Interview with Author Erica Miner

 

Award-winning Seattle-based author Erica Miner balances her reviews and interviews of real-world musical artists with her fanciful plot fabrications that reveal the dark side of the fascinating world of opera. Drawing on her 21 years as a violinist at the world-renowned Metropolitan Opera, Erica guides her readers through a dramatized version of the opera world in her Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series.

Aria for Murder, the first in the series, published by Level Best Books in 2022, was a finalist in the 2023 Eric Hoffer Book Awards. The sequel, Prelude to Murder, released in September 2023, is set at the Santa Fe Opera. The third book, due for release in 2024, takes place at the San Francisco Opera.

Erica’s debut novel, Travels with My Lovers, won the Fiction Prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. Her screenplays have won awards in the WinFemme, Santa Fe, and Writers Digest competitions. Erica lectures widely on opera for the Seattle Symphony, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and numerous Wagner Societies throughout the U.S. and abroad.

 

Question: What is the title and genre of your novel?  Why did you select them?

Answer: PRELUDE TO MURDER is a mystery. It is the second in my Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series. The title seemed the perfect segue to the title of the first book in the series, ARIA FOR MURDER, and reflects the musical world in which it takes place.

Question:   What inspired this novel? How did it come about? 

Answer: An opera house is a fascinating, colorful place, with loads of quirky, sometimes maddening people working there. During my 21 years playing violin in the Met Opera Orchestra, I witnessed any number of operatic disasters and nefarious happenings, many of them involving these people and their constant conflicts with each other. It occurred to me that the opera would be a perfect setting for murder and mayhem: art imitates life and vice versa. The drama unfolding onstage is nothing compared to what goes on behind the scenes. Sooner or later, someone’s going to want to kill someone. I let my wicked imagination take over, and voilà, the first novel in the series was born.

 

Question:  Could you tell us a little bit about the heroine and/or hero of your novel?

Answer: Intrepid young violinist Julia is a brilliant prodigy and a rising star in the orchestra pit at the Met. She has had a tough life, having lost both of her parents when she was a child, and has learned to fend for herself. But she is naïve in the ways of a prestigious opera house, where the professional politics are complex and difficult to maneuver, and the stakes are high. On the night of her first performance, a terrible disaster occurs, and much to her surprise she becomes entangled in a murder investigation. She then discovers she has an inner strength she never knew existed and must use that to escape from a life-threatening situation. 

Question:   Can you tell us about some of your other published novels or work?

Answer: Before I started writing murder mysteries, I wrote a romance, Travels with my Lovers, which won the Fiction Prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. Next came my coming-of-age novel, Fourever Friends. Aria for Murder was the first in my current mystery series. Prelude to Murder is the first sequel. The next sequel is due for release in September 2024. I also publish frequent reviews and interviews of performances and musical artists for major arts websites. 

Question:   What are you working on now?

Answer: I’m working on the next sequel in the series, title TBA, due for release in 2024, which takes place at the San Francisco Opera.

Question:   What made you start writing?

Answer: I actually started writing before I played the violin. At the time when I was growing up in Detroit—a very long time ago!—there was an excellent afterschool program in the public schools. I was placed in a program for Creative Writing. I suppose one of my teachers must have seen that “spark” in me. I don’t remember much of what I wrote, but I do remember loving the process of creating characters and plot lines and weaving them all together to turn into stories. My love for writing was generated from that experience, and I have been passionate about writing ever since.

Question:   What advice would you offer to those who are currently writing novels?

Answer: I would tell them to study the craft as much as they can before they attempt the writing. I know what it feels like to have an idea for a story and to want to let it flow as soon and as quickly as possible. But writing is a difficult process, and it’s essential to learn about the technique of putting the story together first. Once they’ve got that under their belt, their stories will be that much more compelling.

Question:  Where and when will readers be able to obtain your novel?

Answer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CFTR3CRM?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_1&storeType=ebooks&qid=1692203865&sr=1-1 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1144067662?ean=9781685124427

Questions and/or Comments for Erica are welcome!