About the author
Archer Mayor is the author of the highly acclaimed, Vermont-based series featuring detective Joe Gunther, which the Chicago Tribune describes as “the best police procedurals being written in America.” He is also a past winner of the New England Independent Booksellers Association Award for Best Fiction—the first time a writer of crime literature has been so honored. In 2011, Mayor’s 22nd Joe Gunther novel, TAG MAN, earned a place on the New York Times bestseller list for hardback fiction.
Before turning his hand to fiction, Mayor wrote history books, the most notable of which concerned the lumber and oil business in Louisiana from the 1870s to the 1970s. This book was published by the University of Georgia Press back in 1988 and very well received; it has been republished as a trade paperback in 2009.
Mayor—who was brought up in the US, Canada and France—was variously employed as a scholarly editor, a researcher for TIME-LIFE Books, a political advance-man, a theater photographer, a newspaper writer/editor, a lab technician for Paris-Match Magazine in Paris, France, and a medical illustrator. In addition to writing novels and occasional articles, Mayor gives talks and workshops all around the country, including the Bread Loaf Young Writers conference in Middlebury, Vermont, and the Colby College seminar on forensic sciences in Waterville, Maine. In addition, Archer is a death investigator for Vermont's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, a detective for the Windham County Sheriff’s Office, the publisher of his own backlist, a travel writer for AAA, and he travels the Northeast giving speeches and conducting workshops. He also has 25 years experience as a volunteer firefighter/EMT.
Mayor’s critically-acclaimed series of police novels features Lt. Joe Gunther of the Brattleboro, Vermont police department. The books, which have been appearing about once a year since 1988, have been published in five languages (if you count British,) and routinely gather high praise from such sources as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New Yorker, and many others, often appearing on their “ten best” yearly lists.
Whereas many writers base their books on only interviews and scholarly research, Mayor's novels are based on actual experience in the field. The result adds a depth, detail and veracity to his characters and their tribulations that has led the New York Times to call him “the boss man on procedures”.
About the author’s partner in crime
Margot Zalkind (Director of Marketing, New Projects and Publicity) has worked in advertising, marketing and design in New York, Boston and Vermont. In New York she worked for an international agency creating print ads and broadcast. In Vermont she ran an advertising agency working on everything from national media planning to putting the bumper stickers on the cars. She writes, designs, and has produced television commercials and documentary films and has won several awards for her work. Margot has taught design and communication at the Cooper Union School for Art and Architecture, the School of Visual Arts in NY and at UVM.
Videos of Archer
Author interview with Rob Caldwell on the 207 program on WCSH6.com, Portland, Maine. March, 2010.
Family photos
This is a self-portrait taken on top of the lighthouse at Loggerhead Key in the Dry Tortugas, of me, my daughter Elizabeth, and my son, Jonathon.
Same Florida location, with lighthouse in the background. We are sitting on a monument built to honor my grandfather, Alfred G Mayor, who created on this tiny key the world's first marine biology research field lab.
Me and my mom, Ana Mayor, taken by the Photo Booth camera on her (then) brand new computer.
Vermont Audio Drama Podcasting
As some of you have heard, a few colleagues and I have created a new company named Vermont Audio Drama Podcasting (VTADP.) Check out our website at http://www.vtadpodcasts.org/
The purpose here is to create an upgraded, high-tech variation of the old radio dramas some of we older types enjoyed as kids. Only this time, instead of being tied to the radio, as in those days, you'll be able to listen to 1/2 hour episodes of the Gunther stories on your iPods, featuring sound effects, music, and a multitude of actors playing all the characters. Once we get this project up and running, you'll have available a huge improvement over the traditional audio book format—it'll be movies for the imagination!
Want to learn more? Read about us in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Barry Newman of the Journal came to see us record the prototype first episode, put together by the fine folks of FinalRune Productions, and wrote about the experience at the end of February, 2010. That episode is a rough first draft, of course, done on the fly as a way to show potential investors what we're up to, but it clearly gives you an idea of our vision. Give it a listen ( and see the video) at the FinalRune website.
