Ramona Richards Interview

A. I’m a dreamer who tries her best to live life at a 90-degree angle to “normal.” Not 180 degrees, mind you, just enough to keep a bit of adventure in my world. I’m a writer, the mom of a disabled daughter, and, I hope, a good friend with a bit of wisdom and common sense.

Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

A. I’m a clich?. I started spinning long fictional stories about my family when I was three or so. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to write. I started trying to write a book when I was seven, and when I was ten, I wrote my first mystery, based on Robin Kane and her golden Palomino.

Q: Could you give us the highlights of your professional writing career including how you got your first writing break?

A. My writing career has been more of a long, slow trudge than one of highlights. At 18, I sold my first essay, but then I went to college, got married, finished another college degree. Writing all along, but selling little. I worked as an editor, mostly, then really kicked the writing into gear in 1999, with my first book.

Over the past decade, I’ve written nine books, sold seven, and dug my heels in to make a career as an inspirational romantic suspense author.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release, The Taking of Carly Bradford?

Three years ago, Dee Kelley lost her family. Three months ago, eight-year-old Carly Bradford disappeared. When Dee finds crucial evidence in a case rapidly growing cold, she becomes determined not to let another mother suffer the way she did. She will help police chief Tyler Madison find Carly, whether he wants her assistance or not. But Tyler isn’t the only one determined to keep Dee off the case. And evidence isn’t all that she’ll find waiting for her in the woods.

Q: The subject of an abducted child is such an emotional one, yet you chose to write about it in The Taking of Carly Bradford. How did you make the decision to broach this difficult topic?

A. That came with the moment of inspiration for the entire book. One morning during a walk around my neighborhood, I found a pair of white sandals near a stream. Immediately, my mind went to “Where’s the little girl who lost these?” Within an hour or so, I had the basic plot of the book.

Q: You also deal with the death of a child in this book, another sensitive area. How did you decide to combine this with the abduction?

A. There are two parts to this answer. One is that two dear friends lost a child, and I watched what they went through, grieved with them, listened to them, watched how that death tore them apart.

I also dug deep into some of my own feelings of loss when my daughter was born. She has a number of severe disabilities, and I was told she’d never live past 6 or so. So I’ve lived with the specter of her death every day of her life. I’ve dealt with grieving for the child I expected and learned to love the one I had. (Emily Perl Kingsley wrote a gorgeous, fairly well-known essay about this kind of loss, Welcome to Holland .

In many ways, Dee’s transformation from loss to finding a way to grow and embrace a new life is a similar journey.

Q: What inspires you to write?

A. Writing is a drive I believe is God’s gift to me. When I don’t write, I get cranky and depressed. I HAVE to write. And the ideas for new stories pop up almost daily. “What ifs” are a part of everyday life.

Q: How has being a published novelist differed from your expectations of the profession?

A: Probably in how much time a successful novelist has to spend marketing. You have to spend about 40 percent of your working time marketing either your proposals to agents and editors (I’m unagented), or your books and yourself to potential readers. Fortunately, I love all of it.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?

A. Field of Danger comes out in December, and I’m revising the manuscript now. April Presley’s sees her next door neighbor, Levon, murdered in his corn field, but has blocked most of the details. Levon’s son, Deputy Sheriff Daniel Rivers, is determined to trigger any scrap of that memory, even though his efforts may put April in the killer’s line of fire.

I also hope to sell a follow-up book to Field of Danger, and I have a proposal for a Christmas mystery ready to submit.

Q: Would you name three of your favorite fiction books you read in 2007 or 2008 and tell us why you enjoyed them?

A. One of the most remarkable books I’ve read in awhile was Geraldine Brooks’ Year of Wonders. I’ve also been reading Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, which I adore, and Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter trilogy. All of these authors have a gift with syntax, description, and character depth that enchant me.

Q: What is something your readers might be surprised to learn about you?

A. That I was once a herald for the Society for Creative Anachronism. In noisy meetings, I still fight the urge to bellow “Oy-yez! Oy-yez!” to get everyone’s attention.

Q: When you’re not writing what do you like to do?

A. Sharing food with friends, movies, plays. Photography is a great hobby of mine, as is scuba diving.

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell or share with us?

A. I started writing early, but I didn’t sell my first book until I was 42. It’s NEVER too late to start living your dream.