Biography
Sparkle Hayter (her real name) was born in Pouce Coupe, B.C., Canada and raised in Edmonton. In 1980 she ran away to New York City where she ended up in TV news, primarily for CNN. After CNN, she moved to Pakistan and went into Afghanistan with the mujahedin to cover the Afghan war against the Soviets. After one particularly harrowing four-hour trek through a minefield behind some Frenchmen and a flatulent packhorse, she decided to give up full-time journalism. Upon her return to New York City, she, in short order, got married, took up stand-up comedy, sold her first novel, moved to Tokyo, moved back to New York into the fabled Chelsea Hotel, got a divorce, published five more novels, and got a tattoo. She has written for The New York Times Op-Ed page, The Nation and The Toronto Globe and Mail, was a regular panelist on CNN's issue-oriented talk show CNN & Company, and has also appeared on Diplomatic License (CNN), Good Day New York, NPR, CBC, BBC and Paris Premiere. She still performs stand-up comedy occasionally, and last appeared at Stand-up New York and Don't Tell Mama in Manhattan in 2001. At the moment, she is living in Paris and working on a novel set there.
the novels
There are five novels featuring Robin Hudson, a witty "special reports" journalist for the All News TV Network in New York. The first novel, What's A Girl Gotta Do, obviously drew heavily on Sparkle Hayter's real-life experiences in the business, having originally been written after leaving CNN, put to one side and then retrieved, leading to eventual publication (after some 30 rejection slips), but as the series has continued her motivation and narratives have come from a much wider range of sources, some researched, some serendipitous. Her novels have been described as 
'character driven' rather than 'plot driven', and are marked by their witty one-liners, occasional absurd combinations and their energy. Sparkle Hayter has recently indicated that this may be the last we see of Robin Hudson for a while as she pursues new writing angles, with her most recent release, Naked Brunch being a modern Grimm's fairy tale and a comedy with both heart and teeth, following the adventures of the last nice girl in a fabled big city, a mysterious werewolf named Jim, a psychiatrist to werewolves, the world's luckiest reporter, and an assortment of villains, media jackals, obsessed lovers and wannabes.
on the web
There are several interviews with Sparkle online, along with articles about her and her fiction:January Magazine - Interview in this online literary journal with Sparkle Hayter on the publication of her latest work, Naked Brunch
A Good Man Is Hard To Find - Sparkle Hayter in her own words on the Crime Time Online site.
femaledetective.com including reviews of all five Robin Hudson books so far
beatrice.com - An interview from 1997
amazon.com interview - Sparkle discusses favourite writers and musicians
mysteryone.com - An interview from 2000, with Sparkle recommending the new, revised No Exit edition of The Chelsea Girl Murders over the American edition.
If you want to communicate with Sparkle Hayter she is collecting her email from holmes222@hotmail.com
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Sparkle Hayter published by No Exit Press
What's A Girl Gotta Do
Nice Girls Finish Last
Revenge Of The Cootie Girls
The Last Manly Man
Chelsea Girl Murders Naked Brunch Forthcoming Releases Naked Brunch |