Mulholland Press Day

Photo by Nick Gordon

Today I am proud and honored to have Miriam Parker, the Marketing Director for Mulholland Books at Little, Brown and Company on my blog. She studied Creative Writing at University of North Carolina at Wilmington and lives in New York and is a wonderful person to be in contact with. I found her via another contact and it has been 5 years that we have been communicating and I have been reviewing books for her. Read my interview with her below, she is a fascinating person and I always enjoy our email chats.

Some Background First - Mulholland Drive is a winding stretch of road that follows the ridgeline of the Hollywood Hills. Its hairpin turns, sharp cliff-faces and breathtaking views of Los Angeles are shrouded in secrecy and imbued with drama, making them synonymous with suspense. The mysteries of Mulholland have inspired countless novels, films and works of art, from the classic mysteries of Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain to the voices of James Ellroy, Michael Connelly, Michael Mann, David Lynch and David Hockney.

Mission - The goal of Little, Brown’s Mulholland Books is simple: to publish books you can’t stop reading. Whatever their form—crime novels, thrillers, police procedurals, spy stories, even supernatural suspense—the promise of a Mulholland Book is that you’ll read it leaning forward, hungry for the next word. With a focus on online community building, internet marketing and authentic connections between authors, readers and publisher, Mulholland Books will be at the center of a web of suspense.

The history of suspense is long and storied, and Mulholland Books is proud to be part of its future. Unexpected, fresh, and with a 21st century approach to publishing, meet Mulholland: you never know what’s coming around the curve.

I personally can’t pick a favorite author as I love them all but I am going to give not one but four books in this week’s contest. Leave a comment (don’t forget to give me your email address) and you will automatically be entered to win.

I also have had the pleasure of interviewing Miriam for this salute and wanted to share with you her thoughts on everything Mulholland….

You and I met through a set of circumstances that turned my reviewing career around for me and gave it purpose and I still thank you for it all these years later. So needless to say I am a firm believer in destiny and winding up where you are supposed to be in life. Do you think that is true for you and your career in the publishing industry? I certainly believe in fate to some degree, what is meant to happen does tend to happen. But I also believe in hard work. One of the reasons that you and I are still in touch is that you are a really diligent reader and blogger and have constantly looked for new ways to promote your reviews.

Please don’t say the name, but tell me if you have met an author that you truly admired and were the biggest fan of and so excited to meet? I have definitely been very lucky to meet so many amazing authors!!! One of my most favorite authors came to teach at my graduate school. She was one of those people who I always knew would be my friend, a kindred spirit if you will, and we did become quite good friends and she has been very good to me. I’ve also, of course, totally embarrassed myself in front of authors I thought were amazing. But I played it cool in that grad school situation.

New York in my mind is all Sex and the City but I imagine the reality of it is that life there is like anywhere else. Do you feel this is true or does NYC have a magic the rest of the country misses out on? I’ve lived in New York, North Carolina and Virginia and I can say that all of these places have had a glamour to them in some ways and an every-dayness to them as well. I think New York is a very unique place and there is some magic to it, but there’s also some griminess, smells and indignities that the rest of the country does not have to tolerate. Being on a subway platform on a 97 degree day with 100% humidity on your way to work is not as glamorous as getting in your air conditioned car, I’ll tell you that much.

I love to read and I keep a calendar and wait patiently for the author to publish their latest release. Do you have this same urge since you are around books all day? It’s always an exciting moment when copies of one of our favorite authors’ books come in—in every stage from manuscript to galley to finished book. It just never gets old!

I don’t always warm up to books being turned into movies or series but it does work. What book that you have read do you think will be a great series? I would love to see Duane Swierczynski’s FUN AND GAMES on the big screen. It’s a blast!

You have mentioned that you are a runner I believe and that was something for 10 years I loved and still do but my knees, not so much. What motives you to run? Running is the only exercise that I have ever really enjoyed and while I have diverted from it to yoga and step and spin, I always come back to it. I love the moment when you realize that you are going to be able to run more than you thought you would, when the music is rocking, the wind is in your hair and you aren’t thinking about anything else (it doesn’t always happen, I’ve struggled through my fair share of workouts, but it’s great when it does). There are days though, when I have to trick myself into doing it (you ONLY need to run two miles is often chanted on the way to the gym at 6:30 AM. Usually when I get there, I do three, but I still tell myself that just being there is enough.) I should also say that my favorite thing about running is going to a new place and learning its geography, looking at the scenery (or in the windows) via a run. I’ve learned about quite a few new places by running through them.

Thank you Miriam it has been a pleasure as always talking to you.