Welcome to TMR, Naomi! Tell us about yourself.

I'm from New York, but live in Montclair, New Jersey now. However my novel is set in Brooklyn, as is the next, first in a series. I have a varied educational background, a child of the sixties who went to three, count em, three colleges: Wellesley, Wisconsin and CCNY. Then got my MFA at Columbia and a Ph.D. from CUNY in 20th Century American Literature. I have two sons, one a teen, and one in elementary school and live with my husband, a dog and a cat in a rambling Victorian.

Are you coming to mystery writing from another job?

I was a college professor for over twenty years. But now I make a living doing freelance journalism and of course, publishing this mystery series.

What led you to write mysteries?

I have read mysteries voraciously for years, of course, when I was in graduate school we were only allowed to read dead writers, so now I'm making up for lost time.

Tell us about your road to publication.

My road to publication was, well, endless. I originally wrote "literary" novels, in other words, novels that were character driven and without strong plots. I was the original midlist author, and when I was thirty, which was eons ago, it looked like I was going to get my third novel published, but that didn't happen and then I struggled and wrote, and struggled and wrote, and went through many agents, most of them very supportive, until I wrote this book, got my agent of record, Flip Brophy to represent it, and well, the rest is history. I am the original, keep going until something good finally happens. PS: I had stories published in the interim in literary journals, and eventually won a grant in fiction from the New Jersey Council of the Arts.

What kind of research was involved for your first book?

Not a lot. I grew up in New York . . . and read plenty of true crime, and have a family of lawyers.

Who are your influences as a writer?

There are writers I truly admire, as for influences, well, Robert Stone, Richard Price and Elmore Leonard. Strange, considering my book is very much from a woman's point of view.

What does your family think of having a mystery author in their midst?

My family is grateful I'm doing what I want to do, and finally getting paid for it. It's a big weight off everyone's shoulders.

Tell us about plans for future books.

My next book is due to go to the publisher at the end of December. It focuses on the murder of an abortion activist.

How can readers get in touch with you?

I have a website: www.naomirand.com

Naomi, thank you for joining us! Readers, we have a review of The One That Got Away here at The Mystery Reader site.

October 21, 2001