Jeff Markowitz is the author of the Cassie O’Malley Mysteries, an amateur sleuth mystery series set deep in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. He loves to write early in the morning. You can usually find him at his computer at 5:30 in the morning plotting someone’s murder. When he’s not out looking for dead bodies, Markowitz keeps busy as the founder and Executive Director of a network of programs and services for adults with autism. He recently joined the board of directors of the New York chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. His new book, Death and White Diamonds, is out now.
- What is your writing routine?
When I’m writing well, I sleep poorly. I let ideas percolate all day. I’ll wake at 2:00 a.m. with a hundred or so words stuck in my head. I’ll commit them to memory and go back to sleep. At 5:30, I log onto the computer and use those hundred words to jump start a writing session. I’ll write for a couple of hours, before going to work.
- Tell us about your current project.
Rumor has it that I’m working on a bit of romantic suspense about an 80-year-old man dating 75-year-old twins and solving crimes.
- Which writers, living or otherwise, would you host at a dinner party and why?
Dr. Seuss and Tom Robbins. Because Dr. Seuss made me want to be a reader and Tom Robbins made me want to be a writer.
- What do you enjoy about your MWA membership?
I have learned so much at MWA, regarding both the craft and the business of writing, but what I enjoy most is the community itself.
Jeff, write fast. I want to read that book!