An Interview with Denise

By Robyn Glazer

Robyn Glazer: Did you enjoy writing a book so different from your previous work?

Denise Dietz: Yes. I really did. However, readers have told me my "voice" sounds the same. In other words, it's still a "Deni-book" and there's a ton of humor.

Robyn Glazer: Who was the most fun to write in Fifty Cents for your soul?

Denise Dietz: I could get away easy and say the heroine, Frannie Rosen, inspired by my sister, Eileen Dietz, who played many of the possession scenes in The Exorcist. But, truthfully, it was the sleazy Victor Madison. He's so multi-faceted. And I liked writing about Peggy. Oh, and Frannie's mother, even though we only meet her via phone calls.

Robyn Glazer: Do you think it is possible to turn Fifty Cents for your soul into a series? If so, would you want to?

Denise Dietz: Anything is possible. Frannie's a young actress and I could guide her career <g>. However, I truly think Fifty Cents for Your Soul is the quintessential stand-alone. In any case, I've promised my readers another "diet club mystery" and a sequel to Footprints in the Butter - an Ingrid Beaumont Mystery co-starring Hitchcock the Dog.

Robyn Glazer: Do you prefer to write a series or stand alones? What are the positive and negative aspects for each?

Denise Dietz: I love writing series. But every once in a while I need to take a break (which is why I also write historical romance and short anthology fiction). I admire Sue Grafton and other authors, who can keep a series character going and going...like the Energizer Bunny...and still keep them fresh.

Robyn Glazer: I loved the doppleganger aspect. Did you have to do a lot of research on the subject and what made you choose dopplegangers?

Denise Dietz: I did lots of research, but I also seem to have a "natural ESP." For example, I walked into a Cripple Creek (Colorado) casino and immediately said, "Okay, tell me about the ghost." There WAS a ghost, a little girl who'd become lost during the 1895 fire and was searching for her parents. One reason I chose to use a doppelganger was because, like Frannie, I had a cousin who used to tell me about them -- and scare me to death. Doppelgangers are ghostly counterparts of living persons and many "true cases" have been documented, i.e. Catherine of Russia saw her own doppelganger and ordered her guards to fire their guns at it.

Robyn Glazer: What are you working on now?

Denise Dietz: I'm working on the third book in the diet club series, Tie a Lambchop to the Bed. But I'm also doing a final polish on my next mystery, another woo woo called Eye of Newt. This will be the first book in my third series, and I've combined my love for mystery and history. Eye of Newt takes place in present-day Colorado and 1692 Salem, and stars two witches -- Sydney St. Charles and Chastity Barker. The second book in the series will star Sydney and a brand new historical sleuth (and time period). Although I (along with my readers) will have to solve two mysteries in one book, I'm very, very excited about the concept.