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Christine Goff lives in a world of mountains, birds and books. The author of "A Rant of Ravens," "A Nest In the Ashes" and the upcoming "Death Takes a Gander," she spoke in April at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in Colorado Springs on Promotion 101. She agreed to tell Scribe and Quill about her writing and a bit about her life.

Christine Goff: It's Christine both legally and professionally, and Chris in my personal life. It's funny. Whenever I answer the phone "Chris Goff," I invariably get a telemarketer saying, "Hello, Mrs. Chrisgoff." Christine has a better number of syllables to compliment Goff.

GOFF: I started off as a journalist, then as an editor of rock and ice climbing guides. When I moved into novel writing, however, I seemed to have a penchant for crime. My first fiction attempt was actually a romantic suspense novel that didn't sell. The editor liked it, but ultimately thought it had "too much mystery" for their readers. Of course, when I tried selling it as a mystery, that editor thought it was "too much of a romance." My second attempt was a young adult novel heavily laced with mystery, and a trend was born. Every book I've worked on since, and the only ones that have sold, have been firmly rooted in crime.

GOFF: The birding theme found me. I have been a backyard birdwatcher forever. From as far back as I can remember, my parents used to feed the birds at our home in Evergreen. Once I got married, my husband and I started feeding the birds, too. Then one day an editor asked my agent, Peter, if he knew of anyone who might have a bird watching mystery. It seems the editor had seen recent statistics on the growing number of birdwatchers in our country, and wanted to tap the market. Peter, who had been to our home, and had seen the list of identified birds tallied on the window, called me up and asked if would be interested in trying to write a series. Hence, the Birdwatcher's Mystery series was born.

GOFF: It's amazing what you learn when you start digging into a subject. Once I started doing research for my books, I was surprised to learn how much I didn't know about bird watching. For example, the most active group of birdwatchers call themselves "birders." They are people who go out in the field and look for birds rather than just watch the birds that come to their feeders. And birders are an eclectic bunch. They are a group comprised of young and old, stay-at-home moms and wildlife biologists, high-school dropouts and PhDs. By and large, birders are a group of people concerned about environmental issues, conservation, and things that impact birds. So, what are those "things?" Illegal poaching, coffee growing, prescribed burning, fishing and hunting, cell towers are just a few. I've written books on three of the topics mentioned, and populated my books with an eclectic bunch of birders.

If a writer is interested in auto mechanics, think of the various places an auto mechanic is needed -- a gas station is one, where a local socialite is found in the trunk of her Mercedes; or a specialty race car shop where a famous race car driver ends up dead; or a body shop that turns out to be a front for a ring of car thieves. You get my drift. If a writer is interested in knitting, think about the places that your protagonist might find interesting wool, say a llama farm where the owner ends up stabbed to death by the protagonist's knitting needles. The possibilities are endless. What the writer needs to do is look for the twist that makes the story original, and for the angle that makes it only a story that he or she can write.

GOFF: Where I live has impacted my work tremendously. I was raised, and still live, in the mountains of Colorado. My parents, especially my father, loved to play outdoors. We did a lot of skiing, fishing, camping, and hiking. My dad is a photographer, and I spent a lot of time with him photographing Colorado.

As I grew up, more and more people moved into the hills, filling up the open spaces with huge homes and chain stores, and I became more in tune to the idea of conservation. I want my kids to have a chance to enjoy the mountains, too, and my kids' kids. My books are set in a mountain town similar to the one I grew up in, and deal with bird-related issues that resonate with me.

GOFF: Most definitely. When I first embarked on the series, I decided to set the books on the east coast. In my mind, that's where most of the birdwatchers lived. The problem was I didn't know much about the east coast. My father lives in Maine now, so I started by researching the area near where he lives. The more I dug, the deeper I discovered I needed to go. The setting was different, the birds were different, the issues were different, and the people were different. Once I decided to set my series in Colorado, I discovered I'd cut my work in half. I knew the setting, I knew the birds, and I understood the people. All of a sudden, I could focus on the issues.

GOFF: I do a lot of research. Birders and mystery readers are by and large a very well educated bunch, and when you make mistakes, they notice. It's very important for me to have the facts right, and the birding information right, and that the situation be plausible. Often I call the experts and ask them questions.

For example, with "A Nest In the Ashes," I spoke with several Fire Management Officers, several fire fighters I know who have worked on wildfires, several wildlife management people who are concerned about the effects on birds in burn areas, and I read an amazing number of white papers and books on the subjects of birds and burns, burns and habitat, wildfire, etc. I also use the Internet to research. My rule of thumb is if I can check a fact three times, I trust it's good -- provided, of course, it's not the same reference being quoted.

GOFF: I'm quite fortunate in that I have a niche market I can target. My publisher markets my books to the mystery readers. They are experts at that and do a great job. The niche I chose to focus on was the birders. I send mailings out to birders when I'm doing signings and to a 2,500 plus database to announce the release of the newest book. I also notify the retail stores that deal with birding paraphernalia, and I attend birding conferences.

The Martha Stewart story refers to a PR ploy that didn't work. I was trying to figure out a way to get some national exposure for my books, and hit on the idea that Martha Stewart could work a show around the release of my second novel, "Death of a Songbird." The book centers around the coffee industry and the effects on migratory songbirds. My idea was that Martha could have me on to talk about the book then we could go on a field trip (Martha takes those) to a "shade-grown" coffee roaster, bake coffee cake for the cooking segment, and build a birdhouse as the craft. My publicist wrote up the proposal, and we put together a great "nest" basket with shade-grown coffee, copies of my first two novels, a birdhouse and some other little trinkets that were bird-related. Then, we had it delivered by this gorgeous Chippendale-type courier. Imagine our surprise when my publicist received a call from Martha's assistant letting us know that Martha had received the basket, and had carried it home. However, not only did we not hear another word, we didn't even receive a thank you note for the goodies.

GOFF: I work very hard at keeping the "preach" out of the story. My "cause," as it were, is to impart information to the readers that might get them thinking about the environmental issues I write about. Sometimes in the course of my research, I've learned that there's more I don't know about a subject than I do know. Sometimes when I've thought it was perfectly clear how something should be handled, I've discovered that there are other considerations to be made.

"Death of a Songbird" is a good example. I had no doubt going in that shade-grown coffee was the best way to go. A shade-grown coffee plantation supports over 150 bird species, while a sun-grown coffee plantation supports only 9 or 10 species. However -- and this is where it gets complicated -- a farmer can produce more coffee annually with a sun-grown plantation, which means more money for the indigent farmers to educate and care for their families. That's when I realized that we also need to consider "fair trade" coffee, and not be so quick to judge when a farmer converts his coffee farm from shade to sun. I also learned that shade grown doesn't always mean organic, or pesticide free. Consequently, the most I can hope is that my readers examine the issues.

While I do have a message to impart, more than anything I'm writing murder mysteries meant to entertain and be a challenge for the reader to solve. That's the most important part of my job as a writer, and I try to keep that in focus at all times.

GOFF: I think it's essential for writers to read. I think they should read in their genre, and outside of it. I read an eclectic mix of mystery, thrillers, romance, literary, women's fiction, non-fiction. I read a lot, and the best writers I know read a lot, too. We read our competition, to be sure. It's essential to read in order to know what's happening in the genre, the way things are headed, the current trends. Not that you should write to trends, just that you should know what they are. I think reading good fiction and bad fiction has helped me become a better writer. I know what I strive to accomplish, and I know what I don't want to do.

GOFF: The title usually comes second. The only title that stuck from working to published was "Death of a Songbird." Each of the others changed. However, I usually start with a theme then chose the bird based on which one will be most impacted.

GOFF: The next book will hopefully be out in the fall of 2004. I had some personal health issues this past year -- I was diagnosed with breast cancer -- and that precluded my getting the book turned in on time. It's taken me nearly a year to get back to working on a regular basis.

GOFF: I subscribe to several birding magazines, and I clip articles, tidbits and letters to the editor -- anything that seems of interest to me that might have novel potential. I happened to run across a small sidebar in one of the magazines where they discussed the issue of poisoning, and I started doing some research. The more I dug, the more I learned, and the more complex the book became.

GOFF: I decided to handle the problem a little differently than many of my colleagues. Rather than have one character be the viewpoint character in all of my stories, I rotate the viewpoint character. In "A Rant of Ravens," the viewpoint character is Rachel Stanhope, a woman who came to Colorado to stay with her aunt and ends up in the middle of a murder mystery. In "Death of a Songbird," the protagonist is Lark Drummond, Rachel's friend in the first book. In "A Nest In the Ashes," the main character is Eric Linenger, Lark's boyfriend. The continuing characters that connect all the stories are the birdwatchers. They have a group called the Elk Park Ornithological Chapter (EPOCH), and they come together in each book to help the protagonist solve the crime. The best thing about it is I can have the viewpoint character be the person most likely to be involved with the murder.

GOFF: I have one more book under my current contract. In it, I'm planning to take the EPOCH members on a road trip to a birding convention/competition. It should be a hoot. After that, we'll have to see. If they offer me another contract, I'll be working on Books six and seven. I also have an idea for a larger thriller, and for a non-fiction book on raising dyslexic children.

GOFF: As I mentioned earlier, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in May of 2002. As a result, I had a double mastectomy in July 2002, and have been going through the reconstruction process for the past year. Naturally, it slowed me down, and made me reassess what's important in my life. It also stopped me from writing. I had both physical and mental challenges to overcome, and I didn't really feel like writing anything for months. However, I did just get a clean bill of health from my oncologist, and I'm back to work. No doubt, I am one of the lucky ones.