About Joni M. Fisher:
After working decades in journalism, Author Joni M. Fisher turned to crime. She writes suspenseful stories of friendship, family, faith, and crime featuring heroines who don't wait to be rescued. Her Compass Crimes series has won awards from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Christian Indie Book Awards, Reader’s Favorite Book Awards, Kindle Book Awards, the Royal Palm Literary Awards, and others. A member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and the Florida Writers Association, she also served on the Arts and Humanities Advisory Board for Southeastern University. As an instrument-rated private pilot, she reports for General Aviation News. Her fingerprints are on file with the FBI.
What inspires you to write?
I enjoy discovering what makes outliers, misfits, and geniuses tick and seeing life from new perspectives. It takes enormous courage to be an individual and embrace one's uniqueness when the world wants conformity in thought, word, and action. Believing in God is rebellious and goes against the flow of the world.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
A sampling of my favorite authors: Richard Adams, Aesop, Mitch Albom, Louisa May Alcott, Isabel Allende, Poul Anderson, Piers Anthony, Aristotle, Isaac Asimov, Margaret Atwood, Jane Austin, David Baldacci, J. M. Barrie, Dave Barry, L. Frank Baum, Samuel Beckett, Peter Benchley, Steve Berry, Maeve Binchy, Ben Bova, Ray Bradbury, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Charlotte Bronte, Geraldine Brooks, Dan Brown, Sandra Brown, Edna Buchanan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Meg Cabot, Erskine Caldwell, Taylor Caldwell, Truman Capote, Orson Scott Card, Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Raymond Chandler, Anton Chekhov, Lee Child, Agatha Christie, Winston Churchill, Tom Clancy, Mary Higgins Clark, Arthur C. Clarke, Beverly Cleary, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Jackie Collins, William Congreve, Joseph Conrad, Robin Cook, Patricia Cornwell, Michael Crichton, E. E. Cummings, and Clive Cussler… My go-to genres are mystery and literary.
Tell us about your writing process.
I'm an outliner, but I begin with a character and a crime. From there, I dive into research online, at the library, and then by interviewing experts to learn more. After immersion, new ideas emerge and shape the story.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Have you seen the movie The Man Who Invented Christmas? It's about Charles Dickens's writing of A Christmas Carol. During the process, the characters talk to and haunt him. This is the closest depiction of the process I've ever seen.
What advice would you give other writers?
Read the bestsellers in the genre you want to write and analyze them. Read the classics in the genre and then read everything you enjoy. Write the book you would love to read because you'll be spending a year or more with it.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I was about to sign with an agent, but then she returned to her previous job at a publishing house. Rather than face the agent hunt again, I self-published my first series. Now, I'm looking for an agent again because I found one I adore. I've written the first book in the new series and outlined the others. I sent a book proposal, and now I am waiting. I've done as much as I can solo. I want to go bigger. Perhaps a publishing house can do that.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
The industry is changing so quickly that it makes my head spin. The hardest part for me was learning which readers would love my books. I thought they were mainstream suspense, but my style is closer to classic mystery. Readers want a great story, and with more genre crossovers, connecting them with the stories they are likely to love can be challenging.
What genres do you write?: mystery, Christian fiction, contemporary
What formats are your books in?: eBook, Print
Website(s)
Joni M. Fisher Home Page Link
Link To Joni M. Fisher Page On Amazon
Link to Author Page on BookBub
Your Social Media Links
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
