Demetra Brodsky

Demetra Brodsky is an award-winning graphic designer & art director turned writer. She has a B.F.A. from The Massachusetts College of Art and Design and lives in Southern California with her family of four and two lovable rescue dogs where she is always trying to make more time for the beach. Her new novel Dive Smack is dedicated to Pumpkin, the monarch butterfly she once saved from the brink of death. Once you read the book, you'll understand why.

Recently I asked Brodsky about what she was reading. Her reply:

This interview came at an odd time in my reading queue, because when I’m drafting I like to read non-fiction so the voice of whatever I’m reading doesn’t spill into my own writing. I’m currently working on a new thriller and reading two fascinating books as research for that novel. The first is The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America’s Coldest Cases by Deborah Halber. What’s interesting about this read is that there are so many people, including myself who listen to murder podcasts that the fascination with how cold cases are cracked has grown with the increased access to that knowledge. Naturally. Deborah Halber’s book paints individual portraits and opens with a case about a body that was found wrapped in a carnival tent and the man who’s been interviewed and questioned about Tent Girl since his discovery four decades earlier. The whole book gives readers a peek into the methods of armchair sleuths who are combing the Internet for answers on crimes that didn’t have that technology available to law enforcement when they were committed. Those strategies have been be helpful to me as a writer because I can pick out small ideas and weave them into a fictional search of my own, whether that’s going to be used finding a missing person or for clues to a crime. I recommend it to everyone who writes crime fiction, mysteries, or thrillers.

The second non-fiction I’m reading is titled The Girls Of Atomic City: The Untold Story Of The Women Who Helped Win World War II. I’m just getting into this one, but it’s about the women who were recruited from all across the United States to a city in the Appalachian Mountains that wasn’t on any maps. They came to work for the government on a secret project meant to help end the war, and by the title I’m sure you can guess what that secret project was. The women recruited weren’t allowed to talk about their work to anyone, not even each other, and it’s mind-boggling to me how readily they agreed to this work. At the time, though, money and jobs were scarce because of the war and many of these women saw this as a great opportunity to earn more than they might otherwise. Times haven’t changed that much in terms of wage equality, so it’s also understandable. I’d love to tell you more but I’m just getting started and anyway, I think it would ruin the shocking surprises that are layered throughout even if I could.

Visit Demetra Brodsky's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Demetra Brodsky & L.B. and Ponyboy Curtis.

The Page 69 Test: Dive Smack.

--Marshal Zeringue