The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz

THE SPELLMANS STRIKE AGAIN

by Lisa Lutz

Commercial Fiction
Simon & Schuster
www.LisaLutz.com

5 autographed copies will be given away on Friday, March 26, 2010






About the Book:

At the ripe old age of 32, former wild child Isabel "Izzy" Spellman has finally agreed to take over the family business. Let's just say the transition won't be a smooth one.

Her first priorities as head of Spellman Investigations are to dig up some dirt on the competition—slippery ex-cop Rick Harkey—and to track down a stolen screenplay called The Snowball Effect. Next, faced with a baffling missing-persons case at the home of an aging millionaire, Izzy hires an actor friend to infiltrate the mansion as an undercover butler. Only he enjoys the role a little too much.

Meanwhile, Izzy is being blackmailed by her mother, who threatens to distribute photographic evidence of Prom Night 1994 unless Izzy commits to regular blind dates with promising professionals—an arrangement that doesn't thrill Connor, an Irish bartender on the brink of becoming ex-boyfriend #12.

At Spellman headquarters, it's business as unusual. Doorknobs and light fixtures are disappearing every day, Mom's been spotted crying in the pantry, and a series of increasingly demanding Spellman Rules (Rule #27: No Speaking Today) can't quite hold the family together. Izzy also has to decipher weekly "phone calls from the edge" from her octogenarian lawyer Morty, as well as Henry Stone's mysterious interest in rekindling their relationsh ... well, whatever it was.

Just when it looks like things can't go more haywire, little sister Rae's internship, researching pro bono legal cases leads the youngest Spellman to launch a grass-roots campaign that could get an innocent man out of jail—or land her in it.

Exclusive Interview with the Author:

1) After this many books, how do you keep the content and story fresh? For you and your readers?

This is a constant struggle for anyone who writes a series book. In the case of the Spellman series, it’s especially challenging because I can’t resort to the usual murderous tropes of the crime novel. To keep things fresh, I age my characters. With each book there’s something new happening in their lives. I also try to think about what I want to say thematically and I try to avoid using the same shtick again and again.

2) What kind of research did you have to do to bring this story to life on the page?

The previous books didn’t require much research. On occasion I consulted with the PI firm where I used to work to fact-check aspects of the job, but that was about it. But in The Spellmans Strike Again, I included a storyline about Rae working to exonerate a man named Levi Schmidt who was wrongfully incarcerated years ago (see freeschmidt.com). I read a book called Wrongly Convicted: Perspectives on Failed Justice and consulted with the Innocence Project. I became quite moved by the work they do. Their website, www.innocenceproject.org, explains the elements that allow this injustice to occur.

3) What fictional character would you like to have coffee with?

Jeeves, and I’d ask him to tidy up a bit afterwards.

4) How do you come up with your character names?

I struggle with this. When it comes to naming ability, I think you either have it or you don’t. I’m happy with the names of the Spellmans themselves (which only took me a couple of agonizing weeks to come up with), but for minor characters, I’ve been known to seek outside help. I used to email my friend Dave with a description of the character; he’d email back with a name. Lately I’ve been using the fake names in my Gmail spam folder.

5) Thinking back to the way beginning, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned as a writer from then to now?

Forget about what other writers are doing. There are no rules; there is no template. Things didn’t really get rolling for me until I decided to write something that I’d want to read.

About The Author:

Lisa Lutz grew up in Southern California. After graduating high school, she attended UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine, University of Leeds in England and San Francisco State University, although she still does not have a bachelor's degree.

Lisa spent most of the 1990s hopping from a string of low-paying odd jobs while writing and rewriting a mob comedy called Plan B. After it was made in 2000, Lisa vowed she would never write another screenplay. She began working on The Spellman Files in January of 2004. In the fall of that year, she drove across the country and moved into a 200-year-old house in the town of Westernville, New York (pop. 300). It was there Lisa shoveled snow and wrote the bulk of her first novel.

After her months in Westernville, Lisa returned to the west coast—and moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco to Seattle where she stayed for a while to write Curse of the Spellmans. Lisa then moved back to San Francisco to write Revenge of the Spellmans and The Spellmans Strike Again. She’s planning on staying put for a while. Visit the author online at: www.LisaLutz.com

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