From the Booking Desk:
I first became aware of Paula Munier through her work as a literary agent, but it was when I began to follow her involvement in the wonderful Career Authors website that I realized how wonderfully helpful and supportive she is to the community of book lovers in general. More recently, she has written the first critically-acclaimed novel in her own mystery series – A Borrowing of Bones – and I am sure that many of you have run into her at the various conventions. Let’s see how she tackles our weekly questionnaire, I have a sneaky suspicion that she is going to break the “rules”. . . in only the best way possible.
Name: PAULA MUNIER
Location: New England
This person from my personal life is such an inspiration:
How to choose among my parents? My kids? My grandkids? Not even going there.
Family aside, the person who most inspires me is Emma Spencer Boyle, my yoga teacher. Emma is who I want to be when I grow up. She taught me—and countless others—how to breathe, how to be still, how to drop down from my head to my heart. I’m a better person—and a better writer—because of Emma.
One of the people I admire most in the crime fiction community is:
Okay, I’m going to cheat and name an entire subset of the crime fiction community: the New England Crime Bake. I’ve been on the committee that runs this wonderful mystery writers conference for years, and count its volunteers, its faculty, and its attendees as my friends and fellow travelers on the writing path. This joint venture of the New England chapters of MWA and Sisters in Crime brings together the best of the crime fiction community every year to celebrate crime writers and crime writing. As a writer, I’ve befriended role models like Hank Phillippi Ryan and Hallie Ephron and William Martin and Jane Cleland. As an editor and agent, I’ve shared martinis with Michelle Richter and Janet Reid and Meg Ruley and Ann Collette and Terri Bischoff and Linda Landrigan, not to mention my own agent and professional guru Gina Panettieri. And as a fan, well, the list goes on and on: Robert B. Parker, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Lee Child, Harlan Coben, Elizabeth George, Lisa Gardner, Craig Johnson, William Kent Kreuger, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, and later this year—don’t miss it!—Ann Cleeves.
And so many more….
STALKER ALERT! If this fictional character were real, they would likely need to get a restraining order against me:
I crush on make-believe men far more often than real-life men, especially those who like dogs. I’m not sure if that says more about me or about men (or about dogs). But those crushes include Inspector Gamache, Longmire, Jesse Stone, Nick Charles—all smart guys with dogs—and Morse and Maigret (if either have dogs I’ve forgotten).
Girl crushes, too: Ruth Galloway, V.I. Warshawski, Vera, and Miss Marple.
Can I stalk writers, too? I’d stalk Lee Child and Alice Hoffman and Marilynne Robinson and Anthony Horowitz and Mark Nepo and Anne Lamott, and my crush-du-jour Andrew Sean Greer. And Kellye Garrett, because she always seems to be where it’s happening.
People are always surprised that I am a fan of this individual (singer, actor, or artist):
My children are always surprised if I recognize anyone under thirty.
That said, I’ve introduced them and lots of other people to Krishna Das, whose kirtan music is the soundtrack of my life, on and off the mat, on and off the page.
My personal catch phrase is (or should be):
As the magnet on our refrigerator says: let go or be dragged.
Very nice to see someone who has trouble naming one person when asked questions like these.
Honestly, I think that most of us. But only a few folks are willing to bend the rules. 😉
What a great interview! You are so right about Crime Bake, Paula, as we know, it is a gem of a conference. An active yoga practice and kirtan music, that is cool.