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Literary Spotlight: Tess Gerritsen
By Carlotta G. Holton
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Tess Gerritsen is a New York Times bestselling author of medical thrillers.
Q: Your experience as a physician is reflected in the landscape of your books. What advice can you give writers who want to parlay their expertise into a book?
A: Never assume that your own life occupation is uninteresting to anyone else. Every job has its little secrets, details that the general public would be fascinated by. They will give your story a true sense of reality and atmosphere.
Q: What are the challenges a writer faces when they opt to write a series of books featuring the same character?
A: The real challenge is how to keep those characters interesting and changing. You can't tie up all the loose ends in a book; you have to leave a few conflicts dangling. . . . what keeps a series going isn't the plot, but the characters.
Q: How does a writer balance historical data within the plot so that it complements rather than overshadows the entire book?
A: The historical data must always be secondary to the plot and characters. I happen to love history, but when I wrote THE BONE GARDEN, I didn't want it to overwhelm the story. History becomes the background, rather than the story itself.
Q: What have been the most successful promotional events for your books?
A: National radio interviews have been the most successful for me. The most readers I ever gained at one swoop was from an interview on the Art Bell show. I picked up many male readers who subsequently told me, at book signings, that they were introduced to my books thanks
to Art.
Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.
Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.
