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Christopher Little

by KATHRYN BOUGHTON

Christopher Little, a well-known photographer cum emerging mystery writer, the third time is the charm. Little has just published the third mystery he has penned, Ever So Silent, and is seeing marked success in selling it on Amazon where it has received top marks from reader reviewers.

Kirkus has joined in the praise, terming the book, “a high-quality murder mystery.”

Little who enjoyed a long career behind the camera’s lens before retiring to become “an official husband” (wife Betsy Little is a successful Northwest Connecticut Realtor), said he wrote two previous murder mysteries. “One nearly sold, the second didn’t come close,” he said. “Still, I learned a lot from writing it and this one is a better book.”

Facing certain rejection from major publishing houses—most new books in the genre are published by about 20 established authors—Little took the advice of a friend high-up in the echelons of Simon & Schuster who told him to self-publish.

“My agent really tried,” Little said. “He came back with the most generous ‘I love this book’ rejection letters.”

But by self-publishing, Little was able to avoid many of the expenses publishing houses incur, designing and laying out the book himself and opting for “print on demand.” “When an order comes in, a copy is printed and the buyer has it in two days,” he explained.

He was able to decide the quality of the paper and cover—it feels good in the hand, perfect for a lazy afternoon of summer reading on the patio—and, if the odd typo is uncovered, he can quickly go into the file and correct it.

Those are the pleasures of self-publishing. The downside is promoting the book. “I hate it,” declares Little. Nevertheless he is giving interviews and making appearances. He has a joint book signing and photography show at the Norfolk Library, starting August 4th with a reception from 4-6PM.

In creating his mystery, Little took a leap of faith and chose a female protagonist. “It’s not only challenging, but interesting to get inside a woman’s mind,” he reported. “She just popped into my brain—she’s young, unsure of herself, daunted by the magnitude of the problems facing her. I adore her.”

He put his protagonist, Emma Thorne, in a town very loosely based on Winsted, “mostly it’s size, although it is grubbier than Winsted.” There, she is faced with a series of killings that may—may not—have been committed by her missing husband.

Little is now about 100 pages into a sequel, “Ever So Famous” He already knows the ending of this book, but has not outlined the plot. “My brain isn’t big enough to do an outline,” he said, although he admits an outline might resolve some writing problems.

“When I do an outline, I don’t enjoy writing,” he revealed, “although writing by the seat of my pants gets me in trouble. The second book is even more fun to write because I am more connected to the characters.”

Little is the son of a journalist father and a playwright mother, but did not turn to writing until late in life. “I was addicted to photography from a young age,” he said. “When I was 16, my father got me an unpaid internship at the Herald Tribune.”

He got his young feet wet in the field of photojournalism and never turned back even during his years at Yale, where he studied psychology. He eventually photographed for publications such as People, Time, Life, and The New York Times—work that took him to all 50 states and 77 countries. Those he has photographed include such personages as Katharine Hepburn, John Lennon, Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II, Juan Carlos, former King of Spain, His Highness the Aga Khan, Johnny Cash, Mick Jagger, Tom Hanks, Willie Nelson; Sting; Henry Kissinger; Hillary Clinton and each U.S. president from Nixon to George W. Bush.

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