By: Nancy Tan <[email protected]>

How did you get involved with being a co-editor?

I went to Donato’s one day and realized that there was a new book store by Donato’s called The Mystery Company. When I went to Donato’s, the place was closed since they close at 6 p.m. After about a month, I finally went inside the bookstore and bought a few books and met the owner, Jim Huang, and we became friends. I went back several times, not only to buy books, but to participate in discussion events and meet different authors. I started to work there a little bit, and then Jim came up with the brilliant pitch of ‘Do you want to do a lot of work for no money?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ That’s how the whole thing started.

Do you like mystery in general?

I do. I liked mysteries even before I went to the (store). My whole family reads. I put more of a personal emphasis, even though everyone seems to disagree with me, on plot than on the characters. I appreciate an intricate plot more than an intricate character. Mysteries do a very good job with that.

What is Mystery Muses about?

We had an event where authors came and talked about what inspired them. This discussion led to the book version of Mystery Muses. We have a hundred published authors talk about the classic novels that inspired them. (The book is) a hundred different essays on a hundred different books. That’s what Mystery Muses is, basically: a collaboration of all the essays.

What did you learn through the editing process?

I realized that this was a very unique opportunity for the authors to almost step off their pedestal. Authors are seen as, ‘Whoa. They wrote a book. They probably know what they’re talking about,’ but Mystery Muses had them as they once were, as readers. They’re talking passionately about the books they really like, and that’s what I thought was really cool. The authors seem like people again, which is always a good thing.

How did you feel when the book gained so much recognition?

It was really cool. Jim is a popular guy within the field. I didn’t realize until I started working at the store how everyone who works with mystery knows him. He just won another Anthony for special recognition at the Bouchercon convention. I was a bit shocked to see the book mentioned in The Wall Street Journal. It was cool to see the national attention for it.

During the editing process, what were the ups and downs?
When working with a big group of people, especially with a group of 100, it’s hard to get everything in on time. Our own deadlines are a problem. We accidentally assigned the same book to two different people, so we had to choose which one to use. We worry about the editing techniques. We want to keep the authors’ voices, and not form our own voices, just to kind of show the authors as different people. But it was great reading these essays. It really was great to see the introduction for these authors to the mystery genre.

Which one stood out to you the most?

Wow. There are 100 of them. Parnell Hall is an author I really like. He wrote a book called The Baxter Trust. It is one of my favorite books of all times. Of course, no one read it and it’s now pretty much out of print. It’s a hilarious book. Parnell Hall wrote about The Case of the Counterfeit Eye by Erle Stanley Gardner. Michael Koryta also wrote a good one on Dennis Lehane’s Gone, Baby Gone.

What did you get out of the process of putting out a book?

I learned a whole lot from working there. It’s a lot of indirect learning for me, like this is how the writing process works and how the business aspect works. I’m learning the process of something I really am interested in. This is my dream job. I don’t think it might be everyone else’s dream job, since I’m not getting giant paychecks. This is something I love to do.

Any other comments?

One of my favorite cities is Austin, Texas, and I’m not being egotistical. They try so hard to keep independent stores alive and running and prevent them from being gulfed up by Barnes and Nobles. They had a campaign called “Keep Austin Weird…Please Support Local Businesses,” which I do have a shirt for that I wear. With the independent stores, the people there know the books. I love going to The Mystery Company, and I really walk out of The Mystery Company later than I expect because of conversations with the people there. It does so much for the community with books discussions and bringing authors here.