I still have those nightmares, only there’s a huge DayGlo sign on each table that says, “Three for $.99! Burns like a charm in campfires, woodstoves!” But did you have any doubts and fears before it was released? Did you have nightmares about it ending up on remainder tables, marked down to $2.95?

Now that you’ve accumulated all the rave reviews, plus an Edgar nomination, you can relax in the knowledge that your first book has been a success.

I mean, getting to hang out in a banquet hall jammed to the rafters with my favorite people… the only thing at all comparable would be joining up with a bunch of scathingly well-read and articulate pirates to commandeer a super-tanker of Dom Perignon off the coast of Monte Carlo. I cannot remember ever having more fun during the course of a single twenty-four-hour period. What was it like to be at the Edgar Awards as a nominee? Stressful, dream come true, or less exciting than you expected? I have gained a new and profound empathy for the plight of Victorian men. The shirtbox was printed with an eight-step set of directions for getting all of it on, which took half an hour with my sister Freya’s and friend Heidi’s assistance. I got the shirt, vest, tie, and collar from Brooks Brothers. You can’t tell in the photo, but it’s actually tails. How much work was involved in getting into it? Loved the photo of you in a tux at the Edgars banquet. She lives in California with her husband and two daughters. Her second book, The Crazy School, will be out in January 2008. Her first novel, A Field of Darkness, was published in 2006 to rave reviews and was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Cornelia Read is a refugee from the Social Register who was raised by hippies on the California coast.

The Crazy School by Cornelia Read