How did you become a writer? I've been writing for fun since I could pick up a crayon. And then full novels when I was a teen...until I had to put my graphic design career on hold to have a baby. When he was two I thought it time to get back into it, but the whole industry had turned to computers and I, alas, had not. So I looked for another career path that I could do at home to raise my son, and decided that becoming a novelist seemed the thing. How hard could it be? [Insert laughter here.] I researched how to get started, formatting a manuscript (had to get used to word processors at last), getting an agent, how to write a query, and, of course, writing the novels. I loved many kinds of genres, but was always more drawn to historicals, so I aimed for that. It took three years to get my first agent. I wasn't peddling the same book for years. Every year I wrote a NEW book. And with each successive agent I didn't get anywhere until my original agent suggested writing an historical MYSTERY. Once I learned how to write a mystery, and a medieval one at that, I got some success with my fourth agent, and sold my first Crispin Guest Medieval Noir to St. Martin's Minotaur (only fourteen years from when I first started writing seriously for publication). Prior to that, as the years tolled on without any contracts, I wanted to see if ANYONE would buy my writing, so I began writing magazine articles on spec, and writing for several local newspapers; two dailies and about five weeklies. Yes, they paid, but never enough. Still, it was excellent training to learn how to turn out the facts fast in a pleasing narrative. 

Name your writing influences. What AREN'T my influences? I'm a big TV watcher, I've always read books, I daydreamed and wrote, listened to music...everything around me has influenced me.  

When and where do you write? First thing when I get up in the morning, in my home office. I used to be able to write all day, but I'm a lot older now and don't have the energy to do that anymore. I used to have a max of 10 pages a day. Now it's down to five. I still end up with oodles of time for research and rewriting. I insist on having my publisher give me 9 months to write, but it usually takes me six. Two books a year is really my max. Any more than that and you begin to sacrifice quality.

What are you working on now? The third in my Tudor mystery series, the King's Fool Mysteries, with Henry VIII's real court jester Will Somers as the reluctant sleuth. This one features Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour. When I'm done with that, I will write my third in my Sherlockian pastiche, An Irregular Detective Mystery series, where a former Baker Street Irregular teams up with a friend to open a detective agency in late 19th century London, in the shadow of Sherlock Holmes himself.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? Not really. I don't call it that anyway. Sometimes you have to step back and let the story percolate (since I don't outline anymore. Or can't, really). I will write in a different location: my dining room, my backyard. But what seems best is to just let it go for several days and try NOT to think about it. It always seems that when you don't force it, it comes rolling out organically. But in the end, it is my job and so you must sit down and produce.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? Let me tell you the WORST writing advice. "Double the amount you receive on your advance to promote the book." DO NOT ever do this! I got into incredible debt, and I already make too little. Certainly not enough to live on on my own (I am a hybrid writer. I am traditionally published and self-published. Self-publishing AFTER you are established traditionally is MUCH better to get your name out there). 

What’s your advice to new writers? Certainly my best advice to new writers is to hone your craft. It will take time. Do NOT jump into self-publishing right away. You will make a career if you go with traditional publishers. Do NOT under any circumstances PAY to a vanity press to publish you. Remember, THEY PAY YOU, not the other way around. Try like the dickens to get an agent first so they can get you in the door of big publishers. You are only a debut author once, and publishers make a big deal out of that with extra publicity. But know that you will have the responsibility of promoting the book yourself: blog tours (don't ever pay for those. Network instead!), bookmarks, travel, genre fan conventions, etc. And most importantly, when you send in that manuscript, immediately start on the next book. If it's a series, sometimes that SECOND book will become the first if you can't sell the first one, so write the second with that in mind.

Los Angeles native Jeri Westerson currently writes two new series: a Tudor mystery series the King’s Fool Mysteries, with Henry VIII’s real court jester Will Somers as the sleuth and a Sherlockian pastiche series called An Irregular Detective Mystery, with one of Holmes’ former Baker Street Irregulars opening his own detective agency. She also authored fifteen Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mysteries, a series nominated for thirteen awards from the Agatha, to the Macavity, to the Shamus. She’s written several paranormal series (including a gaslamp-steampunk fantasy series), standalone historical novels, and had stories in several anthologies, the latest of which was included in South Central Noir, an Akashic Noir anthology. She has served as president of the SoCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, president and vice president for two chapters of Sisters in Crime (Orange County and Los Angeles), and is also a founding member of the SoCal chapter of the Historical Novel Society. See JeriWesterson.com for more info.