Welcome to our interview with Clea Simon who has just released Cries and Whiskers, the latest in her Theda Krakow mystery series. Thank you, Clea!

Theda is such a strong character. Where did the inspiration for her come from? Is there a role model for her?
Thank you, Barb. I'm very fond of her. But I don't think I have a specific role model for her: She's patterned on a lot of women I know, particularly back in my 20s and 30s when I and many of my friends were single and trying to find our own way in the world.

You do quite a very varied assortment of nonfiction writing also. What is your background?
I was an English major in college, but not really academically inclined so I drifted into journalism. My first job was as the editorial assistant at my college alumni magazine, but I wanted to write, too, so I went to an open meeting for people interested in contributing to a free alternative weekly. This was back in '83,and one of my first stories was writing about a new syndrome that Harvard Medical School
was studying. For lack of a better name, they called it "GRIDS," gay-related immunodeficiency syndrome, because it seemed to be occuring in the homosexual community. Of course, that soon became worldwide news as AIDS. But I also loved local music, so when the weekly music columnist asked me to split the gig with her, I was hooked. I became a freelance music critic, like Theda, and lived on that for years. But it's a hard way to make a living, and I ended up taking more straightforward journalism writing and editing jobs, after a while. Those led into writing nonfiction books and then... fiction!

You are involved in quite a bit of online activity. Could you tell us more about that?
I blog regularly at http://cleasimon.blogspot.com - it's a fun and easy way to write short pieces and get reader feedback (I also guest blog for many sites, all linked on my blog). The groups I belong to give me
a chance to chat with my community even while working at home.

What do you feel about the affect of the world wide web on authors?
Well, on one hand it's very distracting. You sit at the computer and  mean to work, and suddenly a few hours are gone. On the other hand, it gives readers and authors instant access to each other.

Do you feel the pressure on authors to be active self promotors?
Yes, the publishing industry has changed. It's very time consuming and, I fear, it takes away from writing.

What do you feel about the growing number of POD and vanity presses?
I've always gone the traditional route, so I don't really have much of an opinion about it. I'm sure some excellent work is published through these means. The one real negative I see is that authors who self publish may not have had their work properly edited -- a good, outside, objective reader is a wonderful thing!

 If you could interview yourslef what questions would you ask?
Reviewers these days seem to be focusing on the ethics in my book, so I guess I'd ask myself about that. And I'd answer: I find ethical questions interesting - such as, which has more rights, native species
or ferals (i.e, feral cats)? But I don't have any answers. I write partly to explore these questions, to follow them out to their logical ends.

If you could give your book to one person who would it be and why?
When I was at Partners and Crime in NYC, James Gandolfini walked in. He was looking at some hard-boiled and noir books, which I most definitely am not. But I wish I'd given him a book! I loved "The Sopranos"!

What is your writing process?
I tend to think of a problem or a conflict that interests me, and that usually either becomes the motive or is somehow involved with the crime. Then I work outward from there. In terms of day to day process:
I try to work on my fiction every work day (Mon-Fri.). I try to take weekends off, though I'm usually taking notes. I do a lot of journalism, still, but no matter how many deadlines I have, I try to carve out at least an hour or two for the fiction.

What advice to you have for new writiers?
Read a lot. Read everything and try to figure out how that author did it -- and then keep at it. Your work will get better by rewriting and revising, and you'll learn your craft. And if you keep at it, you'll
get there. Nobody ever got published by giving up.

Thanks for having me here at Front Street, Barb!