• Storyteller Adds Mystery to Jekyll - by Karen Lane, The Brunswick News

• Jekyll Author Writes Second Mystery Novel - by Jim Morrison, Jekyll's Golden Islander

• Between the Lines - by Elise Permar, The Islander

"Storyteller Adds Mystery to Jekyll" - by Karen Lane, The Brunswick News  - April 2, 2002; Abby Doyle is just a character is a mystery novel but that does not mean that she's without substance. The creation of Anna Ashwood Collins' prolific mind, Abby Doyle is back for an encore performance in the author's recently released second book, "Red Roses for a Dead Trucker." Presently residing on Jekyll Island, Ms. Collins has a diverse background from which she extract ideas for books. Her characters are clearly defined, intelligent and introspective, not unlike the author herself. 

Brunswick News: When did you first have an interest in writing novels?
"My first job was as a newspaper reporter, mostly doing freelance work, so I've always enjoyed writing. I wrote my first novel when I was 20 and burned it. They say that's what you should do with your first novel. It was pretty bad."

Where do you get ideas for your murder mysteries?
"I got into crime reporting in the early '80s in New York City and quickly learned every section of the city - from the silk stocking district to the worst parts of the South Bronx. Then, I was hired as a field agent for the Department of Labor for five years. It was easy to get ideas from real-life situations." 

Who is the character Abby Doyle based on?
"The Abby Doyle character is actually based on the personality traits of three people: two close friends of mine and me. The first is Abby Comstock, a psychologist turned truck driver. I always admired Abby's adventurous spirit. She was very creative, intelligent, and brave. The other is Nina Dumas. She had rheumatoid arthritis and was wheelchair bound. Nina was unbelievably creative, but was restricted physically. We used to say that I was her legs and she was my brain. We made a good team. Unfortunately, they're both deceased, now."

Will you write more murder mysteries featuring Abby Doyle?
Actually, I have a third book with Abby and company in the works. The setting for this novel is based loosely on the in the areas of Little Saint Simons Island, Amelia Island, Miami, and areas in between. the humor of bringing Abby Doyle, New Yorker, to the Deep South makes this book more fun.

Who are some of your favorite author?
"I love to read mysteries by Christine Andreae, Jessica Speart, and Rochelle Krich."

What do you like most about writing?
"I enjoy writing for writing's sake. That's the easy part. Promoting your books is hard work because writers are solitary people by nature, but you have to sell them, which means touring and book signings."

What do you do when you're not writing?
"I play golf and go birding. Coastal Georgia is a great place to learn about and watch birds. I've traveled to the Galapagos Islands and Hawaii to go birding, too. The rest of my time is devoted to environmental causes and to promoting my books."

Jekyll Author Writes Second Mystery Novel - by Jim Morrison, Jekyll's Golden Islander - April 11, 2002

Former  New York  City Auxiliary Police Officer and Jekyll Island resident Anna Ashwood Collins is in print again, this time with her second mystery novel, "Red Roses For A Dead Trucker," available from local book stores, including Jekyll Books and Antiques.

Collins is also the author of “Crime By Collins,” a regular review column of the latest mys­tery novels published in Jekyll's Golden Islander and its compan­ion publication, The Glynco Observer, the unofficial newspa­per of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick. As with her first book, Deadly Resolutions, Collins says her new book's heroine is, "Abby Doyle, an efficiency expert. She does a few private sleuthing assignments for big money.”

"When she meets a lot of money people in the conduct of her normal business, some of them have problems they don't want to take to the police," Collins grins wryly. "So Abby solves their prob­lems. Abby's not above bending the law," Collins cautions.

As with her first novel, "Roses" has an environmental theme as well. "It revolves around hazardous waste trucking," she reveals, a subject that the former newspaper reporter-photographer researched while working on Jacques Cousteau's Environmental Almanac in the 1970's.

According to the back cover of her new novel, Abby's ex-lover invites her to a mysterious tryst in the mountains, but is killed in an accident under even stranger cir­cumstances. "Her investigation uncovers corruption in the trucking industry and pits Abby against dangerous enemies who don't hesitate at murder to get what they want. In the aftermath of September 11, her portrait of the Big Apple's mean streets has an almost nostalgic glow." Abby's protagonist is, "Margaret Standish, a New York City homicide detective. She's by-the-book," Collins says. "She thinks it'd be nice if the cops got a per-case fee like Abby does. There's a lot of humor between the two characters because they are so different." In the first novel, now a collec­tor's item, "Abby discovers the body of a Corps of Engineers gen­eral in the bunkers of Fort Tilden at Brooklyn Point. Margaret thought Abby did the crime."

"Somebody asked me if they could buy a copy of my first book. I just laughed," Collins recalled. "It depends on how much money you want to spend for a used one. I understand it went from $8 up to $80 on the Internet when it was told I was publishing again. There's a lot of collectors out there.”  Her first book was published in hardback, soft back, and in Japanese. "The Japanese edition was very small, like a paperback. I'm not sure they have hardback books. I was in a Japanese book store in New York and all they had were very small paperbacks. Somebody was here and they asked to see the Japanese edition. I hadn't looked at it in a while. The cover was of the World Trade Center all lit up in the rain - talk about a collector's item," she mused.

Going into the back of the gracious Jekyll home that she shares with her friend Sue Morrison, also widowed, Collins comes back with a copy of the book. Curiously, the cover photograph and title are on the back. "Well, they read in the opposite way that we do. That's their front cover.” she explains. Equally curious, her second book was sold first in Japan. "Very   unusual," Collins admits. "The publisher went belly up. They paid us off, and we got all of our rights back. So a friend that I knew who had just started Pendulum Press asked me if she could publish the book."

"Roses" is available in both a trade size paperback and an e-book version for the first time in Collins's book writing career. How do you get an e-book? "Believe me, I'm not a computer buff," Collins admits. "You log on and pay money and download it. They say it's the thing of the future, but I'm old fashioned. I prefer having a book in "my hand.” Logging on to www.pendulumpress.com, one quickly finds the electronic advantage: price, speed, and convenience. The e-book of “Roses” costs only $5.95 compared $16.95 for the paperback version with its colorful cover, and you can get it now, without even having to get into your car and drive down the street or make a phone call to your local book store. You can even read a free sample of the first chapter before deciding to buy, or read reviews of the book. But the typeface is different, at least on the computer screen, and the lines of type are twice as long as in the book. You’ll need more computer paper if you want to print it out instead of reading it off the screen. "I think they're negotiating for the e-book rights in Australia. I read that in Australian airports, they have these vending machines where you can download a book. Who knows what the world's coming to."

Collins is old fashioned in another way. "I don't own a computer. No e-mail." How does she write? "The typewriter or with a pen­cil. Finally I got an electric one (typewriter.) I had an old Royal manual up until the 80's. The publisher scanned 'Roses' onto a disk, then I had to proof it off Joan Hesterberg's computer. The computer crashed. We had to call poor Jim Bentley to come up when we lost it in cyber-space. I liked sitting in my chair with a glass of wine reading the proofs of the first book better. I don't see that computers are sav­ing time."

But, in addition to Collins's manually typewritten columns that she dutifully mails to Glynn Press for each edition of the news­paper, a staggering 109 reviews she has written of mystery novels can be accessed on the Internet at www.mysteryinternational.com, free of charge. The feisty little lady must be a speed-reader.

How long does it take her to write a book? "It takes about two years from start to finish. That includes research, and the first draft to the final draft. The easy part is writing the book. The hard part is promot­ing it."

Does she sell her books through an agent? "No. I did more work than the agent. I sold my first book by being a volunteer at the 1988 International Crime Conference in New York before I moved to Jekyll in 1989. I took over for a lady who was in the publishing business. She said, “I owe you a favor.” I said, 'The favor is to read my manuscript.' She read it, she liked it, she bought it.”

Where else did the "60-something" Potsdam State University English major from Gouvernur, N.Y., work? "The most secretive agency in government. It's not, what you think it is. Most people think it's the DEA or the FBI, but they aren't. Think about what drives the U.S., and that's the most secretive agency." What is it? "The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. I was a field agent for them. Their decisions are made in a windowless room in Washington. They control the Consumer Price Index. Everything from Social Security to stock dividends depend on it"

What are her hobbies? "Golf, birding, and walking." Where does she walk? "The beach. The Friday morning bird walks with Lydia Thompson. When I go back to New York, I walk around areas of Manhattan that I used to walk in uniform as a member of the Special Task Force of the New York City Auxiliary Police." Was the 5'4" 120 pound Collins armed? "Only with nightsticks. We didn't carry a gun as a volunteer. But we were taught to kill with our bare hands. It's probably not a good idea to mess with me. I'm not this benevolent old lady," she grinned mischievously. "My mother always said, 'It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. Never show fear when you are walking down one of those streets."

What did she think of her police experience? "As a writer, it was a good way to learn police work. You learn police work can be 30 hours of boredom and 30 seconds of sheer terror." What were some of her assignments? "The Bicentennial Celebration, Reagan's visit, the Russian immigrant crime wave in the South Bronx called 'Little Odessa.' The Russians didn't trust anybody in a uniform in their own country. They were sure not going to trust anybody in this country in a uniform. Finally, someone came up and took us around the corner and gave us the name of the Russian leading the crime wave."

Collins produces a copy of "Roses." "Are you going to do a review?" she asks with a direct stare. "If it's a bad review, remember, I know people who'll break your legs," she says malevolently.

© 2002 Jim Morrison

Between the Lines - by Elise Permar, The Islander - June 24, 2002

Probably it all began with Sidney Lanier. When he sat under that spreading oak and wrote about the mystical Marshes of Glynn, he start­ed a tradition. Literally dozens of writers, poets, artists and sculptors from the Golden Isles have followed in his creative footsteps. And there's apparently no end to the remarkable talent that thrives here.

Anna Ashwood Collins, whose first book was published in 1989, the year that she turned her back on the Big Apple and moved to Jekyll Island, is now in print again. Red Roses for a Dead Trucker is a suspense novel that makes great summer reading. It again features the feisty Abby Doyle, as she takes on corruption in the trucking industry. It has romance, mystery and action in a nostalgic New York setting. Abby lives in a fabulous apartment in the loft of a factory building across the river from the United Nations building.

I asked the author if she was describing her own New York apartment and she told me with a chuckle, "I wish." Actually it's a fantasy based on reality. Ms. Collins looked across the river from the United Nations building and saw twin smokestacks on an old factory. She promptly renovated it mentally into the apartment in "Roses".

"You aren't the first person to like that apartment," she told me, "One reader bought the book and asked me how to get in touch with the owner so that she could rent the apartment."

Woven into the story are elements from the author's background, her deep interest in environmental issues, her work with the New York City Police Department Auxiliary and her journalistic experience. With the Police Auxiliary, she was sent on many different assignments, especially during special events such a Presidential visits. "We covered every area from the South Bronx to the silk stocking section of New York," she said.

Her interest in the environment grew deeper when she worked on a Jack Cousteau book. Her present concern about her new home is overdevelopment and intrusion in the marshland. "Driving down from New York frequently during the past years I see many changes along the 1-95 corridor." she said. She is also concerned about future development on Jekyll, about a conven­tion hotel on the beach which is being proposed.

"It seems shortsighted not to pre­serve what we have. Ten years from now this Island will be unique because of the limits once placed on development," she said.

Meanwhile, although she is busy promoting her latest book, she is also working on the third Abby Doyle book. It's about a year away and in it she's bringing Abby south. The setting of "Metamorphosis for Murder" will be a mythical island similar to Little St. Simons Island, with its miles of unspoiled beaches and virgin woodland. So until Abby comes south, get acquainted with her in Red Roses for a Dead Trucker. It starts with a romantic Valentine weekend that turns into a murder. But that's the only clue you’ll get from me. Red Roses will keep you turning pages.