Please provide a brief overview of your upcoming book, Impostor’s Lure, setting and storyline including background of series.
Impostor’s Lure draws FBI agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan into the search for a missing federal prosecutor. Nothing is ever simple with these two! They meet in Saint’s Gate, the first book in the series. Emma is an art crimes expert and Colin is a deep-cover agent. They grew up just a few miles from each other in southern Maine but don’t know it until a nun is murdered at Emma’s former convent, not far from her childhood home. Her grandfather is a renowned private art detective. Colin’s family are cops and lobstermen. Their relationship is at the heart of the series, but so are their families and friends, including an English art thief (who plays a role in Impostor’s Lure). It’s a whirlwind of a series but readers can dive in with Impostor’s Lure!
Is there one character in the series which you would are particularly attached to?
I’m attached to all the characters in different ways, but I have a real soft spot for Finian Bracken. I never know what he has in store — he gets into a bit of trouble with his FBI friends in Thief’s Mark, last year’s Sharpe & Donovan novel now out in paperback. He’s Irish, serving a small, struggling church in Colin’s hometown in Maine, and he came to the priesthood by an unusual path after his wife and two young daughters died in a sailing mishap. I’ve heard from many readers who are as intrigued by Finian as I am.
Is it difficult to write a running series? How do you keep track of character and storyline facts from book one to book eight?
I love diving into the Sharpe & Donovan world. Not only do Emma and Colin belong to a small, elite FBI unit based in Boston, they have family and friends who don’t exactly lead quiet lives. I never lack for ideas! I keep track of details as best I can with a series “bible” in Evernote. I try not to mess up but I’m sure I do!
The release of book eight begs the question do you have plans to write a book 9? If so where to next?
I’m writing Rival’s Break now. Emma and Colin are in Maine for his brother’s wedding when all hell breaks loose. That’s about as much as I can say right now since the story’s still fluid. So far, so good.
How do you come up with your storyline ideas and characters?
They find me is probably the best way to put it. They’re rarely fully formed and some characters aren’t cooperative (ahem!), but we work it out. I’m being slightly mysterious, I know, but I don’t have a specific process I follow. With Impostor’s Lure, I could “see” Emma and Colin meeting the prosecutor’s daughter and dealing with her conflicted feelings about her missing mother. At first I thought the prosecutor might be dead, but she wasn’t. She kind of tapped me on the shoulder and let me know!
Do you have a preferred environment to do your writing?
I love my office with its view of a big old sugar maple, and that’s where I do most of my writing. But I also love, love, love to write in little hideaways in Ireland. Three weeks in a tiny cottage on the southwest Irish coast with no car, a pub in walking distance and rainbows…what’s not to like?
Do your characters speak to you and sometimes take you to unexpected places?
Definitely! Without saying too much, that happened with Impostor’s Lure in big, dramatic fashion. I didn’t see it coming.
Who are your favorite authors? Who did you read as a child?
I have so many favorite authors, including friends! I’m reading Tear Me Apart by JT Ellison (I got my hands on an early copy), and it’s fantastic. As a child, I read everything I could lay my hands on. I’d take a stack of books out of the library and see what I liked. I discovered Mary Stewart, Agatha Christie and so many others through my library. I’d also sneak into my older brothers room and read his comics (Hulk!), and he introduced me to Raymond Chandler, Alistair MacLean and Robert Ludlum. Rex Stout is another favorite. I could go on and on…
How did you get started in your writing? How long did it take you to get started in writing?
I started writing at around age eleven. I’d climb a tree with paper and pen, sit on my favorite branch and spin stories. I also read up there! I finally submitted my first manuscript after college, and it eventually sold. I got the rights back and I’ve recently reissued it. It’s called The Venus Shoe. It was originally published by Avon Books for a romantic suspense imprint. It took about a year for my agent to sell my first books, but she never lost confidence in me. Those were exciting days!
Finally, is there anything you would like to tell the readers about you, your books, or future plans?
Please stay in touch! I love to interact with readers on social media and through my monthly newsletter. All the links and such are on my website, CarlaNeggers.com. I’ve been blogging more, too. Ever a work-in-progress but I have fun. I’m always writing but I love to travel, too. Joe (my husband) and I are planning a walking trip with his brother and sister and their spouses to…well, we’re not sure yet. Somewhere in Scotland, England or Ireland. They live in San Diego and Chattanooga and we live in Vermont, so we don’t get together nearly often enough. I’m a runner—I’ve completed three half-marathons this past year—but there’s nothing like a good walk. I’ve come up with many story ideas while walking.
Thanks so much for the great questions! A pleasure to “chat” with you. – Carla Neggers
1 COMMENT
Carole Raff
6 years agoI love Carla Baggers books. Her characters are so interesting. I wait impatiently for each new arrival!