This is the free form interview we had with Sheila Lowe, author of Poison Pen the first book in the  Claudia Rose Handwriting expert series. The very patient author let us ask a free range of questions, both writing and personal related:

How did you make the leap from NF to Fiction?
It was really the other way around--I'd wanted to write a mystery since I was a young teenager. I wrote some stories, but only my junior high school classmates got to read them. Then I got sidetracked by growing up, having kids, getting divorced and developing a career. In 1999 I got my first non-fiction book about handwriting analysis published, then another publisher contacted me to do another one. But all along, I kept thinking about writing fiction, and finally, the right story presented itself and I got down to business.
 
What is your writing process?
My "process" has been a bit of a hit-or-miss. Because I need to make a living, and because as a forensic handwriting analyst I never know how much work I'll have from one week to the next, I don't have a regular writing schedule. I don't write every day, and I don't have a specific number of words or pages, but I outline so I know where the story is going, and when I'm working on a book, I'll set myself a goal to write a particular scene. I don't go on to the next scene until I'm happy with the one I'm working on. If I had a buck for every rewrite of the first page of Poison Pen I'd never have to work again. That's how it feels, anyway. Written in Blood was much easier, as I wasn't learning the craft from scratch. I found that writing fiction is vastly different from non-fiction.
 
How did you hook up with Capital Crimes Press? Do you find their policy of requiring authors to do their own BSP difficult?
I heard about them from one of their authors. There isn't any requirement, and CCP does some PR for the authors. But even with big publishers like Penguin, who publishes The Complete Idiot's Guide to Handwriting Analysis, authors do a lot of their own promo, so I didn't expect it from Capital Crime. I realized there was no point in getting published if I didn't get out there and promote the book(s) myself.
 
I have a picture in my head of Capital Crimes authors all sitting around together, drinking (coffee? Beer?), eating peanuts and trading jokes and writing tips. Is this at all reality?
LOL -- well, there were six CCP authors at Left Coast Crime in Seattle and we did share dinner, stories, ideas and experiences. We've all trudged along the same tortuous road to publication, so there was a ready-made bond between us.
 
How the world of email affected the use of graphology?
People may be writing less thanks to email, and that's too bad, as handwriting is such a personal and important means of expression. Even if we email, we need to do some kind of handwritten communication, too. Maybe a journal. On the other hand, Email has affected my graphology business for the better, since I can send reports to clients easily and quickly.
 
You have had a few traumatic events in your life. Has that wormed its way into your writing?
All of our experiences, difficult or otherwise, must affect who we are, and so I'm sure that what's happened in my life has affected my writing. My philosophy is, if I can take something away from a bad experience and learn from it, it's been worth something. I expect you're referring to the real-life murder of my daughter by her boyfriend (a special agent for the INS). Because the experience taught me something about motivation and behavior, and it changed me forever in some profound ways, it has to have found its way into my writing to some degree.
 
Could you discuss your experience with Jehovah Witness and its affect on you?
My mother started studying the Bible with Jehovah's Witnesses in England when I was seven years old , so it was pretty much all I knew of religion for many years. I believed what I was taught because children tend to believe adults. Finally, though, I came to recognize the hypocrisy that I believe exists in the organization, and left it after twenty-seven years. How has it affected me? Having grown up hearing that at some point I would be persecuted and probably thrown into prison and tortured for my faith, I was always a little bit fearful and depressed. We were taught to stay separate from the world (non JWs) and not to set "worldly" or "materialistic" goals, only spiritual ones, which means that higher education is frowned on. It wasn't until twenty years after leaving the organization that I got my degree in psychology.
 
What would be your most important word of advice for new writers?
Learn the craft before beginning to send that manuscript out. Read the authors you enjoy with a critical eye to see what works--how they plot, their dialogue, the characterization. Get into a good critique group specific to your genre and if possible, take a class or two.
 
If you could give your book to one person, who would it be and why?
I wish I could give it to my dad. I know he would be terribly proud to see that I've accomplished my dream of having a mystery well published.  
 
What was your most interesting handwriting case?
That's the hardest question of all. I estimate that I've analyzed more than 10,000 handwriting samples in the last 40 years since I started studying graphology. I really can't think of a "most interesting" case. Even now, when I think I've seen everything, once in a while there will be a handwriting sample with some fascinating new quirk.
 
What is in the future for Claudia Rose? Is there a publishing date yet for Written in Blood? Can you give us any hints on #3?
There's some exciting news on that front. Penguin's New American Library will be bringing out Poison Pen in mass market paperback next April, and Written in Blood will come after that. Book three, Dead Write, takes Claudia Rose to my home country, England, where she'll be visiting with a new client--a matchmaker who runs a very expensive dating service. You may be able to guess where this is going.