Interview with Christa Nardi

Interview with Christa Nardi

How many books have you published?

Four in the Cold Creek Series (#5 is in final editing)
Two in the Hannah & Tamar Mystery series with Cassidy Salem (#3 is in final editing)

Under what names do you publish?
In fiction, only under Christa Nardi currently.

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? 
Christine, that is a hard one to answer. First, because I am employed full-time so a rather big chunk of my time is that job - I'm looking forward to spending more time on writing once I retire in 2019 or 2020. That said, for about 3 hours I work on whatever work is in progress over the weekend days. During the week, it's more sporadic - usually I can manage about an hour, sometimes more or less.

Do you plot the entire book first, then write or plot as you go? 
A little of both. I start off with an idea and write a scene or two or three. Then as the story starts to come along, I outline what I have and where it looks like the story may be going. I fill in the story from the outline and update the outline if the story somehow takes a turn I hadn't thought of when I did the outline.

Do you use real people and places as models for your books?
The characters are combinations of real people, with exaggerations of personality traits. There is no single person that is captured by a character. For example, the detective in the Cold Creek Series, physically resembles a police officer I dated many years ago, but the personality? If he'd had the personality of Brett, I likely wouldn't be married to my husband. As for places, I work in an academic setting - so using a college as a base for the Cold Creek Series is familiar and offers a lot of possibilities. I'm from the northeast and lived in various places on the east coast. I like Virginia (setting for Cold Creek series) as well as the Maryland/DC area (setting for Hannah & Tamar series).

Who is your favorite author?
That has to be the hardest question to answer. I like and read different genres, so it's hard to have a single favorite. In popular – well known mysteries with a female amateur sleuth and a touch of humor, Janet Evanovich and the Stephanie Plum series, especially the earlier ones. Not so well known, and milder in many ways, I’d recommend Larissa Reinhart and her Cherry Tucker series. Prefer a male sleuth? The Mac Faraday series by Lauren Carr. Romantic suspense, Lisa Scottoline. I could go on and on with romance or fantasy, but the list (and my kindle library and book shelves) are rather full…

Do you write with pen and paper or a computer?
Mostly on computer, but I also use pen and paper if something comes to mind and the computer isn't handy.