James Ziskin’s Ellie Stone mystery series gives us genre fiction that's intelligent and entertaining - in spades - and he's got a slew of awards to prove it.

Hi there, I'm your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Jim talks about his heroine Ellie, a hard drinking, free wheeling "girl reporter" turned investigator, who carves out the life she wants for herself in up state New York in the 60s, regardless of the obstacles.  Think Helen Gurley Brown meets Murder She Wrote.

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

How "Bad" writing may be a necessary prelude to "good" work

Waiting till age 53 to publish his first book

What it's like having a 'high functioning alcoholic' as a heroine

Why James no longer bothers to defend 'genre' fiction

The two new writers he admires most

And the two things he did for writing success

Where to find James Ziskin:

Website: https://jameswziskin.com/

Twitter: @jameswziskin

What follows is a "near as" transcript of the conversation in full with links to many of the key books and events discussed.

Jenny: And now, here's Jim Hello there Jim, and welcome to the show, it's great to have you with us.

Jim: Hello, Jenny I'm very happy to be here

James Ziskin -Mystery author

Jenny: You had a very interesting career before you became a full time writer, so was there a particular catalyst  that made you think I want to sit down and write a book - and if so what was it?.

Jim: Well I think that goes back to my personal history. I've always wanted to be a writer.  I published my first book,  Styx and Stones, at the age of 53, which seems to be quite late, but I wrote my first novel when I was twelve and then I wrote another one a few years later, and another one in grad school.

But then what happens is that life takes over, you get a job, you have your studies and you put things off. So the catalyst goes back to my tender youth and it took a long time.  I needed to learn things and stop being lazy, and so what prompted me to finally say I want to attack this writing thing,  I was approaching 50 and I thought "well if I don't do this now when will I do it?"

So I got on my horse and finished finished Ellie Stone and submitted it to agents. I managed to snag an agent and although he never sold that first book, he's sold seven books since, all in the Ellie Stone mystery series,

Jenny: Those first trial books - you didn't attempt to get those published?

Jim:  The first book when I was twelve  - it was a terrible, awful book, the kind of thing that a 12 year old writes, but it was long enough to be a book, it just wasn't very good, and the second one the same.

These were all historicals - I've always been deeply interested in history. The third one was a big historical set in Paris during World War II and it was better, but still not good enough.  But by then I was in my mid- 20s and embarking on a career, so the writing did take a back seat for many years.

Maybe ten years after that I started getting interested in writing mysteries and I worked on a couple of those - that were good enough to get an agent but they never sold - that was in the nineties - They were OK.  But you get married, you move to a new city, and things get in the way. And that's when I wrote the first Ellie Stone, Styx and Stone.

Jenny: And that book - how long did that take you to do?

Ellie Stone series - Book One

Jim: Oh I say about three years - and I'd been thinking about it for many years and even starting  - in fits and starts to write it, but now I don't have that luxury  Many writers have that experience especially, if it's a series and I am on a pace of about one book a year.

Jenny:  Talking about Ellie, the sixth is coming out this year I think . . .. Ellie is in her early twenties, referred to often by others in the books as a “girl reporter” on a local newspaper in upstate New York. It’s the very early 60's, and she drinks lots of whisky,