It's my great honor and pleasure to present my New Release Feature plus a special Q&A with mother daughter author team Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella.Here's Lisa's
Lisa Scottoline Q&A
Debbie- What was your proudest moment as Francesca’s mom?
Lisa -I don't have a single proudest moment, and for me, motherhood is a teary blurof proud moments. I was proud theday Francesca was born and drew her first breath, and I've been proud every daysince. My pride in her isn'tlinked to any of her accomplishments, though she has plenty. It's just really about unconditional love. I always think of my late father, who,when someone at one of my signings asked him if he was proud of me, heanswered, "Lady, I was proud of her the day she came out of the egg."
You write fiction and collaborate withFrancesca on your column and books.
Can you tell us how and why you became a writer?I hadbeen a trial lawyer, but when my first marriage ended and I became a singlemother with a three-month-old baby Francesca, I found that I had to make underanother way of earning a living, because I wanted to stay at home and raiseher. This was over 20 years agonow, and at the time I didn't feel that there were enough strong, smart, andfunny female main characters in fiction, and since that's what I imagine myselfto be, I started writing.
Is there a negative side to co-authoringwith your daughter?
Not atall. My daughter Francesca writes heressays and sends them to our amazing editor, Jen Enderlin at St. Martin’s, andI send mine, so we don’t write together perse, which I think is best for us. I love Francesca no end, and she doesn’t need meto tell her how to write. She’s a wonderfullytalented writer herself and has her own unique voice. My job, as her mother and co-author, is to encourage her to writein her voice, not mine.
Do you consider your “Chick Wit” column asort of comic relief from your more serious fiction writing?
Do you need comic relief from your mystery writing?Idon't consider writing the humor memoirs as comic relief from my fiction,because there has always been a fair amount of humor in my fiction. Because I write it. Everybody who's any good writes fromthe heart, and the soul, and I like to laugh. In fact, I like even more to make other people laugh, and Ithink even my earliest mysteries are populated by characters who are witty andclever, which I can attain after 37 rough drafts. So in a way, rather than one form of writing being a relieffrom the other, they’re both parts of the same whole, probably along somespectrum from total clowning around, to murder with intent to clown around.
You have many writing awards.
Is there one that is more special than the others?Mostof us authors crave praise like puppies, and I am the worst offender in thisregard. Awards, certificates, nicereviews, reader email, and any morsel of positive reinforcement keeps me going likeoxygen, premium gasoline, or chocolate cake. I still need to be told I'm a good dog, and in this regardprobably I would single out the Edgar Award as being my most favorite treatever. It's given for excellence incrime fiction, and it was a thrill for me not only to receive it, but to laterbecome President of Mystery Writers of America. That said, now that I've written been writing for so long fora long time, my secret real goal is to have a body of consistently excellentwriting over the life of my career, so, no pressure.
What are you working on now?Ijust finished the my next stand-alone novel, entitled DON’T GO, which will beout in April and is a huge departure for me, in that it tells the story of amale main character, an Army surgeon who serves in Afghanistan. However, DON’T GO specifically asks thequestion whether a single father can never feel as competent as a parent as amother. So in a way it's continueda exploration of mothering, this time with testosterone.
Are you a reader?
Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?I readconstantly, in almost all areas, except maybe history. I love crime fiction, but I read allkinds of fiction, nonfiction, and memoir because for me, it's ultimately aboutvoice, and memoir can have extraordinarily strong voice. I also listen to audiobooks, because I walka lot, as I have way too many dogs, and I just love to be told a story. In fact, I'm a fan of storytelling inall of its many forms, whether it's ebook, audiobook, or somebody I just met inthe ladies room. Talk to me. I'll listen. I'm easy that way.Lisa, thank you for this and good luck with the book.
And here's Francesca's
Francesca Serritella Q&A
Francesca-First thank you for taking the time to do this.
Debbie-What’s the best thing about being Lisa Scottoline’s daughter?Francesca -Thereare so many wonderful things about having Lisa Scottoline as my mom, but thebest is easily her warmth. Anyonewho comes to one of our signings knows that my mom is a hugger, and she’s thesame at home. She has a big, warm,cuddly personality, and although I strive to impress her, she never makes mefeel like I have to. She is alwaysmy soft place to fall.
What’s the worst thing about being LisaScottoline’s daughter?She’s a worrier. Everymother is, but all of my mom’s emotions are larger than life, and this is nodifferent. I tell her she has a“Chicken Little energy” where she gets some worst-case-scenario stuck in herhead and then goes around and around it until she’s ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN the skyis falling. You can’t reason withher once she’s in a tizzy, so I usually give in. But even this has its perks—thanks to my mom’s worrying, Ievacuated my New York apartment just before Hurricane Sandy hit—my building hasbeen without power and heat for over ten days, but I’m safe and cozy athome. Thanks, Mom!
This is your fourth collaboration in bookform with your mom.
Do you see more ahead?
Do you see any solo books ahead?Wehave another of these collaborations coming next November, entitled HAVE A NICE GUILT TRIP, and honestly,we have so much fun writing these memoirs, I hope there will be more afterthat. The transition of child toteenager gets a lot of attention, but I think the period of greatesttransition, especially between mother and daughter, comes after college. That’s when the child-parentrelationship really has to change to one between adults, and ours isever-evolving. I’m sure my mom andI will have to readjust when I get married, and again when I have kids. And again much later, when sheinevitably moves in with me—yikes!!It’salways been my dream to become a fiction author, and I just finished a novel ofmy own, titled GHOSTS OF HARVARD. It is a psychological drama about a young woman struggling to come toterms with her older brother’s suicide at college. When she starts hearing voices, she fears she may be losingher grip on reality—or are they ghosts? The story has elements of American history as well as the supernatural,but it centers around the fact that in a family, no tragedy touches only oneperson.
Did you seek advice from your mom when youdecided to become a writer?I talk to my mom often about the ups anddowns of the writing process. It’sgreat to have a parent who understands and accepts the realities of working ina creative profession. But I don’ttypically ask her for specific advice on my writing, even for the books wewrite together. In that department,she has truly given me the space I need to find my own literary voice, and I’mso grateful.
Is having a famous author in the family a hindranceor a blessing for your own writing career?
It’s been a blessing, but maybe not in the ways you might expect. My mother’s struggle has given me moreadvantages than her success. My momwas not an author when I was born; I got to watch her build her career. She worked for years on her first noveland it was never published, but I saw her dust herself off and writeanother. Today, her great successmight be daunting if I hadn’t seen the everyday hard work and perseverance ittook her to get there. Now I canstart on my own knowing that failure is an event, not a definition, and thatany writing career is hard-fought, not an inheritance.
I have to admit that the covers of yourbooks really grab me, this is, in part, what makes me choose what to read.
How do you choose what you read?
Are you a fiction or non-fiction lover?I’mso glad you like the covers! Welove them too, and we put a lot of thought into them. I am definitely influenced by cover, who isn’t? But the main influence of my readinglist is word of mouth. My friendswill tell me the latest books they enjoyed, or I’ll ask a bookseller for arecommendation, or I’ll even check reader reviews online. It’s why I think book clubs remain sopopular—for a supposed solitary activity, reading is fundamentally social.
Fictionis my first love and I always make time for it, but I also really enjoymemoir. I just love stories aboutpeople, I don’t care if they’re true or false. I like biography too, but memoir has the added bonus of theauthor’s own voice and possibly slanted perspective on his or her life. For a while I was on a kick ofaddiction memoir—those are fascinating because, at bottom, it’s always a familydrama, just with life and death stakes. But if that gets too grim, I’m a sucker for those “I have a bad dog”or “My rescued cat rescued me”animal memoirs. I cry every time.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
In tenyears, I hope I will have several novels published and a happy familystarted. In addition, my mom and Iwill have probably written a couple more memoirs, one on my mom’s maniaplanning my wedding, and one on her hysteria over my first baby. It will be a blast.
Thank you Francesca
Good luck with the bookThank you, Debbie, for your thoughtful and fun questions! -Francesca
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