Interview with Mystery Author Danny Lopez – S. 4, Ep. 20

Debbi Mack interviews mystery author Phillippe Diederich (writing as Danny Lopez) on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below. Or, if you’re in a rush, click here to download the transcript! Debbi: [00:00:10] This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest. I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book boxed set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website, DebbiMack.com, under the "Crime Cafe" link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi: [00:01:03] Hi, everyone. I'm pleased to have as my guest today the author of the Dexter Vega Mysteries, as well as highly-regarded novels such as PLAYING FOR THE DEVIL'S FIRE, a young adult novel that has received a couple of honors in terms of Best Fiction and Best Young Adult Fiction. Again, it's a pleasure to introduce Phillippe Diederich [aka Danny Lopez] Glad you could be here today. Danny: [00:01:30] Hi. Thanks for having me, Debbi. Debbi: [00:01:32] Well, I'm just glad you can be here. And before we talk about your mysteries, let's talk about the novels that came before that. What was your first novel about? Danny: [00:01:44] My first published novel is SOFRITO. And it's a novel about a Cuban-American who was born in the United States, has a Cuban restaurant in New York, and he travels to Havana for the first time in order to steal the recipe that had once belonged to his uncle. And in the process falls in love, discovers his late father's past, and mainly it deals a lot with the different shades of ideas on why people leave Cuba. You know, not necessarily political. So it's a double love story. It's a return to your own roots. It's a foodie book. It talks a lot about food and the restaurants. And it's a bit of a tour of Havana. I've met some people who have read it and say, "Oh, we went to Cuba because we read your book." Debbi: [00:02:45] That's really cool. How would you describe it in terms of genre? Danny: [00:02:53] Just straight up fiction. I got into writing because I like stories. So I try to create a story for all of my books. There has to be something beyond just characters or pretty writing. One of the things that happened with SOFRITO is that I had spent a lot of time in the 90s in Cuba, in Havana in particular, as a photojournalist. So it was still a forbidden place for Americans to go to. So I thought it would be interesting to write a book based on this place. I was so close and yet so far. And I also wanted to write about the different opinions that Cubans and Cuban-Americans had about Cuba and the Castro regime, etc. It took me so long to write and revise and get it published that by the time it got published, Obama had lifted some of the traveling sanctions that he had on. So it worked out quite well, I think, in the end that it got delayed in publication. Yeah. I'm just after a story. So I would say general fiction, you know. I'm really rooted in the classics of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. And they all have stories, great writing, great stories. And that's what I try to do. "One of the things that happened with SOFRITO is that I had spent a lot of time in the 90s in Cuba, in Havana in particular, as a photojournalist. So it was still a forbidden place for Americans to go to. So I thought it would be interesting to write a book based on this place." Debbi: [00:04:17] That's excellent. And that's really the whole point to write good stories. Now, your mysteries are written under a pseudonym, Danny Lopez. What made you choose to take on a pseudonym and why Danny Lopez? Danny: [00:04:37] So what happened is I publish SOFRITO, which is a general fiction book, I suppose.