalist. The book features community activist and teacher, Hannah Fox, daughter of sixties radicals, who finds herself on the side of a killer when her battle to stop an eminent domain scam ends in murder.

Anita’s short stories have appeared in journals, webzines, and anthologies including Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices (L&L Dreamspell) and the MWA anthology The Prosecution Rests (Little, Brown). She received a Derringer Award from the Short Mystery Fiction Society in 2010 for “‘Twas the Night,” which appeared in The Gift of Murder. She’s a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. She can be found online at www.womenofmystery.net and www.anitapagewriter.blogspot.com.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your writing?

Warren, I’m happy to be here today. Thanks so much for the opportunity.

I began writing short stories in college, and over the years had a few published. Although I was an avid reader of Golden Age authors like Sayers, Marsh and Allingham, it was a long time before I tried writing crime fiction. I taught for a bit and also worked as a journalist, first for a monthly paper in New York City—my home town—and later, after moving to the Catskills, as a freelance feature writer for a regional newspaper.

After a long hiatus during which I taught first graders to read and write, I began writing crime fiction full time. I had some short stories published in webzines and anthologies and began work on a full-length mystery that I imagined would be grabbed up immediately. Clueless, I admit. Two years later, I finished a second manuscript, Damned If You Don’t, which I submitted to L&L Dreamspell. They’d published Murder New York Style, an anthology that included one of my stories, and I hoped that connection would get the manuscript read. It did, and they offered me a contract. The book was published this year in paperback and as an eBook.

You've had considerable success with short stories and now you have a well-received novel. Which do you enjoy writing more? What did you learn from writing short stories that helped you with your novel?

If you ask a greedy person like me whether I’d like cake or ice cream, I’ll say: Some of each, please. It’s the same with short stories and novels. I love the fact that when I begin to write a short story, I see it as a whole, like a piece of pottery you hold in your hand. There may be surprises along the way as characters assert themselves, but the shape of the thing remains constant. In writing a novel, I’m happy if I can see my hand in front of my face, let alone know the shape the thing will take. But working on a novel brings a different kind of pleasure, and that is getting to live in a world I’ve created.

The great lesson in writing short stories is economy. You don’t need a lot of details to breathe life into your characters. You just need the right ones.


Can you tell us about your novel?

So glad you asked!

Damned If You Don’t, set in the Catskill Mountains, features Hannah Fox, a community activist and teacher, daughter of sixties radicals whose childhood was dominated by her parents’ politics. Though it wasn’t part of her plan, Hannah’s social conscience leads her on a similar path. With the backing of a tight-knit group of activist women friends, Hannah takes on the power brokers behind a fraudulent eminent domain scheme that ends in murder. When her friend becomes a suspect, Hannah is drawn into the police investigation—and into a relationship with the lead detective that complicates her already shaky marriage. As she probes the dead man’s past, Hannah faces hard choices, convinced the murder was a heroic act even when it’s clear she may be the killer’s next victim.

What was it like dealing with your publisher?

It’s been a pleasure working with Lisa Smith and Linda Houle at L&L Dreamspell. Linda gets the credit for the book cover, which has gotten many positive responses. It’s also been great having the chance to connect with other L&L writers.

You have some great reviews. As a first-time novelist, how did you persuade well-known authors to read and write blurbs for your book?

I’ve met a lot of writers through Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, and also by attending mystery writers’ conferences. This is such a generous and supportive community. Here’s one example: At the first NY/Tri-State SinC meeting I attended, I sat next to a woman who asked about my writing. When I told her I was trying to sell a manuscript, she gave me the name of her agent, and offered to contact him and tell him to expect my query. I was grateful and amazed, but have come to realize that’s typical of the way mystery writers’ reach out to each other. Your sharing this space is another example of that, Warren.

Is Hannah Fox going to be a continuing character? If so, what characteristic and skills does she have that make her interesting enough so readers will want to follow her adventures?

At the risk of sounding like a bragging mom, I think Hannah’s got what it takes to carry a series. She’s a smart, strong, compassionate woman who loves her dog and her friends and is willing to take on the bad guys for a just cause. However, as a reader I’d be skeptical if an amateur like Hannah once again became involved in a murder investigation that put her in life-threatening situations. For that reason, I’ve made her an important secondary character in the new book, along with Jack Grundy, the cop with whom she may or may not be having a serious relationship. My new protagonist is a journalist on tryout at the local newspaper. She’s young, edgy and has a very dark past—a lot of fun to write.

Do you have an online "presence" and how important is that for relatively unknown writers like me and you?

Here’s my fantasy: That we’re back in the first half of the twentieth century when writers had no responsibility other than to turn out a book every few years and show up at an occasional cocktail party pretending to be social but really thinking about the next chapter.

That said, I love the fact that we have this online community where we can meet other writers and readers, share ideas and support one another’s work. I’ve been blogging for a few years at Women of Mystery with friends from the NY/Tri-State chapter of Sisters in Crime. I’m also at anitapagewriter.blogspot.com, a web blog that I find more flexible and easier to manage than a traditional website. In addition, I drop in at several listservs and blogs, including this one. Like everyone else, I struggle not to let that eat into my writing time.

Do you often get mistaken for the silent movie star who shares your name? :-)

Do you believe that this woman, who died in 2008 at the age of 98, still has a following, if her website is any indication? We should all have such a loyal fan base.

What question would you like be asked and what is your answer?

Question: Which writers do you re-read?

Answer: Here are six off the top of my head: Elmore Leonard, the master of economy, who I read again and again to try to figure out how he does it; Donald Westlake who made comedy look easy when it’s the hardest thing in the world; Denise Mina whose Paddy Meehan is one of my favorite protags ever—talk about a character breathing on the page; Julia Spencer-Fleming for the pleasure of hanging out with Clare and Russ (and wasn’t it a relief when they finally got together); Donna Leon for her elegant prose and the joy of wandering through Venice with Guido Brunetti; the great Stewart O’Nan who makes you forget you’re holding a book in your hand.

Warren, thank you once again! This has been fun.

Anita has been kind enough to offer to send a copy of the book to someone who leaves a comment with a valid e-mail address (She writes mysteries. She does not solve them.) and who lives in the United States (dratted postage.) So please leave a comment below.