Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest Shelly Frome. Shelly is a member of Mystery Writers of America, a professor of dramatic arts emeritus at the University of Connecticut, a former professional actor and, all told, has written over twenty-five plays in addition to his articles and novels. 

He is a frequent contributor of articles on all facets of creative writing and acting, Shelly appears in numerous periodicals including Southern Writers Magazine where he is the film columnist. He is also a contributor to writers' blogs and websites in the U.S. and the U.K.

His fiction includes Twilight of the Drifter, Lilac Moon, the Hollywood crime caper Tinseltown Riff, Murder Run, and his recently published The Secluded Village Murders, Miranda and the D-Day Caper and Moon Games.

Among his works of non-fiction are the acclaimed The Actors Studio and texts on The Art and Craft of Screenwriting and writing for the stage.  

Norm: Good day Shelly and thanks for taking part in our interview.

What is the one thing other people always seem to get wrong about you?

Shelly: I’m always easygoing, nothing gets me down.

Norm: Is your writing an art or craft or some combination of both? 

Shelly: It’s a combination of both.

Norm: What advice can you give aspiring writers that you wished you had received, or that you wished you would have listened to? 
 

Shelly: There’s a whole loopy world of marketing out there that almost has nothing to do with the days of Salinger, Mailer, Bellow, Hemingway etc. and my first love of novels.

Norm: Do you think about your reading public when you write? Do you imagine a  specific reader when you write?

Shelly: I’m aware that once the story stops percolating, a reader will simply put it down.

Norm: Does the line between truth and fiction sometimes become blurred for you?

Shelly: If it rings true than it’s alive. Otherwise it’s just writing.

Norm: Do you ever dream about your characters?

Shelly: I often daydream about what they’re up to now and where they’re headed.

Norm: When did the idea for Miranda and the D-Day Caper first emerge? 

Shelly: When I recalled the days when Jean Shepard reminisced about the innocent, good old days in small town Indiana during his midnight broadcasts on WOR New York.

Norm: What were your goals and intentions in this novel, and how well do you feel you achieved them? 

Shelly: I wanted to somehow combine the whimsical days of my youth with the bizarre right-wing politics of today and generate some kind of synthesis. Judging from the thirty-nine reviews on Amazon so far, I seemed to have engendered a “romp” which may or may not have anything to do with what I originally intended. But, as always, you never know what’s going to happen once you put your work out there. 

Norm: What was the most difficult part of writing this novel and what did you enjoy most about writing it?  

Shelly: The most difficult part was dealing with my assigned editor who kept finding gaps in the narrative I wasn’t aware of. The thing I loved about it was when Skip and Miranda’s backstory took over, emanating from the days when they were kids allowing them to just wing it. 

Norm: Did you write the novel more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? Please summarize your writing process.  

Shelly: Once I set up the most promising dynamic and set of characters, I let each beat within each scene play itself out within the given circumstances at the moment, so that the narrative becomes self-generating.

Norm: How did you go about creating the characters in the novel?

Shelly: If they had a necessary function, they just came to me after all the years I spent playwriting, acting and watching people in real life and on the screen.

Norm: Did you know the end of your book at the beginning?  

Shelly: I only knew the main characters were on a collision course and there had to be some kind of climactic scene in a crowded outdoor venue in Asheville. 

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and  Miranda and the D-Day Caper?

Shelly: They can look up my WEBSITE   They can always read the reviews on Amazon or Goodreads.

Norm; What is next for Shelly Frome?

Shelly: My publisher just sent me a contract for Shadow of the Gypsy which is darker tale than my other works of fiction. It’s a crime novel, a love story and a reluctant hero’s journey not unlike those of myth.

Norm: As this interview comes to an end, what would you like to say to writers who are reading this interview and wondering if they can keep creating, if they are good enough, if their voices and visions matter enough to share?  

Shelly: As I intimated, you have to do a lot of reading of contemporary works, especially those novels you can identify with, find a good editor even if you have to pay her, and then, after you get some honest feedback, decide if there’s a match between what you’re  compelled to explore and some facet of today’s publishing world.  

Norm; Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors
  

FOLLOW HERE TO READ NORM'S REVIEW OF MIRANDA AND THE D-DAY CAPER