What is a fun/unusual/unexpected fact about yourself that has nothing to do with writing?
I worked as a film and television extra when I first moved to Los Angeles. I was a model—never very successful, but always in demand to fill out a crowd in a bar, restaurant or party scene! That was really fun. I was living in San Francisco and a lot of shows were shot there. Sometimes we’d be on the set til late at night, but they kept us going with coffee and doughnuts and sometimes the crew’s big puffy jackets.
Planner, Pantser, or Plantser (in the middle)?
Oh, that one’s a little embarrassing. One hundred percent pantser—I just make it all up as I go along. But I really try to get my students, both teens and adults, to plan. It’s definitely a case of do as I say, not as I do. I’ve seen too many good stories go south because the author didn’t lay the groundwork for a satisfying resolution. There’s a rule in my workshops: no dream sequences! That is, your character cannot wake up and realize it was all a dream/come out of a coma and realize no time has passed/or suddenly remember he has magical powers.
What is your writerly ‘crutch’ or ‘tic’?
I have a terrible habit of using the same word multiple times in a story, and that’s the kind of thing that’s very hard to catch when you’re proofreading your own work. My characters shrug a lot. Way too much. And there’s no reason more than one character per story should be “rueful,” “erudite,” “laconic,” or “diffident.” Blushing here. Barb Goffman edited one of my stories recently for Black Cat Weekly, and she pointed out that all eight female characters’ names started with M. It was a five-thousand word tongue twister. Marcy, Mary, Monica, Melanie, Missy, Megan, Madeline and Maya!
What are five things you need in order to write (like a laptop, music, notebook and pen, coffee, etc.)?
Oh, you can stop at two. Computer and coffee. And then more coffee.
Where is your favorite place to write?
The only place for me to write is at my desk, on my stodgy old desktop with an enormous monitor and a good old-fashioned wired mouse. If I have to write somewhere else, I try to recreate the setting with stacks of books and papers, pyramids of dirty coffee cups, a jar of stubby pencils and a thousand post-its stuck to everything, scribbled on in my indecipherable handwriting.
What is your favorite outlet for creativity outside of writing?
I like to draw and cartoon. I doodle constantly. I also sing. I’m pretty sure I’m really good, but there’s a slim possibility I might be terrible.
Where is your favorite place to set a story? Have you ever been there?
I recently set a story on Maui. It takes place before the devastating fires of 2023. I love the Hawaiian islands, and try to visit my favorite, Kauai, every year. I’m really looking forward to setting a story on Kauai. There’s a river rafting trip you can take—they put you in an inner tube and send you sailing down a little channel—not really a river, but a drainage ditch of sorts. You go over a little waterfall and you can get some real speed. It’s a nice long ride. I’m thinking of a story in which one of the tubers is dead at the end of the ride—the question is, was he alive when he went in?
Who is your favorite fictional hero?
Maybe Jackson Brodie, from Kate Atkinson’s series. He’s flawed and believable, a reluctant hero. But I’m also very fond of Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley.
What was your favorite book when you were a child?
Oh, tough one. Depends on the week. May I just name a few: The Borrowers, Miss Bianca, Little House in the Big Woods, anything at all by Lois Lenski. I used to get so excited when I’d see a new Lenski book – you’d know it was going to be good. I loved Roald Dahl, O Henry, and Agatha Christie. As a teen, it was Ray Bradbury, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, and the sister magazines: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. My sister and I used to fight over them every month. And Creepy and Eerie comic books—remember those? Classics!
Did you have any other jobs before becoming a writer?
Oh, Lord. What writer didn’t? I was the buyer for a Tahitian export firm for a time, while working on an MBA (which is, as yet, incomplete). I worked as a model, actress, and (mostly) film extra in my twenties. I was a journalist, writing features for InStyle, People, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal—I specialized in adoptions gone wrong, and “disease of the month” stories. And of course I taught English for twenty years. I still teach online at writers.com. In between those there were lots of oddball jobs: sandwich maker, specimen preservation specialist in the reptile department at a natural history museum, lab assistant at NIH in a “top secret” department…I’ve done some stuff.
If you weren’t a writer, what job would you hold?
I often wish I had pursued a career as an actor. I was on that path, but some odd personal circumstances caused me to change course. If I ever sell a screenplay, they’ll have to write into the contract that I get a bit part, something fun, like the lady who discovers a corpse in the elevator, or a wild-eyed woman protesting for animal rights in Times Square, something like that.
How do you like to connect with readers?
I’d love for readers to follow me on Instagram (@annakscotti) and on Facebook (Anna Scotti, author). And, of course, they are invited to visit my website, www.AnnakScotti.com
Brief Bio
Sometimes I pinch myself to be sure I really am a mystery writer! I was away from the literary world for a long time. I wrote a mystery novel, a horror novel, and a kids’ book many years ago and then pretty much stopped writing for a long time. I worked briefly as a journalist, then switched to teaching for twenty years. It wasn’t until 2018 that I tried my hand at a short story and submitted it to Ellery Queen, then and now my favorite source for fiction. Voila! I’ve since sold sixteen or seventeen stories to the magazine, many but not all from the “librarian on the run” series. I also write poetry, literary fiction, and young adult fiction, and have been awarded prizes and honors in all four genres!
