Author Meeting Place Interviews Author Holli Castillo of New Orleans, LA USA
Bio: I am a former New Orleans prosecutor and current Louisiana appellate public defender. I have a JD from Loyola University in New Orleans, and a BA in Drama from the University of New Orleans. I worked my way through undergrad as a Can Can girl at the now defunct Can Can Cabaret in the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street, (not as bad as it sounds, family show, no nudity), and attended law school at night while working days at the District Attorney's Office as an Interstate collector in the Child Support Enforcement Division.
How many book/s have you written? 1
Please share with us your book titles: Gumbo Justice
What genre/s would you like to write in? Fiction- mystery/thriller
Please share with us who or what encourages you to write and why? My imagination encourages me to write more than anything. I think of stories and scenes all day long, no matter what I'm doing, and try to find a way to incorporate them into something I'm working on. My family is very encouraging, especially my husband, who annoys me to no end to include him in my books. (The character of Big Who in Gumbo Justice is based on him.) My children also encourage me to write, and both are excellent writers themselves, at 7 and 10 years old. My 10-year-old won a fiction writing contest at her school last year in fourth grade and my 7-year-old has a book planned for me and her to write together.
How long did it take for you to write your book/s? 4 years
How long did it take for you to publish your book/s? 3 years
Who did you publish with and why? Oak Tree Press. I really like Billie Johnson at Oak Tree and feel like she gets my warped sense of humor. I had an agent looking at my novel at one point, and then Katrina hit New Orleans, where I live, and the novel was put on the back burner. Eventually, the agent decided not to take on any new clients because of her health issues. Then Billie contacted me off of a query. She read the novel and offered me a contract, but before it could be published I was involved in a near-fatal head-on collision with a drunk driver and was immobile for six months, so the publication got pushed back. I am up and around now, on a cane, just in time for my book's release. I am glad I went with Oak Tree because Billie was quite accommodating with the length of time it took me to recover.
Please share with us how you prefer to market your book/s? I prefer to market on the internet, through blogging and joining author sites and getting people I know interested through Facebook and MySpace. Mostly this is because I am still not all the way mobile, still hobbling and not driving yet. I would like to do more personal marketing, but it is difficult at this particular moment.
Please share with us any event/s that you have planned in marketing your book/s: I am in the process of planning a book launch party at my bar just outside New Orleans, and we'll see where it goes from there. I also have a few interviews coming out on author sites that I hope will garner some interest.
Do you wish to share any additional information with our readers? I am working on the follow up to Gumbo Justice, it's about 1/3 of the way finished and may answer some questions posed by the first novel. I also have started the third and fourth novels, one of which will take the readers through a hurricane and show New Orleans how it has been since Katrina. Since Gumbo Justice was set in pre-Katrina New Orleans, I wanted at some point to catch up time to the present.
Email to share: hollicastillo@cox.net
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