Writing Mysteries that Sell Part I: An Interview with Cynthia Baxter
the pseudonym Cynthia Baxter. Why did you feel the need to use a different name? You always hear about authors getting frustrated because they have to write the same character over and over again. (Wasn't that why Agatha Christie got rid of Hercule Poirot?). This may be putting words in your mouth, but is it so that you're free to write something different?
I've always wondered, if you use multiple names, do you invent special signatures for each name at book signings?
CB: After having published 42 novels under my real name, Cynthia Blair, I decided to "reinvent" myself. I was writing in a brand new genre, and so I wanted a new persona. Another consideration was the fact that my young adult books always did quite well, while my adult novels were never exactly best-sellers. There was sometimes confusion in bookstores, with my adult books ending up in the young adult section. I decided to start all over again, without any baggage left over from my past.
A writer friend advised me to keep my own first name, so if I'm ever at a signing or conference and someone is trying to get my attention by calling "Cynthia," I'll know they mean me! And I always use the same signature. In fact, on occasion I've signed "Cynthia Blair," my real name, and underneath it, end up writing "Cynthia Baxter" - pretending I did it on purpose!
DC: The number one mantra these days for an aspiring writer, if you want to get published, is that you have to have an agent. Do you have an agent and how did you find him or her? I've been told that publishers like series. Your books are part of a series called the Reigning Cats and Dogs mysteries. Did you pitch the idea of a series to the agent or did you just submit one book? When you wrote the first novel DEAD CANARIES DON'T SING, did you have a series in mind?
CB: I do have an agent, and I agree that it's pretty much necessary. This is what people in publishing tell me, and they seem to feel pretty strongly about it. My agent, Faith Hamlin, is with the same agency I started with back in the early 1980's. I started writing at a time when it was a little easier than it is today. I already had a bit of an "in" when I started
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