Murder In Mexico – The Series

By Herbert W. Piekow

 

john-scherber-bookJohn Scherber, the author of the Murder in Mexico series knew he wanted to be a writer at the age of sixteen. In college he majored in English and in graduate school, at San Francisco State, he studied creative writing where he wrote short fiction, poetry and film reviews. “Garrison Keillor was my fiction editor;” said Scherber. After graduation, he got a job with the State of Minnesota writing journal articles and editing their quarterly Mental Health Journal.

Like so many hopeful writers Scherber wrote a couple of un-publishable novels which led to a 37-year period of writers block. However, during this time he never gave up his high school dream of one day seeing his books in print. He read the kind of mysteries and novels that he knew one day he would publish. The list included Robert Cais, Michael Connelly and PD James; he admired Somerset Maugham for the ease and grace with which he tells a story, his commitment to narrative and action. The complex characters and irony of Iris Murdock appealed to his sense of irony. There is a saying about reading what you would like to write.

Scherber is also an artist, as you might guess by reading his eleven published novels. Twenty Centavos, the first in his series was begun while on a painting trip to Taos. Currently he is working on number twelve, The Girl from Veracruz, which should be available in the spring. Of course there is a dead body on the first page. It is the story of a young woman who has entered Mexico illegally, it all adds up to another great Murder in Mexico.  Besides being a successful writer and a good painter, Scherber also writes feature articles, is a blogger and has travelled extensively throughout Mexico.

Like so many self-published writers, he tried the traditional publishing route; but after four unsuccessful years, “I bailed and started learning the publishing business.” You can hear John Scherber along with Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (Canada), Someone Knows My Name (USA), short story writer Amanda Hill and Claudia Long, whose well-researched novels are set in 17th century Mexico. They will be presenters at the 10th Lake Chapala Writers Conference. Tickets are available at Diane Pearl´s, and are $1,500 pesos for the three-day event which includes cocktail reception and two lunches.

Pin It
 Find us on Facebook