Author Q&A: Angela M. Sanders

Today we're interviewing author Angela M. Sanders, who writes mysteries and cozy mysteries.

Sanders is the author of the bestselling Witch Way Librarian cozy mysteries and the Joanna Hayworth vintage clothing mysteries. As Clover Tate, she wrote the Kite Shop cozy mysteries. 

When Sanders isn’t at her laptop, she’s often lounging with a vintage crime novel at home in Portland, Oregon. 

SADYE: How did you come to see yourself as a writer, and what inspired you to seek publication?

When I was 12, my mother was carrying on with a Hell’s Angel and sent me to stay with my grandparents for the summer so I wouldn’t be underfoot. My grandparents took me camping with friends.

One night by the campfire, I watched a young woman tell a story, and I was captivated. It wasn’t the story that grabbed me — I don’t remember it at all — but the way she told it, how she pulled her audience with her, making them laugh, keeping them engaged until the story’s end.

I thought, Whoa. I want to be able to do that.

SADYE: Which of your characters would you most and least like to become romantically involved with?

ANGELA: I choose Sam Wilfred as the character I’d most like to be involved with.

I wrote him to be slightly eccentric and all the more attractive for it. The hotter-than-the-sun police detective — way too common in cozy mysteries — leaves me cold. In fiction as in real life, it’s a man’s quirks I fall for.

As for the character I’d least want to be romantically involved with, I suppose the murderers qualify. There was a hot tub salesman in Witch Upon a Star I wasn’t wild about, either.

SADYE: What has been the most touching or memorable piece of reader feedback you’ve received?

ANGELA: I have a reader who works for a world hunger organization. Every once in a while he emails from some different part of the world where there’s a crisis and tells me my stories help him unwind in the evening. I am deeply touched.

Plus, it blows my mind to think of my words on an e-reader in Nepal or Central Africa.

SADYE: What message or theme would you like readers to take away from your work?

ANGELA: My motto is “life is a glorious freak show” (and I say that with affection!). I would love it if my work brought readers a deeper appreciation for the wackiness, joy, and pathos in everyday life.

It’s easy to get caught in the trap of believing that a rich life is one filled with yachts, romance with billionaires, and vacations on private islands.

I believe life’s greatest joys are the quietly satisfying ones: an old friend of a coffee mug; pets; a laugh with a bestie; and the crazy things that take place every single day to every single person.

When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to step onto the porch of her trailer in the country and say, “What a beautiful day!” To me, it was just a regular day of sunshine, blackberry picking, and skipping rocks on the creek — no big deal.

Now, I understand where she was coming from. My stories take place in everyday worlds, and I hope to show readers just how extraordinary those worlds, and, by extension, their worlds, are.

SADYE: What advice, as relates to your writing career, would you give your younger self?

ANGELA: I would give my younger self the advice I give all new writers. It comes in two parts.

First, figure out why you want to write. If it’s for money, take up dog grooming, because it—and just about everything else—pays better. If it’s for fame and adulation, get a therapist. Basically, if it’s for anything other than the intrinsic joy of storytelling and continual learning, give it up. 

Part two: Write. You’re not a writer if you don’t write, so get to it.

Okay, one more: Be yourself. Your voice, your way of seeing the world is your authorial superpower. No one else can write you like you can.

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Learn more about Angela M. Sanders on her website, where her books can also be purchased, and follow her on Instagram.

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