Fall is almost here which means one thing: the season of chilling mysteries is upon us – and we’ve found the perfect one to obsess over first. Pasadena is a noir style mystery set against the backdrop of stylish clothes and beautiful mansions in California’s City of Roses that will have you turning pages long into the night. Here to tell us more about the mind behind the masterpiece is author Sherri L. Smith!

Name: Sherri L. Smith

Book: Pasadena

Date available: 9/13/2016

Who’s your favorite author, living or dead?

There are too many to list.  It’s like having a favorite restaurant for a specific dish, rather than the whole menu.  I read all sorts of stuff and I have been duly impressed by many writers.  I am a completionist if I like a series, but I rarely read an entire body of work by a single author.  If you were to corner me, I’d say E.B. White because: Charlotte’s Web.  And because: The Trumpet of the Swan.  His work was part of the fabric of my childhood and I don’t know if I would be here if his writing hadn’t been there for me back then.

What’s your favorite thing about your book?

My favorite thing about Pasadena is the protagonist, Jude.  She’s fearless when it comes to speaking her mind in a way that I just love!  So much of what she says elicits a “you got that right!” or an “oh, damn!”  That’s hilarious, and cheer-worthy.  (Even if it’s not always the best policy.)

If you could spend one year on a deserted island with one character from literature, who would you choose?

A year is a really long time.  My first instinct is a good wizard or magician, someone who could make life more comfortable.  Gandalf the Gray would have good stories, but he’s a pothead, and that would drive me nuts.  Winnie the Pooh, on the other hand, would be adorable.  As long as there is honey, I have a feeling we’d have a grand adventure.

Where do you write?

I write everywhere, or I’d never get it done.  But mostly I write at home, that means my blue sofa in the living room, sometimes it’s my office, which I painted “Toasted Almond” and decorated with purple and gold curtains because I wanted it to feel like the desert tent of a traveling journalist.  It does not feel like that.  It has more of a “junk attic” vibe, since it’s a dumping ground for everything that washes up on the shores of my life.  I have a significant amount of books, a lot of Pre-Raphaelite art, not enough file cabinets and a cardboard box my cat likes to sleep in while I work.

Who is your favorite hero or heroine of history?

Such a good question!  So I’m going real world here and not fictional.

Do you tweet? What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever tweeted?

I do indeed tweet.  It’s hard to judge the funniest thing you’ve ever done, since the world will definitely be the judge of that.  But maybe it’s this:

I wonder if when I break down shipping boxes, my cardboard-loving cat sees me as Galactus, Destroyer of Worlds. pic.twitter.com/LE6YbpuZNB

— Sherri L. Smith (@Sherri_L_Smith) August 13, 2016

What is your favorite season?

I love autumn on the east coast, spring on the west.

If you could teleport anywhere in the known universe right now, where would you go?

At this exact moment, I would arrive beneath the sheet of a massage table in front of the world’s best massage therapist, who would have no choice but to get to work fixing my hunched laptop typist body.  Seriously, they could be in a cave in Nova Scotia (which sounds cool anyway) and I’d be like, Bing! I’m there.

Do you have any writing rituals?

I tend to make a cup of tea before, during, and after a writing session.  I try to clear a space for myself (remember the junk attic office and the blue sofa), a hot drink, a cold drink (because I’m mercurial), and maybe a snack.  And off I go.

What is your idea of earthly happiness?

Earthly happiness is being somewhere beautiful with people I enjoy, learning or doing something exciting and new, with a good meal and a great book thrown into the mix.

What is the best concert you’ve ever been to?

U2, second row center the Joshua Tree tour when I was in high school.  That, a klezmer band at an orthodox Jewish wedding for a friend.  That was awesome.

What are you currently working on?

I’m diving back into historical fiction with a romance.  Oooooo, a rooomance.  Yeah, I’ve not done this before, but that’s kind of what I do—stuff I haven’t done.  I hope to make you swoon, to break hearts, inspire tears, and smiles you can’t fight down.

Thanks, Sherri!

Get your copy of Pasadena!