Guest Author Interviews
Dorothy Bodoin
November 2003
Bio and Excerpt
Interviewed for SinC-IC by Lynn Kinnaman
Sinc-IC: How did you start writing?
DB: I used to write stories and draw pictures when I was a child. Often they were sequels to my favorite books or wild adventures set in the Old West, in the jungle or on another planet. In school I learned that I had a talent for writing. I've never stopped.
Sinc-IC: Why did you choose to write mysteries?
DB: For leisure reading, I always chose a mystery. The covers on those old series mysteries featuring Nancy Drew and Judy Bolton used to intrigue me .Sometimes I was disappointed in the actual story, though, and thought that I could write a better one. When I discovered the gothic novels of Victoria Holt and Virginia Coffman, I was never disappointed. Every book I've written has been heavily laced with gothic elements.Sinc-IC: Briefly summarize the plot or the plot inspiration for your latest work:
DB: My work-in-progress, at present being revised is Ghost Across the Water.Joanna Larne is driving to a cottage near on of Michigan's lakes when two you ng men, fueled by road rage, try to force her off the freeway. She escapes without harm but doesn't realize that this is only summer's first threat.
After going to the aid of a tourist who has been shot in the local cemetery, Joanna learns of the town's resident ghost, Lieutenant Ned Seymour, a policemen whose twenty-year-old murder has never been solved.
In the meantime, the sound of water falling from an invisible source haunts her cottage, a tourist vanishes, Joanna meets a very much alive policeman, and a killer's mask begins to slip. At times Joanna wonders if she will survive her vacation.Sinc-IC: Any interesting or unusual thing happen during the development of this work?
DB: Before I started writing Ghost Across the Water, I completed a detailed chapter outline and long synopsis. Halfway through the book, I realized that the story, as I envisioned it, wasn't going to work. Is et the outline aside and created a new on, changing villains in the process. As I wrote, I kept my new plan a chapter ahead of my current writi8ng. When I finished the book, I realized that the plot was much stronger in its new carnation. While I was writing, however, at times I was afraid that I wouldn’t' be able to find a satisfactory ending.
Sinc-IC: What is your writing process (outline, research, index cards, software)?
DB: I spend one or two months working on an outline and synopsis, however long it takes. I follow Phyllis A. Whitney's, Guide for Writing a Book. That method is described in the chapter, "A Map is Not a Journey." I followed this guide with my first book, written on a portable typewriter at the age of sixteen. It worked, and I've been using it ever since, adding my own variations.
I like to write notes in a wide ruled 8 1/2 X 11 notebook and later tear out the pages, trim them, and file them in my planning notebook, which is a regular three-ring binder. Sometimes I start a chapter in longhand in this notebook or write scenes out of sequence as they come to me.
I always do whatever research is necessary for the project, but I'd rather write the rough draft first and research unknown elements thoroughly after I have the story on paper.Sinc-IC: How do you discipline yourself and schedule your writing?
DB: When I'm writing a book, I try to work on it every day so that the story will move forward constantly. I used to try to write 8 pages a day but now aim for a scene a day, even it it's only a few mages or material that I know I'll be changing. For me, that day-to-day progress is crucial.
When I'm planning a book, it's more difficult to adhere to that every day schedule, but I still try to keep the story moving, a little bit at a time.
Morning is the best time for me to create a scene, but I work constantly throughout the day, keeping my pages nearby while I take care of non-writing chores. My day's writing is usually the last material I read before going to bed and the first I reread the next morning.Sinc-IC: How do you handle rejection?
DB: I handle rejection by always having at least one publisher on my list to submit the rejected book to. It was harder to deal with rejection when I was only marketing one book. Waiting seemed endless. This year, I've sent queries out for four book. Waiting for replies still seems endless, but with four books in circulation, if a publisher rejects one manuscript, I still have three chances for an acceptance.
Also, rejections can be a source of learning about publisher's needs as well as weaknesses and strengths in my own writing, when an editor takes th time to send a letter with specific reasons for the rejection.Sinc-IC: What’s the one thing you couldn’t do without in order to write?
DB: That would definitely be my computer ever since I mastered Microsoft Word, I can't imagine writing a book any other I've learned to compose on the computer now, and revisions are easy and neat.
Sinc-IC: Do you have someone who critiques your work?
DB: I am in an online critique group with Dee Lambert and Jan Fudala. I also post chapters of my work in progress on the SinC-IC Workshop, and every manuscript, with the exception of the last two, has been professionally critiqued.Sinc-IC: Do you have an agent? Any comments about that?
DB: At present, I'm marketing my own work. I had an agent for six months. He claimed that he sent one of my manuscripts to six or eight major publishers. However, he never showed my any rejection letters. He said that the editors didn't respond. When he terminated the contract, he gave as a reason the difficulty of selling a book by an unknown writer. I later found his name on the Editors and Preditors "Not Recommended" list. A few months later, I sold my first novel myself. I like having control over my own material, and I always receive a reply.
Sinc-IC: What was the best writing advice you’ve received?
DB: The best advice I ever received was to read every day and to writer every day, even if it was only in a journal.Sinc-IC: What’s the worst?
DB: This would probably be to write the kind of book that is currently popular and also to add graphic sex scenes to my books. Authors like Victoria Holt, Phyllis A. Whitney, Barbara Michaels, and Velda Johnston wrote romantic books without graphic sex scenes. I decided that I could, too.Sinc-IC: What’s the best book you’ve read about writing?
DB: I have two. I discovered Phyllis A. Whitney's Guide to Fiction Writing in an earlier version when I was very young. I found it invaluable and still do. I also learned about mystery writing from Gillian Roberts; You Can Write a Mystery. There are many good books on writing available to aspiring writers. You have to find one that speaks directly to you.Sinc-IC: What advice do you have for beginning authors?
DB: Keep writing if that's what you truly want to do, and never stop learning about the craft of writing. Eventually, you'll succeed, although it may take a while.
Write the book you want to write and take advantage of a professional critiquing service. I learned more from my Romantic Times critiques than I could ever learn in a course because the comments applied specifically to my work.
Join professional groups. In addition to Sisters in Crime, I'm a member of Guppies, and Romance Writers of America, where I found a chapter for gothic writers — my all-time special interest. The camaraderie, support and good advice available in these groups are priceless. In Sisters in Crim, I'd recommend participating in the Workshop where members critiqued one another's stories and chapters. In a sense, this is even more valuable than a professional critique because of the line-by-line approach and the multiple critiquers.Sinc-IC: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?
DB: Never allow yourself to become discouraged. I sent Darkness at Foxglove Corners out twenty-eight times before I found a publisher. Last year, I kept my manuscripts circulating but didn’t' receive any contract offers. This year I received three.
There's a different time-frame in the publishing world. The way to make waiting easier is to become deeply involved in a new project.
Also essential is to believe in your own work. While I was receiving rejections for Darkness, I never stopped believing in my series. I wrote three additional books about Jennet Greeway before placing the second. Now, Winter's Tale will be published in December 2004 by Wings ePress, and A Shortcut Through the Shadows will be published by Wings in March, 2005. I'm currently working on the fifth book in the series.
D.P. Lyle, M.D.
September-October 2003
Book: Devil's Playground
Interviewed for SinC-IC by Lorie HamSinc-IC: Why did you choose to write mysteries?
DPL: I like stories. Always have. And I think the best stories have a mysterious or thrilling component. These elements keep the reader engaged and guessing and hopefully turning the pages. My novels are thrillers more than true mysteries, but I believe the line of distinction between these two genres -- the mystery and the thriller -- is blurry at best.
Sinc-IC: What is unique about your main character or setting?
DPL: The protagonist of both Devil’s Playground and Double Blind is a woman named Samantha Cody. Sam is a cop and a wanna be professional boxer. Tough and sarcastic. Actually, she is based on my good friend, Renee O’Conner, who you may remember as Gabrielle, Xena’s sidekick. Like Sam, Renee is smart and athletic.
Sinc-IC: What authors do you like to read?
DPL: I read a lot, in many genres. Always have. I look at books as not only good stories, but as textbooks for writing. You see what works and what doesn’t. You learn new ways of constructing stories and creating characters. Books are both fun and educational.
Medical training is a series of apprenticeships. You learn from other physicians who have specialized knowledge or more experience. Writing is the same and published novelist serve as mentors.
My favorite author? Hands down, James Lee Burke. After that I enjoy Elmore Leonard, Jan Burke, Taylor Smith, Barbra Seranella, Nelson Demille, Walter Mosley, Robert Crais, and Raymond Chandler to name a few.
Sinc-IC: How long did it take for you to write this book?
DPL: This book took approximately 9 months from first word to final rewrite.
Sinc-IC: Do you make a living from your writing?
DPL: No. And I wouldn’t want to. I write because I want to. Or is it have to? But not to pay the rent. For me, that would take much of the fun out of it. I admire people who do write for a living. It is a very demanding profession.
Sinc-IC: What do you like most about being a writer?
DPL: Where else can you rob a bank, kill a jogger, kidnap a bank president, capture a murderer, save the planet, and go to lunch. Writers get to play all the characters in the play. What could be better?
Sinc-IC: What do you like least?
DPL: Sitting. Hour after hour of sitting.
Sinc-IC: How much time per day or week do you spend writing?
DPL: I work on something from 2 to 8 hours per day. Either fiction or non-fiction, my MWA newsletter columns, answering medical and forensic questions for other writers through my website, or researching.
Sinc-IC: How do you discipline yourself to write?
DPL: This has never been a problem. If I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t. My problem, more and more, is making myself go do something else. A story is a living breathing creature that can devour every waking hour if you’re not careful.
Sinc-IC: Do you hear your characters speak to you?
DPL: What? What was that? Sorry, Samantha had a question. Or was it an order?
Chester D. Campbell
August 2003
Interviewed for SinC-IC by Lynn Kinnaman
Sinc-IC: How did you start writing?
CDC: Toward the end of World War II, while stationed at Randolph Field in San Antonio, TX as an Aviation Cadet, I roomed with a guy who had attended Yale before going into the service. He told me if he had it to do over, he would study journalism. I had never thought about writing as a career, but it somehow resonated with me. My mother always claimed that was because writing was something that wouldn't get my hands dirty. Anyway, I enrolled at the University of Tennessee, majored in journalism, and I've been writing ever since.Sinc-IC: Why did you choose to write mysteries?
CDC: I had been a fan of the spy story since reading them in the Saturday Evening Post during the war. Also, I had read a few mysteries-don't remember who wrote them. After working a few months as a newspaper reporter while still at UT, I sat down at my Smith-Carona portable and banged out a murder mystery. I still have it, though I haven't had the courage to read through it in over 50 years. Suffice it to say I took a long time getting back to mystery writing, but I always knew I would.Sinc-IC: Can you briefly summarize the plot or the plot inspiration for your latest work?
CDC: The inspiration for Secret of the Scroll came from a trip I made to the Holy Land in November of 1998. On the flight home, I read about an archeological dig at Bethany in Jordan. That's where the book opens. The scroll a student finds there sets off a chain of events that threatens the lives of Greg McKenzie and his wife Jill.Sinc-IC: Any interesting or unusual thing happen during the development of this work?
CDC: Well, yes, it did. I learned some valuable lessons from two editors that, had I known earlier, I likely would not have taken so long to become published. A couple of the more obvious ones were over-explaining and wordiness. “Don’t write down to the reader,” one editor said. Paring down descriptions, cutting lots of adjectives and most adverbs tightened the story and made it move much faster.Sinc-IC: What is your writing process (outline, research, index cards, software)?
CDC: I belong to the wing-it school of plotting. In Secret of the Scroll, I did no written plotting other than a few notes. I knew how it began and how it would end, then let the characters take it from there. That was a suspense story. With the second book, a mystery that has gone to the typesetter, I established where everyone was around the time of the murder, then started writing. I do research mostly as the need arises.Sinc-IC: How do you discipline yourself and schedule your writing?
CDC: I'll have to confess to not being a good example. I don't have a schedule as such. My wife and I walk at the mall in the mornings, then usually have a variety of errands to run. It's most often afternoon before I get to the computer. But I write mostly at night on my laptop while my wife sits beside me watching TV.Sinc-IC: How do you handle rejection?
CDC: I cry a lot. Just kidding. I've had so much of it over the years (my first novel published was the eighth I wrote) that I just shrug and move on. I compiled a notebook of about 30 rejections for Secret of the Scroll before it sold. Keeps me humble.Sinc-IC: What's the one thing you couldn't do without in order to write?
CDC: Interesting characters. I do sketches of the main characters before starting. They develop further as the book goes along, but stories are about people and I'd have a difficult time writing without them.Sinc-IC: Do you have someone who critiques your work?
CDC: I belong to a group called the Quill and Dagger Writer's Guild that meets twice a month to critique each other's work. There are five of us who attend most meetings. They've saved me from such gaffs as "She hummed a tune in Spanish." Neat trick, huh?Sinc-IC: Do you have an agent? Any comments about that?
CDC: I have no agent currently. As with most small presses, agents aren't necessary at Durban House. I've had agents in the past who did nothing for me. Hopefully I'll find a good one one of these days.Sinc-IC: What was the best writing advice you've received?
CDC: Don't overwrite. I used to give detailed explanations of everything that went on. My style now is to be much more frugal with words.Sinc-IC: What's the worst?
CDC: I can't recall any really bad advice. My problem has been not listening closely to all the good advice I've received.Sinc-IC: What's the best book you've read about writing?
CDC: How to Write a Mystery by Larry Beinhart. Full of good stuff.Sinc-IC: What advice do you have for beginning authors?
CDC: Learn all you can about the craft, read the kind of books you'd like to write, then write! Never give up. If you stick with it and keep improving your work, you'll make it as a writer.Sinc-IC: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?
CDC: I had my first book published at age 76, so don't be discouraged if it takes you a while.
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