April 2002

JON: Your first book, Angel Fire, just came out. Can you describe it and the two main characters, Lydia Strong and her ex-FBI buddy Jeffery Mark?

LISA: Haunted by the brutal murder of her mother, my main character Lydia Strong has lived her life driven to understand the twisted minds of murderers -- and to bring them to justice. Now thirty years old, she is a best selling true crime writer and an investigative consultant whose instincts never lie. In ANGEL FIRE, Lydia has retreated to her isolated home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she hopes for a reprieve from the criminals that populate her life... and the demons that plague her.

But when three people turn up missing, Lydia can't ignore the feeling that there is a sinister force at work behind their disappearances. And when the local police won't cooperate, she calls her longtime friend and mentor, private investigator Jeffrey Mark, to New Mexico. Together they start investigating -- because they believe there's a serial killer on the loose in Santa Fe. But it isn't until the killer draws Lydia into his twisted game that the real hunt begins.

Lydia is essentially a woman haunted and driven by her past. She was so devastated emotionally by the murder of her mother fifteen years earlier that she has never fully recovered. She’s a hugely successful, intelligent, tough-minded, smart-mouthed woman but there’s a deep hole within her that she can never really seem to fill, simply because she is afraid to love. She engages in some pretty serious self-destructive behavior, without really recognizing it as such … from the career she’s chosen, to the cigarettes she can’t give up, to the feelings she won’t admit she has for Jeffrey Mark.

Jeffrey Mark was the FBI agent who caught the man who murdered Lydia’s mother fifteen years ago. Over the years, he has become many things to Lydia … her confidant, advisor and dear friend. He is the only person whom she allows to get close to her. While Lydia relies heavily on her intuition, Jeffrey is all about the facts, the evidence trail that leads to an undeniable truth. He is strong and intelligent, and he loves Lydia. But he keeps his distance, refuses to push her towards the relationship he wants, because he knows that in spite of the way she seems to most people, that she’s fragile emotionally.

JON: And this going to be an on-going series?

LISA: Yes, the second book tentatively entitled THE DARKNESS GATHERS will be in stores February 2003, simultaneous with the paperback release of ANGEL FIRE. I am currently at work on the third “Lydia and Jeffrey,” which is as yet untitled.

JON: You actually worked in book publishing before becoming a writer. Which is better and why?

LISA: Well, in that I never really wanted to do anything with my life but write, this is definitely a better gig. I was always stealing time, working into the night, staying in on weekends to finish ANGEL FIRE. So in that way, I am much happier to be living my dream as opposed to sneaking it in during my spare time. But working in publishing was definitely a great experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world. A huge part of my life was spent on that end of the business … and it was awesome. It allowed me to do things, go places and meet people that I otherwise might never have.

JON: Was this first book something you decided to do and just sat down and wrote it, or have you been working on it for a while?

LISA: There has never been a time in my life when I wasn’t writing something. The inspiration for ANGEL FIRE actually struck when I was in college. I was visiting friends in Santa Fe, New Mexico and exploring the area with a friend on the back of his motorcycle. We were sort of in the middle of nowhere and we came upon this church. It was so tiny but so powerful, sitting in the middle of the dessert surrounded by sand and blue sky.

Anyone who has been to New Mexico knows what a mystical place it is and I felt powerfully inspired there. I knew I would write about the church. It was a couple of years later when I was living up in Riverdale and working in Manhattan, that I was sitting in my then-boyfriend’s car waiting for him to be finished at a cash machine, that I pulled a napkin out of the glove compartment and started writing. I worked in fits and starts over the years. My job was really demanding, so I didn’t have much creative energy left at the end of a long day. But about a year and half before I finished, I said, enough screwing around. Either you’re going to do this or you’re not. So I really made a commitment to myself to write every day. That’s how I was able to finish it, finally.

JON: Was it an advantage having been in the business?

LISA: Oh, definitely. I think the publishing process can be very stressful and disappointing for a first time author. It was a huge help to know all the ins and outs of the business, know what to expect and what not to expect. I was the associate director of publicity for a number of years, so I knew how to promote myself. It was a huge advantage.

JON: How have the reviews been, and what is your reaction to them?

LISA: For the most part, the reviews have been great. ANGEL FIRE received a starred Library Journal review, which was wonderful. The Publishers Weekly was very positive. And there was a review in The Tampa Tribune, which called ANGEL FIRE “a captivating tale.” But my first review came from Kirkus and that was pretty awful. It was a little heartbreaking … the first review of my first book basically just ripping it to shreds. But, you know, it was a good lesson. I think as a writer, you only have control over turning out your best work; you can only focus on being the best writer you can be. And you have to find a way not to be influenced by the negative or the positive reviews. It’s not easy but it’s definitely worth striving for.

A lot of readers have written to me via my website and those reviews have been wonderful … people just seem to really be enjoying ANGEL FIRE. And the reader reviews are way more important to me than anything printed in a magazine or newspaper. It is just so touching when someone reads the book and then sits down at their computer to check out my website (www.lisamiscione.com) and write me a letter.

JON: Have you always been a fan of mysteries?

LISA: I’ve always been a fan of thrillers, psychological suspense … the darker, the better. But I’ve been an avid reader forever and have loved all kinds of books.

JON: Who are some of your favorite writers?

LISA: Some of the people who do mystery and thrillers the best are Denis Lehane, George Pelacanos, Thomas Harris. I also really enjoy Mary Willis Walker and Perri O’Shaugnessy. But in my life as a reader, I have very eclectic tastes. Some of the authors I have most loved are: Truman Capote, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, John Irving, Keri Hulme, Nathaniel Hawthorne. I can hardly begin to name them all…

JON: What kind of research do you put into the writing?

LISA: I have done a lot of my research mainly through books and the Internet. It seems as though whatever I have a question about, I can find the answers online. There are some genuinely crazy websites out there. You can’t believe how many websites are devoted to serial killers alone! Recently, I took a class where I learned to shoot a pistol and about the different types of guns I find myself writing about. It was a fairly intense experience, since I’d never fired a weapon before. But I really learned a lot about the power and responsibility of handling a gun.

I have also developed some contacts over the last few months, a gun expert and a retired New York City Homicide Detective who I’ll be consulting with on the next book. I really find that my research is so much more three dimensional when there is actually a real person to discuss things with … you get a lot more anecdotal material that really improves the authenticity of your work.

JON: After working with other authors on their promotions, was it weird going to your first signing and being the one promoted?

LISA: It was very weird. When it came time to promote the book, I sort of slipped into publicist mode and set up all these booksignings, arranged all the travel, made myself a schedule and felt like I was done. Then I had this moment of sheer panic when it dawned on me that I was the author who was going to have to make all these appearances, get up in the middle of the night to catch a plane, read in front of a group of people. It was bizarre and I was terrified in the lead up. But once I hit my stride, I actually discovered that I like it! I had a great time on the book tour.

JON: When you were promoting you used downloadable files on the internet to help promotes books. Do you think the internet is a good tool to help authors?

LISA: The internet is an incredible valuable resource … it’s a research tool, a marketing tool, a way to connect with readers and booksellers. There are so many things you can do for yourself cheaply or free on the internet.

JON: Lydia’s mother being murdered obviously had quite an affect on her. Is this something that will be an issue in later books as well?

LISA: Readers are going to see Lydia grow and evolve over the next couple of books. As she finally deals with the death of her mother and becomes a less isolated, happier person, the memory of her mother’s murder is going to have less of an impact on her. But it’s never just going to disappear from her consciousness … and there are elements of the murder which are going to come back to haunt Lydia in some frightening ways.

JON: Lydia having problems with readers of her books bombarding her with weird mail and emails sounds totally plausible. Is this based on something that actually happened? I would imagine that someone writing true crime would get some really strange mail.

LISA: One of my first jobs in publishing was as a publicity assistant and part of my responsibility was to forward mail to authors. These letters were always opened by the time I received them by a machine that opened them automatically when they arrived. Working for a large company who at one time published Steven King and Dean Koontz as well as many others, we got mail like you would not believe. I mean really scary, psycho stuff. So it just seemed logical that this would be a problem for Lydia.

JON: If Lydia were to be taken to the big screen, who could you see in the movie?

LISA: I could envision a couple of strong, beautiful, woman who have a sort of haunted look to them. It would have to be someone who manages to be tough and vulnerable at the same time … Linda Fiorentino comes to mind, Jodie Foster (of course), maybe Gina Gershon.

JON: I’ve heard that Steven King sometimes sleeps with the lights on. Does writing the darker parts of the books ever cause you problems?

LISA: Obviously, I have a pretty twisted imagination and my mind is always creating frightening scenarios and bizarre daydreams. But I kind of enjoy it. It never really crosses over into reality to the extent that I scare myself or can’t sleep at night. But I have heard from several readers who said that they needed to sleep with the light on after reading ANGEL FIRE. And who can ask for a better compliment than that?

JON: Is there a line you set for yourself that you won’t cross with your writing? Anything you wouldn’t include in a book?

LISA: To be honest, there is not much I won’t write about … as you’ll see when you read the second book. But there is one thing … I will never write about September 11th. In fact, though my second book and my third take place for the most part in New York City, my characters will live in a fictional world where it just hasn’t happened. I won’t write about the Trade Towers as if they still exist, however. Somehow to write about any of that, to fictionalize it in a way seems unconscionable … as though it makes the tragedy this manageable thing that you can work into your plots. September 11th is too big, too real, too awful for fiction and I won’t touch it.

JON: How do you like to spend your free time?

LISA: Since I do what I love most, I feel like all my time is free time. But when I’m not writing …we live a pretty active life here in Clearwater. I study Kung Fu and have for over five years now. My husband, Jeffrey*, I do a lot of boating, jet skiing, bike riding and walking and swimming on the beautiful beaches here. We both love to cook, entertain, spend time with friends and read.

(*A few months after I finished ANGEL FIRE, I met a man named Jeffrey and now he’s my husband! Most people think I named my character after my husband but I didn’t find my Jeffrey until later. I took it as a good sign!)

JON: Do you have a favorite line from a movie?

LISA: “Leave the guns, take the cannolis.” -- From the Godfather

JON: Any advice to people out there writing books but not published yet?

LISA: I always tell people who are trying to get published that it takes some combination of ability, tenacity and luck to finally get your work into print. And the best advice I can give is to keep writing and never give up.

JON: What’s the one thing always in you refrigerator?

LISA: A bottle of hot Thai chili sauce. We discovered it at our favorite sushi restaurant and loved it so much that we made them sell us a bottle. We like things very, very spicy so I cook with it all the time. It’s fabulous … all the labels are in Thai so we don’t even really know what it’s called!