Author Interview: Amy M. Reade
- Michael Bradley
- 3 hours ago
- 7 min read
Amy M. Reade is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who started her professional career practicing law in New York City. She quickly realized that writing fiction was more fun than documents filled with legalese. Her first novel, SECRETS OF HALLSTEAD HOUSE was published in 2014. Since then, Amy continued writing Gothic-style mysteries, as well as delved into historical mysteries with her Cape May Historical Mystery series, and cozy mysteries with her Juniper Junction Cozy Holiday mystery series. Amy has kindly taken a few minutes to answer a few questions.
Let's start by talking about your decision to write fiction. Writing legal documents is probably at the opposite end of the writing spectrum from fiction. Did you find it challenging to shift your mindset from the formal writing style required in the legal profession to the creativity required for writing fiction? Did that transition come naturally to you?
My legal career required me to write every day, which turned out to be good practice for becoming a fiction writer. I did not find it challenging to switch gears to fiction writing for a couple reasons.
First, much of legal writing is like telling a story. You are often setting down the facts so the reader (the judge/law clerk) is able to follow the storyline in a step-by-step manner that (hopefully) makes the story easy to understand. It’s the same in fiction writing, but in fiction I as the writer am allowed to throw in a bunch of extra information, like red herrings. In the practice of law, that would be a huge problem.
Second, legal writing gave me the foundation I needed to write mysteries, in particular. Mysteries have to make a certain amount of sense to be believable. The logic required to write an easy-to-follow legal brief, memo, or affidavit is the same logic that allows me to set out the facts of a mystery in a way that’s understandable for the reader. Sure, there are red herrings, but when the villain is revealed at the end of the story, it has to be logical. I hear from my readers that they didn’t know whodunit, but that the information necessary to solve the crime was there all along.
The books in your Cape May Historical Mystery series span the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. What kind of research was required to get period details correct? What is the most interesting thing you learned from the research you've done for your series?
I love research, so my Cape May Historical Mystery Collection has been a joy to write. Each book is a standalone, and the only constants from one book to the next are the setting—Cape May, New Jersey—and the march of time. The books are set throughout Cape May’s history, so the first book in the collection takes place in the early 1700s. My plan is to bring the collection into the 20th century and encompass seven or eight books in total.
Because each book is set during a different time in history, I have to start with fresh research for every story. Each era has different clothing, customs, language, modes of transportation, and medical procedures, and of course Cape May grows throughout the years, so the town itself is different in each book.
My favorite thing to research … hmm … I suppose it would be the medical advances through time. Because each book features at least one murder, it’s important to get the facts right about (everything, but especially) things like treatments for poisons, the limitations of medicines, the training doctors received at the time, and beliefs and customs relating to disease, illness, and injury.
Your books fall into several different Mystery subgenres. Some are Gothic, some historical, and some cozy. Of all the mystery styles in which you've written, which do you prefer the most, and why?
Good question! My first six books were called “Gothics,” but only in terms of suspense and atmosphere, not any supernatural elements. Now I tend to call them “domestic suspense.” After those books I began to write cozies. I wrote a series of seven cozy mysteries (The Juniper Junction Cozy Holiday Mystery Series), each centered around a different holiday. I loved getting to know the family at the heart of the series.
I started writing a series called The Libraries of the World Mystery Series, which uses special library collections around the world to commit or help solve a crime. The first book, TRUDY'S DIARY, came out a few years ago and I’ve been trying to finish the second book. These are dual timeline mysteries—contemporary mysteries with a parallel historical mystery. These books are challenging to write, but I love them.
The historicals came about because my husband suggested that as long as we live so close to Cape May, I should be writing about that. I balked at first because I hadn’t attempted pure historicals, but I have found that I get immense enjoyment from researching and writing the books. My readers seem to feel the same way.
Nowadays, I tend to favor my historicals and the dual timeline (library) series. I find that most of the ideas I have for new books center on those two subgenres.
Every writer has specific nuances when it comes to writing. Some have special places where they write. Some plot every detail before writing, while others fly by the seat of their pants. Talk for a moment about your writing process.
For my first book, my writing process involved a detailed outline that stretched into many dozens of pages. For my second book, I approached it in more of a seat-of-my-pants manner. After years of trying different methods, I now have something that works pretty well for me. I use one index card for each scene, jotting down details I’d like to put in that scene to move the story forward. That way I can shuffle the cards around to try different narrative paths. When I come up with the order I like, I follow the index cards to write the story.
I don’t have to be in a particular place to work, but normally I’m in my office, at my desk. Depending on whether I’m researching or writing or editing, I have jazz music playing or not. I show up to my desk most mornings and don’t wait for the muse. I find that she shows up when I do.
What has been the biggest challenge to your writing career?
The biggest challenge for me has been learning the ropes of marketing and promotion. I’m not a born salesperson, so that has been an adjustment. I’ve taken courses until I’m blue in the face, and yet I’ve found that the best way to learn something is to go out and do it. Make the mistakes and avoid them the next time. It can be a slog, but books don’t sell themselves.
Some people believe we can tell a lot about a person by the books on their shelves. Share three titles from your bookshelf and tell us what you think they say about you.
Like so many avid readers, I have about a gazillion books in my house. It’s hard to pick just three! But I’ll give it a go.
First, from where I sit at my desk I can see a stack of Great British Baking Show cookbooks. That tells you a couple things: not only do I love to cook, but I am also a card-carrying Anglophile/Europhile.
Second, on a small table near my desk is my collection of James Herriot books. Beginning with his All Creatures Great and Small series, I have devoured his books for years. He is the reason I went to college to be a veterinarian (interestingly and probably to no one’s surprise, his books make no mention of organic chemistry, which is the reason I am not a veterinarian). Though I try to avoid the word “heartwarming,” it perfectly describes his books.
Third, not far from the James Herriot books stands a tall pile of my collection of Ernest Hemingway’s works, from his early bylines to a posthumous novel and everything in between. He was the first writer (besides Carolyn Keene of Nancy Drew fame) whose style and genius inspired me to read every single one of his books.
What can we expect from you in the future? Are you working on any new projects?
Right now I’m working on the final edits to the fourth book in my Cape May Historical Mystery Collection, MURDER AT THE CHESTNUT WIG. I have also been blessed to co-author a middle grade ghost story that will be out this summer. It’s called THE HIDDEN KEY: SARA SIM, GHOST FINDER. Third, I am almost halfway through the first draft of book 2 (as yet untitled) in my Libraries of the World Mystery Series. I am also doing some minor revisions to book 1 in that series, Trudy’s Diary, and re-releasing it with a new cover this summer. And finally, I’m in the process of having one of my Cape May historical mysteries adapted into an audiobook.
Let’s finish this up with something a bit offbeat. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
I love this question. I actually did some research on spirit animals to answer it, and I’ve come up with mine: the panda (and not just because I’m a klutz).
The panda as a spirit animal brings a sense of calm and strength. It appreciates the importance of personal boundaries, and is highly sensitive to the immediate environment. It also tends to amass material things to create a sense of comfort, though that is a practice I’m trying to distance myself from nowadays. If any of your readers want a spirit animal of their own, here’s the website I liked best in my research: https://www.spiritanimal.info/.
On a lighter note, I could watch panda videos on social media all day long. I love them.
To learn more about Amy and her books, you can visit her website at www.amymreade.com. You can also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
You can purchase her latest novel, MURDER AT THE CHESTNUT WIG at these retailers.