**Author Peek** Interview with Colleen Collins

**Author Peek** Interview with

COLLEEN COLLINS!

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INTRODUCING…Colleen.

Before we get started talking about your writing, tell us a little about yourself, where you’re from, what you do for a living (if you’re not a full-time writer) what hobbies you have, etc. Whatever you’d like to share to introduce yourself.

After earning a theatre degree at UC Santa Barbara, I packed up my car and moved to Hollywood to find a job in film production. Eventually, I worked as a “script girl” on a TV sitcom, and later an assistant to Michael Ovitz, at the time the most powerful agent in Hollywood, which was a crazy, fun, stressful job.

After stints as a tech writer/editor, even an improv comedienne!, I sold my first novel, RIGHT CHEST, WRONG NAME, to Harlequin in 1996.

In 2003, I opened a private investigations agency with Shaun, my then-boyfriend and current husband. As a former criminal lawyer, he had trained many PIs, so he mentored me in the fine art of sleuthing.

More recently, I’ve written a romantic-mystery series for Harlequin Superromance, and self-published three mysteries and five nonfiction books, one being my current release, How Do Private Eyes Do That?. If any of Karen’s Killer Book Bench readers would like to win a Kindle copy of How Do Private Eyes Do That?, leave a comment (or a question about private investigations, if you’d like). Two winners’ names will be randomly picked from the comments.

1. What appeals to you about the genre that you write?

Romantic-mysteries appeal to my romance-writer background and my investigator reality. Writing nonfiction appeals to the left side of my brain