
Lynn Sloan interviews Patricia Skalka, mystery novelist, for About Write, the craft column published by Off Campus Writers Workshop. The topic: “On Writing a Book Series: How’d She Do it?”
In 2022, long-time OCWW member Patricia Skalka published Death Casts a Shadow (University of Wisconsin Press), the last of her Dave Cubiak Door County Mysteries, a seven-book series that William Kent Krueger says, “is sure to satisfy even the most demanding reader.” With Death Casts a Shadow she has completed the series after garnering great reviews and a wide readership.
When you wrote your first book, Death Comes to Door County (UWP, 2014). did you envision writing a literary crime series involving an ex-Chicago cop?
“Series, no, not at all. … The thought of writing a series never occured to me; in fact, it was totally intimidating. However, as I worked on my manuscript, two things happened…” To read more: