The Story is About   +  TIME

As part of Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW) I participated in a Interview Swap! Basically you just had to sign up and the magical people at BBAW would find another blogger for you to interview!

I was introduced to the lovely Kerrie of Mysteries in Paradise. She's an Aussie blogger that features mostly crime fiction. Here is the interview that I conducted with Kerrie. If you'd like to see the flip side, her interview with me, you can head over to her blog: Mysteries in Paradise!

I'm not sure why I've narrowed down to a specific genre. I've kept records of my reading for over 30 years now, and I can see that back when I started I did read much more widely. But I think that mystery/crime fiction is a genre with so many facets and so many wonderful writers that you are never at loss for something to read. Australia has become a breeding ground for quality crime fiction writers, both male and female. I think that what keeps most of us interested in any story is the mystery/puzzle aspect. In one sense most readers are reading mystery, there is a puzzle to be untangled, questions to be answered.

Favorite author in this genre, and why?

Now that is a hard one to answer. I've got a block in the right hand margin of my blog that says Favourite Authors, and there are 16 listed there. You'll see that there are very different authors listed there. But I do love Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell, Donna Leon, Reginald Hill, Michael Robotham, Alexander McCall Smith, Louise Penny, Jo Nesbo, Robert Goddard, Charles Todd, Susan Hill, Martin Edwards, and Ann Cleeves just to name a few.

What elements make a good crime fiction novel? Are there certain things that are more important than others?

A good crime fiction novel is really like any other novel. It has to have an engaging, believable plot, good characterisation, a way of keeping the reader thinking and drawing conclusions, all leading to a good tieing off of threads at the end. That's probably a fair summary of what you also look for in a good book. Good crime fiction goes beyond a simple scenario in which a crime is committed and then solved. It makes you think. tells you something about life and the way other people see it.

What prompted you to start blogging?

I was already writing book reviews and publishing them on a site where I was not the one in control, and in which my reviews had to fit a mould imposed by others. I had a some experience of blogging from writing a blog about education issues for work. So at the beginning of last year I decided to begin a blog about crime fiction, primarily to house my book reviews, but it has become far more than that. I have a number of other fingers in the blogging pie: Blogs I'm watching, Agatha Christie Carnival, Smik's Reviews, and Fair Dinkum Reviews.

What is the best book you've read this year?

I give all the books I read a rating and for me the best this year has been PLAY DEAD by Richard Montanari. But there have been a number that have come oh so close. You can see the list at 2009 Reviews

If you could meet one author dead or alive, who would it by and why?

I guess my answer here should be Agatha Christie, but I think I might find her a bit daunting. Somebody I'd like to hear talk is Alexander McCall Smith. I find his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series extremely enjoyable, and I've heard he is an entertaining speaker.

Why do you like blogging?

If I am writing a review, it gives me the chance to think about what I enjoyed about a book, or conversely what I hated. I found it very challenging at first to write my own summaries and I have a number of rules that I stick to. I try not to use the synopsis provided with the book, but to write my own.

I also enjoy the conversations that happen as people comment on your blog. I try to provide things for people to come to the blog for, even if it is just a poll. I belong to a number of blogging "communities" such as Weekly Geeks, Sunday Salon, and Friday's Forgotten Books, and I've founded one myself with the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge.

I enjoy following other people's blogs, checking on their book reviews, reading about what they are up to. In fact sometimes I think I am addicted to blogging (as as to crime fiction)

What's the most memorable experience that has happened because of blogging?

When I first began blogging, I had no concept of being part of a community. Then people began leaving comments on my blog, and I received lots of encouragement. Through that I now have a number of cyber friends, such as those at Crime and Mystery Fiction on Friend Feed. I guess the other memorable thing that happened was the first time an author contacted me after reading a review of his book on my blog. It was a great thrill.