Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Nancy Pickard is a four-time Edgar Award nominee, most recently for her Ballantine debut, The Virgin of Small Plains. She is the winner of the Anthony Award, the Macavity Award, and three Agatha Awards. Her short stories have also won numerous accolades. Pickard has been a national board member of the Mystery Writers of America and president of Sisters in Crime, and she is a member of PEN. She lives in Merriam, Kansas.
Nancy Pickard's website
This bio was last updated on 10/19/2016. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
Random House Readers Circle: How did the idea for this story come about?
Nancy Pickard: It started with the landscape. I saw a photograph of Monument Rocks in Gove County, Kansas, and it blew me away. Since then, I've been out there to see them. They are so unexpected, so enormous, so beautiful, and they're such a dramatic contrast to the ultraflat ground from which they rise. Even from seeing only a photo, I sensed I had to set a story there. (In the novel, I renamed them Testament Rocks.)
RHRC: Many reviewers have raved about your ability to make Kansas come alive in this book and your previous book. The setting for The Scent of Rain and Lightning is very different from the one you used in The Virgin of Small Plains. How do you choose the settings and landscapes for your stories?
NP: I think they choose me. Something about a landscape will grab me and haunt me. It won't let go until it has its very own book! Currently I'm working on a book set in the farthest corner of southeastern Kansas, and for a long time I couldn't figure out why I felt such a compulsion to write about it. It doesn't have the gorgeous expansive landscape of Virgin or the surprising, spectacular ...
Alex George is a writer and a lawyer. He was born in London, England, but presently lives in the American Midwest.
Alex was named as one of Britain's top ten "thirtysomething" novelists by the Times of London, and was also...
(more)
If you enjoyed:
The Scent of Rain and Lightning
Try:
A Good American
by Alex George
With more than fifteen consecutive Times bestsellers to her credit, including Deeper Than the Dead, Secrets to the Grave, and Prior Bad Acts, Tami Hoag has more than 35 million books in print, published in more than twenty ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Scent of Rain and Lightning
Try:
Dust To Dust
by Tami Hoag
We recommend 4 similar authors
The Stone Home
by Crystal Hana Kim
A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
