Featured Interview With Peg Herring
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Peg is an almost completely reformed high school English teacher who grew up in northern Lower Michigan and remains there except when traveling the nation and the world. After a childhood filled with cattle, horses, dogs, cats, and chickens, she’s down to one ancient cat who these days seldom lives up to her name: Trouble. Once, though, Trouble was a force to be reckoned with, surviving on her own in the wilds of Michigan’s UP for a week before returning to her worried family with a “no-big-deal” attitude.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Like the line in the poem, I was a lucky child who had a mother who read to me, so books were always present. As a kid I wrote stories for my friends to read, but life said, “Get a real job.” As an English teacher I wrote things for my students, but I really didn’t consider writing as a career.
I loved every day as a teacher (well, almost).
After decades in the classroom, I decided I wanted to be a writer of mysteries. It was gratifying to find that people will actually pay for what I write, and I don’t think I’ll ever run out of ideas.
I do find that even though I enjoy several long-running series as a reader, I can’t continue a series indefinitely as a writer. Each one seems to have an arc, and when the character has done what I pictured for him/her, I move on to someone else. Maybe someday I’ll be inspired to extend a given series, but I won’t force it. I have to have a good reason to bring that character back.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I read mostly mystery, although I find a good non-fiction book every once in a while keeps me tuned in to the world. I read widely across the middle of the mystery genre. I don’t like what I term “silly” mysteries, and I don’t like gratuitous violence or protagonists who are nasty –I don’t see why I should finish a book if I don’t like and respect SOMEbody in it.
I’m inspired by Laura Lippman, Michael Connelly, and many other big-time authors, but I especially enjoy finding authors who are less well known but still very talented.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
DEAD FOR THE SHOW is the 3rd in the Dead Detective Mystery series. The protagonist, Seamus, exists between life and what comes after it, helping the dead accept their fate by finding out who killed them and why.
This time, a young woman refuses to believe she’s dead, so Seamus goes to a small theater in Toronto to find out what killed her.
Once there, Seamus finds that in addition to investigating the crime, he must try to protect the woman’s sister from being murdered too. And there’s something odd going on, a presence that shouldn’t be there that makes him ask himself, “Can a dead guy be haunted?”
As I said above, I have an arc in mind for each series. DEAD FOR THE SHOW is the third Dead Detective Mystery. In the first, THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY, we met Seamus as he helped a young woman from Grand Rapids, Michigan, find out why she died so young. In the second, DEAD FOR THE MONEY, Seamus investigated another Michigan death that led him to a dizzying climb on the Mackinac Bridge. I’m working on the fourth and final Seamus book, DEAD TO GET READY–AND GO, (scheduled for release sometime in 2016) in which Seamus will investigate his own death to come to terms with it. Why did his wife and best friend murder him?
Seamus is an appealing character, rough on the outside, not so rough on the inside. The Afterlife settings are fun for those who attended Sunday School regularly. As one reader put it, the scenes are “comical but not in the least heretical.”
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