An article in The Sacramento Bee profiling Ann Littlewood caught our eye this morning. Littlewood is the author of Night Kill, her first mystery, which we recently reviewed (Mysterious Reviews: Night Kill by Ann Littlewood).
Night Kill introduces zookeeper Iris Oakley who investigates the mysterious death of her husband at the zoo where they both worked. Littlewood, 62, is a retired zookeeper herself. "I missed the zoo," she says. "It takes a year or more to write a novel and your head is in that place. ... It was very wonderful to go back in my mind and be at a zoo. And I got to make up my zoo and put the animals I like in it."
She notes that one's first full-length novel is quite the juggling act with so much to learn – character, plot, themes, setting. When asked what the biggest mistake a new writer makes, Littlewood replies, "Not focusing on moving the plot forward." She says it took about five years to get her book published. Night Kill is published by Poisoned Pen Press which says it receives about 400 submissions a year and accepts 5 or 6 new authors annually.
The full text of this interesting article is available at SacBee.com.
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