This week’s CFBA featured tour is Snitch, book two of the Occupational Hazards series, by Rene Gutteridge. She is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors with her humorous, intelligent writing. There are lines from this book and the first in the series, Scoop, that still crack me up when I think of them! Scoop was my top book for 2006, so I was anticipating a great read with Snitch. I wasn’t disappointed.
I’ll post my review tomorrow. Rene was gracious enough to answer a few more questions for me (she also did an interview for the Scoop book tour). Without further ado, here’s the author!
1. This has been a busy 12 months for you considering the release of Scoop, The Ultimate Gift and Snitch. How has it been keeping up with things?
This was definitely one of my busiest writing seasons. Three books in one year is challenging, but I’m proud of all the projects and I’m glad I was able to do them. However, after all that, it does take some time to decompress.
2. The police details in Snitch have authenticity to them, telling me you did your homework. How do you go about researching for a novel? What type of people do you interview?
I’ve done a tone of research for each of the Occupational Hazards books, more than any other books I’ve ever written. For Snitch, I flew out to Las Vegas and met with an undercover officer who was willing to take the time to give me a complete picture of what the life is like. I wanted insight into everything, and I wanted to depict it more like real life rather than television. Then of course I add my quirkiness to it, but that’s a whole other story! I also flew to Atlanta to research Skid. I have several technical advisors for each of these projects. For Snitch, I interviewed undercover officers and patrol officers.
3. Can you describe your writing process (daily routine, revision, plotting, etc)?
I write about three hours a day, then do e-mails, interviews, etc. for the rest of the work day, so I spend about five hours a day total. If I’m plotting and forming a story from scratch, I rarely work out of my home office. I’ll go to Starbucks or drive around the city or something. But if I’m writing, I usually always do it from my home office. I don’t like typing on a laptop keyboard. I’m trying to get away from working on the weekends. Sometimes I just don’t know how to stop working.
4. What is next for the Occupational Hazards series? How many books do you plan for this series?
Skid is the next one. So there are for sure going to be three. Beyond that I don’t know. There is a potential for seven.
5. I’m reading a series of books (not yours!) that are getting a little stale (I’m on book 3 of 4). You’ve written both series and stand alone. In your opinion, which kind is harder to write? Any advice for avoiding that staleness?
Series are definitely harder for me. That’s why I created The Occupational Hazards books the way I did, so each one stands alone and has its own cast. I really like writing stand alones more, but everyone loved the Boo characters so much, so we decided to stretch that into a series, and I’m glad we did. It really worked out well. Boo Humbug will be coming out this Fall.
6. What is your opinion on the state of Christian publishing currently?
I think we’re in a really good season. A lot of exciting things are happening. I believe that we’re going to have to make some hard choices, but I think the right people are in place to make those. The Christian novelists that are working today are very in tune with the critical issues, as are the publishing houses and the bookstores. So together, I believe we’ll continue to go down a healthy, exciting and productive path.