Now it’s time to learn more about the authors we read. . .

What drew you to the genre you write?
I fell in love with mysteries when I was a little girl, reading Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, and there are two reasons I love mysteries. One is the sense of justice they give—so many bad things happen out in the world that we can’t fix, it’s nice to sit with a warm cup of coffee or tea and dive into something where I know justice will come out right in the end. The second part is I’ve always loved solving puzzles, so it was a natural step to start trying to create puzzles for other people to solve…and it turns out the puzzle of writing a good puzzle is the most fun kind of puzzle to solve!

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?
I think the quirkiest quirk of any character in The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco is the fact that Capri likes to eat sweet pickles when she’s nervous or trying to think. I personally love sweet pickles and would eat them like candy if the sugar wasn’t so bad for me!

How did you come up with your pseudonym?
For The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco, I don’t use a pseudonym. For my other series, the detective Jo Fournier Thrillers, I use a sort of pseudo-ish pseudonym because I go by my initials, M.M. Chouinard.

Tell us how you got into writing?
I don’t really know! Once among some old papers I found a poem that I wrote when I was in grammar school (and it was just as bad as you’d predict for that age!). My first short story was published in the local newspaper when I was 8 (and it won me a prize). So, I loved writing even back before I can remember starting to write. But in terms of how I got into writing professionally, that happened About 15 years ago while I was researching my family tree. I came across the story of an infamous great-great-great-great aunt of mine who had murdered two of her husbands in the 1700s, and of course I wanted to believe that she was either falsely accused or had done it out of self-defense. So I turned that into a short story imagining what might have happened, and that became the springboard for the first novel I wrote (which is still unpublished…)

What jobs have you held before, during and/or after you became a writer?
Most recently, I was one of the founding faculty members at UC Merced. Before that, I worked all sorts of jobs to put myself through school, from mortgage lending to retail to even fast food when I was in high school.

How many books do you have published?
I currently have 10 books published: eight books in the Jo Fournier series, one standalone thriller called The Vacation, and now The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco. The second book in the Serial Killer Guide series is due out in fall of 2025,tentatively titled A Tour to Die For.

Where do you write?
Mostly I write at home, in my office or my living room or in my backyard, depending on the time of year. But I also do like to go out and write in cafes and parks for a change of scenery.

What is your ideal time to write?
I’m part vampire—I do my best writing at night, and my very best writing after midnight.

What is your favorite deadline snack?
Anything with caffeine, coffee, coffee, more coffee. Tea. Diet Coke. Chocolate covered espresso beans. Any and all of it!

What’s your favorite genre to read?
Crime fiction is my favorite genre to read; within that my favorite subgenres are mysteries and thrillers. But I read just about every genre there is, especially nonfiction, because I love true crime and biographies. Basically, anything that gives me insight into people…

What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
I can decorate a cookie by hand to look exactly like any one of my book covers. If you don’t believe me, check me out on the ‘Gram…

What is your favorite beverage to end the day?
Cinnamon tea.

Who is an author you admire?
So many! I love Agatha Christie for her ability to write a twisty plot. I love Sue Grafton for her ability to create a main character that I would have loved to hang out with in real life. I love Dan Brown’s ability to create tension and suspense to the point where it’s impossible to put the book down. And Douglas Adams will always be one of my favorite authors because The Hitchhiker’s Guide was the first time I laughed out loud while reading a book—not just once, but continually throughout.

Have you any advice for aspiring or beginning writers?
I have two pieces of advice that I think are hugely important for writers looking to be published. The first piece of advice is to finish that book! There are so many fears that our brain will throw at us that try to derail our progress and convince us that it’s better to just rework the beginning for the twelfth time, or add in another subplot, or go back to that one problem scene rather than write the actual ending. So ignore all those voices, finish that book, then come back and edit it later once you have a complete draft—you’ve got to slay that initial dragon to fully believe in yourself.

The second piece of advice is to always remember that publishing is a business. You love your book, and rightfully so. It’s your baby, it took you forever to write it, and it’s a piece of your heart. But for everybody else who will be evaluating it, the question they’re asking is whether the book will make money, plain and simple. You have to be able to understand that and look at your novel through that lens if you’re going to be a successful author.

What are you reading now?
I just finished Every Time I Go on Vacation, Somebody Dies by Catherine Mack, and I just started Peter Swanson’s A Talent for Murder.

What is next for you?
The next book in the Serial-Killer Guide series, tentatively titled A Tour to Die For, is due out fall of 2025. In the meantime, I’m writing a standalone psychological thriller that I’ve titled The Inheritance about a family who finds themselves on a weeklong retreat battling to see who’ll inherit their mother’s vast fortune.

Where can we find you?
At my website mmchouinard.com or via my linktree at linktr.ee/mmchouinard.

Now to have some fun . . .

Breakfast, lunch, or dinner
All the food all the time, please

Fruits or vegetables
Fruit!

Chocolate, vanilla, or another flavor
Chocolate

Sweet or salty snacks
Sweet

Ice cream or cake
Cake

Cooking or baking
Baking

Dining in or dining out
Dining out

City life or country living
City life

Beach or mountain
Both. That’s why I live in the Bay Area, so I can have both in the same day if I want!

Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall
Fall, then winter

Extrovert or introvert
Extroverted introvert

Early bird or night owl
Night owl

And even more fun . . .

What is your favorite movie?
Memento, My Cousin Vinnie, and The Shawshank Redemption are some of the best storytelling ever

You are stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?
My Kindle, a never-ending source of chocolate, and my family (husband and fur babies).*Not necessarily in that order…

My bio:
Michelle Chouinard (M.M. Chouinard) is the USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author behind The Detective Jo Fournier thrillers, the standalone psychological thriller The Vacation, and the amateur-sleuth series The Serial-Killer Guide to San Francisco. She has a Ph.D in developmental psychology from Stanford and was a founding faculty member at U.C. Merced; she loves animals, coffee, amateur genealogy, and anything to do with Halloween, Serial Killers, or the zombie apocalypse.