Interview with Rita Lee Chapman

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I’m pleased to post my first author interview, with mystery author Rita Lee Chapman (http://ritaleechapman.com). Welcome, Rita!

Thank you, Aspasia, for inviting me to your blog. It is lovely to have this opportunity
to talk to your readers.

Thanks for being here. Why don’t you start by telling us a bit about yourself?

I have lived most of my life in Australia, but I was born in London and migrated to
Australia in my early twenties. Before I retired I had started writing but never finished a novel. Of course in those days it was written on a typewriter so it required much more planning in terms of the storyline and also the formatting. It is so easy now with computers to turn paragraphs around or even to move whole chapters. I find the editing and formatting much harder and more time-consuming than the writing.

Editing is a chore for me, as well (I think many authors would agree). When did you write your first book?

It wasn’t until I retired and moved from Sydney to Queensland that I finished my first book, Missing in Egypt. This became Book 1 in the Anna Davies Mystery Series, followed by Missing at Sea and Missing in London. In between I wrote Dangerous Associations, a crime mystery, and Winston – A Horse’s Tale, one for horse lovers from teenagers upwards.

You’ve accomplished a lot since you retired. What do you do when you’re not writing?

I play tennis, walk on our lovely beaches or around the river or lakes, and swim. My husband and I are lucky to have a great circle of friends through our tennis club and spend many hours socialising, taking it in turns to cook for each other. We also enjoy travelling around Europe and this year drove around the South of France exploring the Loire Valley, the Dordogne, La Rochelle, Nice, Marseille and most places in between! Horses are still my passion, although I no longer ride.

Wow–can you take me on your next vacation? Where can readers find your books?

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