Elizabeth Buzzelli Interview

Interview with Elizabeth Buzzelli

How many books have you published?  

Eleven and am working on the twelfth now--three different series and a stand alone.  Of course, I have a drawerful of unpublished manuscripts which I plan to get back to one day though there was probably a good reason they didn't get published to being with.

Under what names do you publish? 

Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli for all but my Nut House series with Berkley, which was published under Elizabeth Lee.

What is a day in the life of an author like? Do you write a certain number of words, do you write in the morning or evening, etc?

I write almost all the time.  Writing can't be confined to certain hours of the day.  I'm always thinking.  I'm always plotting or talking to my characters.  Physically I spend more time at my desk when I am farther along in the novel--that's when I have already worked out the story and theme, characters, setting--and am driving the plot along, heading for the ending.   I find that a writer's life is never a lonely one.  At parties, if I am bored I can always hide behind a glass of wine and a far off smile and spend time with my characters, who invariably have snide things to say about the other party-goers.  I tend to choose to have fun with what I'm doing, and  will have nothing to do with lonely garrets. 

Do you plot the entire book first, then write or plot as you go?

I have to know the basic plot--at least where I will begin and where I hope to end, though this often changes. I find I can't really hammer a plot into place until I know the people living the story. And even then--as characters change, so does the plot. I am now in a book where I am halfway through and still don't know for sure who the murderer is. I'm getting nervous. The longer it takes to discover who is doing the dirty work, the more I have to go back and rewrite.

How do you promote your books?  

My publishing house does most of the promotions, and sets up appearances.  I always have a fairly splashy book launch, and then tend to go  to bookstores, 

libraries, conferences, and book clubs.  Actually I go just about anywhere I am asked.  Well, almost anywhere.

Who is your favorite author? 

Louise Penney.  Her books of vivid settings, odd characters, few taboos, and nasty murders are most like what I write.  She's been my inspiration for a few years now and I know, each time she brings out a new book, that I'm going to have a rousing good time as well as learn something new about writing along the way.

Do you write with pen and paper or a computer?

I can't imagine anybody working under a couple of contracts a year writing with pen and paper.  In the first place, I can't read my own writing.  In the second place I like a neat manuscript--not one crossed out and written along the edges of the paper.  Maybe some writers can still put pen to paper but I'm not one of them.