Sara Gran got hooked on mysteries early, especially the work of Donald J. Sobel, creator of “Two-Minute Mysteries” and the “Encyclopedia Brown” series.

“Growing up, he meant so much to me,” says the novelist, short story writer and publisher during a December Zoom interview from her Marina del Rey home. “It’s difficult to put into words why these tiny little mysteries are so appealing and so impactful.

“But for me, they really stuck in my head,” says Gran, author of a series of books about Claire DeWitt, the “best detective in the world.”

Gran’s new story collection is “Little Mysteries: Nine Miniature Puzzles to Confuse, Enthrall and Delight. ” The book includes nods to those early influences with a one-minute mystery, a choose-your-own-adventure story and fun elements like a page you can cut out and fold into a tool for “psychospiritual divination.”

“There’s something exhilarating about the whole idea that there’s this tiny little thing and there’s a solution,” she says. “I think one reason why we like stories like that is because nothing in life is actually solved. You know, nothing in life is a two-minute mystery. It’s the however-old-you-live mystery, the 75-to-110-year mystery, you know? That’s what life is.”

Gran recently discussed her work, her influences and her decision to become her own publisher along with a range of other topics. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q Your new book “Little Mysteries” takes inspiration from Donald J. Sobel, the late author of “Two-Minute Mysteries” and “Encyclopedia Brown” series. What appealed to you about doing that?A I am a big believer — for everyone, but especially for writers — in going back to the things that influenced you when you were a kid. Sometimes that means, Oh, my God, I wish this hadn’t influenced me; I [bleeping] hate it as an adult.

Q Let’s talk about Claire DeWitt. As much as she’s a great detective, she can seem out of control.

A This is something I hear from people a lot, but I see it differently. I see her as very in control. Not always. No one’s always in control. But I see her as someone living her life in a way that works for her to accomplish her goals.

It’s a life that almost no one else would want, but it achieves her goals. Her goal is to be the best detective in the world, and everything she does feeds that. There are some bad decisions, for sure, and there are some out-of-control moments, but most of what she’s doing is working toward that goal.

Q Claire sometimes just bursts onto the page and we aren’t immediately sure when an event is happening in her life. Can you talk about how you play around with time that way?

A That one I also stole from someone else. James Sallis has a detective series, which is called the Insect series because all the books are named after insects, like “The Long-Legged Fly.”

Another writer who does that really well is Andrew Vachss, but differently. He wrote this detective series for so long that he did what very few writers do: the characters age in real-time. So you really stayed with these people for like, 20 years, and saw them get older, and saw their kids grow up, and saw the city change around them. That was a big influence.

Both really impacted me and were part of why I wanted to write a series — to stay with this character over time and to have time be real.

Q Claire is always referred to as “the best detective in the world,” and I wonder if you can even talk about what that term, and its repetition, means to you?

A People often think it’s a joke when I say that. It’s not a joke at all. And people within the fictional universe think she’s joking. She’s not joking. She is the best detective in the world, absolutely, 100%. The cool thing — but also the hard challenge about writing this character who grows with me as I grow — is that being the best at anything is not important to me at this point.

So while it is absolutely 100% true — she’s the best even though no one believes her — she’s got to move on to more interesting self-definitions as a human being. And I also wanted to make a point about how she’s not as respected as she should be in that world.

I don’t like the idea of messages in books. I think they’re silly and don’t really work. But I think if there’s one thing I would like people to take away is that you don’t know where wisdom is. You don’t know where you’re going to get a good idea. Everyone is complicated, and the more someone has this façade of “I know the answers” probably the less they have and they’re probably covering up some bad (stuff).

Q You are now a publisher, having started Dreamland Books in 2021. What has that experience been like?

A This book was kind of the ultimate test, because I could not have (messed up) the printing process more, and it was incredibly stressful, and I felt totally sick so many days in a row about it. I’m still glad I did it, still glad I’m not working with a big publisher or any other publisher. So that was a good test for me.

I like making my own mistakes … and I cannot even begin to say how many mistakes I’ve made, and I still absolutely love it, and I want to keep expanding it. No one else has figured out how to really make a living publishing books, but I am under the delusion that perhaps I will. Every childhood fantasy I had in my life led me here. I couldn’t be happier.