Please welcome this week’s guest author, Dorien Grey. Dorien is the author of the fabulous Dick Hardesty series. I’m so thrilled he was able to take time out of his busy schedule to answer my nosy questions.

Q: Hello, Dorien. To start, why don’t you share the genre you write in?

A: I write primarily mysteries because I enjoy creating puzzles.

Q: How long did you write before you received your first contract for publication?

A: I started writing at around age 5, and had my first book published some 35 or so years later. The interim was something of a blur.

Q: So, if you don’t mind sharing, would you tell us about your latest work in progress?

A: Currently, I’m wrapping up “The Secret Keeper,” Book #13 of the Dick Hardesty mystery series. It involves the apparent suicide of a multi-millionaire who had befriended Jonathan, Dick’s partner. Jonathan refuses to accept that it was suicide, sending Dick off on another quest for the truth. Then it’s on to the next book in the Elliott Smith mysteries, which I’m mulling over in my head. It’s a continuing process.

Q: Out of all the stories you’ve written, which is your favorite?

A: Asking an author which of his work is his favorite is a little bit like asking a parent which of his children he (I know…or she) likes best. I never say, lest I risk hurting the others’ feelings.

Q: Do you need to be in a specific place or atmosphere before the words flow?

A: Just anywhere there is a computer. I never write longhand, since two minutes after I write something down, I can’t read my handwriting.

Q: What’s the strangest source of inspiration you’ve found for a story?

A: All my books are inspired by the sparking of awareness of some basic flaw or peculiarity in the human condition. Where these sparks come from, or why, I honestly have no idea which, I suppose, is pretty strange in and of itself.

Q: If you could offer one tidbit of information for new writers, what would it be?

A: Pretend you’re having a conversation with a friend. Talk TO your reader, not AT him (yes, I know “or her.” Political correctness can be a real drag at times).

Q: Do you have an evil day job or do you write full time?

A: I do have a very high paying and prestigious part time weekend job sitting behind the information desk at a local shopping center, directing people to the nearest washroom, but I probably could survive without it. I’d just have to give up a few luxuries like food and rent. And I recently bought a laptop so I can write at work.

Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?

A: I don’t really think of myself as having any. I have a great deal of flexibility available to me, but I find I spend most of my time writing though I never write past 5 p.m. I would love to have a lot more time to read, but often find reading frustrating in that if I like what I’m reading, I get envious of the writer’s talent and question my own.

Q: Name one thing readers would be surprised to learn about you.

A: Probably very little. I tend to blend in with the wallpaper, and everything I write is aimed at demonstrating that we are all far more alike than we are different. That does not lend itself to surprises. And I have a tendency to lay myself out on the dissecting table not only in my books but in my 3-times-a-week blog, “Dorien Grey and Me” (http://www.doriengreyandme.com). I tend to associate telling people about myself to the little girl’s book report on a book on penguins: “This book tells me more about penguins than I care to know.”

Q: What’s your favorite dirty word?

A: That’s rather like asking which of my work I like best. There so many colorful epithets out there like hothouse flowers—most of which I have used at one time or another—it’s hard to pick one

Q: What’s your favorite holiday, and why?

A: I am very fond of the 4th of July for its general exuberance. The songs, the flag-waving, the sense that we are all one—I love displays of positive emotion.

Q: Do you have any tattoos or piercings?

A: No offense to the 99.4 out of 100 people who seem to have them nowadays, but I find myself questioning the mental stability of anyone with more than one or two small tattoos. I find any kind of piercing equal parts idiotic and utterly repugnant. If someone wish to call attention to themselves, go paint yourself blue: at least it will come off when you realize how dumb you were to have it done in the first place.

Q: If you could be intimate with three people (not necessarily all at one time *g*) without getting in trouble with your significant other, who would they be?

A: If I had a significant other, I probably wouldn’t be considering the question, but off the top of my head I’d say Jeffrey Donovan (of TV’s “Burn Notice”), Colin Ferguson (of TV’s “Eureka”) and any one of the innumerable hunks I see going upstairs to the gym at the shopping center where I work.

Q: If you were stranded on a desert island, what three things would you want with you?

A: Uh, Jeffrey Donovan, a well-equipped sailboat, and all the books I’ve always wanted to read but never did.

Q: If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you spend the money on?

A: If I could not use it to buy back my physical youth, I’d devote up to half of it to travel and whatever form of self-indulgence struck me at the moment but I honestly would try to use at least half to do something to improve the lives of others.

Q: Which household chore do you abhor and why?

A: My lack of domesticity is legend. I abhor all household chores, and hold firm to Quentin Crisp’s observation that “the dust doesn’t get any thicker after three years.”

Q: What’s your favorite comfort food?

A: Thanks to 35 radiation treatments that rid me of tongue cancer several years ago having totally screwed up my ability to really enjoy any kind of food, I fear I really haven’t anything specific. I just concentrate on taking in as many calories as possible, which fortunately includes things like cake and pie and donuts.

Q: Do you have any guilty pleasures you feel comfortable sharing?

A: Not with a mixed audience.

Q: Do you have a favorite book or movie?

A: My favorite book of all time is Robert Lewis Taylor’s “Adrift in a Boneyard,” of which few people have ever heard: I honestly think it was the single most influential book in developing my writing style. As for a movie, “Schindler’s List” and “E.T.” immediately come to mind.

Q: Anything else you’d like to share?

A: Every writer wants new readers, but I fear I tend to go a bit overboard in my compulsion to find them. I’m sure a psychiatrist would say I look to my readers as a form of validation, and the more I have, the more validated I feel. So I’d be most happy if this interview might lead someone to take a chance with me.

Q: In closing, tell us a bit about your latest release (& share a yummy excerpt for those who aren’t yet familiar with your work)

A: Though my next book, “Aaron’s Wait,” is the second book in my new Elliott Smith series, it won’t be out until June. So my most recent release is “The Angel Singers”, which deals with murder in a male gay chorus.

As for an excerpt, I’m not quite sure “Yummy” would apply, but here’s a snippet to give you an idea of the tone:

It wasn’t until after Joshua was safely Story-Timed and asleep that I had a chance to talk to Jonathan about anything he might not already told me about what he may have seen and overheard at the chorus.
“I thought I’d told you everything that was going on,” he said.
“Well, yeah, you have, but you haven’t really said too much about what you think about it all, or about the guys. Especially anything that relates to Grant.”
He shrugged. “Ah, yeah. Well, I really like most of the guys, even those who sided with Grant. Grant could be really kind of sweet, if he wanted to be like if he wanted something. The guys in his inner circle tended to come and go. Somebody would be his best buddy for awhile, then the next week Grant would totally ignore him. Most of what I know is second-hand, since I have no idea how he was between rehearsals or if he hung around with anybody in particular when we weren’t rehearsing. I’m pretty sure he was having sex with some of the guys, and he was very good with come-ons.”
“Speaking from personal experience?” I asked with a grin.
He returned the grin. “I don’t kiss and tell,” he said, and I reached over and grabbed his leg in a vice grip that made him jerk. “Okay!,” he said, “Okay! No kissing, but he did come on to me once or twice but my strength is the strength of ten because my heart is pure.”
I rolled my eyes to the ceiling and released my grip.
“So, Mr. Pureheart,” I said, “anybody you haven’t mentioned have a particular grudge against him?”
He shook his head. “He wouldn’t win many popularity contests,” he said, “but I’m pretty sure there were a couple of the guys’ partners who’d be mad enough, like Jerry was, to at least try to beat him up..”
“Yeah, well I can see a lot of guys being pissed at him, but enough to kill him?”
“Hell hath no fury like a lover scorned,” he said.
I stared at him. “My, we’re a little font of aphorisms tonight, aren’t we?”
“Aren’t aphorisms those little green bugs that get on my pepper plants?” he asked, then quickly added: “Oh, no, those are aphids.”
I could see we weren’t going to get much further into this particular conversation, so suggested we go to bed.
“We can play a game of ‘The Aphid and the Pepper Plant,’” I said. “I get to be the aphid.”
He grinned, getting up from the couch.
“Deal,” he said.

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Thanks, Amanda, for the opportunity to talk to your readers. I do hope some of them might want to check out my website at http://www.doriengrey.com, where they can read the first chapter of any or all of my books, and even sign up for a drawing to win a free book.