Interview with Terrie Farley Moran

Terrie Farley Moran 

What is the title of your newest book? How many books have you published?
I have written three Read ’Em and Eat cozy mysteries published by Berkley. The most recent is Read to Death. I also co-write the Scrapbooking series with Laura Childs, Glitter Bomb, released in October 2018, is our third collaboration and Mumbo Gumbo Murder is due out in October 2019, for a total of seven novels. I also have had more than a dozen mystery short stories published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine, and various anthologies.

How did you develop your characters and choose your location?
When I joined Laura Childs in writing the New Orleans Scrapbooking series we wrote Parchment and Old Lace, the 13th book of the series so needless to say, Laura Childs had a group of smashingly well-developed characters, with plenty of room for growth. And, with New Orleans as a setting, well the series location gives lots of choices for every adventure that Carmela and Ava have.

As to the Read ’Em and Eat books, I was looking for a beachy community with a Key West vibe and my daughter, who lives in Florida, suggested Fort Myers Beach. It is a gorgeous barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico with seven glorious miles of pristine beach. For my main characters, I envisioned a couple of young women, New York transplants, who wanted to build a successful business in a peaceful location and voila! the Read ‘Em and Eat Café and Bookshop was born with Brooklyn girls Sassy Cabot and Bridgy Mayfield as proprietors. Of course murder does occasionally interrupt the “peaceful” atmosphere.

What do you enjoy about the author’s lifestyle? What do you not enjoy?
I love research and I could “look stuff up” for hours on end, which can put a dent in my writing time so I try to control it. The downside of having my home as my workplace, is that I always feel guilty when I am home but not actually working. I never seem to be able to say “pencils down”, go into another room and relax in front of the TV like a normal person. I always feel an internal pressure to work. Hence I spend a lot of my down time at the local library where I can read in peace without the computer screen beckoning.

Do you model your character after yourself or any one you know?
Absolutely not. I find that people see themselves or folks they know in much of the fiction they read, so I make sure to invent my characters from whole cloth and let the reader find the similarities that are vivid in their imagination.

How do you get yourself out of a writing rut?
I am not a big believer in “ruts”. Writing is a job and publishing is a business. When I worked in the outside world I couldn’t say to my boss, “I don’t feel like working today, I think I will go to the zoo.” Nor can I say that to a manuscript waiting to be written.

If your books were made into a movie, who would you want to play the lead character?
For the Read ’Em and Eat books I decided long ago that Aimee Teegarden who you may recall from the TV show Friday Night Lights and other ventures could play Sassy exactly. She actually reminds me of Sassy, and by now is just the right age. Blake Lively who starred in Gossip Girl as well as the movie Green Lantern would be the perfect Bridgy—she even likes to cook. And when we consider other characters, Elizabeth Perkins has such a wide range of performance skills that she could play Aunt Ophie with the grand panache the character requires.

Who is your favorite author?
It is no secret I love reading (and writing) short mystery fiction. My longtime favorite short story writer is the late Ed Hoch, who was one of the most prolific writers in my lifetime. As a Mother’s Day present, I received Challenge the Impossible, a collection of some of his previously published Dr. Sam Hawthorne stories, so I would have to say that, at this moment, Ed Hoch is my favorite writer.

If you could invite five people – living or dead – to a dinner party, who would they be?
John Adams, Dolly Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Can you tell I was a Political Science major? Oh and the dinner would have to be catered because I am not at my best in the kitchen.

If you could not be an author, what would like to do as a career?
Author is actually my third career, fourth if we count Mom, my first and favorite, at least until Grandma became my title. For more than two decades I worked as an Administrative Manager for the City of New York, after which I spent six years working in a gym. Now I am a writer. Perhaps I have still another career ahead of me—you never know.



Terrie Farley Moran is a recipient of both the Agatha and the Derringer awards. She is the author of the beachside Read 'Em and Eat cozy mystery series; co-author with Laura Childs of the Scrapbooking mystery series; and has published numerous short stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and various anthologies.

Her web address is www.terriefarleymoran.com
You can find her on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com./terriefarleymoran/