Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest, Mark Pryor. Mark is the author of TheBookseller: The First Hugo Marston Novel, the true-crimebook As She Lay Sleeping and The French Widow.

A former newspaperreporter from England and now an assistant district attorney with theTravis County District Attorney's Office, in Austin, Texas, he is thecreator of the true-crime blog DAConfidential. 

He has appeared on CBSNews's 48 Hours and Discovery Channel's DiscoveryID: Cold Blood. 

Norm: Good day Mark andthanks for participating in our interview.

How did you get startedin writing mystery novels and what keeps you going?

Mark: Thanks for havingme! As a child I was an avid reader and mysteries were my favorite –Agatha Christie, Hardy Boys, and my very favorites, the SherlockHolmes stories. I always wanted to be a writer, so it made sense thatI’d write mysteries. I started a little later in life than some,but better late than never!

Norm: How do you dealwith criticism? 

Mark: Fortunately, everyword I write is perfection so I don’t really encounter criticism….Obviously kidding – I try not to read reviews, to be honest – thebook is already out in the world at that point and there’s nothingI can do to change it, so why subject myself to that? I also remindmyself that even Shakespeare gets bad reviews from readers, not everyreader will like every book and that’s OK. My favorite book in theworld, Catch 22, has more than 25,000 one-star reviews on Goodreads.

Norm; How many times inyour writing career have you experienced rejection? How did theyshape you? 

Mark:  Like mostwriters I’ve had my fair share. I wrote three complete novelsbefore The Bookseller was published, and each of those threebooks was rejected by about 70 agents (and quite rightly, I suspect).I think they pushed me to be better – certainly: by having to writea new book each time I ran out of agents to approach, the practicemade me better.

Norm: Where/How do yourecommend mystery writers try to break into the market?  

Mark: All I can reallyrecommend is that you take the time to write the best book you can.Find a writing group that will give you honest feedback and listen tothem. It’s important to have people cheering for you unreservedlybut I think writers also need people who can be more objectivecritics. I also recommend attending events and conferences. Get toknow other writers, meet agents. Obviously that’s not possible inperson right now, but I would definitely advise trying to do so oncethis danged virus departs.

Norm: Do you ever dreamabout your characters?

Mark:  I haven’tyet, which is surprising because I have very vivid (and weird) dreamscovering a multitude of subjects. Maybe that’s to come…

Norm: What has beenyour greatest challenge (professionally) that you’ve overcome ingetting to where you’re at today? 

Mark: Finding a balance,finding the time to write while being a dad, a husband, and whilehaving a full-time job. It’s hard sometimes to make myself switchon the computer and write a few hundred words, just because I have alot of things pulling me in other directions. That said, I’m luckyin that once I get going, I write pretty quickly.

Norm: Many people havethe skills and drive to write a book, but failure to market and sellthe book the right way is probably what keep a lot of people fromfinding success. Can you give us 2-3 strategies that have beeneffective for you in promoting your book? 

Mark: This is themillion-dollar question, just because I don’t know which strategieshave been the effective ones! But I’ll lay out a few things that Ido, in case it helps. First, I make myself available – to bookstores, reading groups, other social groups. If someone wants me tomake an appearance I do it. Second, I am not pushy about selling mybooks, but I am a little pushy about promoting other people’s work.I truly believe that by lifting up others our own boats rise, thoughI would fail if asked to describe precisely how that works! Third,and I think this has probably benefited me most, is that there’snot much of a time gap between my books. That means if a reader likesa Hugo story, he or she doesn’t have to wait three years for thenext one, there’s momentum and always a new book just over thehorizon.

Norm: In your opinion,what is the most difficult part of the writing process? 

Mark: The waiting. Waitingto hear back from agents, from editors, from cover artists. Waitingfor the royalty statement, for the release date, for the firstindustry review. So. Much. Waiting.

Norm:  Does yourwriting career ever conflict with your career as an attorney?  

Mark: Only in the sensethat both take up a lot of time. In fact, I’d say it’s morehelpful than not -- as a prosecutor I’m pretty well versed in theprocess of solving a murder—how a crime scene is worked, how longthings take to happen and in what order they’re carried out.

Norm: Please tell usabout your latest novel, The French Widow?

Mark: The book is set, asI like to do, in a different part of Paris from the others. Most ofthe story takes place in a large house on the edge of Parc Monceau,near the center of the city. The house is owned by a dysfunctional,mistrustful, and thoroughly suspicious family. One night, an Americangirl who works there is attacked, so Hugo is assisting the police intheir attempts to solve the crime. There’s a second story line,too, in which Hugo is thrust into the public spotlight (which hehates) and portrayed by some as a hero, and by others as a villain.

Norm: How much of thenovel is realistic?  

Mark:  The house ismy mental recreation of the Musee Nissim de Camondo, a real housebeside Parc Monceau. It’s not well known as a tourist destinationbut is a wonderfully preserved chateau with a fascinating familystory behind it (some of which I may have pilfered for the book!).

Norm: What was the mostdifficult part of writing The French Widow?

Mark: As with the otherbooks, it’s finding time to focus on it. Nowadays, of course,that’s less of an issue…!

Norm;  Where doyou get your information or ideas for the novel?

Mark:  This was justa chance visit to a museum that sparked the idea. I wanted to use thehouse, its history, and ladle in one of my most popular themes: thathistory is never really left in the past, the ghosts of your baddeeds will always come back to haunt you.

Norm: Did you write thenovel more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two?Please summarize your writing process. 

Mark: I write every bookthe same way: I figure out who is killed, who killed them, and why.Then I find a setting for the murder(s) and just sit down to write. Idon’t plot carefully in advance, but I do keep a notebook of ideasand I keep track, just a sentence or two, of what happens in eachchapter for easy reference.

Norm: Where can ourreaders find out more about you and The French Widow?

Mark: They can follow meon Twitter  on Facebook and I have a WEBSITE:

I’m also easy to find on Goodreads andBookBub.

Norm: What projects areyou working on at the present? 

Mark: I’ve recentlyfinished a historical mystery, set in Paris (of course!) during thestart of World War 2. I’m hoping it will become a series, and amalready working on book two.

Norm: As this interviewcomes to an end, what advice can you give aspiring writers that youwished you had received, or that you wished you would have listenedto?  

Mark: A couple of things,I think. First, study and learn the craft of writing. When I thinkback at my first books I was flummoxed by why no agents were offeringto rep me. The concepts were solid, for sure, but I was slow torecognize that my writing wasn’t good enough. Second, and maybethis relates to the first, be patient. So often I see new authors getfive or six agent rejections, and then dash off to self-publish andthen wonder why their book disappears into obscurity. My advice is torecognize that publication takes a while, and while you’re waitingfor that to happen, work on your next book.

Norm: Thanks once againand good luck with all of your future endeavors