Jon:  So to start with, how would you describe the Tori Miracle series?

Valerie:  Traditional amateur sleuth, English village type mysteries, only set in south-central Pennsylvania. Some people have called my books "cozy" because they have an amateur sleuth, little violence, and cats (two), but I think they have more of an "edge" to them than you would expect to find in a true "cozy."

Jon:  Do you have a favorite of the books?

Valerie:  My favorite is DEATH, SNOW, AND MISTLETOE. I always loved Christmas, but along with it being a joyous time of year I find it can be a time of great sadness. If someone is alone or away from loved ones at Christmas, the loneliness can be overwhelming.. I wanted to write a book that expressed that feeling, but would still be fun to read. I also found it interesting to investigate Christmas customs and determine where they came from.

Jon:  What made you want to start writing, and why mysteries?

Valerie:  As an only child, I escaped life by writing. I wrote my first book, an OZ book, when I was six. I had many notebooks full of short stories and the beginnings of novels before I was finished with high school. Growing up on Okinawa, right after World War II, we had no real library, only a small ship's library that had been donated to the American families. It consisted of science fiction, westerns, and mysteries. I read them all but fell in love with the writers of the Golden Age of Mystery. I guess that was when I developed my taste for the classic English village mystery. When I decided it was "now or never" time to start writing, I never considered anything but mystery. It still is what I enjoy reading, and I love writing it.

Jon:  What else have you done besides write?

Valerie:  How much time do we have? My undergraduate degree was in archaeology, and I did a lot of digging in the southwest. My graduate degree was in Library Science. I worked as a librarian in Seattle, Washington; Arlington, Virginia; Taipei, Taiwan, and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In Taiwan, I also spent several years buying jewelry for a gift shop. I have worked in marketing and public relations, where I wrote newsletters and advertising. During two fun Christmas seasons, I managed a Hickory Farms kiosk at our mall. I've also sold real estate, written articles for collector magazines and newsletters, and am halfway through classes at Penn State in Chemical Dependency Counseling.

Jon:  You've lived all over the place, East coast, west coast, Asia. How did you end up in a rural community in Pennsylvania?

Valerie:  You go where the money is. During the 70s, my husband, three children, and I spent five years in Taipei, Taiwan. When our time was up, we had to find someplace to come back to. We ended up in Dayton, Ohio for three years, all of which we spent trying to find somewhere else to live. My husband remembered work-related trips he used to make to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania when he worked for the Pentagon, and he always found it a charming place. When a job in his field opened up, he applied, we came over for a weekend to make the final decision, bought a house, and moved . We've now been here for 24 years.

Jon:  Do you put any of yourself in Tori when you write?

Valerie:  I sure do. It seemed easier to me, when I started writing, to give her a lot of my own personality traits and background. It would take less research, I thought. So she's a lot like me, only younger, thinner, a better linguist, and much braver. We share the same foreign service background, which helps me work in a lot of the feelings of alienation I grew up with.

Jon:  Having Tori transplanted from the City to a small town seems to give some great chances for observations of the two. Are these based on your own experiences?

Valerie:  I've felt transplanted most of my life. As a city girl from Boston, I was transplanted to Okinawa right after WW II. From Okinawa, I went to college in New Mexico. From there I moved to Laos. I lived in different places in the U.S. before moving to Taiwan for five years. And after all that, I ended up living in a small rural community in Pennsylvania. I look back on my life as a series of events with different locations. I have always felt like an outsider observing the insiders living their lives. My books give me the opportunity to share some of that feeling with others, since I think a lot of people feel like outsiders, even when they haven't moved a lot.

Jon:  Who do you like to read?

Valerie:  Anybody. Anything. I guess you could say I prefer mysteries. I just finished Val McDermid's A Place of Execution, and I loved it because it was the traditional English village type of story which has always been my favorite. I really liked Death of a Red Heroine, and I hope the author will forgive me if I don't attempt his name, it reminded me of my years in Asia. Keith Snyder's books are wonderful, and I wish more readers would discover him. I'm reading The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen right now, no comment until I've finished it. Fortunately, I belong to a book group which makes me read at least one non-mystery a month. V.S. Naipul's A House for Mr. Biswas was our last month's selection, and I thought it was a masterpiece.

Jon:  When I got to meet you at Bouchercon in D.C. you were really cheerful, and it was early! Are you a naturally happy person?

Valerie:  I tend to have mood swings, but when I'm in a bad mood few people see me. Mostly, though, I am cheerful. I've found the world is what I make it, and if I make it a happy place to be it's a much nicer place to live than if I choose to make it unpleasant. I am aware, every day, of how incredibly lucky I am, to have a great husband, loving children, good friends, a nice home, and a writing career that really is a dream come true.

Jon:  What kind of work goes into research for your books?

Valerie:  I do a lot of research. I really enjoy that part. Maybe because I started my working career as a librarian. I can't stand to just know a little bit about something. I have to read everything ever written about a subject, visit places, subscribe to newspapers. Only this past month I've spent a day at a deer farm and another at the county dump. People are so gracious about sharing their expertise with a stranger!

Jon:  So I need to ask, do cozy writers really drink tea and talk to their cats?

Valerie:  Can't speak for others, but I do both!

Jon:  What other things do you like to do when you aren't writing?

Valerie:  I'm a Wizard of Oz collector. I cruise e-bay, haunt local flea markets, and trade with other collectors. I go to the annual Munchkin Convention in Pennsylvania, where I can share my passion for Oz with others. I'm very active in the American Association of University Women, and have been twice named Woman of the Year by my branch. I like to shop with friends and hang out with my children and grandchildren.

Jon:  Do you like to do the author events, like conventions and signings?

Valerie:  You bet. That's where the fun is for me. I'm a people person, so it's hard for me to sit at home alone and write, the thought of getting out and meeting people is the carrot that keeps me going.

Jon:  Following your Dad around when he was stationed overseas must have been a very unique experience. Any interesting stories you can tell?

Valerie:  Many. And I've been writing them down and having them published in a Japanese newspaper on Okinawa called The Ryukyu Shimpo. Since my father was Director of Public Safety on Okinawa, our house was always filled with fascinating people. I was usually more interested in staying home and listening to them than hanging out with friends my own age. Some favorite memories involve a prison riot, an exploding ammunition dump, a ship load of Chinese pirates, and trips to orphanages and the off-shore leper colony. (Not all at once, of course.)

Jon:  When you are writing, do you work from an outline, or do you let the book evolve as you write?

Valerie:  I now work from an outline. I didn't at first, but that was in the days before contracts and deadlines. I like outlining the book. I feel it's a major part of the creative process. If the book takes a sudden turn, that's okay. I usually pause about halfway through and redo the outline for the second half of the book.

Jon:  Any interest in writing something outside your series?

Valerie:  Funny you should ask. I'm working on a novel right now set in the Reconstruction period. And someday I hope to finish my memoirs.

Jon:  What kind of movies do you enjoy?

Valerie:  Horror. The scarier the better. Only supernatural horror though. Slasher movies are not for me. If I were going to choose the subject, I'd have everything take place in a haunted hotel. And yes, I loved The Shining.

Jon:  I love the titles to your books. How do you decide on them?

Valerie:  They come to me as I'm working on the books. I didn't intentionally start out to do rhyming titles. The first was DEATH PAYS THE ROSE RENT, and unfortunately nobody knew what Rose Rent was. I struggled with the second titles and, out of desperation, came up with DEATH, LIES, AND APPLE PIES. My new editor asked me to rhyme the next two titles. That's where DEATH, GUNS, AND STICKY BUNS and DEATH, SNOW, AND MISTLETOE came from. The new one, scheduled to come out next year, is DEATH, BONES, AND STATELY HOMES. I usually just refer to them by the last words.

Jon:  When you write the books, do you like to "Play fair" with the reader and let them have a shot at solving the mystery, or do you like to surprise them?

Valerie:  I'm not very good at surprising people, I've decided. I think I'm getting better at that. I've always liked the "why-was-it-done" of a mystery more than the "who-done-it" aspect. I suppose you could say I "play fair" by giving the reader all the clues, but then I feel that mystery fans are always discerning people of above average intelligence who should be able to figure things out, or at least say at the end, "Of course, I see it now." By the way, I never try to figure out the ending of a mystery when I'm reading it.

Jon:  What is the one thing always in your refrigerator?

Valerie:  I have to go look. Back already. It's Japanese pickled ginger. Soy sauce, too. I guess that's two things. Sorry.