5 Questions with Annette Dashofy

Today I am talking with Annette Dashofy, author of the Zoe Chambers Mystery Series. She is at at I Read What You Write to talk about the latest book in the series, With a Vengeance. You can read our review of the book by clicking on the link.

About The Author:

Annette Dashofy is the USA Today best-selling author of the Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township. CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE, published by Henery Press, was a finalist for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and for the David Award for Best Mystery of 2014. LOST LEGACY, was released in September 2014 followed in April 2015 by BRIDGES BURNED, which has been nominated for the Agatha for Best Contemporary Novel. WITH A VENGEANCE, the fourth in the series, will be available May 3.

Author Links: Web / Blog / Facebook / Twitter / Henery Press

5 Questions:

To start with can you tell us a little about yourself and the project we are seeing today?

Annette- I used to work as an Emergency Medical Technician on my local ambulance service, which inspired me to create the character of Zoe Chambers, a paramedic with a fictionalized version of the service I worked for. WITH A VENGEANCE is the fourth in the series. In it, Zoe and her friends and coworkers are placed in harm’s way by someone out to kill first responders.

Lian –That would be a cool job, you could make a big difference. I bet it is a hard job though. My mom says she really enjoyed reading the book.

What advice do you have for new authors, like me?

I like to advise new writers to join a writing group. Learn your craft. Write the very best story you can. And never NEVER give up.

-Great advice. My dad has belonged to a couple of writer’s groups and he always talks about how they were.

What is the first book that you remember reading?

The absolute FIRST book I remember reading was probably The Cat in the Hat! But I’ll fast forward a couple decades and say the first book that had a huge impact on me and my writing was Mary Higgins Clark’s WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN. That’s the one that sparked my passion for mysteries and thrillers.

-I think Dr. Seuss may have been a first for a lot of people.

If you could be friends with a character in one of your stories who would it be and what kinds of things would you do together?

This is an easy one. Zoe! And we’d go horseback riding. Poor Zoe has a horse, but never seems to actually have time to ride. I don’t have a horse any longer, but love to ride. I would definitely drag her out on the trails.

-It would be sad to own a horse and have so much going on that you could never ride it. Maybe you could give her a whole book off of amateur sleuthing to catch up on her riding? But then, maybe she would get bored. 😉

If you could go on a road trip with any author, dead or alive, who would it be, and where would you go?

It may be a cheat, but I’m going to pick my author friend Martha Reed, because we’ve done a number of road trips together and always have way too much fun. As for where—Texas. She used to live there and slips into a Texas drawl at the drop of a cowboy hat! Martha? Are you reading this? Let’s go, pard!

-How fun! You don’t even have to imagine how great that would be.

Thanks so much to Annette Dashofy for picking such fun questions to answer. You can find her Zoe Chamber Mysteries at your favorite book retailers. Don’t forget to look out for With a Vengeance, due out on May 3rd.