Connie Berry

In this episode, Linda Hengerer is talking with Connie Berry. Connie Berry is the author of the Kate Hamilton Mysteries, set in the UK and featuring an American antiques dealer with a gift for solving crimes. Like her protagonist, Connie was raised by antiques dealers who instilled in her a passion for history, fine art, and travel. During college she studied at the University of Freiburg in Germany and St. Clare's College, Oxford, where she fell under the spell of the British Isles. Besides reading and writing mysteries, Connie loves history, foreign travel, cute animals, and all things British. She lives in Ohio with her husband and adorable Shih Tzu, Emmie.

Visit Connie's website for information about her books: connieberry.com
Buy her new book, The Art of Betrayal, and sign up for her newsletter.

Get to know Connie - The Tart Words Baker's Dozen:

1.   Plotter or Pantser? Combo?

I’m a Plotser. I know where I’m going but not always how I’ll get there.

2.   Tea or Coffee?

COFFEE FIRST! (Sorry--I was shouting). Then a nice cup of tea.

3.   Beer, Wine, or Cocktails?

Wine--cabernet or pinot noir. Sometimes a pretty cocktail, although they’re full of calories. I’m trying to shed the COVID Ten.

4.   Snacks: Sweet or Savory?

Savory. Salty.

5.   Indie Published, Traditionally Published, or Hybrid?

Traditionally published.

6.   Strict Writing Schedule: Yes or No

I wish! That’s something I’d like to develop one day when I have time to think about it.

7.    Strictly Computer or Mix It Up?

Mostly computer, although I write scene ideas in pencil first.

8.    Daily Goal: Yes or No

Not really. I write in scenes and try to stop for the day at the end of a scene. Doesn’t always work out.

9.    Formal Track Progress: Yes or no

Yes! I’ve developed a complicated chart with columns for chapter, scene, date, location, characters involved, a brief synopsis, pages in scene, and pages in the whole chapter. I’m not sure I could keep track of my plot without it.

10.  Special Writing Spot?

I love to write while looking out over water, which usually means our cottage in northern Wisconsin. At home I write looking at a wall. I should hang one of those photo displayers on the water with photographs of water.

11.   Writer’s Block?

No, but I often have Writer’s Procrastination. Writer’s Block goes away when you start writing.

12.   File of Ideas: Yes or No

Not really, although when I begin a new book, I jot down all my ideas and then look for connections between them.

13.   Favorite Author(s)?

I’ll name the ones that come to mind: Elly Griffiths, Tana French, Charles Todd, Laurie R. King, Anthony Horowitz, Jodi Taylor, Christopher Fowler, Susan Hill, all the Golden Agers--especially Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Cyril Hare. As you can see, I read mostly mysteries set in the UK, which is also what I write. As Agatha said, “There’s something about an English village.”