Cathy Ace jokes she followed the advice given to many beginner writers to “write what you know” and the result was her university lecturer sleuth Cait Morgan - a short, plus-sized Welsh-Canadian who’s a bit bossy.”  Rather like Cathy herself!

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today Cathy talks about the personal loss that propelled her into writing fiction, why she loves puzzle mysteries and the one thing she would change if she was starting over.

Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

The jolt she needed to get writing

All about her early and serendipitous success

What she enjoys about being a Welsh Canadian

The new domestic suspense that's getting her excited

The writers she  most admires

And what she'd change if she were doing it all over again

Where to find Cathy Ace: 

Website:  http://cathyace.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cathy.ace.author

 Twitter @AceCathy

What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

Jenny: But now, here’s Cathy. .  Hello there Cathy and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.

Cathy: Thank you very much for inviting me along Jenny, it's a delight to be here.

Cathy Ace - mystery author

Jenny: Beginning at the beginning . . . .Was there a "Once Upon A Time" moment when you realised you had to write fiction or your life would somehow be incomplete? Was there a catalyst?

Cathy: You know, that's a really interesting question Jenny. There was a point, and there was a catalyst. Unfortunately, it was the death of my father that was the catalyst.

I think like so many people, the death of a parent suddenly makes us realise we're mortal. And if we're going to do something we feel passionate about, we should probably get off our backsides and do it. I had written one short story back in the 1980's and having had that published, and then having that recorded for BBC Radio - my parents and my family almost exploded with pride when it broadcast. The death of my father shortly thereafter did spur me on to say to myself, "if you're going to write crime fiction, get on with it". And so I did!

Jenny: Yes, and it's a pretty remarkable success with that very first short story too, and the fact that it got such prominence- that must have been very encouraging for starters!

Cathy: It was. To enter a competition with a short story, and to then have it published; it was fantastic. It then appeared on the GCSE English Language papers for British school students, which is what British school students do at 16 years old. It was just unbelievable.

That was back in the 80's and the 90's, and it wasn't until 2007 that that it was picked up and broadcast on BBC Radio. Despite that large gap, during which I ran a business, that fictional thread was quite the magical thread I think.

Jenny: You’ve now got two successful mystery series running . . . Cait Morgan, the academic with a photographic memory and a vulnerable past, and the WISE series – four women solving crimes from the office base of a Welsh stately home. Cait is an amateur sleuth and the WISE women are professional investigators. Can you talk a little about how these two different series originated. .

A WISE agency mystery from Cathy Ace

Cathy: What I wanted to do with these two different sets of characters was to go on the basis on what I know, and what I think most avid readers of crime fiction know.

Agatha Christie, she's my favourite author, and she has Miss Marple, the cosy sleuth, and Hercule Poirot, the intensely intelligent private investigator.

I sort of reversed those roles, in that my private investigators are much more cosy, albeit professional- and my cosy sleuth is much more brilliant. She's an academic, because at the time I wrote my first Cait Morgan mystery, I myself was teaching at a university and being a Welsh- Canadian and her...