with Sam Berretti
We are delighted to welcome novelist Sam Berretti to Omnimystery News today.
Sam's debut mystery, the first in a series, is Double Mayhem (CreateSpace, November 2012 trade paperback and ebook formats).
We asked Sam to tell us about his approach to writing mysteries, "Mysterious Beginnings" as it were …
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Photo provided courtesy of
Sam Berretti
There is a magic that occurs when we read and whole new worlds are created and revealed. When the story happens to be a mystery or thriller, there are the added dimensions of a puzzle, the unexpected and conflict. Since Edgar Allen Poe published The Murders in the Rue Morgue in 1841 for the masses the public has been chasing bad guys through untold billions of ink smudged pages and pixilated screens. Growing up with Superman, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie, it's no surprise that when I turned to writing I naturally leaned toward stories with elements of suspense and danger. I am also an artist and I vaguely remember creating my first "masterpiece" with a cover showing a man with a cape riding a horse. That was done on construction paper with crayons. My elementary grade teacher was gushing. So I've been struggling with this impulse to create fiction for a long time. Somewhere along the way, life got in the way. Now that I'm back to it I feel relieved, like rediscovering a familiar path through the woods after being lost. There is a personal satisfaction and release in building a world of characters and places where adventures unfold, lives and loves flourish, and goodness wins. The ability to share this with readers is all the more rewarding.
With many of my projects and work of art, I've been told that the things I do are complicated and involved. My writing and plot development tends to be the same, and I think that adds to the enjoyment and impact for the reader. Writing to me is like cooking, and the addition of intriguing elements is like adding exotic spice. Double Mayhem has a large dose of action, a bit of humor, historical facts, the paranormal, romantic tension, and yes, a pinch of sex. Because of that, this fictional brew purposefully spans literary genres in that it is a mystery, a spy thriller, and a romance, thus appealing to a broad spectrum of audiences.
Different writers approach the creative process in different ways. Some work from detailed outlines, some just start writing, and some have only the beginning and end in mind. Even though I start with a rough outline, I let the characters and plot evolve, taking me places I did not plan to go. It becomes a discovery for me, which is part of the thrill of writing. It's like reading a mystery, but from the inside out. That was the process with Double Mayhem. As I started introducing characters and writing their dialogue, how they reacted to one another and logically demanded responses from one another led me down avenues I had not anticipated. The family of characters in this Seekers Mysteries debut is diverse and extensive, each with their own quirks and unique histories. Each became real to me, and I could see future books revolving around them. I wanted to know more about them myself, but the book of course had to have an ending. This first saga is more than a simple mystery, a story of a hapless heroine sucked into a vortex of crime; it is a chronicle of beginnings for characters and new worlds.
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Sam Berretti was born and raised in the High Plains city of Lubbock, Texas. After finishing college at Texas Tech University he moved to Florida to attend graduate school at the University of Florida and holds two Masters Degrees. He is an avid naturalist, photographer and artist as well as a writer. Although writing started at an early age and took many forms, the first published book was Double Mayhem. Married with two grown children, he presently lives in Florida.
To learn more about Sam and his work, visit his website at SamBerretti.com or his author profile on Goodreads. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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Double Mayhem
Sam Berretti
A Seekers Mystery
Seeing is not believing …
They say for every person in the world there is a twin. For Doris Watson, that simple wisdom becomes a nightmare reality that threatens her and the ones she's come to love.
An ex-military engineer who leads a quiet life as an appliance designer, she is recruited to perform one uncomplicated task: take a handoff of secret plans from a Chinese agent who believes she is someone else. She accepts the assignment and the only person she can blame is herself. She opened the door. She said yes. Her lonely existence is shattered as headstrong men cross her path. Dangerous men with dangerous needs.
Suddenly embroiled in mob killings, espionage, and police investigations, she has become a billion-dollar target of sadistic crooks, the FBI, the NSA, and her psychotic look-alike. It is up to her to protect herself and the mysterious child who has been thrust into her life. No one is who they appear to be. No one is telling the truth, because the truth can make you dead. Forced to use all her training and wits, she must find a way to survive.
Forced to uncover the secrets of her childhood, she must face a new reality. Some days you just shouldn't answer the door.
