Author Laura DiSilverio

So what does a young woman, who wants to be a successful writer do after submitting her first novel for publication and having it rejected?

Join the Air Force, of course.

And that’s exactly what Laura DiSilverio did.

Now a successful writer of the Swift Investigations series of mysteries, she had written a romance novel while in college and it ended up at a major publishing house but was rejected. And even though the rejection came with some thoughtful suggestions, to Laura, it was rejection nonetheless. So she decided that maybe she would try the Air Force. Her father had been career Air Force, so the life was familiar and seemed like a good idea at the time.

But after a 20-year career, she decided that it was time to seriously try writing again. The result: Her third novel in the Swift Investigations series, Swift Run, is being released on November 27 by Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books.


Swift Investigations is a Private Investigation firm of two women, Charlie Swift and Gigi Goldman. Rather than having a solo PI, DiSilverio has invented this partnership of opposites; sort of like the female counterparts of Felix and Oscar from Neal Simon’s The Odd Couple. She says she wanted the relationship to be the center piece of the novels and evolve into a real friendship. She also wanted it to be two women not a woman and a man with the male/female romantic complication thing.

“I didn’t want it to be Remington Steele or Moonlighting.” Will they or won’t they sleep together? How long can you draw that out?”

Charlie is the no nonsense, experienced investigator and namesake of Swift Investigations. Gigi is her inexperienced and klutzy partner who often dithers about what to do and worries about her wardrobe and makeup as much as the investigation on which they are working. At first Charlie was very resistive to having Gigi for a partner, but over the course of the three novels the friendship has evolved and Charlie has begun to see Gigi’s value: she is good on the computer (better than Charlie) better with people, more patient and also more caring (which sometimes gets her in trouble). DiSilverio says she wanted Gigi to be more than a running joke, to be a real three dimensional character and give Charlie something to play off of.

DiSilverio spent her twenty years in the Air Force as an Intelligence Officer, a Squadron Commander at the National Reconnaissance Office and a fighter wing in Korea. The discipline that work teaches is great training for a career as a writer. Inspiration is wonderful, but discipline is what puts words on the page.

“I write 2,000 words a day. I write every day; this is what I do full-time. This is a job and I treat it like a job. I get the kids off to school and sit my butt down at about 7:30 and I write until I get 2,000 words done which is usually around 11:00 A.M. “

Discipline.

Leaving the Air Force (with the full support of her husband, who was also in the service) in 2004, she set about writing full-time, getting an agent and getting published.

In the process of seeking publication for Swift Investigations, she was approached to write a mystery series set in a southern beauty shop. She agreed and under the pen name, Lila Dare, the Southern Beauty Shop Mysteries were born.

“I had lived in Georgia, knew the territory and I thought, why not?”

And then came a three-book deal for Swift Investigations. The first, Swift Justice was published in October of 2010.

DiSilverio is hopeful of producing a fourth in the series as are her fans. Among other things, everyone wants to know what will happen with either Father Dan or Detective Montgomery as Charlie’s possible love interest. And Gigi – what new craziness will she get herself into?

Laura DiSilverio will be at the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Highlands Ranch on Thursday evening, November 29.