The Next Big Thing

Camille Minichino included me in a blog chain answering the following questions:

What is your working title of your book?

Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder

Where did the idea come from for the book?

My wife, daughter and I went on an Alaskan cruise in 2006. The places we visited and the shipboard life begged to be turned into a murder mystery, and so it has.

What genre does your book fall under?

Geezer-lit mystery (cozy)

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Clint Eastwood as protagonist Paul Jacobson.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

On an Alaskan cruise, cantankerous octogenarian Paul Jacobson, who struggles with short-term memory loss, must deal with mayhem, missing people and murder and use all his geezer resources to solve a case of international intrigue.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It will be published December 19, 2012, by Five Star (an imprint of Cengage Learning)

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Six months. I wrote this draft while I was still working full time. After reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, I adapted her Morning Pages technique. Every morning before going to work, I wrote three handwritten pages of my manuscript. When I came home from work, I entered these pages into the computer, doing an editing pass.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Killer Cruise by Laura Levine, Atomic Lobster by Tim Dorsey, and Murder on the QE2 by Donald Bain.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

The Paul Jacobson Geezer-lit Mystery Series was originally inspired by people I met when my mom and stepfather lived in a retirement home. Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder was specifically inspired by the events of the Alaskan cruise I took.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The climax to the book takes place in Butchart Gardens in Victoria, Canada. This is a beautiful place, but you’ll never think of it the same after what happens there in my novel.