Heather Day Gilbert Interview

Q: How long have you been writing and what other careers or jobs have you had?
A. I’ve been writing for over ten years, since I completed a book in a month for a NaNoWriMo challenge. That book hasn’t been published yet. 🙂 As far as jobs I’ve held, I’ve written for newspapers, been an administrative assistant at Columbia University, sold Elizabeth Arden products and fragrances in a department store, and I’ve been a homeschooling mom for many years.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release BELINDA BLAKE AND THE SNAKE IN THE GRASS?
A: It’s a fun cozy mystery set in the prosperous town of Greenwich, Connecticut, as well as in Upstate New York, and it features amateur sleuth Belinda Blake, who pet-sits exotic pets. In this book, she’s sitting a ball python, so I had to do a lot of research on that.

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for this story?
A: I thought up titles for the Exotic Pet-Sitter series, then I started developing the characters who would recur in each book. Belinda has a loving sister and parents, so I enjoyed developing that supportive, yet quirky aspect of her twenty-something life throughout the three-book series.

Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this story?
A: I’ve had a couple of readers say they’d like to have Belinda Blake for a friend—that’s how I know I’ve written an amateur sleuth that will stick with them. My goal is to write mysteries readers can’t easily figure out, as well as to build a world they want to return to, populated by characters they feel they know.

Q: How do you choose your settings for your books?
A. I’ve lived in all the settings featured in this series (New York City; Greenwich, Connecticut; and Western New York). So I felt very familiar with the locales—I just had to make sure I was up-to-date on things as I wrote.

Q: Do you base your characters on people you know or are they totally made up?
A: Belinda was actually based on a Myers-Briggs type—an ISFP. She totally lives in the moment and doesn’t dwell on the past or future. This makes her hesitant to commit, and she’s highly adventurous, a quality I wanted in an amateur sleuth. She and her sister, Katrina, are also based on stories my dad used to make up for us on long car trips. I just developed the concept of those two sisters.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?
A. I’m working on the plot/synopsis for another cozy mystery series, since the 3-book Exotic Pet-Sitter series is finished. I’m also editing the final book in that series, Belinda Blake and the Birds of a Feather, which releases in February, 2020. Book 2, Belinda Blake and the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, releases October 1, 2019.

Q: If money were no object what vacation would you like to take and why?
A. I’d go to Newfoundland, Greenland, and Iceland, the settings of my Viking historical novels that were based on real people. I’d love to walk where those real people walked.

Q: What is the silliest thing you have ever done?
A. Oh, dear, that’s a hard question! I wouldn’t describe myself as a silly person, although I don’t take things too seriously. But I do recall telling my little brother, “Watch this!” as I rode my hot wheel-type trike off a high front porch when I was about nine years old. I guess I thought I could fly. LOL! Instead I just sprained my elbow…

Q: What is the hardest thing you have ever done?
A. Foster care for our now-daughter. Not knowing which way things were going to go when the child is calling you mommy and daddy and you’d lay down your life for her is one of the hardest things to get through. Thanks to so many people’s prayers and to the mercy of the Lord, we were able to adopt her. All the trials of those foster years pales in comparison to the blessing of having her in our family forever.