Why do you write the genre that you write?
I started out as a screenwriting and film teacher and I’ve always loved screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby, Ball of Fire, or What’s Up Doc?, as well as rom/com adventures like Romancing the Stone or Charade. I wanted to try to write a book which captured that kind of feeling.

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?
Well, Cyd Redondo’s Uncle Leon is a taxidermist, so he has a few involving glass eyes, but perhaps animal activist Grey Hazelnut’s undercover work as a gigolo or his extensive wig collection might give Leon a run for his money.

Tell us how you got into writing?
It was a pretty circuitous route. I started out as a songwriter. Later I became a teacher and wound up teaching film and moving to Los Angeles to be a screenwriter. I did that with varying success for about fifteen years. Then, I’d written one script I loved, which didn’t sell, but travel agent Cyd Redondo stayed in my head. As I read more and more mystery series, I wondered whether she might be a different kind of amateur sleuth. So I joined Sisters in Crime, tried my hand at short crime fiction, then wrote my first novel, Lost Luggage, inspired by that script.

What jobs have you held before, during and/or after you became a writer?
Ha! A lot. They include stocking grocery shelves on the graveyard shift on Nantucket Island, singing in dive bars from Marathon Key to Estes Park, Colorado, being the only single female teacher and “dorm mother” at an all-male boarding school, covering the Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys as an entertainment reporter, being the director’s assistant on the film Young Guns, writing for A&E Biography, Showtime, Disney, and Wishbone, writing liner notes for Melissa Etheridge, and my favorite, writing the speech for Bonnie Raitt’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Where do you write?
Until the pandemic, I pretty much only wrote in restaurants, bars, and libraries. Now, I do write some at home in the early mornings, but it’s not my favorite, so I’m relieved to be getting back out in public.

What is your favorite deadline snack?
I’m not a snacker, though I alternate coffee and wine during deadline times. When I need real courage, I lean towards almost anything that’s a delivery system for tomato sauce and mozzarella.

Who is an author you admire?
Dozens and dozens. Even if I have to pick one, It’s still a tie between Flannery O’Connor and Henry James, who are, for me, two of the most astute (and in their own ways, hilarious) observers of human nature.

What’s your favorite genre to read?
I love all sorts of books, but in the last few years, I’ve leaned towards mysteries (everything from Ngaoi Marsh to hard-boiled), travel memoirs, and biographies.

What are you reading now?
Val McDermid’s 1989.

What is your favorite beverage to end the day?
A glass of red wine or a Mezcal cocktail.

What is next for you?
I’m almost done with the fourth Cyd Redondo book, tentatively titled Bali Why? I also have ideas for two more series, so I’m reading and kicking ideas around for those.

Where can we find you?
On my website: wendallthomas.com, on Facebook @CydRedondoMysteries, on Twitter and Instagram @ewendallthomas

Now to have some fun . . .

Chocolate or vanilla
Vanilla, especially on apple pie.

Cake or ice cream
Ice cream, especially on pie.

Fruits or vegetables
Vegetables.

Breakfast, lunch, or dinner
Dinner

Dining in or dining out
Dining out.

City life or country living
City

Beach or mountain
Can I pick desert?

Summer or winter?
Winter

Short story or full-length?
Novel

Extrovert or introvert?
Introvert

Early bird or night owl?
Early Bird

And even more fun . . .

What is your favorite movie?
I’m a movie freak and teach film, so it’s not possible for me to choose one. Even my top five change daily. Today, it’s Chinatown, What’s Up Doc?, Norma Rae, The Lady Eve, and In a Lonely Place.

You are stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?
Solar powered iPod, David Copperfield, eggplant parmesan.

My bio:
Wendall Thomas teaches in the Graduate Film School at UCLA, lectures internationally on screenwriting, and has worked as an entertainment reporter, development executive, script consultant, and film and television writer. Her first Cyd Redondo novel, Lost Luggage, was nominated for the Lefty and Macavity Awards for Best Debut Mystery of 2017. Her second, Drowned Under, was nominated for a Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery of 2019 and an Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original and Fogged Off was a finalist for Best Humorous Mystery of 2021. Her short fiction appears in the crime anthologies Ladies Night (2015), Last Resort (2017), the Anthony nominated Murder-A-Go-Go’s (2019), and the upcoming Crime Under the Sun (2023).