An Interview With Bitter

The hard copy cover of Bitter - WIP

Thanks so much for agreeing to this interview. Firstly, could you introduce yourself? My name is Bitter. Juanita Bitter. I'm a homicide detective in Sacramento, California.

Describe your family. I have two sons. One is in the US Air Force and the other has a government job. They both play ice hockey. I have a large family; my brother and his wife and kids live in Vallejo and my other siblings live in the Bay Area and in Southern California.

Favorite beverage? Coffee. (She flashes the interviewer a tight smile.) I'm a cop. We all live on caffeine. 

If you could have any accents from anywhere in the world, what would you choose? (Bitter gives the interviewer an irritated look.) I don't need an accent, I'm a woman of Color. I face idiots who think that makes me less-than every day. I speak English (of course), Spanish, Tagalog and a smattering of Choctaw. 

How did you get interested in your line of work? Papá was a cop. I grew up surrounded by cops, he often had friends over to eat. He liked to cook, especially in summer when he'd fire up the grill and they'd hang out in the backyard and talk about their cases.

Name one thing that drives you crazy. One of the officers, O'Malley, is always peering in corners at shadows. He says there's ghosts hiding in the shadows. (She shakes her head, irritated at the thought.) There's no such thing as ghosts. 

What makes you angry? Criminals. Evil people who hurt children or animals. It's my job to find them and give their victims justice. 

If you could choose a magic power, what would it be? Don't be ridiculous. There's no such thing as magic or brujas. Witches are not real. 

Do you see yourself as a hero? Or as someone just doing his/her job, doing what's right? I'm just like everybody else. I get up and go to work every day. My job is to find criminals, and that's what I do. 

The Kindle cover for the short story "Bitter Blood"

Bitter is a tough homicide detective in a Sacramento that's two blocks down and one dimension over from the river city that exists in this reality. She doesn't believe in magic or witches or ghosts, but there's more to her city that she wants to know. Though she's not a believer in the supernatural, she's the cop that cleans up the messy aftermath of murder – and other strange things that happen in the city at night.

Bitter came to life after a conversation with my author friend, Neal Litherland. We were talking about bitterness and the difficult life and choices you have to make when you write for a living, and she sprang into being. I was about 40,000 words into a planned four book urban fantasy/contemporary fantasy series when she elbowed it all aside and demanded that I work on her story first.

While the first Bitter novel is still a work in progress, you can read the introductory short story on my sneak peek website: www.ruthdj.weebly.com. You can also read the first chapter of the fantasy series and some other story beginnings that are waiting on Bitter to be finished.

#Bitter  #RuthDJ  #ASmallGangOfAuthors