The Four Most Frequently Asked Questions of Victoria Houston

Q: Do you fish?

A: I certainly do. One of my earliest memories (age 2 1/2 or so) is fishing with a cane pole alongside my dad on a bridge overlooking a rapids. Maybe a dam?

No doubt I remember it so well because I got a bite and started to slide forward -- off the bridge and towards the fish -- before my dad caught me by the seat of my pants. As a young girl I fished almost every day -- for panfish, mostly. But at age 11, I gave up fishing in favor of boys. But -- at age fifty I saw the light -- and gave up boys for fishing! About eight years ago, I learned to fly fish. Still learning but I love it. Also, I own the little Alumacraft fishing boat that my dad bought the year I was born -- so I go out bait fishing for walleye, bluegills and bass every now and then. And for muskie. I would love to catch just one "shark of the north!"

Q: What the heck do the words "razzbonya" and "jabone" mean? Never heard 'em before.

A: Both words are vernacular versions of "nincompoop" -- words I heard growing up in the northwoods. This area was settled by Germans, Scandinavians, Poles, Irish as well as folks from Russia, the Balkans, etc. I think the words were coined by the community as other people who grew up here when I did certainly heard them.

Q: Do you really know people like the characters in your books? I mean, who are these people?

A: Oh, sure. Willa Cather is quoted as saying that writers write from the memories they have from before the age of thirteen. My characters are distilled from memories of people I knew growing up in the northwoods of Wisconsin.

Q: Do you ever give talks to libraries, book clubs, civic luncheons?

A: Yes. And the title of my talk is "The Three Major Life Mistakes I've Made (Not Counting My Ex-Husbands) That Force Me to Write Fishing Mysteries."