Ann Marie Ackermann
Ann Marie Ackermann is a former American prosecutor now living in Germany. Her award-winning historical true crime, Death of an Assassin, solves mysteries on both sides of the Atlantic. She also participates in ornithological field research and is active in her local German historical society.
Twitter: @Ann_M_Ackermann
Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?
Classical music. I listened to Karl Jenkin's Palladio while writing a historical true crime, and while writing about a battle, switched to more dramatic music. The music may not directly influence my writing, but it motivates and energizes me as long as the mood of the piece matches the mood of the scenes I'm writing about.
Favorite non-reading activity?
Bird watching. I love the peacefulness of nature. When I quietly slip through the woods, I feel connected to the environment in a different way -- different brain waves, maybe? It relaxes and energizes me at the same time.
Is your go to comfort food sweet or savory? Is it something you make yourself? Does food inspire your writing?
Savory, definitely! It doesn't have to be homemade. It doesn't inspire my writing unless I'm writing about food.
Not all books are for all readers… when you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?
Unless you're doing schoolwork or research, reading should be fun. The moment a book is no longer fun to read, I'll quit. Life is too short to force myself through an uninteresting book.
Do you speak a second language? Do you think differently in that language? Does it influence your writing?
Yes, I've been living in Germany for nearly 25 years and speak fluent German. I'm also learning Czech and Spanish. A second language definitely influences my writing. It's my ace up my sleeve for avoiding clichés in English. I just go to the equivalent German cliché and translate it into English, where it sounds fresh and original. Sometimes when I write, it comes to me in German first. That can be both an advantage (new ways of saying things) and disadvantage (messes my English grammar up).
