Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve published eleven books in two mystery series, the Cat Caliban series and the Gilda Liberty series, as well as the indie mysteries SMOKE and BAYOU CITY BURNING and the comic sci-fi novel SECOND COMING.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book, BAYOU CITY BURNING, is set in Houston in 1961 and draws on my childhood. I wondered what would happen to all of those hard-boiled detectives of the late forties a few years down the road, when they had ex-wives and orthodontist’s bills to pay. The book is narrated by a hard-boiled detective and his biggest fan and worst critic–his 12-year-old daughter. But I’m also preparing to reissue the Cat Caliban mystery series, originally published by Berkley in the 1990s and early 2000s, starting with ONE FOR THE MONEY. This series was inspired by my reaction to stereotypical older women detectives, and features a detective-in-training who is anything but stereotypical.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write from early in the morning until early afternoon, at which point I shut down the computer for the day. I doubt that this is unusual for writers of a certain age whose bodies will no longer tolerate long hours at the computer. Yoga helps.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have a Ph.D. in English and am retired from teaching literature at the college level, so I have too many literary influences to count. I’ve always resisted listing my favorite writers because there are too many of them.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a comic thriller about a librarian who inherits a fortune and a major book collection from a wealthy patron, along with a dangerous mission to return six library books.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Amazon and Goodreads, along with Facebook, remain my top promotional sites.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Apart from insuring that your presentation of your work is professional, what I used to emphasize to my writing students is that they needed to keep their ears open so that they could hear how real people talked, and they needed to have a wide-ranging curiosity. Students who just wanted to take writing courses and showed no interest in zoology or sociology or art history weren’t destined to be writers, in my book.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
This is a great question and I wish I could remember something. “Write what you know” is both terrible and excellent advice–terrible because most of us have limited experience, but excellent in that we need to trust our experience, and particularly our emotional experience, to allow us to imagine ourselves into characters who are different from ourselves and make them believable.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading a recent Lisa Scottoline Rosato & Associates mystery, a Liliana Hart mystery, an Ann Cleeves Vera Stanhope mystery, and a 19th-century dime novel that is part of my work on the history of girl detectives.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I need to finish the thriller about the librarian and then I’ll probably start a new novel in the Cat Caliban series.
What is your favorite book of all time?
I don’t like to pick favorites because there are so many of them. But JANE EYRE and HUCKLEBERRY FINN would be in the top ten for certain.
Author Websites and Profiles
D. B. Borton Website
D. B. Borton Amazon Profile
D. B. Borton’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
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