Avalon Books - Author! Author!


	Read some interviews from past editions:
		S.J. Stewart June, 2008
		Zelda Benjamin April, 2008
		Shirley Marks December, 2007
		Donna Wright December, 2007
		Carolyn Brown August, 2007
		Roni Denholtz June, 2007
		Tara Randel April, 2007
		Sydell Voeller February, 2007
		Sheila Robins December, 2006
		Ann Holt October, 2006
		Cynthia Danielewski July, 2006
		Jane McBride Choate March, 2006
		Kathryn Meyer Griffith January, 2006
		Mel Taylor November, 2005
		Kathleen Fuller September, 2005
		Tracey J. Lyons July, 2005
		Ludima Gus Burton May, 2005
		Holly Jacobs March, 2005
		Sandra D. Bricker January, 2005
		Kathryn Quick November, 2004
		Cheri Jetton September, 2004
		Heather S. Webber July, 2004
		Karl Fieldhouse May, 2004
		Shelley Galloway March, 2004
		Ilsa Mayr January, 2004
		Kathy Carmichael November, 2003
		Dorothy P. O'Neill July, 2003
		Joani Ascher May, 2003
		Patricia DeGroot March, 2003
		Nancy J. Parra January, 2003
		Barbara Meyers November, 2002
		Christine Bush September, 2002
		Debby Mayne July, 2002
		Jean C. Gordon May, 2002
		Charles E. Friend March, 2002
		Norma Seely January, 2002
		Glen Ebisch November, 2001
		Gina Cresse September, 2001
		John Paxson July, 2001
		Terri Alcock May, 2001
		Clifford Blair March, 2001
		Amanda Harte January, 2001
		Kent Conwell November, 2000
		Carolyn Brown September, 2000
		Marjorie McGinley May, 2000
		Jack Lewis March, 2000
		Amanda Harte January, 2000
		Joyce and Jim Lavene November, 1999
	Return to the current Author! Author! interview:
		Sherry Lynn Ferguson August, 2008


Author! Author!: July, 2000
Click on images to learn more about these books. An Interview with Annette Mahon

You've written several romances for Avalon. Why the change to mystery?
	You've written several romances for Avalon. Why the change to mystery? Sometimes a writer gets an idea that just can't be pushed aside. Romance and mystery are my two favorite categories to read. I'd always wanted to write and my first ideas for books were romantic stories. Readers often ask authors where they get their ideas. This can sometimes be an easy question to answer—perhaps the initial idea came from a newspaper article. But more often, the ideas just appear in my head. That's how it was with the St. Rose Quilting Bee—though, of course, I didn't know they would be called that at the time. I had an idea—older women sitting around the quilt frame, talking and solving mysteries. The women of the Bee began to live in my mind, until I knew them very well. It took many years before the idea finally evolved into A Phantom Death, but I knew that I would have to write a mystery novel so that I could introduce these wonderful ladies to my readers.
So are you a quilter?
	Oh, yes. I've done sewing of one type or another since I was a child. But quilting is probably my favorite type of handwork. I especially love appliqué work—Hawaiian quilting and Baltimore album style, in particular. In addition, I enjoy doing embroidery and often use it to embellish my quilt blocks. I have also been doing a lot of redwork, which is enjoying a resurgence in popularity right now. When I do piecing, I generally use the sewing machine. I also quilt with a group at my church. Every year I stitch a top for our Women's Club to quilt. We raffle it off in the fall at our Christmas Boutique. We quilt together every Monday night, and while we don't solve mysteries, we have a great time. This wonderful camaraderie over the quilting frame is part of what I hoped to portray in my book. It's something that women have experienced since pioneer days. The Phantom of the Opera tour passed through Tempe while I was doing the final rewrite of A Phantom Death. So I took that opportunity to wait at the stage door with a stack of quilt blocks to be autographed and have made my own version of the quilt Maggie and the Bee make.
*The victim in A Phantom Death* is an actor in The Phantom of the Opera. Was there a reason you chose this particular play?**
	The Phantom of the Opera is definitely my favorite play. I volunteer at Gammage Auditorium in Tempe where Phantom has played in the valley, and I've gotten to see it almost forty times. I love it! Besides including my favorite play in the book, I also felt it was particularly good for a murder mystery. The play's main character is a mysterious person, accused of murders... He can be alternately charming and deadly. It seemed a good character for the alter ego of my victim. In addition, people are intrigued by the "Phantom of the Opera" character. When I tell people that the victim in my new book is the "Phantom of the Opera", the response is generally a fascinated interest.
A Phantom Death is set in the Southwest. What made you chose this area of the country?
	I live in the Southwest myself—in Scottsdale, actually, where my book is set. The desert is such a great area for finding a dead body—I just couldn't resist. There are also a lot of people who have retired here to the valley, and that fit in well with the characters I had in mind. Since the St. Rose Quilting Bee would be meeting every morning to quilt—and to discuss the solving of mysteries—I decided to make them "mature" women. They couldn't have babies at home, or jobs to go to, or they wouldn't be able to fit into my scheme for them. Also, I wanted them to have a variety of interests and experiences to draw upon for crime solving. The Southwest also fit perfectly into my plan for daily meetings for the Quilting Bee. Since the weather in Scottsdale is nearly perfect all year round, they could meet daily without the inconveniences caused by snow and ice. And with the lovely weather, they could sometimes quilt outdoors. My own church group has done this—though we don't have an old olive tree for shade—and it is a very pleasant experience.