#WriterWednesday Interview with Gerald Elias
/
I’d like to welcome author and musician, Gerald Elias, to the blog!
Things you need for your writing sessions: Imagination, something to write with, coffee, and a window to stare out of when my brain goes blank.
Things that hamper your writing: Distractions, lack of ideas, no coffee, and thoughts of pastrami.
Hardest thing about being a writer: Promotion, marketing, learning how to brag about my work without sounding like I’m bragging.
Easiest thing about being a writer: Conjuring up the words –– sometimes even the right ones –– to create entertaining, occasionally thought-provoking stories.
Words that describe you: Willing to dive in, ethical, organized, hardworking.
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Rash, insistent, too goal oriented.
Favorite music or song: A Mozart piano concerto, Schubert string quintet, or a Bach violin sonata.
Music that drives you crazy: Bad Christmas music arrangements (which means just about all of the new ones), and just about anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Something you’re really good at: Playing music, talking at public events about music and writing, cooking (especially Italian).
Something you’re really bad at: Mountain climbing. I get dizzy too easily, and it scares the crap out of me when I look down and feel like I'm going over the edge. (Gulp.)
Last best thing you ate: I slow-cooked a brisket in the oven for 6 hours. It was so tender you could cut it with a fork. I’m drooling as I write. (Let me know if you want the recipe. It's amazingly easy.)
Last thing you regret eating: That last bite of brisket, leaving my plate with nothing left on it.
Things you’d walk a mile for: Exercise, fresh air, relaxation, a nice view, and especially if there’s a beer or coffee at the end of the mile.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: People talking nonstop about their health issues, i.e. “the organ recital.” Also, loud music, but that would be okay if it covered up the “organ recital.”
Things you always put in your books: Quirky and engaging characters, plot twists, and humor.
Things you never put in your books: One-dimensional characters, gore, gratuitous sex, or endless details about weapons of mass destruction.
Things to say to an author: Go for it! Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite! Enjoy the journey, whatever the destination.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Let me at least put up a good fight while saving a damsel in distress, and then leave a nice epitaph.
Favorite books (or genre): Thrillers by John le Carré, mysteries by Walter Mosley, Donna Leon, and Dick Francis, and adventures by Patrick O’Bryan.
Books you wouldn’t buy: Books on self-help, financial advice, pseudoscience, and The Art of the Deal.
People you’d like to invite to dinner: Mozart and Fani Willis.
People you’d cancel dinner on: Anyone who says they’ll vote for Donald Trump.
Favorite things to do: Go outside, write books, play music, drink coffee, and most of all, be a hands-on grandpa.
Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Filling out tax returns, but I don’t think the IRS will accept running through a fire or eating bugs as an excuse.
About Gerald:
Gerald Elias leads a double life as a critically acclaimed author and internationally recognized musician.
His award-winning Daniel Jacobus mystery series, beginning with Devil’s Trill, takes place in the dark corners of the classical music world. Murder at the Royal Albert, the eighth and most recent installment of the series, was described as a “clever, pacey entry” by Publisher’s Weekly. The audiobook version, featuring excerpts of live performances by the Boston Symphony and the author himself, received praised from AudioFile Magazine “as an altogether delightful listen.”
Elias has also penned two standalone novels: The Beethoven Sequence, a chilling political thriller, and Roundtree Days, a Jefferson Dance Western Mystery, which was a 2023 Silver Falchion Award finalist. His musical memoir, Symphonies & Scorpions, was the subject of his 2019 TEDx presentation. His essays and short stories have been featured in prestigious journals ranging from The Strad magazine to Coolest American Stories 2023. He has just signed a new deal with Level Best Books for two new mysteries, Murder on Vacation and Wild Horses.
A former violinist with the Boston Symphony and associate concertmaster of the Utah Symphony, Elias has performed on five continents and has been the conductor of Salt Lake City’s popular Vivaldi by Candlelight chamber orchestra series since 2004. In 2022, he released a groundbreaking recording of the Opus 1 violin sonatas of the Baroque virtuoso-composer, Pietro Castrucci, on Centaur Records.
Elias divides his time between his home on the shores of Puget Sound in Seattle and his cottage in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts, savoring the outdoors and maintaining a vibrant concert career while continuing to expand his literary horizons. He particularly enjoys winter, coffee, cooking, travel, watching sports, and being a hands-on grandpa.
Let’s Be Social:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gerald.elias
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EliasBooks/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geraldelias504/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerald-elias-6a67a0157/
Website: www.mysteriesandmusic.com
