Guest Character Interview: Nica S.T.A.T.Ic.

Last December I interviewed Sue Perry, author of the FRAMES series of speculative detective novels. Sue is back today with an interview with her private eye Nica. Take it away, Sue and Nica!

1. What is your full name? Is there anything significant about your name?
I'm Nica S.T.A.T.Ic. Correct, my last name is an acronym. My full name is Veronica Sheridan Taggart Ambrose Taggart Ickovic. My acronymic identity is constructed of family, first love, big mistake, ever hopeful (wishful thinking) revisit of first love, tragic true love. The last couple years of my life have been as stable as old dynamite, so I was happy to discover this acronym, this promise of no more disruption.

2. How old are you?
People are obsessed with age. Youth. Aging. Age differences. I'm not going to buy into that by answering this question. Let's just say I'm old enough to have learned some stuff and young enough to act on what I've learned.

3. Tell us about your family. What do you like and not like about them?
My family is full of lovely, interesting, supportive folks. Unfortunately they are all dead.

4. Who was your first kiss, and what did you think of it?
My first kiss was with Jenn, my best friend since third grade. Kissing seemed like such a big deal and we wanted to find out why. Our experiment did not enlighten us.
 
5. What is your occupation?
I recently started calling myself a detective and - amazingly - I got clients right away! Private investigator. We'll see how long I stick with it. I've had more jobs than all my friends, combined. But this one feels different. It feels right. And I need one that feels right.

6. What are your best and worst qualities?
I'm always willing to try something new - which makes me brave, if you squint at it right. Meanwhile, I get lost inside my head and distract myself at all the wrong times.

7. What quality do you value most in a romantic partner?
Best of all, I like it when he makes me laugh.

8. What is your favorite thing to do?
I can't remember how I would have answered this a few months ago but nowadays my favorite thing is to Travel the Frames, which as near as I can figure are other dimensions. It turns out there are an infinite number of Frames all around us in all directions, with all kinds of life, all living simultaneously in their Frames.

9. What is your greatest fear?
Among the fears I can face, my number one fear is boredom. Among the fears I don't dare acknowledge, my greatest is that Ben Taggart, my first and third ex-husband, will die of a heroin overdose.

10. What is your most treasured possession?
Now that I know about the Frames, I can't even think about an answer to this - makes me feel like a slave trader. What may seem like an object in this Frame could be a sentient animate being elsewhere. In just a few short months, I've been attacked by books, protected by a volcano, informed by a lawn chair, befriended by a pickup truck. And either saved or threatened by a cat. (It's hard to tell with cats.) I'll never again be able to think in terms of possessions.

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The FRAMES series is a quartet of speculative detective novels.
 
Book 1, Nica of Los Angeles, is available now.
When rookie private eye Nica takes on a mysterious case, she enters a world of multiple dimensions called Frames, where buildings and lawn chairs can be sentient, a stray cat has great powers, books can be killers, and clouds can be spies. At home, Nica tackles missing person cases, while in the larger reality of the Frames she is swept into an escalating battle with stakes that could not be higher...
 
Book 2, Nica of the New Yorks, is coming soon.
 
Nica is available as an ebook and trade paperback from all the usual places on-line, including
Amazon | Apple | Barnes&Noble | Smashwords 
 
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