Interview with Colby Marshall

Welcome, Colby Marshall, to the Garden today. It’s my favorite time of year. Not only is it time for football, it’s fall and Halloween is coming up! It’s still warm out so fill you’re plates and settle in and let Colby entertain everyone.

Mary: Colby, please tell us a bit about yourself. Something we can’t find on your web site bio.

Colby: Well, I'm 5'1", blonde, and I have a penchant for pink. That said, to be such a girly girl, my favorite books have always had at least one dead body in the first chapter (if not the first page), and that style has shaped the type of thriller I write today. So, I think of my style as a girly writer who pens gory thrillers, thus the way I started describing my 'brand': Glitter and Gore.

Mary: I know that you went to ThrillerFest (I will have a link here) this year, and since this is one of my must do conferences—sometime in the future, please tell us about your experience.

Colby: Thrillerfest was by far the most beneficial, worthwhile conference I've been to. It not only gives you a chance to network with some of the biggest names in the business, but I also attended Agentfest, where I was able to pitch my newest work in progress to agents. I left that day with requests in the double digits, and I'd gotten some valuable experience in live-pitching. As it turned out, the Publisher's Marketplace Announcement for my deal for my debut Thriller, CHAIN OF COMMAND, appeared in the Publisher's Marketplace the day I was pitching agents, so that certainly didn't hurt.

Mary: Columnist, tell all please…

Colby: I write a featured column for M Food and Culture, a local magazine. I write the Backstage article, which is perfect for me since I'm active in local theatres as an actress and choreographer. It's a nice way to get the shows in the community some extra publicity in hopes of boosting ticket sales, as well as expose readers to sides of theatre they might not be familiar with. Theatre became my home away from home after college, and I love putting it out there for people to know it's a place they can go. You have to pay to do so many "hobbies," but community theatre is free!

Mary: Here’s another tell all please, Ballerina?

Colby: I'm actually a latin ballroom dancer. My parents put me in ballet lessons at 2, and I fell in love with dance from that moment. As I grew up, however, the movie Dirty Dancing caught my eye. I saw backless dresses, swishy skirts, and girls dancing with Patrick Swayze, and I knew that was the dance for me. Ever since, I geared my dance training toward competitive ballroom, specializing in American Rhythm such as cha cha cha, rumba, and east coast swing.

Mary: What type of books do you write? Or plan on writing in the future.

Colby: I write thrillers and suspense, mostly, but the better answer is probably whatever comes into my head! I tend to write books that are a bit more gory than my grandmother might've liked. Most people expect a 5'1" blonde girl who loves glitter and pink to write chick-lit, but my stuff usually has more guns and explosives than shopping bags. Though I do like to think that even though my female MCs are badasses, they'd still rock a really great pair of heels when not on the run from the FBI. At some point, though, I do hope to write a story more along the women's fiction line that happens to be something based on an idea my mother and I have of something we'd like to do in real life.

Mary: What is ‘Writer’s Realm’? And how would we find it if we wanted too?

Colby: The Writer's Realm is a section of my website in which I address questions from and give advice to aspiring writers about the process of writing and how they can go about learning about the publishing industry. Just head to www.colbymarshall.com and click the Writer's Realm tab. It is a fairly new part of the website, so it doesn't have a lot of content, but stay tuned: more is being added to it as we speak!

Mary: Where can your fans find you? You know your web site, etc.

Colby: As I said, my website is at www.colbymarshall.com. There, you can find more info on my books and my blog, "Sugar, Spice, and Bodies on Ice," among other things. On my website, you'll also find links to my facebook fan page and my twitter feed, where you can get to know me and some more fun facts from the books. I love to interact with followers, and I always respond to comments, messages, and @replies on twitter. You can also find me on tumblr at www.authorcolbymarshall.tumblr.com.

Mary: I know that you have a book contract, so tell us a bit about your book. What is the tentative release, etc.

Colby: Chain of Command, my debut thriller, is a about what happens when the president and vice-president of the United States are assassinated simultaneously, causing the Speaker of the House—a woman—to be rocketed into the presidency, making her the first female president. It will be published by Stairway Press in 2013, though I don't have the exact release date at this time. We'll know more after this first round of editing.

Thank you, Colby, for joining us here in the garden today. I hope when your book is released you join us again, and catch us up on what’s been going on with you!