Loading ...
It Girl
No, I’m not suggesting that I am an It Girl. But last week over on Murderati, my dear friend JT Ellison tagged me with the following meme, so for a fleeting moment I get to be IT in tag, which is almost like being an It Girl. This is astonishingly good timing as my pith has been broken for the better part of a week and I’m in need of something ready-made. Love you, JT!
List 5 things you’d like to do someday. The dreams you’d like to realize. The goals you’ve set for yourself.
OK, what became distressingly clear once I started thinking about answering this is that I’m not particularly goal-oriented. Must be more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda girl.
1. I want to live in a house that is full of books stored on shelves that don’t come from IKEA.
2. I want to write books that are each better–technically, emotionally, entirely–than their predecessors.
3. I want to be able to go hang out in Europe whenever I want. Hmmm. Revise that to include the rest of the world, too, not just Europe. I need to go to Egypt. And spend more time in Turkey. And…ok, I’m just going to get carried away here.
4. I want to be somewhere on my birthday where there’s snow. Lots of snow.
5. I want to be able to buy every book I want in hardcover (hence the need for non-IKEA shelves in every room of my house).
Name one thing you’d love to do, but you know will NEVER happen:
Play Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing on stage in London.
But enough about me. It’s cocktail time! Our guest today is the fabulous, fabulous Michele Martinez, whose legal thrillers featuring Melanie Vargas have earned accolades from critics and devoted readers alike. Not only is Michele a talented writer and former federal prosecutor in New York City, I hear she’s got some gorgeous shoes….
Are you ready for a drink?
Michele Martinez’s Mimosas:
I’m on a mimosa kick this holiday season, as you already know if you read The Lipstick Chronicles. I love mimosas because they’re festive and you can drink them in the morning without raising any eyebrows. Recipe: Juice some oranges. Fill a beautiful champagne flute 1/3 - 1/2 full of juice (depending on taste and desired degree of intoxication). Top off with Moet & Chandon White Star champagne. (There, adding a brand name makes it sound like a real recipe, doesn’t it?).
TASHA: If you could have anyone read to you, who would you pick and what would s/he read?
MICHELE: Such a sexy question. Sorry to give a wholesome answer, but my fave reader these days is my seven year-old. His reading ability is just exploding, and it’s so fun to watch. A year ago he was struggling through the Bob books. (”Mat has hat” — no wonder.) Last night, he was sitting at the island in the kitchen, glanced down at the paper and said “White House To Delay Shift Until Early 2007.” My favorite material for him to read aloud: not books, but random, bizarre information gleaned from the world around him.
CARRIE: You got to prosecute Jack Reacher at ThrillerFest this year. What fictional character would you like to go after next?
MICHELE: James Bond, but it’ll be a step down.
JT: Do you and your character Melanie share a favorite designer?
MICHELE: Melanie is much more practical than I am and not afflicted with a shoe fetish, so the answer is no.
DAVID: What’s your favorite part of browsing in a bookstore?
MICHELE: If it’s a bookstore I know, my favorite part is hanging out with the booksellers. The booksellers I have met as a rule are fun, erudite and delightful people. If it’s an unfamiliar bookstore, especially a large, anonymous one, I wish I could say I enjoyed the browsing, but I’m going to be honest here — it’s become work. I’m too focused on which books are getting what co-op and whether the manga and potpourri are outselling the books. My New Year’s resolution is to find the joy again.
JULIA: Tell us about the stupidest criminal you’ve ever encountered.
MICHELE: The guys I dealt with at the top end of the narcotics trade could run Fortune 500 corporations. (They basically did, just illegal ones). But I had this crew from Bushwick one time that successfully hijacked a tractor-trailer full of cocaine away from a Colombian cartel (no easy feat), and then had no clue how to drive it. They crashed big time on the BQE and got arrested with 200 keys.
JT: Do you and your character Melanie share a favorite designer?
MICHELE: Melanie is much more practical than I am and not afflicted with a shoe fetish, so the answer is no.
JT: Are you going to be doing more short stories?
MICHELE: Absolutely. Short stories are so liberating. Doing a series is like being married, but writing a short story is like having a little fling. You can be somebody totally different from your normal self, and then it’s over! In 2007, I’m fortunate to be contributing to anthologies edited by two astonishingly talented friends of mine — an MWA anthology edited by the great Linda Fairstein (we are members of a small club of former prosecutor-authors), and Politics Noir edited by Gary Phillips. (I was an Al Gore staffer in a previous life, though not much material for crime fiction there.)
DAVID: Who are some of your favorite authors?
MICHELE: So hard to pick a favorite, especially since I know so many charming and talented authors. So I will punt. Lately I am re-reading those amazing chroniclers of New York City society circa the turn of the last century — Edith Wharton and Henry James.
TASHA: What’s the last book you read that absolutely blew you away?
MICHELE: The Lovely Bones, although it got a little loopy in the end. But the raw impact of the rape and murder of an innocent child told in the first person by the victim will stay with me forever.
A million thanks to Michele for joining us! Please take a minute to answer her questions in the comments:
1. Fine wine or hard liquor?
2. Fame or fortune?
3. New York or L.A.?
4. Spit or swallow?
Next week we’ll be back with one of my favorite guys, Harry Hunsicker, whose debut novel, Still River was nominated for a Shamus award. Send me your questions for him!
xo
Tasha
