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Episode 63: Writing is a 'Mystery' for Author Jeri Westerson
89 Plays5 months ago
Los Angeles native Jeri Westerson writes a Tudor series, the King’s Fool Mysteries, and a Sherlockian pastiche called An Irregular Detective Mystery. She wrote fifteen Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mysteries, a multi-nominated series. She also wrote several paranormal series and standalone historicals. She has served as president of the SoCal chapter of Mystery Writers of America, president and vice president for two chapters of Sisters in Crime (Orange County and Los Angeles), is a member of the LA Sherlockian scion of the Baker Street Irregulars, and a founding member of the SoCal chapter of the Historical Novel Society.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Contents May Vary'
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome everyone to Contents May Very. I'm Angie Fiedler Sutton talking to geeky people about geeky things. I'm a proud fangirl geek with pieces published in Stage Direction, Den of Geek, The Mary Sue, and I'm a regular freelancer for the Geeky Area.
Guest Introduction: Jerry Westersson
00:00:31
Speaker
This episode's guest is Jerry Westersson, a Los Angeles native. Jerry Watts writes a Tudor series, the King's Fool Mysteries and a Sherlockian pastiche called an irregular detective mystery. She wrote 15 Crispin guest medieval noir mysteries, a multi-nominated series. She also wrote several paranormal series and a standalone historicals. She has served as president of the SoCal chapter of Mystery Writers of America.
00:00:55
Speaker
President and Vice President for two chapters of Sisters in Crime, Orange County and Los Angeles, is a member of the L.A. Sherlockian sign of the Baker Street Irregulars, and a founding member of the SoCal chapter of the Historical Novel Society. Welcome to Consents May Very, Jerry. No, thank you for having me.
Jerry's Journey to Authorship
00:01:12
Speaker
First of all, I'm also ah a bit of a Sherlockian, although I became more of a fan when Sherlock came out, and that's a whole nother essay as to how I feel about that show nowadays. yeah
00:01:26
Speaker
but but For those who are familiar with my podcast, I always ask, my first question is kind of like your origin story. how what Tell me the story of when you first started realizing this is something that you could do for for real rather than quote unquote just a hobby. Oh boy. I have a huge ego, therefore I believed that if I set my mind to it, it can be done. It was actually, I had a whole career as a graphic designer, and I had to put that out of hold when I had a baby. And then after I had the baby, who is 34 years old now,
00:02:03
Speaker
And I had, he was a toddler at that point, I thought, okay, so two years had gone by. Let me see if I can get back into the graphic design world. And the graphic design world had gone completely computers. And I knew nothing about them. So I thought, you know, do I really want to get back into that fast-paced advertising world? And the answer was no. So I thought, well, what else could I do that I could be at home? Because I was mostly a freelancer and and and raised my son. So I thought, oh, you know, I love writing novels for fun, you know, as one does. And I thought, OK, how hard can it be?
00:02:46
Speaker
yeah insert roar uproarious laughter here. I researched the situation. I knew I needed an agent and all that stuff. And so I, you know, did all that and wrote some books and contacted some agents and it took a while. Let me just say, it took a while to actually get published. Many books later, I wasn't just trying to push one book. I think that's kind of insane. Because after you finish a book, you realize, you know, I'd better start seeing if I can keep producing. And especially when I finally switched to mystery, and that was the thing that got me published, switching to historical, well, medieval mysteries.
00:03:27
Speaker
And that finally got it. Otherwise, it was 14 years trying to get published. But I got published by St. Martin's, one of the big five, first first time the first out of the shoot. So not bad. Yeah, no, that's definitely
Transition to Historical Mysteries
00:03:43
Speaker
not bad. ah You kind of answered this, but you know why mysteries? are you yeah I'm assuming you're a mystery fan yourself. ah Talk a little bit about that. Well, yeah, I've always liked mysteries, but I just never thought of writing them. My my main focus is writing historical novels, one-offs, you know, standalones. And um I found through the many binders of rejections that editors didn't want the kind of historical that I wrote, which were about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.
00:04:16
Speaker
They wanted the courts. They wanted the kings and the queens and the recognizable people. And i those people were just off in the corner for because I was focusing on people that you and I could relate to. So a former agent of mine, i'm on my fourth agent, by the way, suggested, well, why don't you write a medieval mystery? You know, you've got this period down. Why don't you write a mystery? Mysteries are a much better market. There's bookstores devoted to just mysteries. There's publishers that have imprints that are just mysteries. There's these fan conventions that are just mysteries, I thought.
00:04:55
Speaker
want to write a mystery. I don't know how to write a mystery. I'm not gonna write a mystery." But it turns out after more rejections, I said, you know what? I think I'm gonna try to write a mystery. So when I developed the k Crispin Guest series, Crispin Guest medieval noir series, I decided I wanted something different. I didn't want the same old monk or nun who was the detective. I thought, What if I wrote a hard-boiled detective, but said it in 14th century London, and, you know, keep it historically accurate, but just this person became someone who was hired to find these things. So I basically took one of my all-time favorite hard-boiled detective novel, The Maltese Falcon, and I literally took it apart, chapter by chapter, beat by beat.
00:05:48
Speaker
What happened as the action rose and what happened at the end of chapters in the beginning? and So that was my model. And it turned out to be so serendipitous for that particular novel because the thing that's cool about the Maltese Falcon is the falcon and the mystery around that. So that became a thing in my novels because then k Crispin was always encountering a religious relic or venerated object of some kind. So that sort of was part of the action. Sometimes it was the focus, sometimes it was background, but it was always there as something that sort of grounds everybody into that. So that was fun for 15 books. That was great.
00:06:34
Speaker
Now this is sort of a, are you a plotter or a pantser question? Do you know the answer to your mystery before you start writing it or does it come and surprise you? It surprises me because I used to be a plotter. I used to really outline the crap out of my books, but somewhere in the middle of that series, I found I just couldn't do it anymore. So I started by the seat of my pants. And that was a lot of fun. And I also read, there was something from this super agent, Donald Mas. He says that you should focus your attention in the book on one person who is the culprit. And then near the end, you flip it. So in other words, everybody's focused on one thing because you're writing it that way. And then it doesn't end up being that person who is the bad guy. So you've got all the clues. Then, of course, you have to go back and add.
00:07:27
Speaker
other red herrings and other clues but so that's kind of a fun way to do it because sometimes I'm focusing on somebody that did it and then I decided near the end do it somebody else did so that's a fun way to do it And then let's talk a little bit about, you know, you're Sherlockian.
Sherlock Holmes Influence
00:07:45
Speaker
Let me clarify my earlier statement. I've been a fan since the Granada series, of sure um but I didn't get really into it until Sherlock itself. That's when I went from casual fan to major fan kind of thing. What about Sherlock Holmes and that genre, I guess, yeah speaks to you.
00:08:06
Speaker
Well, I've been a fan since Basil Rathbone's series when I was a kid. Because every Sunday on the LA, when LA Station, they used to show a Sherlock Holmes movie. And I just thought that was really fun. And that was well before I ever read any. And that was later, much later, that I read them. And they are very easy to read, in case you're afraid the Victorian novel is a tough read. It's it's not. It's not at all. It's very accessible. But yeah, I mean, there's something about a guy who's the smartest guy in the room that is appealing and to follow. And you know he's going to win. He's going to win. And that's what we like about mysteries anyway. You know, your typical mystery, not necessarily a noir. But in your typical mystery, the world is upset.
00:08:56
Speaker
something has happened horrible. You know, either um in the Sherlock Holmes stories it's not always a murder. There's sometimes a murder and there's sometimes something stolen or whatever, but everything's topsy-turvy and then the detective comes in and by the end of the book it's all right with the world again. and so That's the thing that people love about mysteries. The whole idea of the Method and Sherlock Holmes and his companion, Dr. Watson, this wonderful two band of brothers, I guess, two guys, was very appealing. and when i was Once the Crispin series was over, I had to think about what was I going to write next.
00:09:36
Speaker
So i I had two things in mind. One was my Tudor mystery series, the King's Fool mysteries, and that was through the eyes of the court jester, Will Summers, who was Henry VIII's real court jester. Or, you know, let me try a Sherlock and pastiche. How fun would that be? And it seemed like it would be appealing to readers. So I wrote both. I gave them both to my agent. he liked the King's Fool better. I also was an equally enamored with my Sherlockian series and so I sent that to my publisher on my own and they published it.
00:10:17
Speaker
So it's an irregular detective mystery and then has nothing to do with her fiber intake. It means that ah one of the guys, one of the characters in the book is was a former Baker Street Irregular and he aged out of it. You know, you can only be so old, 18 is probably really more than you want to have somebody spying on somebody else. So ah Tim Badger was the irregular Baker Street irregular and he talked his friend from the East End into doing this Ben Watson into being
00:10:53
Speaker
colleague with him and they worked for five years trying to be detectives and they failed miserably because there are two books you know one is Cockney and one is from Camden and they don't dress well and they don't present well so they weren't being very successful until Mr. Holmes stepped in and gave them a little helping financial hand and advice and all that. So it's it's Sherlock adjacent. he He shows up periodically to give advice and to you know ask what they're doing and all that stuff so that's fun.
Urban Fantasy & Steampunk Series Overview
00:11:31
Speaker
So now we're on the second book in the series is coming out in July and that is The Mummy of Mayfair because I'm trying to sort of grab that Victorian
00:11:43
Speaker
sensibility of Penny Dreadfuls and a little bit of the paranormal feeling of of some of these stories, even though in the Holmes stories, as you know, Conan Doyle did have some of that happening in the books, like The Hound of the Baskervilles and the Sussex Vampire and things like that. But Holmes uses logic in the method and basically debunks the paranormal aspect of it. and proves through logic and science that, you know, it was really these guys doing it. So it's very Scooby-Doo. You know, he pulls off the mask and says, you know, look, it's really this guy that's doing it all. It's not paranormal at all. Even though, and you have to give it to Conan Doyle because he believed in that stuff. He believed in the paranormal. He believed in
00:12:34
Speaker
he loved seances and he believed in that stuff and it must be said he also believed in fairies but he was he had the the temerity to ignore all of that and make sure that his detective was true to himself and he solved it without that so i love that part awesome well let's talk a little bit about your fantasy books kind of give me the elevator pitch for what that is Well, there's Book of the Hidden, and that is an urban fantasy slash paranormal romance, I guess. And that is a contemporary book, set in these times. A woman leaves California and decides to open up her own tea and spice shop in Maine, in this little, this 17th century house in Maine.
00:13:26
Speaker
and she finds this book in the wall when she's doing some remodeling and she opens it and it just starts this whole thing. It's like a Pandora's box of all these creatures escaping and now it's up to her to put them all back. And there was a demon of the book who helps her, and but is he there to help her? Is he there to do something else? You don't know. So there's that. And then there was an adaption from that, that sort of a sequel, I guess, of a different series called a werewolf mystery series. One of the people from that series becomes a werewolf.
00:14:06
Speaker
as one does, and he's from Huntington Beach. He's a surfer, so he's surfer-wolf from Huntington Beach. He goes back to Huntington Beach, and he's trying to find his way as a werewolf, and he's trying to find others, and still run his shop and surf and just be the player he always was. And then there was another series I wrote. It was a gas lamp steampunk fantasy series, a trilogy, called The Enchanter Chronicles. And this is kind of where my interest in the writing of Sherlockian series came, because it's set in Victoria, Neo-Victorian London, Steampunk-y Victorian London, where there are airships chugging through the sooty skies. And this is about Leopold Casimir, who is a Jewish Romani person, is both blood in him. But he eschews that, he's sort of ashamed of both of those heritages.
00:15:05
Speaker
And he fancies himself as a English gentleman, and he's a magician. He's taught himself how to be a magician on the stage, but he also peppers his stage show with real magic, because he has learned to ah summon Jewish demons that help him to do the conjuring. And he's he's got a friend who is an automaton, seated at a table, continuously playing a tarot card next. and his demon friend, Euronimus, who he has to summon. So there's all kinds of deaths, things going on in London that we don't know about. Goblins invading and and all kinds of proto-German nationalists trying to take over the world and all kinds of other things. It's a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to write.
00:15:57
Speaker
and the research finally was outside of his medieval and it was just fun just stepping into the Victorian world and in researching that and that's sort of what made me say hey let me do this Sherlockian series I've got a lot of this research and I love doing it because it's It's stuff that I can actually find in antique stores.
Writing Process and Historical Accuracy
00:16:21
Speaker
Can't find medieval stuff, you know. I did carry around with me lots of props when I do my medieval or tutor book tours. And, you know, I love, there's nothing like a short, squat Jewish lady swinging a sword around, you know, entertaining. But those are all reproductions, but I can go into an antique shop and actually touch and, feed and you know, use and buy.
00:16:45
Speaker
victoriana so it's it's all for shopping that's why i write this stuff it's also i guess shop well you know there are worse reasons to write now you kind of already touched on this but when starting a new series do you usually have the character in mind first or is it the plot or is it kind of a combination I think it's mostly the character because I'm very character driven in my books. so You know, a mystery is great, but if you're paying attention, you will see that the mystery really is second to the characters in their lives. And that's fine because, you know, if you're one of those people that could solve a mystery really easily,
00:17:23
Speaker
That's great. Now you've got something else to look at, because the character has a problem, obviously, in every book there's this problem. So there's that in the character arc that goes throughout the series, so it gives you something to do. And also, you know, you're spending a lot of time with these characters as a reader, as a writer, but mostly as a reader, you're you're spending all this time, and they should be interesting. They should have lives that you're worried about, that you think about when the book is closed. and aum That's important to me. These people become pretty real to me, so they get real lives. and i and and that's wait It's a aspect of writing. so It's characters first, and then what kind of situations could they find themselves in?
00:18:07
Speaker
And that's that's what happens. And then do I always ask, do you have a routine that you go through, or is it just kind of you right when you have the time? I know it's probably changed since you first started, since you had it and you know originally started with a baby. but Yeah, I have more time now. But I always actually have a sort of a schedule for myself, because i this is a career. I take myself seriously. as and It's a job. So every morning, I sit down. and Every day I reread what I wrote the day before, and I edit it, and then then I can go. Because it helps you not only get into the spirit of what you were writing, but you can fix stuff along the way. Now, that doesn't mean when I get to the end of the book that I'm and done rereading it. Oh no, it gets a lot more. Because sometimes you come across things, you know, when people want to read historical books,
00:19:00
Speaker
They expect that the history is going to be right, unless you tell them from the get-go that it's historical fantasy. Just, you know, like the gas lamps de-punk stuff. But it should be historically accurate, and I keep coming across new historical authors who think that they don't have to do that. I assure you you do, and because readers will write to you, and they will tell you that this is wrong, and this is wrong, So get it right. I mean, they they want to read that. They want to read the history. And it's more fun to read the history set in a fictional verse because sometimes the textbooks are, buts let's face it, it's a slog to read through them. So you're gear you're presenting true history
00:19:47
Speaker
with a twist because you've got your fictional characters inserted in there and they have to follow that history as well. So we do that. You look at that the history and you blend your characters within it. It's like it the history is the framework. and your characters and your plot is the laundry and it's it's hanging on the that framework so they all flutter together and that's to me that's enjoyable and i hear back from readers that they that's the way they like it so if there's any deviation in something then that always ends up in my afterward that will explain to them okay this is a fictional character that i just inserted in all of these other things it's usually a fictional murder too because
00:20:31
Speaker
You can't go murdering people who didn't get murdered. And it's kind of hard to find all the people who were murdered in that particular... So, you know, too much trouble. So, a fictional murder and a fictional detective finding out who did the fictional murder, usually a fictional villain. Usually. Not always. So... So there you go. So, yeah, I write every morning Till the afternoon, I used to give myself, I said, I needed a minimum of 10 pages a day that I wrote. I used to do word counting, but after a while I was like, nah, nah, dude, two pages. And now because I'm older,
00:21:14
Speaker
and I'm not focused as well, as you could see. yeah My minimum is now five pages a day, so it still gets done because I could write more than five. In the last couple days, I've been going gangbusters, so no problem there, but at least five. And sometimes when I reach five, it's like, oh, thank God. Okay, I'm gonna do something else now. so And there's a lot of researching while I rewrite. Yeah, I was gonna make that point that every day, when I reread, I have to make sure that what I've put into the plot is correct for that time period sometimes.
00:21:53
Speaker
If you make a plot point, a very important plot point, and discover later that that's not possible in that time period, you really screwed yourself. So you continue the research daily. I always start a couple of months ahead of time doing some basic research on some real people and places that I pretty much figure I'm going to have in the book. And then then I start, and then I write, and then, like I said, I will check to make sure that the important things are actually timely for that particular period. And I write, my foible is, I do will use a lot of idioms, and I have discovered, boy, I've got to research every single one of them. Are they correct for the time period? And are they British and non-American? That's a big problem.
00:22:44
Speaker
and so and i have a UK publisher. So I really, really, really depend on my copy editors because they will flag those things saying, eh, I think that's American. You know, oh, but but let's get rid of it. I finally convinced my publisher, by the way, ah they insisted on UK punctuation but not spelling. for years. And I thought, what are they doing? I guess they thought Americans wouldn't like British spelling. But I finally convinced them. I said, of course they do. If they're reading this, they love it. Anything British, are you kidding? So give me those extra U's and L's. I'll play with them. So I'm so happy to now have that as part of the UvU.
00:23:33
Speaker
Hello, I'm Patria Burchard.
Support the Podcast
00:23:35
Speaker
I'm an audiobook narrator and the voice of Ryoko in Tenchi Muyo. I'm here geeking out with Angie Fiedler Sutton. I think you should do that soon. Want to support the podcast on my website? Be sure to rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you use, as well as PodChaser.com. You can also support me financially through my Ko-fi account. You can find me there and on various other social media platforms with the handle Angie F. Sutton. Also be sure to sign up for my monthly newsletter and see links to my social media and all the places you can listen to the podcast and episode transcripts on my website. Finally, I want to hear from you. Call my Google voice number 424-341-2252 and leave a short message about what you're geeking out about. You may wind up on a future episode. And now back to my interview with Jerry Westerton.
00:24:22
Speaker
Now and this is kind of a writer's block adjacent question. Yes it is a job but it's also there are a lot easier jobs out there. What do you do to kind of keep yourself from getting burnt out, to keep it fun, to keep it fresh? Well you know I don't really have a problem with that because I'm so ah excited to get these characters into their adventure. you know, that I guess I go shopping for. I do a lot of giveaways for my events. For instance, this time I got a hold of some pence from Victorian pence from 1890. It's pretty big and it's just so cool. It's so cool to touch something that people paid
00:25:03
Speaker
you know, bought a pint with it or something in that period, that time period or whatever they bought with it, they hand it or they picked it out of somebody's pocket. So that kind of thing is is so, it does that helps my mind get into gear. It's like, oh, these people were real. They really were real. And in fact, it's funny because, okay, not only do I have to keep to the historical time period, but the canon, the Sherlockian canon, is not to be touched for me. It's always there. So that is also historical to me, that you have to keep it true to that. you know I don't think I'm going to make Holmes say or think or feel anything that he wouldn't ordinarily have done. So like keep to the canon that way. And when I think of Holmes, actually, my view is Jeremy Brett and the current Granada series.
00:25:56
Speaker
Because he just really had a handle on it. I know he didn't feel that he did, but he did. Because Holmes is manic and restless and bored and approved and everything else. and he And he was all of those things. And Jeremy Brett really caught it, I feel. So yeah he's in my head. So that helps to see that. But no, it's all history all the time. And I am just a but history whore, I guess is what we, that's what we do. That should be your new tagline. that's gonna be my card
00:26:34
Speaker
Let's talk a little bit about your Skylar Fox mysteries. That was one of the things that Betraya who, who introduced me to you mentioned dinner thing that kind of perked my interest because I'm part of the LGBTQ spectrum myself. And so give me a. the brief ah elevator pitch about what those are and how you came up with that. Skyler Fox LGBTQ mysteries. Skyler Fox is a brand new high school English teacher. It's contemporary in the Inland Empire. This is where I live in Southern California. It's sort of a more conservative region. Hard to believe in Southern California, but yeah, they're there. So he's a brand new English teacher. He's gay and he's in the closet at work.
00:27:19
Speaker
everywhere else. He is definitely not. He is out to all of his friends. And and all of his friends, his little cadre of friends, are the former lovers. So they stopped having sex and started being friends. and Skyler meets the high school assistant football coach and is smitten. But the guy doesn't seem to be gay, but he seems sometimes hot and cold, all you know. So Skyler runs into, you know, he's like a teacher, he's not supposed to be investigating crimes, but what happens is he does. He falls into these things, these different crimes, and he solves them with his friends. So
00:28:00
Speaker
It's a very humorous series with a lot of heart, a little romance, and adult content. They were just a lot of fun to write. Why did I write them? I was publishing the k Crispin books at the same time. Actually, I had both the Crispin and a couple of Scholar Fox books. I thought, OK, whichever one gets published first gets my real name. So the Crispin ones got published first. I got my real name. Scholar Fox series, I figured it was kind of different. So let me have a different name for that. Let me have a pen name. So it's Haley Walsh. Kept the W, which is dumb because it ends up at the bottom of the shelf. The W's. I should have been Amy Aardvark. That's what I should have done. Right up there. But anyway, so the Scarlet Fox books were very, very popular.
00:28:52
Speaker
They're a little outdated now, but they're still fun. I suggest you read them, but they're a lot of fun. Like I said, there's a lot of humor and the Crispin books were kind of serious and they were just steeped in this thick history and the prose and all that. but with Skyler I could just let loose.
Tone Contrast in Jerry's Works
00:29:11
Speaker
We could just we just have for fun and and the jokes and the innuendo and all that kind of stuff was just made for a lot of a lot of relaxation when I wrote. So yeah those are done too. That's like an eight book series, but yeah that was fun and the audiobooks were great for that as well.
00:29:31
Speaker
but speaking of audiobooks you're a narrator too if i'm not mistaken no i am not no i could have been i mean you know younger day but sometimes my voice doesn't always cooperate i was trying to be an actress in my early days and then i went to some real world auditions and i said no nope not going to do this the rest of my life so switch to graphic design and writing my god this is like the third career choice i've worked on in and it I wanted it to work out better than it did, so. But anyway, no, I don't do the audiobooks, but I sure have found some really great narrators. Right now, my favorite is Noah James Butler, and he's done a couple of the King's Fool mysteries. I want him to do the Sherlockian ones. He's done some Crispin ones that we reissued, so he's my guy. He's so
00:30:26
Speaker
So talented a man of a thousand voices. What's up? Let's talk a little bit about your job, I guess is the best word to say, it for the president of the SoCal chapter of Mystery Writers of America, as well as your work with the Sisters in
Role of Writing Organizations
00:30:38
Speaker
Crime. Kind of tell me a little bit, for those who may not be familiar with the Mystery Writers of America, why join? What's the purpose? That kind of thing. Okay. That's been a long time since I've been on the board for one of those. I'm no longer president of any of those, but Mystery Writers of America are, guess what? They're they're mystery writers.
00:30:58
Speaker
of America. And they're they're not just book writers, they're screenwriters and film writers and all. And it's an organization where you can schmooze with writers in all levels, bestsellers down to the wannabes. And then when I started, I was one of those glossy eyed people going, oh, I know that author, I know that author, oh my gosh. What am I doing here? But no, you get to schmooze, and you get to meet them, and we're all very friendly people. And that's the organization that gives out the Edgars every year. By the way, that's the top prize for mystery writers. And for Sisters in Crime, that's not a group of rampaging nuns.
00:31:42
Speaker
You can be. The Sisters and Misters of Crime. It's an international organization of crime writers and readers as well, including in booksellers and agents. That's the same thing with mystery writers of America, booksellers and agents as well. And there are many more chapters of Sisters and Crime in your region, hopefully. In our area, I have belonged to Orange County, Los Angeles, and I currently belong to San Diego as well. So there's all kinds of chapters in your community all across the United States and in Canada. And you can really get down to the nitty-gritty of
00:32:20
Speaker
writing. How do I write a mystery? What kind of mystery should I write? And how can I get some mentorship or a critique group or creative group, something like that. So there's all those kinds. And when you go to meetings, there's always somebody interesting to speak, like we get FBI agents. And when I was the programmer for events and and for chapter meetings, I got these people who did crime scene cleanup with pictures. That was fun. So you learn all kinds of things. It helps you to learn and to get a better idea handle on what you need to know to write your mysteries, whether contemporary or or anything else. Talking about in the industry, talking about self-publishing and all of the pitfalls and the things that you need to know. So you can't write in a vacuum. All of us write alone in a room.
00:33:16
Speaker
And, you know, just the cat, you can ask some questions, you know, what do you think of this? And the cat always does the same thing. So you need people, you need to network with people. You need to talk to people and network really is. the main thing. You have to network because he this gives you opportunities as you grow as a writer, as you get published more and more. And when people know you, you'll be invited to do various things like be in anthologies, be on panels, you know, speak to de various libraries or whatever. So it's important to connect. You got to connect. Now, what kind of advice would you give someone who would be wanting to start writing mysteries?
Advice for Aspiring Writers
00:34:01
Speaker
Well, do your homework. you know Do your due diligence. Learn basic things at first. How to format your manuscript. you should That should be number one. You know how to do. You need to know how to write a synopsis. You need to know how to do the elevator pitch. You need to know all those things you need to do as you're learning to write and networking. And I know people are shy. They don't want to do it. They're shy and they don't want to speak in public. You're going to have to do it. So just you know take on a persona maybe. I don't know. Give yourself a different name.
00:34:37
Speaker
different character, but you want to be able to cover the entire gambit of your career. If you're gonna self-publish, I always recommend you try to traditionally publish first, because you're only a debut author once, and the publisher does tend to make a big deal out of you when you're a debut author. Publishers give you advances. It's money. I don't like turning money away. Take the money. But I'm goingnna be true i'm going to be frank with you. It takes a long time now. It took a long time for me, but it takes longer now to get published traditionally. You need an agent. You got to get an agent. And then that takes a while. So you know what's your hurry? Because yeah you're waiting for the bundles of money to come pouring in into your bank account? That's not going to happen anyway. So just relax.
00:35:30
Speaker
decide what you want out of your career. If you want that kind of career, I know a lot of people just say, I've got to self publish, I'm not going to go with the rejections. lot from rejection. So I've had some very good rejections. It's how funny to say that, but good suggestions from editors saying, you know, maybe you should try this way or it needs more of this. You learn things. So and that's what an agent is also there for. Now we're getting close to the end. I always like to ask back when this podcast started, it was called geek out with Angie Fiedler Sutton. I changed the name because nobody can smoke Fiedler.
00:36:09
Speaker
westerson okay But I always ask, what are you currently geeking out about? What are you watching, reading, listening to that you just tell everybody about oh gosh what am i let's see i'm excited about the franklin series that's cool and fallout so i have diverse days as you can see so that's cool by the way i looked up geek versus nerds and apparently it says like geeks are like fans but nerds are practitioners so i'm like geek slash nerd
00:36:42
Speaker
Geek nerd. Good nerd? I don't know. All right. Well, ah the running joke is a dork is the one who knows the difference. Now, before we get to where you're from, was there something that you wanted to talk about that we haven't or something that you thought about, thought we'd talk about, but we didn't? Not necessarily. I'm always an open book when I do interviews. It's like, just ask me. I'll tell you. Or I'll tell you a lie and you won't know. yeah And then for people who want to learn more about you, where can they find you? They can go to jerrywesterson dot.com. J-E-R-I, westerson.com. And I also have a YouTube channel. I've done several book trailers and all kinds of funny, stupid little videos that you can watch. And that's kind of fun there. And I'm also on Facebook, friend me. I'm friendly. So that's where you can find it all.
00:37:40
Speaker
Awesome. Well, as regular listeners, you know, at the end of each podcast, I have a series of questions that are silly or unimportant in nature, but I still feel gives the audience some insight into your personality. ah The goal is to answer without really thinking about it as quick as you can. I call it the lightning round. Are you ready? OK. I've randomized the question. The first one you already answered, Geek or Nerd, Pirates and Ninjas. Pirates. Would you rather see Captain Kirk become a Jedi or see Luke Skywalker become captain of the Enterprise? Look, Skywalker needs to be a Captain in the Enterprise. He needs to get out of his fantasy world.
00:38:14
Speaker
What is your favorite time of day? Afternoon, three o'clock. Who would you want to play you in the movie about your life? but How about Melissa McCarthy, at least right now? Favorite or lucky number? I don't have one. Let's just say 13, because you know that scares people. Favorite drink? It depends if it's alcoholic or not. umm Alcoholic would be a margarita. Thoughts on pineapple on pizza? Never. and Favorite smell? Coffee in the morning. Favorite meal? Ooh, lobster. What is your go-to comfort movie? Oh gosh, so many of those. Comfort movie, comfort movie. ah Oh, oh, it The Adventures of Robin Hood. Of course. Harold Flynn. What's your favorite curse word? F-bombs! Who's your favorite either, James Bond, Doctor, or Batman? pick You can choose. How about all of them? Let's see, Sean Connery, Doctor Who, ah David Tennant, who was the last one?
00:39:12
Speaker
What was the last one? My first love. What's your favorite superstition or conspiracy theory you don't have to believe in it? And I and i don't. The moon landing! You idiots! it's but If you were a superhero or villain, what power would you want? The power of money! Because that helps you do everything. When getting dressed, do you button then zip or zip then button? There's no zippers involved. Okay. Favorite color? Red. And what's your go-to song to sing in the shower?
00:39:48
Speaker
Oh, I don't have a go-to... If I'm depressed, it's here comes the sun. How's that? And then the final question, there's a meme that says, you know you're an adult when you have a favorite stovetop burner. So what's your favorite stovetop burner? Upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right. Lower right. I think that's everybody's, isn't it? I don't know. If you're left-handed, tan and it must be the other one. and That's a wrap for this episode. Thanks to Jerry Westerson for being interviewed. As always, any websites mentioned are in the show notes for this episode on my website. Thanks also to Pateria Burchard for the mid-show plug. I interviewed her as part of episode 41. This is Angie Fiedler Sutton for one-on-one interviews, to red carpets and conventions, to roundtable discussions. I bring you a little bit of everything. After all, contents may vary. Thanks for listening to Contents May Vary, the themes on the schoolyard haze by Yari Pitnikin, available via the Free Music Archive.
00:40:41
Speaker
More information about the podcast is available on my website, angieffsutton.com.