Q and A with Author Louise Penny

Mystery author Louise Penny will visit Brecksville tonight to speak to a full crowd at the .  

According to a media release from the Cuyahoga County Public Library, the event is full with 230 registrants, and the library is keeping a waiting list. The seventh book in Penny’s series, A Trick of the Light, was recently released. 

Penny took some time to answer a few questions from Brecksville Patch via email. Her answers are below. 

Brecksville Patch: What inspired you to start writing?

Louise Penny: I've wanted to write since I was eight and read Charlotte's Web, and was transported. As a lonely and shy little girl it was like a miracle.

Patch: When did you first realize that you could make a career out of writing?

Penny: Well, for years my husband, and our accountant, would ask how long I planned to be a tax deduction - so to be honest, it was only recently that I've stopped being a deduction and started actually paying tax!

Patch: What’s your favorite part of your job?

Penny: Those quiet moments writing in front of the fireplace, surrounded by poetry books, and dogs, and Michael. Things I love. And realizing the dream has come true. Those moments of unexpected joy and gratitude.

Patch: Do you identify with any of your characters? Why or why not?

Penny: I actually identify with all my characters - even (perhaps especially) the more rotten of the emotions. My books, while murder mysteries, aren't really about the crime but the impact on the community, and so the more in touch with those emotions I can be in myself the more alive I think my characters become. But of them all, Clara, the insecure but hopeful artist, is most like me.

Patch: What are you most looking forward to about your visit to Brecksville?

Penny: Meeting the people who have found Three Pines - and who read with both their heads and their hearts. It will be my first time in Brecksville, and I'm so looking forward to it!