It was the end of the library's "Novello: festival of reading" and I worked as a volunteer, ushering the first night and helping to man the wine bar on the second. The first night consisted of an author talk with questions from the audience and book signings. The second night was a clued-filled mystery program with food, drink and music--Chicago themed.
I enjoyed the events and was glad I had attended. And I was able to speak Ms. Paretsky the second evening. Looking fashionably stylish in her black hat, here's a pix of Ms. Paretsky with the volunteer I worked with when pouring drinks at the mystery-dinner event (a new professional in Charlotte, she said just call her by her nickname "Kiki").
Now, the first evening when she spoke (and I ushered), I jotted down a few notes while sitting in the back. They included the following:
* as a youngster, girl detective Nancy Drew didn't appeal to her (particularly with "no siblings and domestic responsibilities")
* she moved to New York City to become a writer at 23 but later moved to Chicago to work as a secretary ("Chicago became the city that shaped my voice and view of the world.")
* as a devoted reader of crime novels, she became determined to write a private eye novel but that was only a dream for her for a eight-year period (afterwards, "V.I. Warshawski" was created)
* Paretsky wanted to create a female private eye who didn't fit the role of the standard role of women in noir fiction (i.e. victim or temptress)
* writing a story set in Chicago was a hard sell years ago
* "Fiction gives us the heroes we wish we could be."
Paretsky's newest "V.I. Warshawski novel" is entitled Hardball and is in the editors hands after several drafts, she said. Her website has an excerpt.
And she posts to a blog supported by Chicago six other crime writers called "The Outfit." She also read from her most recent blog post in the author talk "What happens to the novel in the Age of Fragmentation?"
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