Hi there, guys and dolls!  And here we are again — the last Sunday in the month.  Yowza, if any of you figure out where exactly that time evaporates to, please send yours truly a note.  In the meantime, settle on in for my favorite type of blog post.  Meet my good friend and fellow Cozy Cat Press author, David M. Selcer.  He writes the Buckeye Barrister Mysteries, and the most recent in the series is MUSCLES, MUSIC AND MURDER.  I personally have a great deal of affection for his main character, Winston Barchrist III, who will keep on trying, no matter what character building events life throws at him.  He may get challenged, but he is friends will see him through.  Do enjoy our confab as David and I get a little better acquainted.

1. So tell me a little about your series and main characters.

The series is about a failed lawyer, Winston Barchrist III, who has fallen from the highest powered corporate law firm to doing easy divorces and defending penny ante criminals because of a failed disbarment proceeding against him.  He has no self-confidence as a result of his fall, and he has put on enough weight from his anxieties to ease him past the 350 mark. But big cases soon begin falling into his lap.  With the help of his friends, a professional computer hacker, a supportive girl friend, and a muscle bound bouncer, who acts as his protector, he solves the big cases.  These cases involve a gambling syndicate interfering with Ohio State football. Another concerns the murder of a lawyer with polonium; and the third involves the murder of the Maestro of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.

2.What is your writing process like?  Do you thrive on routine or work spontaneously as the whim takes you?

I can only write when I feel like it, when I’m happy and not under stress.  My plots take shape while I’m in bed, and I have to get up and make notes.  From there, the story just comes out as I sit at my computer. But I cannot force myself to write.  I have no routine, but when I finally start writing, I go for a very long time before I stop.  Each time I start up again, I begin by revising to my satisfaction what has already been written.

3. What exciting moment or moments that made you realize that you were really an “author?”

I first realized I might be an author when I began laughing at what I had written.  Humor is a part of all my mysteries.  I actually realized I was an author when I chose to write rather than coming to the dinner table or going out.  It was very tough on my wife.

4. What do you do to spark up your creativity when you feel the well of inspiration is running dry?

When I feel the well of inspiration is running dry, I stop writing.  To me, there is nothing worse than forced writing.  I know that sooner or later, I’m going to pick up what I’ve been doing and move forward.  There is only one piece I have written that I have trashed because it was no good.

5.  Who are some of your favorite authors and how do you feel they have influenced your desire to write?

My favorite mystery author is Stuart Kaminski, now deceased. Reading his stuff helped me learn how to write. He was a very prolific professor of communications and speech from Chicago who wrote books and screenplays. I like to write in the first person. That’s what Kaminski did.

Thanks for sharing your writing world with us, David.  Friends and fellow readers, do yourself a favor and join Winston in Columbus and everywhere else his cases take him.  With the great sense of humor and quirky characters, you’ll be glad to take the mystery adventures.  MUSCLES, MUSIC AND MURDER, as well as his other two earlier novels in the series are available on Kindle, as well as through all other major booksellers, or ask for them in your local book store.  Also check out the Cozy Mysteries Unlimited link to learn more about the Buckeye Barrister Mysteries and a great interview from Christopher Purdy.  Just click on the underlined passages to be taken to their links.

Toodles,

Barbara Jean