Q&A With Mel Anastasiou

Mickey Mikkelson connected me with the author of The Extra by Mel Anastasiou. It is an honor doing this Q&A with Mel today! 

Mel: It’s an honor for me to participate! Thanks for inviting me to your Q&A!

Q: Mel, would you give a brief description of The Extra & talk about where the idea for the novel came from?

A: The Extra: A Monument Studios Mystery tells the story of Frankie Ray and Connie Mooney, two young Vancouverites who in the spring of 1934 runaway to Hollywood to try to make it as movie actors, and instead find the body of a movie star on their bungalow sofa. Frankie’s accused of the crime and sets out in disguise to use all her acting chops to find the killer and clear her name. 

The burning of the set of King Samson’s movie Ambition is inspired by Gone with the Wind’s firing of Atlanta, and the rest is going imagination, inspired entirely by my lifelong wish to get back to 1934 and run away to Hollywood to try to make it in the movies. 

Q: How long did it take you to write The Extra? 

A: The Extra took a couple of years to write, but honestly the idea has been there since I was a teenager poring over books of movie stills and silver screen star biographies. The magic never went away, and Monument Studios, Paradise Gardens, and Sunset Boulevard have enchanted and intrigued me for so long that it was necessary to get the murder mystery adventure down on paper.

Q: What lessons & emotions do you want readers to learn and feel after reading The Extra? 

A: Frankie Ray, Connie Mooney, and the extras of Paradise Villas on Sunset Boulevard are can-do hopeful actors who meet trouble with energy and help where they can. Of course there were sharks in thirties Hollywood, and there are sharks in the book, because ambition can breed violence and, in my story, murder. Still, friendship and shared hopes often counter troubles, and that’s what makes this book, I hope, fun and worth remembering. 

Q: Are you writing a sequel to The Extra? Or are you writing a new story with different characters?

A: I’ve just finished a screenplay of The Extra, in which Frankie Ray Goes to Hollywood. Also, I’m writing the second mystery novel in the series of Monument Studios Mysteries, Frankie Ray Takes the Castello. Both are a lot of fun to write, and I can’t leave Frankie alone without wishing for another adventure for her, her friend Connie Mooney, and the extras at Paradise Villas on Sunset Boulevard.