After read­ing “Sut­ton Place” I was pleas­antly sur­prised to have the oppor­tu­nity to get a lit­tle deeper into the mind of the author.  For your plea­sure, here is the author inter­view with Louise Gay­lord.
What will fans of “Julia Fairchild” like about your newest book, “Sut­ton Place?”
“Sut­ton Place” is the pre­quel to “Julia Fairchild”. The reader learns in detail about the inci­dents
that drove Julia from New York to New Mexico.

Three months serv­ing on a grand jury panel inspired your Allie Arm­ing­ton mys­tery series. How
did you come up with Julia’s char­ac­ter?
Julia just “grew like Topsy” in my mind. She’s a com­pos­ite of all the strong women I have
known.

Lies, fam­ily secrets, obses­sions – will Julia ever catch a break?
She catches her break in “Julia Fairchild”.

Your mys­tery nov­els are known for hav­ing very unex­pected twists and sur­prise end­ings. How do
you keep read­ers on their toes?
I don’t out­line so some­times I even sur­prise myself! I really write to amuse myself. One of my
writ­ing instruc­tors said I should have fun when writ­ing. I have a friend who writes a chap­ter here and
then a chap­ter there. I can’t do that. I have to write in a lin­ear fashion.

As a suc­cess­ful, award-winning mys­tery writer, you stepped out of the genre to work on a few
other books, includ­ing Recipes from Camp Tril­lium. What’s your favorite dish to stir up in the
kitchen?
Grandma Betsy’s Chicken. My mother put Lawry’s sea­son­ing and Worch­ester sauce on
every­thing. This made a nice, sim­ple one-dish meal to serve all. To make it, you just need chicken,
Worces­ter­shire sauce and Lawry’s® Sea­soned Salt. Then add any veg­etable of your choice. Cut up
pota­toes, mush­rooms, onions or red bell pep­pers, car­rots, almost any­thing except greens. Pre­heat your
oven to 425 degrees. Quar­ter the chicken or cut it into single-serving pieces. Place the chicken skin side
up in an alu­minum foil-lined pan. Throw the veg­eta­bles all around it. Douse it with Worces­ter­shire
sauce and sprin­kle with sea­soned salt. Bake that for 25 to 40 min­utes, or until the juices run clear.

You stud­ied art his­tory in col­lege after your grade-school teach­ers encour­aged you to do
some­thing with your paint­ing skills. How has paint­ing helped you write?
I’m a very visual per­son. So I can imag­ine a scene as if I’m paint­ing it and por­tray that in words
on page. A lot of peo­ple who write also paint. I noticed though that I never had a prob­lem drop­ping the
paint­brush to go play ten­nis or golf. But once I started writ­ing I couldn’t leave my com­puter.

You’re churn­ing out books left and right. What are you work­ing on now?
An Allie Arm­ing­ton Mys­tery. The work­ing title is: “A Cruise to Die For.” Stay tuned!

Don’t for­get to check out my review of “Sut­ton Place”!

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