Saturday, July 2, 2011

Bernadette Pajer

Bernadette Pajer is the author of the Professor Bradshaw Mysteries which debuts with A Spark of Death.

Last month I asked her what she was reading. Her reply:
Currently, two books are on my nightstand. The first, Dorothy L. Sayers' Whose Body? I'm rereading because, well, it's Sayers! When I'm deep into my own writing, I find the only stories my crowded brain will let in are my old favorites. Lord Peter Wimsey never fails to entertain. The personalities jump off the page ; you can hear the characters clearly. And the plots are entertaining and clever and don't require a lot of thinking on my part. After a day of writing or editing, I usually have no little gray cells left for pondering anything deep.

The second book I've just begun reading is Vlad, The Last Confession, by C. C. Humphreys. This is historical fiction based on the life of the real man we know as Dracula. I don't usually read books that are potentially dark and gruesome, but I heard Humphreys speak about how he came to write the book (a funny story involving his editor, a fancy restaurant, and too much alcohol), and about his writing process. So much of what he said matched my own approach to writing, like trusting the reader's imagination and describing characters minimally, I'm looking forward to seeing how his writing and this story unfolds.
Learn more about the book and author at Bernadette Pajer's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Spark of Death.

--Marshal Zeringue