Her interest in antiques is evident.  Her office and computer supplies are kept in an antique china closet.  There is a mini stereo system perched on top of her filing cabinets.  She confesses to playing a computer game before she starts writing each day, “to get in gear” and she always listens to a variety of music including jazz, classic, neo-classic, opera and show tunes when she is writing.

Judith: Yes. That was an absolute surprise. Apparently, Yacom Publishers in Seoul, South Korea just bought the limited rights from my publisher AmErica House. Yacom has the right to publish the novel in Korean and sell on the South Korean peninsula only

Carolyn:  Why do you suppose a Korean publisher would be interested in this particular book?

Judith: I am not really sure. I was told that they requested to see, review, and consider my book. I also know that along with “Night Crimes” they chose the books of at least two other mystery writers published by AmErica House. They were probably looking for American mysteries and “Night Crimes” and the other books impressed them.

Carolyn:  I know that AmErica House is a small house under the larger umbrella of Publish America and that they choose their books the traditional way and pay an advance to their authors.  Still, they are small.  Were you surprised that they sold foreign rights for your book?  How did they inform you?  Any other details?

Judith: Yes I was surprised, but there is a provision for it in my contract, so I was not totally floored.  They informed me through a nicely written letter.  I get two complimentary copies of the Korean version of “Night Crimes” and AmErica House gets one for their library. 

Carolyn:  Have you conned them into a Korean book tour?  Ha!

Judith: No. I think the book will have to be printed first, become popular, and Yacom buy more extensive rights before AmErica House sends me on a tour or Yacom offers me one. However, I am ready for a Korean book tour or any other book tour my publisher wishes to send me on.

Carolyn:  I know your husband is a retired Sergeant of Detectives.  How did he influence “Night Crimes”?

Judith: I don’t know if he influenced the story itself. However, being constantly exposed to the world of “ cops and robbers” it was only a matter of time before I began to write about that world.   Also, having a police sergeant for a husband meant that I was able to get help with police procedure and behavior.

Carolyn:  You take long walks in the woods near your house.  Many scenes in “Night Crimes” are set in the woods.  Did you take any of the settings in NC from your every day environment?

Judith: Yes.  All of the wood scenes are taken from the woods that make up part of my back yard and eventually merge into the state forest. The scenes in both Up State New York and in New York City are places I visit often.

Carolyn:  Are your long walks part of your writing/inspiration process?

Judith: Sometimes. But I love to walk in the woods and fields just because they are so beautiful at anytime of year. We have a lot of wildlife from coyotes to the average chubby brown bunny, and I love seeing them all.

Carolyn:  Share with us your teaching experience and how you think that has influenced your writing?

Judith: I taught English for over twenty years as an adjunct instructor at several colleges in New York City. I think my writing has been influenced by the fact that for a large part of my adult life, I was submerged in my native tongue. Teaching both English grammar and literature has made me very aware of all the nuances of language and how varied and flexible the English language really is.

Carolyn:  What about your Jamaican roots?  Do you feel they have been an influence on your choice of career?

Judith: My Jamaican background certainly influences many of my perceptions and along with my American experience determines how I react to situations. We are all products of our environment to a certain extent. However, I don’t think my Jamaican roots per se made me a writer. There are other people with similar roots who chose different careers.  However, my mother did encourage me at an early age to write down my stories, thus beginning my odyssey from age ten as writer.

Carolyn:  You once told me about your mother reading and acting out parts of “Paradise Lost” to you when you were a child.  That seems like very advanced material for a child!  How did this kind of rearing influence you as a writer?

Judith: It fueled my imagination. I saw words become flesh and blood and take on a separate life of their own, one that Milton did not intend for them. To me “Paradise Lost” will always conjure images of my mother prancing around the room becoming the different characters within the pages of the book.
 

Carolyn:  What brought you to New York?

Judith: I originally came to New York for two reasons, because my elder sister was here and to attend University. If my sister had not been in New York, I would have gone either to Oxford or the University Of The West Indies both of which accepted me. Of course, my life would now be very different, and I would write different books.

Carolyn:  I also know that you do a lot of research for your books.  I mostly write about things I know that take very little research so I am naturally curious about our differences in this area.   Can you share with us what informs your choices and how you do your research, any little tricks or interesting anecdotes?

Judith: Well, I also start off with familiar things, situations that are plausible and within my scope to research. For instance, the new mystery that I am now working on started because I was thinking about a friend who was once a police officer who had spent time in a mental hospital while still on the force. I began to think, what if he had been sent in there to investigate a case.  I then began my research by questioning him about his time in the hospital and by reading literature about different mental institutions and interviewing hospital staff. As the story evolved, I researched many different things from the varied types of drugs used in the treatment of mental illness, to hospital procedure, to secret societies and so on.

I often begin my research when and idea first strikes me and then disregard it or pursue it further as the novel evolves.  I have access to police sources, and this is helpful since I write mysteries. But my stories encompass many other situations, so I follow where the story leads and research what I have to. The Internet is a great help. There really are no tricks; I generally advise against researching things that don’t interest you or the research will be boring and frustrating.

Carolyn:  I am intrigued by the characterization in “Night Crimes”.  How did you make your characters whole, bring them to life as you did?

Judith: I based the characters on my own experience of people.  I am always watching and listening to different types of people, how they move, how they speak, and how they act under different circumstances.

Carolyn:  “Night Crimes” is not your first book.  Tell us a bit about your first.

Judith: My first novel “Fablesinger” was a fantasy of myth and magic set in the Caribbean.

Carolyn:  That is a drastic change in genre.  Why did you do that?  Is there a story behind that change?

Judith: I did not consciously think of the change. After, I finished “Fablesinger” I wrote another novel that I did not publish. This novel had both elements of magic and mystery in it. The story of “Night Crimes” followed and evolved in to a mystery/ suspense tale.

Carolyn:  What are you writing now?

Judith: I am working on another mystery called “Terrible Truths” featuring a female detective.

Carolyn:  I've heard your broadcasts on the Book Crazy Radio Network.  Tell me a little about the review work you do.

Judith: I have a show called “Old Treasures and New Gems” where I review a variety of books ranging from science fiction and mysteries to popular science.
Many of the books were first written many years ago while others are fresh off the press, hence the name of the show.

Carolyn:  Are there any other branches on your writing tree that you'd like to share?

Judith: Yes, I have a nonfiction piece called “The Metaphysical Physician” in the anthology “Voices From The Couch” published by AmErica House in 2002. I am also reworking a short story.

Carolyn:  Is there anything else that you'd like to tell your readers that I haven't covered?

Judith: I think you covered just about everything. The only other thing I can think of saying is that if any of the readers are writers who have not yet been published, they should not give up but keep on writing and sending out material until they find a publisher who sees the value in their work.

Book Review
 NIGHT CRIMES
By Judith Woolcock Colombo
AmErica House, Baltimore - April 2001
ISBN: 158851174X
Thriller Suspense
Reviewed: 2001

Reviewed by: Carolyn Howard-Johnson , MyShelf.com
Buy it at Amazon

     Night Crimes is as much about love as it is about insanity, as much about psychology as it is about crime.  It's also about soul, self-expression and art. 

     All that makes it a lot more than a tense thriller for a lonely night.  Still, although no one gets cannibalized in Night Crimes, in terms of pure terror, this is a novel that will give Silence of the Lambs a run for its money. 

      Colombo not only writes us into the heads of a sweet-souled cop, an artistically edgy mother and wife but also into the very minds of a psycho or two.  Well, OK. More than two.  One is an artist, the other a poet; both love their victims. As readers we get to compare their motives, their reasoning, their modus operandi.  We come to respect their talents and their humanity; we are angered by their lapses in reasoning, their uncontrolled insanity. 

     My favorite villain--if you can call him that--is an observer of the night.  He is a poet, though he may not be aware of this talent  (He views himself as God's instrument for death).  Still, he treats us to simple poetic descriptions of his world: "The moon paints patterns on the water's surface," he says.   He is a bard with an intimate knowledge of death: "The desire for death cannot be a passing whim.  It is an unreturnable gift."  He knows death up close, can feel it, express it, smell it. If you are a curious sort, 
you'll want to experience death the way he sees it and tells it. 

      If some Hollywood producer doesn't pick this up to chill the summer of 2002, it's their loss. It can be ordered at www.publishamerica.com.  -----

Interviewer and Reviewer, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, is the author of This is the Place and  Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered.

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