Greg Messel has spent most of his
adult life interested in writing, including a career in the newspaper business.
He won a Wyoming Press Association Award as a columnist and has contributed
articles to various magazines. Greg lives in Edmonds, Washington on Puget Sound with his wife Jean DeFond.
Greg has written nine novels. His latest
is “Cable
Car Mystery" which is the sixth in a series of mysteries set in 1959 San Francisco. “Shadows In The Fog,” ”Fog City Strangler,"
"San Francisco Secrets," "Deadly Plunge" are sequels to the
first book in the series "Last of the Seals." His other three novels
are "Sunbreaks," "Expiation" and "The Illusion of
Certainty."
For
More Information
·
Visit Greg Messel’s website.
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Find out more about Greg at Goodreads.
On the hottest day of the year in San
Francisco in 1959, Private Detectives Sam and Amelia
Slater are contemplating fleeing the city for their Stinson
Beach house. However, when Sam
decides to take a cable car ride to run some errands on the lazy summer day,
he’s suddenly thrust into the spotlight when he rescues a woman who fell onto
the busy street. Sam pulls the mysterious red haired woman
out of the path of
an oncoming cable car in the nick of time. The entire incident is captured by a
newspaper photographer who splashes Sam’s heroics all over the front page. Sam
is troubled not only by his new status as a city hero, but by the rescued
woman’s plea for help. She whispers to Sam that she didn’t fall from the cable
car but was pushed. She is frightened and disappears into the crowd before Sam
can get more details. A San Francisco
newspaper launches a campaign to find the mystery woman and Sam hopes to cross
paths with her again.
Meanwhile, Amelia is troubled by the sudden disappearance of
her elderly neighbor. Two thuggish younger men who now occupy the house next
door say he took a sudden trip. One night when she’s alone Amelia grabs a
flashlight and finds some disturbing clues in her neighbor’s garage. What
really happened to her neighbor? Amelia is determined to find out.
Award winning author Greg Messel spins a new tale of
intrigue in Cable Car Mystery, the sixth book in the Sam Slater Mystery
series set in at the 1950s in San Francisco.
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Thank you for this interview! I’d like to know more
about you as a person first. What do you do when you’re not writing?
I enjoy gardening and love to run outside in Edmonds,
Washington, in the Seattle
area on the Puget Sound. I love movies and try to see
one or two a week.
When did you start writing?
My writing experience had been
as a newspaperman for many years. Reporting the news is a different style than
novel writing but is very transferrable. I’ve always love mysteries or books
about people falling in love. One day I wondered if I could really make up a
fictional world with make-believe characters. I began writing my first novel
and just kept on going. I learn so much with each novel that I write. I think
my writing gets better with each book and I learn so much with each new novel.
If someone asks me which of my books they should read I always tell them to start
with one of the later ones because I think they are the best. I’m pretty proud
of my last three or four novels in particular.
As a published author, what would you say was the most
pivotal point of your writing life?
I had the chance to sign books at the Los
Angeles Festival of Books on the UCLA campus several years ago. My book was
very well received and there were several superstar writers and celebrities
there. That experience cemented my feelings that I really wanted to be an
author.
If you could go anywhere in the world to start writing your
next book, where would that be and why?
I love two write my next book sitting
in a beach house in Carmel, California.
If you had 4 hours of extra time today, what would you do?
I’m saying this sincerely, I’m not just trying to score points—but I enjoy the
company of my new wife and would love to have more time with her.
Where would you like to set a story that you haven’t done
yet?
I’ve written one book that was partially set in Seattle.
My current residence—Seattle—is a
wonderful setting. There are great atmospherics with the gray, rainy weather
and lots of water. It’s a great place.
Back to your present book, Cable Car Mystery, how did
you publish it?
It is self published. I have a publishing consultant who
assists me. He has a team that does the design, the covers, editing and
typesetting.
In writing your book, did you travel anywhere for research?
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and am very familiar with San
Francisco. I lived there in the time period of the
book even though I was just a child. However, during the writing of the Sam
Slater series I have visited the city several times. I have scouted out areas
to be used as settings in the book. In some cases I was refreshing my knowledge
of locales and history in San Francisco.
Why was writing Cable Car Mystery so important to
you?
I have more stories to tell in the series and other adventures for my well
established characters.
Where do you get your best ideas and why do you think that
is?
I get good ideas while I’m exercising. If I wake up prematurely, I lie in
bed writing my book in my head. I get good ideas but sometimes I can’t make it
stop.
Any final words?
I hope readers who love good mysteries will
try Cable Car Mystery and the other books in the series. Each book is stand
alone so jump in anywhere. I’d recommend my current book or book four “Fog City
Strangler” as a good jumping on point.
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