Why do you write the genre that you write?
I write private eye mysteries because I love to read them. Beginning in middle school, I devoured Agatha Christie (Poirot, never Marple) and Conan Doyle, but also the classic traditional mysteries of Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, Elizabeth George, Ruth Rendell, and Dorothy L. Sayers. Later on, I loved P.D. James’ fantastic series featuring Inspector Adam Dalgleish. All of my favorite detectives were brooding, witty, reticent, troubled, relentless, charismatic, disaffected. They were always more mysterious than any case they tackled. Like Bronte’s Heathcliff, now that I think about it. I came to American authors Chandler, Hammett, Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky, Chester Himes, and the great Walter Mosley later in my mystery reading journey.

Tell us how you got into writing?
I still have a copy of the first “book” I wrote: a suspense-filled saga of a brave horse and the determined girl who saved him. I sold this classic for two cents at the spring school fair at the end of second grade. I never stopped writing after primary school: news articles in high school and college publications; professional reporting for daily newspapers; research for my doctorate in African history; reports from overseas posts during my years as a diplomat, memos and assessments during decades of academic administration. About a ten years ago, I turned my efforts to fiction writing again, this time in the form of fan fiction. I wrote over 60 stories in all genres – crime capers, character studies, erotica, humor. Posting those stories for a critical fan base was the toughest thing I have ever done. But the immediate feedback was invaluable. I learned how to shape readers’ responses, how to impact their understanding and emotions with my choices. I learned what worked and what didn’t. Finally, I turned those all those lessons to writing my own mystery series, featuring my own brooding and relentless private eye.

What’s next for you?
The fifth installment in my mystery series, Murder My Past, came out in February. I’ve sent to my team of beta readers the draft of book six, Murder Take Two. If everything goes as planned, I’ll work on revisions based on readers’ comments, then send the draft to my editor for further polishing this summer. I hope to publish Murder Take Two in early 2022. On the short story front, I will have a new story, “Talladega 1925,” published this spring in the Chicago Quarterly Review. This one isn’t exactly a crime story, unless you think a Ku Klux Klan night rider parade through your neighborhood is a crime.

What are you reading now?
I’m reading Aya de Leon’s delicious suspense thriller, A Spy in The Struggle. I’m looking forward to the next mysteries by Tracy Clark and Cheryl A. Head, out later this year.

Where can we find you?
Facebook: facebook.com/deliacpittsauthor
Instagram: @deliapitts50
Twitter: @blacktop1950
Archive of Our Own: blacktop (for fan fiction stories) 
Website: deliapitts.com

Now to have some fun . . .

Vanilla or chocolate
Vanilla ice cream, chocolate layer cake

Pizza or burgers
Pizza, deep-dish Chicago style

Broccoli or squash
Broccoli

Breakfast, lunch, or dinner
Breakfast

Mountain or beach
Beach

Introvert or Extrovert
Extrovert, because I am energized by interactions with people. Introvert because I can
happily spend hours (and days) alone writing. I’m sure there’s a name for this combo.

And even more fun . . .

You are stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?
The obvious answer is one motor boat and two full tanks of gasoline. But you mean something more personal. So, I’ll go with
1) a two-volume set of the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary
2) unbreakable reading glasses
3) lip balm

My bio:
Delia C. Pitts is the author of Murder My Past, the fifth entry in her contemporary noir mystery series featuring private eye SJ Rook. Her short story, “The Killer,” was published in the Chicago Quarterly Review, Vol. 31. She contributed the story, “A Deadly First,” to the new holiday crime anthology, Festive Mayhem. Delia is a former university administrator and U.S. diplomat. After working as a journalist in her home town, Chicago, she earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. She is active in Sisters in Crime and in Crime Writers of Color. Delia and her husband live in central New Jersey, too far from their twin sons in Texas.