Guest Author Interviews
February 2002
Book Giveaway: Spirit of the Silent Butler
Special Giveaway: One Year Subscription to
Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine
Interviewed for SinC-IC by Linda Jedlicka
SinC-IC: Why did you choose to write mysteries?
BL: I believe 'mystery' chose me. My initial writing is an internal process - a culmination of my past and what that past did to me in terms of the way I see the world. As far back as I recall, I've been obsessed with an attempt to understand Evil. Why do people harm other people? As a child I remember wondering how God could allow it, thinking that were I God, I’d never allow it and why wouldn't God be better than me? Sorry if that offends, but as I said, I was a child. I did not understand the pain that saturated my Universe - the part that was directly caused by one person wanting, and then going ahead and acting on that want, to hurt another living being. The fact that the person they harmed was usually the weaker of the two, a child, a woman, a young boy, a dog, even, did not escape me. It obsessed me; I wanted to protect those who could not protect themselves, I guess I still do. I wanted to be able to reach my arms around the innocents and make their hurts go away, or make them strong enough to fight back. OR, fight for them.
SinC-IC: What is unique about your main character or setting in your Spirit Series?
BL: I write psychological thrillers and I've been told that I have a rather unique 'gift' if you will, that allows me to see inside another's mind. Reading these books will take you on a journey inside the killers' minds. I also believe that our protagonists can not always do the right thing - or even the moral thing. Mine, is going through a process of growth and we get to come along and see how it all works out for her. Some of her choices are not as good as others - she's far from perfect. But she is woman with an obsession - that of helping others who are in harms way.
SinC-IC: What authors do you like to read:
BL: As a young woman my idol was Dostoyevski. I read Crime and Punishment more than a couple of times each year. Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe, Thoreau, too. Then I went in to my Ayn Rand phase. HA! More recent authors are Stephen King, Jonathan Kellerman, John Sandford, Vonnegut, Bradbury, Asimov, Arthur Miller, Maya Angelou, well, I could go on and on. I love Henry Slesar's novels and short fiction, and it has had a great deal of influence on me in very recent years, and Seymour Shubin, Kit Sloane, G. Miki Hayden, Ellen Hart, Ellen Hawley, Walter Mosley, oh! I adore Charles Dickens. The pup in my series is named after a character from Great Expectations's Pip! Loved that book. Loved it! I love to read and lately I enjoy a good thesaurus, too! HAHA!
SinC-IC: How long did it take you to write the Spirit series books?
BL: The first draft of Straightedge (my first) took me less than a month. I believe I've used the word obsession? HA! Of course I could rewrite it each month and have a ball making new changes, too. It wasn't close to ready for years. I write fairly fast because I am excited and dying to find out what happens. After the third book I made serious attempts at finding an agent and/or publisher. That was a blow. ;) It did not go as planned. HAHA! Once I pulled myself back up and wiped off the burst bubbles from my body, I decided that some networking might be in order and it was then that I looked and found organizations like SinC and the newbie group, the Guppies. The Guppies was just getting started. I was one of their first 'officers' and was the one who started them calling themselves the PREpublished, rather than unpublished. I remember this because some found it upsetting at the time. To me it was a matter of attitude, and attitude counts!
SinC-IC: Do you have a family member who is supportive of your writing endeavors?
BL: My husband is completely supportive. He works very hard so that I can have a clear shot at writing. He believes in me all the way. My daughters are the same. They're all proud of me and that includes the magazine I publish (Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine). I often feel as if I'm crazy to continue on with something that does not pay, but rather costs me money when I have a family that could use the money!—and that includes our ten grandchildren!, they just know that Futures (FMAM) will one day become the dream. One of my daughters wrote me the following email when I had someone from the Oprah show call in response to what another writer had said to them about my first book - she said that she hoped something came of it for me and then this:
The real story though, is not the book, it's the motivation and determination behind it, the knowing what you want and making your own way to it, AND especially in helping to support and encourage so many others who share the same dream (i.e.FUTURES). I'm SO very proud of you for what you do with that magazine. The world is too full of organizations that focus entirely on who your daddy is, or who you kiss up to, instead of the true heart, motivation and unique vision of real people. You give recognition, validation, and hope to people who are pursuing a dream. It's a beautiful thing. Much more beautiful than anything money could buy.That was from my middle grownup daughter. I sobbed my heart out when I read it! Now that is worth more to me than anything money can buy!
SinC-IC: Do you make a living off your writing?
BL: Not yet. I put everything I make writing and more back into FMAM. I think that's close to changing. Isn't it? HA!
SinC-IC: What do you like most about being a writer?
BL: Writing. The process. I love it. It fills me. I also love helping other writers and artists make their dreams come true. We set up a fund at FMAM for those who can’t afford subscriptions, called the Joyce Kennett Memorial. Joyce dreamed of becoming a published writer and, before she died, saw that dream come true through Futures - and because she loved it so much and yet had absolutely no funds, I always gave her a subscription. So now we give them in her name to others like her. She's the Futures angel on staff. Anyone can donate to the fund, btw.
SinC-IC: What do you like least?
BL: I was in the car business for quite a good many years. You know all the jokes about used car salesmen? Well, I was that, too, before I got promoted. I met a lot of terrific people and some not so. This business has some scams and pitfalls that rival anything the worst car peddler could dream up. Believe me. That's what I don't like. Seeing anyone take advantage of another and especially when it concerns their dreams.
SinC-IC: How much time per day or week do you spend writing?
BL: For me, my writing and FMAM are two parts of the same thread - can barely be separated. Nothing that I do is much of a ritual other than that I work at some aspect of these two things most of the time. I help run our motorcycle shop some of the time, too. And I try to see my grandchildren as often as possible - they are the real joy of life! When I am writing something or rewriting, I work constantly doing just that. When I'm working on the magazine, same thing. It's not that I spend from 8 to 2 on the mag and then 2 to 2 writing, no. It's a push to the finish and then a push to the next finish. Does that make sense? HA! Probably not much. I really do have a great deal going on and I find that if I stop it's difficult to find time to return so I don't stop. Or in the case of the novels, well I just can't stop, it's too much fun, or I'm too involved.
SinC-IC: How do you discipline yourself to do your writing?
BL: Don't need to. I carry a notebook, with a favorite pencil and a special sharpener, with me everywhere. I’m always on it!
SinC-IC: Do your characters talk to you?
BL: It's more like they talk through me.
SinC-IC: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?
BL: Yes! For readings, signings, interview requests, contact Joe Birchhill - President of Full Tank Productions talent agency: 952-474-0808, fax 952-470-2033, birch@fulltankproductions.com.
Pat Browning
March 2002
Book Giveaway: Full Circle
Interviewed for SinC-IC by Lorie Ham
SinC-IC: Why did you choose to write mysteries?
PB: It was like being struck by lightning - I never knew what hit me. I had been doing book reviews for the Hanford Sentinel and while browsing the local library shelves for books that looked interesting, I kept choosing mysteries. I was fascinated by how up-to-date they were, nothing at all like the "mysteries" I remembered -- Agatha Christie, for example. One day, just like in the cartoons, a light bulb went on over my head, and I decided to write a mystery.
It's just as well that I didn't know how long, crooked and uphill that road would be. I thought writing was writing. Ha! Double Ha! It was, and still is, a learning experience, but that's what life is about, and I'm glad I took it on.
SinC-IC: What is unique about your main character or setting in your book?
PB: My main character is drifting into middle age, a baby boomer and full-fledged member of the "indulged generation," as that age group is sometimes called. She's occasionally bored but mostly happy in her little rut as a small town reporter, unmarried after an early and ill-fated love affair, living at home with her mother. It takes the murder of a friend, betrayal by a father figure, and a rekindled romance, among other things, to kick her out of her comfort zone and shape her up. The character still has a way to go, but since she’s a series character I get another chance to tinker with her.
My setting is a fictional town in the long-overlooked Central San Joaquin Valley of California. Not since John Steinbeck came through to write The Grapes of Wrath have novelists paid much attention. Even William Saroyan, a hallowed name in the Fresno area, set his most popular stories elsewhere.
This rural center of the state has become a veritable United Nations in the past few years, but its core has always been families with roots in the nation's center -- descendants of gold seekers, southerners displaced by the Civil War, migrants escaping the dust and poverty of the Great Depression. My characters are from this group.
In the San Joaquin chapter of Sisters in Crime alone there are five published mystery novelists setting their novels close to home. Marilyn Meredith’s Tempe Crabtree series is set in the southern Sierra foothills. Lorie Ham's gospel-singing protagonist lives in a charming college town near Fresno. Bonnie Hearn's first novel takes place in the 1960s during a farmworkers' strike near Bakersfield. Charles West's P.I. novel is set in Fresno. I'm the newest of the group (and I hope I haven't left anyone out).
SinC-IC: What authors do you like to read:
PB: I read all of the mystery writers I can. To name a few: John Dunning, Richard Barre, Tony Hillerman. I love J.A. Jance's J.P. Beaumont series, Jan Burke's Irene series, Linda Fairstein’s Alexandra Cooper series, M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series - there are so many good mystery writers (and so many of them SinC members) that it's impossible to list them all. Plus, I'm reading new ones all the time.
SinC-IC: How long did it take you to write this book?
PB: Six years, 40 pounds of weight gain, half a dozen online writing courses, nine absolutely final drafts, two inkjet printers, and God only knows how many reams of paper and printer cartridges. After a while I started throwing away the sales slips. Couldn't stand the reminders.
SinC-IC: Do you have a family member who is supportive of your writing endeavors?
PB: My husband qualifies for sainthood after putting up with my moods and frenzies. He’s also handy for basic computer and printer maintenance. Plus, he thinks my book is good. That's a very big star in his crown.
SinC-IC: Do you make a living off your writing?
PB: As a mystery novelist, I'm in the red so far.
SinC-IC: What do you like most about being a writer?
PB: No contest, feedback from readers. I loved the comment from a reader that she burned the peas while trying to finish the last chapter of my book. But the strangest experience involves my research and a longtime friend.
I gave one of my characters a hereditary blood disease called porphyria. It popped up one day when I was researching liquor, and it fit, so I used it. After my friend read the book, she wrote me a note saying that her father died of porphyria in 1950.
She said that her father's death was helped along by local doctors who couldn't diagnose him. By the time a hospital lab in San Francisco identified his porphyria, it was too late to do him any good. Even so, the local doctors told the family very little about the disease. When she read my book, my friend was aghast and agog.
I met her for coffee, and gave her my research file to read. That was a month ago. Today we met again for coffee, and she showed me a card she carries in her wallet. Dated 1960, it says that her blood tested positive for porphyria "cyclical, acute and familial," and that she should avoid "barbitals and sulphonals."
She has been showing that card to doctors for years and none of them paid much attention. None of them ever told her to avoid alcohol. She always wondered, she says, why drinking made her sick. Her late husband called alcohol's effects her "crazies."
It shook us both to think that my stumbling across porphyria during research brought this real mystery in her own life "full circle." Of course, I don't believe in accidents, and her comment was, "God works in mysterious ways!" She has photocopied my printouts and sent them to her two daughters, suggesting that they and their children be tested for porphyria.
I could live a long time on the satisfaction that brought me.
SinC-IC: What do you like least?
PB: All the files and miscellaneous paperwork writing generates.
SinC-IC: How much time per day or week do you spend writing?
PB: I'm an obsessive note-jotter. I have notebooks and pens in every room in the house. However, I don't sit down and write pages or chapters every day or every week. I plan to start doing that - next week. Seriously.
SinC-IC: How do you discipline yourself to do your writing?
PB: I am not disciplined. When not writing starts to drive me crazy, I shove everything else aside and start writing, and my husband gets another star in his crown..
SinC-IC: Do your characters talk to you?
PB: No. I read their minds.
SinC-IC: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?
PB: Oh, yeah! But I should save something for another time, don't you think?
Lynda Douglas
April 2002
Book Giveaway: Deadfall
Interviewed for SinC-IC by Lynn Kinnaman
SinC-IC: How did you start writing?
LD: I think I've always known I'd write one day. We lived in rural South Carolina and getting to the library was a rare treat. My mother was a member of Double Day book club, so I read everything she bought. It was much later in my life, after raising five children that I finally gave in to my desire to write. In 1997 when my sixth and last child was five years old, I sat down at my computer one day and dived into my dream.
SinC-IC: Why did you choose to write mysteries?
LD: There weren't many mysteries among my mom's books, but those few were the ones I read over and over. In middle school I had access to the school library where I read mostly mysteries. Writing mysteries naturally followed reading them.
SinC-IC: Briefly summarize the plot or the plot inspiration for your latest book:
LD: In 1997, during a trip to the Pacific Northwest, we visited the Siskiyou National Forest. Our then 5 year-old daughter, wandered off the trail and we lost sight of her for a few minutes. Deadfall grew from the terror that consumed me in that short space of time. What if a child was severely injured, alone and abandoned in a million acres of forest? Who is she and how did she get there? What if twenty years after her rescue someone tries to kill her? Could her abandonment as a child be connected?
SinC-IC: How long did it take you to write it?
LD: Good question. If I count from when I started the book until it was ready to submit to a publisher, I'd have to admit to nearly three years. If I count the time I actually worked on the MS, I'd have to say about two years. I worked on it for about six months before I realized how much I had to learn about writing. I put it aside, took writing courses, read books on writing and faithfully read every issue of the NovelAdvice Cyber Journal. I wrote short stories for a while, but not until after I had one published did I pick up the Deadfall manuscript again. After that, I finished it in about eighteen months.
SinC-IC: What was the best writing advice you've received?
LD: Believe in yourself and in your story. Don't write to some formula or someone's notion of what sells.
SinC-IC: What's the worst?
LD: Write only what you know. Too often new writers take that statement literally and get discouraged. I wanted to write mysteries, but I'd never had law enforcement training or experience and I'd certainly never murdered anyone. What you know is limited only by your willingness to learn.
SinC-IC: How do you discipline yourself and schedule your writing?
LD: Discipline? What's that, some new fangled writing term? Seriously, I'm a morning person. If an activity requires thought, I'd better get in done before lunch. I write from about 6 to 9 in the morning. From 9:30 until 12:30 I home school my nine-year-old daughter. On good days, I get in another few minutes work after that.
SinC-IC: How do you handle writer's block?
LD: I'm not sure I've ever experienced writer's block. I've had times when the next scene or next plot twist wouldn't come together. When that happens, I put it away and do something else--reading maybe. That usually stirs the pot and I'm back to work again.
SinC-IC: What's the one thing you couldn't do without in order to write?
LD: I have to have my own workspace. This includes having my own computer and peripherals. Quite time is nice, too.
SinC-IC: Do you have someone who critiques your work?
LD: I am part of an online critique group and I have a journalist friend who reads my work.
SinC-IC: What's the best book you've read about writing?
LD: That's a hard question. One of my favorites is Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan. I'd have to say the best one I've read recently is Miki Hayden's Writing the Mystery.
SinC-IC: What advice do you have for beginning authors?
LD: Read the sort of things you are interested in writing. Analyze these--what works and what doesn't? Apply what you learn to your own writing. Then write, everyday if possible.
SinC-IC: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?
LD: The Internet is a marvelous tool, much as ice cream is a marvelous treat. Too much of either isn't good for you. Networking with other writers plays an important role in our success, but it can become a bandit that robs us of quality writing time.
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