Description
Midwest Book Review "A rollicking good mystery!"-Lori L. Lake, authorSacredGround.com" Holy Hell offers readers a rare combination of a good mystery plot with solid writing, whole characters and dialogue that doesn't sound like it's been wrenched out of a bad made-for-TV movie. There's a wonderful irreverence to Sims's Lillian Byrd and a bizarre realism to the individuals she encounters."-Joy ParksRainbowNetwork.com"A real page-turner."-Charlotte CooperBookDyke / TechnoDyke.com" Holy Hell is the debut of a new wisecracking sleuth by the name of Lillian Byrd, and after reading it, I am certainly looking forward to watching the evolution of this character in future books by author Elizabeth Sims."-Nicole Blizzard"I flat out loved this book."-Sheryl LeSageLibertyPress.net (Kansas) Enjoy this interview of Elizabeth discussing HOLY HELL. xa0 Q: You can only be a first novelist once. What made you take the leap and start writing?xa0 A: All my life I'd wanted to be a novelist, but I kept trying to avoid it. I tried to work it off on other things: I wrote for a local newspaper, I wrote technical manuals for a machine company, I wrote training videos for a bank, I wrote press releases for a bedwetting clinic, I wrote little poems and stories for little magazines, I wrote book reviews, I enrolled in graduate school and wrote papers about novels, I got a job in a book shop and sold novels written by other people. I really tried to avoid writing a novel.xa0 Q: Then what happened?xa0 A: I finally thought, OK, I won't write a real novel, I'll just write a sleazy little short lesbian crime story with lots of sex, wait, no, I'll write a dozen of them, and they'll sell like mad, and I'll be able to quit this job in the book shop, and I won't have to write a real novel. So Holy Hell started out as a cold-blooded, exploitative exercise. But a funny thing happened: the more I worked on it, the more fun I had with it, the more respect I began to have for the process--and for myself. I'm delighted with the result.xa0 xa0 Q: You mentioned having been a reporter. Your main character, Lillian Byrd, is also a reporter. Did you base her on yourself, and were there events you covered that suggested the plot for Holy Hell ?xa0 A: Lillian possesses an amalgamation of traits I know I have, traits I wish I didn't have, and traits I'd like to have.xa0 Q: Like what?xa0 A: She's a bit impulsive--which I can be. She's good at messing up. I think people who know me know that even though I'm supposedly smart, I can mess up terribly. Lillian makes bad decisions, but she's principled, she always tries to do the right thing. She's unsure of herself, yet forges ahead in spite of it. And she's tenacious. You know, being a journalist, even in axa0small-time situation, you get a window into all the little lies and vanities people allow themselves. And, you see the small heroic acts that happen every day, the moments of integrity and kindness that make life bearable. Lillian is an observer of these things. "In the wisecracking tradition of Janet Evanovich, Elizabeth Sims brings us a delightfully down-to-earth character in Lillian Byrd, a woman who refuses to take herself too seriously, even in the face of serious threats of grievous bodily harm. Sims's tight plot, delicious irony, crisp dialogue, and colorful cast of 'real' people make Holy Hell not only an impressive first novel, but an honest-to-God page-turner. It's a blend of the absurd and the macabre, guaranteeed to keep you up reading into the wee hours of the morning."--Lauren Maddison, author of Deceptions and Witchfire Elizabeth Sims learned the art of fiction by listening to tall tales on her father's knee, and by reading all sorts of books brought home by her mother, a teacher. (These ranged from Grimm's Fairy Tales to the Canterbury Tales, from Laura Ingalls Wilder to Ernest Hemingway.) xa0 Today Elizabeth is the author of the Rita Farmer Mysteries and the Lambda and GCLS Goldie Award-winning Lillian Byrd Crime Series. She's been published by a major press (Macmillan) as well as several smaller houses, and she's written short works for numerous publications. xa0 In addition, Elizabeth is an internationally recognized authority on writing. She writes frequently for Writer's Digest magazine, where she's a contributing editor. Through her articles, coaching, and editing, she has helped thousands of fledgling authors find their wings. xa0 Are you a writer too, or would you like to be one? You might find inspiration in her book, You've Got a Book in You: A Stress-Free Guide to Writing the Book of Your Dreams (Writer's Digest Books). This lively, practical book has been specially recognized by NaNoWriMo and hundreds of other web sites and bloggers. xa0 Elizabeth earned degrees in English from Michigan State University and Wayne State University, where she won the Tompkins Award for graduate fiction. She's worked as a reporter, photographer, technical writer, bookseller, street busker, ranch hand, corporate executive, certified lifeguard, and symphonic percussionist. She is represented by the Donald Maass Literary Agency. Elizabeth belongs to several literary societies as well as American Mensa. Read more
Features & Highlights
- Lillian Byrd is a small-time reporter with a flair for making big-time mistakes--so her investigation into the disappearances of women around the Detroit area might not be the best idea. But when one of the victims turns up dead and Lillian recognizes the curiously mutilated corpse, she is in too deep to get out. After simultaneously blowing the case for the police and revealing herself to the killers, she is completely on her own. Can she catch the murderers before they catch up with her?
