The Author: Sallie Bissell

Nashville native Sallie Bissell is the author of three novels of suspense featuring the half-Cherokee prosecutor, Mary Crow. Educated in the Nashville public schools, Bissell graduated from Peabody College and embarked on a career in advertising, where she worked on various media campaigns, including radio spots for the Grand Ole Opry.

Motherhood interrupted her advertising career, and when she returned to her typewriter after raising three children, she devoted herself to writing fiction. An avid horsewoman, she was a ghost writer for Bonnie Bryant’s popular Saddle Club series for young adults, penning seven novels before launching her own adult fiction career.

Her first two novels, In The Forest of Harm and A Darker Justice received critical acclaim from Kirkus Review and Publisher’s Weekly, among others. People magazine called In The Forest of Harm a “top-notch thriller” while the Los Angeles Times dubbed A Darker Justice one of the Ten Best Mysteries of 2002. Her third novel, Call The Devil By His Oldest Name, was published in 2004. Sallie currently lives near Asheville, North Carolina. Her fourth Mary Crow novel, A Legacy of Masks arrives in bookstores March 25, 2005 . Though she no longer rides horses nearly as often as she’d like, she enjoys tennis, sketching, and hiking the North Carolina mountains with Chessie, her Boxer.

Margo Dorris of the Flat Rock Review recently interviewed Sallie Bissell. The following is an excerpt of that interview:

MD. You're a city girl, from Nashville, Tennessee. Why do you set your books in the mountains of North Carolina? When I was young, we vacationed in the mountains every summer. I had such wonderful memories of those times, that when I decided to devote myself full time to writing, I headed east, to the terrain I'd loved so as a child. For me, as a southern writer, it's hugely important to convey an accurate sense of place in a novel. There is no place on earth more beautiful or mysterious than the Appalachian Mountains.

MD. You say a sense of place is important in your work, yet your novels have been singled out for having both wonderful villains and very graphic villainy. How does such an easy-going, soft-spoken Southern lady come up with these things? Lots of people have asked me that. I guess I just have a good imagination. I've taken some heat over a few scenes in Forest Of Harm, but I felt like I used just enough violence to move the story and convey the agony of the people involved. As for my villains, I don't know where they come from. I told a group the other day that I just sat down at the computer and let Bad Sallie come out of her box….

MD. So tell us what one of your writing days is like, when Bad Sallie's out of her box. My writing days are the same, whatever Bad Sallie's up to. It's rather like a day back in grammar school, only without much lunch and no recess. I sit down at the keyboard about 7 a.m., and get up about 3 p.m. I take breaks, let my dog Chessie out and brew some tea, but I'm pretty much hard at it, six days a week.

MD. And afterward? I run errands, go to the gym. I belong to an indoor tennis club, so I try to get in some late afternoon tennis whenever I can.

MD. Are you a good player? I'm officially ranked as 3.0, which is average, only I'm lousy-average. So no, I'm not a good player, but I'm tall and like playing the net, so better players put up with me.

MD. As a writer, who are some of your favorite writers? I have about a thousand favorite writers. Off the top of my head, I adore Margaret Atwood, Vladimir Nabokov, Flannery O'Connor. Mystery-wise, there are certain books I deeply admire-A Secret Plan, The House of Sand and Fog. I think Donna Tartt's The Little Friend is a masterpiece.

MD. Here's an Actor's Workshop question-what's your favorite word? Dinner! (laughs) Just kidding. I have no idea what my favorite word is, but I can tell you that my least favorite word is should.

MD. Should? Why? Think about it. It implies so much, and none of it good.

MD. One more question. When you sit down to write a book, what's your goal? To tell a story that will absolutely grab the reader up in the first page and not let them go until four hundred pages later. When people come up to me and say "I stayed up til 3 a.m. reading your book!" or "I started your book Saturday and I couldn't put it down til I finished!" That's the proverbial music to my ears. You can't pay a writer a greater compliment than that.