Author Angela Henry takes time from her writing to answer a few questions. She is the creator of the Kendra Clayton mystery series and her fourth installment, Schooled In Lies has just been published (Dec. 2009). In addition to writing, Ms. Henry is the founder of the award-winning MystNoir website, which promotes African-American mystery writers, and was named a “Hot Site” by USA Today. Readers can visit Angela at her website and blog. She lives in Ohio, where she is currently at work creating her next world of words.
Tell us a bit about Schooled In Lies.
Schooled In Lies is the 4th book in my Kendra Clayton mystery series. The story revolves around Kendra, getting roped into serving on her high school’s reunion committee with murderous — and humorous — results.
How do you come up with the names of your characters? It almost seems as though, as an author, you have the continuous fun of naming children!
Names of main characters usually come to me pretty easily. It’s the names of secondary characters that can be hard to come up with. For those I use a random name generator that I found online.
What do you want readers to take away from reading Schooled In Lies?
The past always has a way of coming back to get you.
What was the most fun about writing Schooled In Lies?
Drawing on my own high school memories.
What was the hardest part about writing Schooled In Lies?
Drawing on my own high school memories. Some of those memories weren’t so fond.
Could you tell us about your writing process?
When I get an idea for a story, I do an extensive plot and chapter outline that serves as my blueprint. Once I get started actually writing the book, I aim for no less than 1,000 per day. I’m very strict about maintaining that word count because I don’t want to have to make it up the next day.
Do you have any particular habits that you take part in while writing? By that I mean certain music you like to listen to, foods you like to eat, environment that helps you write better, etc.
Well, I know a lot of people like to listen to music while they write. But I find music too distracting. I love to write surrounded by books. The majority of my books are written in libraries.
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