Guest Author Interviews
February 2003
Book Giveaway: Blood On The Tongue
Interviewed for SinC-IC by Lynn Kinnaman
SinC-IC: How did you start writing?
SB: I started at a very early age. In fact, as soon as I could read stories, it seemed to me that the natural thing was to start writing my own. I wrote my first novel when I was aged 12, and I haven't stopped since.
SinC-IC: Why did you choose to write mysteries?
SB: That's what I'd been reading for many years, and I thought it made sense to write something I’d enjoy reading myself. Also, the framework of a major police investigation gives me the ideal excuse for what interests me most – the exploration of the secret lives of my characters, and the relationships between them. No one can do all that enquiring into people's lives as convincingly as police detectives do! Having been a newspaper journalist for many years, I already knew a number of police officers and felt I had an idea of how they think. So I was already halfway towards creating my series characters - Ben Cooper, Diane Fry, and the other detectives of Derbyshire 'E' division.
SinC-IC: Briefly summarize the plot or the plot inspiration for your latest book.
SB: My most recent hardcover is Blood On The Tongue, which combines the 60-year-old mystery surrounding a crashed World War Two bomber with a series of baffling present-day deaths. Many wartime aircraft wrecks are still lying on the hills of the Derbyshire Peak District, where my books are set. It was seeing those wrecks, and thinking about the men who died in them, that inspired the story. In the same book, I also explore Derbyshire's close-knit Polish community, which originated from Polish airmen who flew with the Royal Air Force during the war.
SinC-IC: How long did it take you to write it?
SB: I have a contract for a book a year, so I can't take much longer than that - otherwise it leaves me less time to write the next one! On the other hand, the stories are fairly complex and involve quite a bit of research, so I need all of that time - especially taking into account all the other things that take up a writer's time apart from the writing.
SinC-IC: What was the best writing advice you’ve received?
SB: "Rules are made to be broken." It's the main piece of advice I pass on to aspiring writers now. Many of those who've done creative writing courses, attended writing groups or read the ‘how to’ books are so bogged down with rules about what they should or shouldn't do that they can't write anything they feel happy with. It's useful to know the rules, but when you start writing you should be able to put them to the back of your mind and let your own creativity come through. There isn't a single rule that can't be broken, in the right circumstances.
SinC-IC: What's the worst?
SB: "Write about what you know." How boring it would be if we only did that! One of the greatest pleasures for me is doing the research for a book and discovering entirely new and fascinating subjects. When I set out to write Blood On The Tongue, for example, I knew nothing at all about Second World War bomber crews or the Polish community. If you find something that excites and interests you, then you can convey those feelings to the reader. But if you write only about your own everyday experience, you can end up producing something that's faultlessly accurate, but lacking excitement.
SinC-IC: How do you discipline yourself and schedule your writing?
SB: With difficulty! As a journalist, I was used to having another deadline coming up in a few hours' time - and that focuses the mind wonderfully. But when the deadline is 12 months away, or I'm not given a deadline at all, I find it harder to focus. I always worked in busy newspaper offices as part of a team, and it's taken me a long time to adjust to working at home on my own (I do miss the people I worked with very much). So I tend to write in the evenings, which is what I did when I still had the day job.
Also, I do a lot of events here in the UK and spend four or five weeks a year in the USA, too. I enjoy every minute of that, but it does take time away from the writing. It means I'm always having to put work aside and pick it up again a couple of days later, or a couple of weeks later. I try to make the best use of periods when I can achieve sustained concentration.
SinC-IC: How do you handle writer's block?
SB: There's no such thing! No, really! A newspaper reporter would never dream of going into his office one morning and telling the editor that he isn't going to write anything today because he has writer's block. He'd be out of a job pretty quick! You learn to sit down and just do it, no matter how uninspired you may feel. Writer's block is a luxury you can't afford in journalism, and that's a belief I've carried over into novel writing.
If I'm lacking inspiration, I know there's only one thing that will get the ideas flowing, and that's to start writing - something, anything, it doesn't matter. It may be complete rubbish at first, but I can always change it or throw it away. For me, the physical act of writing (or tapping a keyboard, in my case) seems to set up a direct link to the imagination, or wherever the ideas come from. If I'm not sitting down and writing, then I might be suffering from a bad case of work avoidance, but not writer's block.
SinC-IC: What's the one thing you couldn't do without in order to write?
SB: I'm hooked on my computer. Although I use a notebook when I'm away from my desk, I can barely write in longhand now, because I've been using a keyboard for so long. The editing capabilities are a godsend, because I change things around constantly as I go. And while I'm writing, I keep in touch with the rest of the world by email. I'd be completely lost without my PC.
SinC-IC: Do you have someone who critiques your work?
SB: My agent is the first person to see a new manuscript, followed by my UK editor. They're both experienced professionals, and they're quite capable of telling me if there's anything wrong with it. My wife reads the final draft, too, but she only ever tells me how good it is!
SinC-IC: What's the best book you've read about writing?
SB: I don't read too many books about writing, but I remember one in the 1990s called How to Write a Million by Dibell, Scott Card and Turco. On the jacket, the 'l's in 'million' were written as pound sterling signs, which I found very inspiring. Not that it's all about money of course!
SinC-IC: What advice do you have for beginning authors?
SB: There are three 'P's worth remembering - Professionalism, Persistence and Passion.
You should always be professional in your dealings with agents and editors, as well as in the way you present your work. If you behave like a professional, they're more likely to treat you as one.
Persistence is a vital asset. You shouldn't be put off by rejections, no matter how many you collect (and we all have a few!). It's a question of getting the right piece of work in front of the right person at the right time. As long as you keep trying, one day it WILL happen.
Finally, passion is an element that makes one book stand out from all the rest (editors and agents do see many thousands of manuscripts). If you feel passionately about your subject, it will come across to the reader. But if you're just going through the motions about something that doesn't really interest you, that shows too.
SinC-IC: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?
SB: Only that I don't think the creation of a novel is entirely a one-way process, which is often how it sounds when we talk about writing. I rely a lot on readers being willing to put their own imagination into a story, and their own emotional involvement. That way, we create a story together, and it exists in a slightly different and therefore unique form in the mind of each reader. With a bit of gentle nudging, most readers are able create pictures for themselves that are far more vivid, and much scarier, than anything I could ever write!
Debby Atkinson
March 2003
Book Giveaway: Primitive Secrets
Interviewed for SinC-IC by Lorie Ham
SinC-IC: Why did you choose to write mysteries?
DTA: I love to read mysteries. They're highly entertaining and the good ones deal with a theme bigger than the question of "who done it." Mysteries reveal social inequities and a gritty side of life that many people don't see in their every day existence. I don't see it very often, but I know it exists. Mysteries also show people struggling against adversity, trying to overcome grave problems. I believe that many mysteries are also fine literature and would like to see reviewers acknowledge this fact more often. Wishful thinking, maybe?
SinC-IC: What is unique about your main character or setting?
DTA: There aren't many authors writing mysteries that take place in Hawai'i and I believe that I'm the only long-time resident Hawaiian mystery writer. My main character, Storm Kayama, is half-Hawaiian, half-Japanese, which is representative of an islander. Hawai'i has an amazing blend of cultures, ethnicities, and all the folklore that comes with diverse peoples' histories. I wanted to write a mystery that demonstrated how all these cultures live together and to share the myths of the islands in a way that would be fun and informative for the non-island dweller. I also wanted to create a likeable, gutsy protagonist.
SinC-IC: What authors do you like to read?
DTA: I enjoy Denise Mina, Barbara Seranella, Harlan Coben, Dennis LeHane, Tony Hillerman, T. Jefferson Parker, Minette Walters, Ruth Rendell, Val McDermid, and I'll think of another half dozen mystery writers as soon as we go on to the next question. I also enjoy Joyce Carol Oates, Salman Rushdie, William Faulkner, Willa Cather, and some other classics.
SinC-IC: How long did it take for you to write this book?
DTA: It took two or three years and when Poisoned Pen Press bought it, Barbara Peters asked me to make some changes (for the better!), so I wasn't even finished when I thought I was.
SinC-IC: Do you make a living off of your writing?
DTA: Not yet. I'm lucky that my husband has a good job that he loves.
SinC-IC: What do you like most about being a writer?
DTA: I love making up the stories, building the puzzles of a mystery, then-and I have just discovered this aspect-having the satisfaction of seeing it in print and having people enjoy it.
SinC-IC: What do you like least?
DTA: Worrying that the next book won't be as well received.
SinC-IC: How much time per day or week do you spend writing?
DTA: I try to write five days a week, after I get my boys to school. I write from 9 or 10 in the morning to about 3 or 4 in the afternoon.
SinC-IC: How do you discipline yourself to write?
DTA: I see writing as my job. I do find myself doing extra loads of laundry or changing beds if I'm having a hard time with a chapter or the direction a character is headed. Then I let myself make a cup of coffee or tea and carry it back to the computer to get down to work again. That usually does the trick. I try to write a minimum number of pages per day.
SinC-IC: Do you hear your characters speak to you?
DTA: Sometimes. I am more apt to see the problems that their personalities bring to them, and what drives them to act, their quirks, what confuses them or hurts their feelings. They're real to me-Storm is a friend.
SinC-IC: Thank you for being our Guest Author, Debby!
Kit Sloane
April 2003
Book Giveaway: Bad Actors
Interviewed for SinC-IC by Lynn KinnamanSinC-IC: How did you start writing?
KS: I had always wanted to try to write a mystery. I decided to take a year off from my job (I was a medical office manager) and see what happened. A year later I had a completed manuscript in hand. I never went back to my old job!
SinC-IC: Why did you choose to write mysteries?
KS: The mystery genre has always fascinated me. I like the idea of putting puzzles together and I like the idea that the plot has to make sense, that it must be logical.
SinC-IC: Briefly summarize the plot or the plot inspiration for your latest book.
KS: The latest in my Margot O'Banion series is called Bad Actors. I saw a blurb in the local newspaper saying that the town nearest us had turned down a major film studio's request to film at an old Art Deco high school building. Cities make lots of money from these location shoots and I wondered why the city fathers had turned down the request...
SinC-IC: How long did it take you to write it?
KS: A year. I always give myself a year. After that it's just re-editing and more editing until it's in print and I can't get my inky fingers on it any longer.
SinC-IC: What was the best writing advice you've received?
KS: Keep at it and you'll find the one person out there who loves your story as much as you do.
SinC-IC: What's the worst?
KS: That there are rules you must follow in order to become a published writer.
SinC-IC: How do you discipline yourself and schedule your writing?
KS: I live on a small horse ranch. In between chores I settle down at my blueberry iMac and write. It's a nice division of labor between the physical and the mental. When I'm tired of one, I do the other. Seems to work out fine for me.
SinC-IC: How do you handle writer's block?
KS: I don't really think I get writer's block. I get lazy, but writing is such a pleasure. If I'm really feeling lazy, I edit my stuff. There are always a million ways to say something! So many words, so little time.
SinC-IC: What's the one thing you couldn't do without in order to write?
KS: My iMac. I love computers but I like a friendly machine.
SinC-IC: Do you have someone who critiques your work?
KS: I have a group of people whom I give drafts to. I trust these people and listen to them (most of the time).
SinC-IC: What's the best book you've read about writing?
KS: Strunk and White's The Elements of Style.
SinC-IC: What advice do you have for beginning authors?
KS: Just keep writing. Don't worry about all the "rules" (except the grammatical ones, of course) and don't be swayed by "trends."
SinC-IC: Your first Margot/Max book, FINAL CUT, showed us movie making on location. Then, GRAPE NOIR took the protagonists into the evil heart of the California wine trade. Now, your third novel in the series, BAD ACTORS, returns us to the film making word, using an Art Deco Hollywood high school building as the set. Why this background? What prompted you to write BAD ACTORS?
KS: I read a newspaper article a few years ago concerning the attempt of a well-known director to film his spooky movie at an architecturally famous Santa Rosa, California high school. To everyone's surprise, the city turned the offer down. The story made quite a splash because cities get big bucks for "renting" out their locations to Hollywood, and all city governments need the money. But the city fathers said filming at the high school wasn't "appropriate." In actuality, the decision was based on the fact that the guy made slasher films, but I wondered what other reasons a locality might have for denying a location shoot to a famous filmmaker.
Also I'm a real film nut and I have read a lot of fascinating history concerning the film industry, which I like to use as background to my stories. In Bad Actors, I refer to a part of Hollywood's past that destroyed many in the business and nearly destroyed Hollywood itself--the House UnAmerican Activities Committee hearings of the 1950s--old history that is still both shocking and relevant to the present.
On that dual basis, Bad Actors constitutes a story of persecution and revenge. At the center of the action, my heroine, Margot, reconstructs a mosaic of madness and deceit among a cast of characters intent on preserving a united front in the face of a sinister past.
SinC-IC: Tell us about the protagonist of BAD ACTORS.
KS: Margot O'Banion Lake is a talented film editor, not a sleuth. She is, by nature, shy and retiring. My protagonist doesn't seek out trouble. Problematic events just come her way, as they do to all of us in real life. We interact with troubled, troubling people. We meet great characters. We find ourselves in situations not of our making. Life is mysterious because these things happen randomly. In my series, problematic situations often require Margot to step forward. This is both terrifying and stimulating to her. I'm a shy person, too. I feel that I understand what my protagonist goes through. Teaming beautiful, reticent Margot with a flamboyant boyfriend, a director who is now the latest sensation in Hollywood, struck my imagination just right.
SinC-IC: What kind of statement do you regard your novel as making?
KS: The theme is that good and evil often masquerade as each other, but sooner or later--we hope--the mask is removed, revealing what's really going on. I think the theme is best characterized by the quote I use at the beginning from the late actor John Carradine: "Never do anything you wouldn't want to be caught dead doing".
SinC-IC: Is the statement here different from what you try to show in your first two books?
KS: In each of my books I like to write about the tensions that arise when simple and not-so-simple actions create unintended consequences, the who ARE these people and WHY are they acting that way aspects of storytelling. I like weird, problematic characters. I'm weird and problematic. I think all of us are with our many social faces and our minds rattling along at a hundred miles an hour. We're all great characters. Life and people are complex. I like to write about that.
SinC-IC: What authors have influenced you and in what way?
KS: P.D. James. I admire her sense of place, the way she lures the reader into the settings, her use of architectural details. I remember scenes from her books long after I've read or reread them. I also love John LeCarre for his descriptions and characterizations. To me without those two elements, you just have a plot-driven story that is indistinguishable from a million others. In other words, you could substitute one set of characters or another place with the same storyline and no one would notice. I would hate to write something like that.
SinC-IC: You live on a ranch?
KS: We moved half an hour north of the Napa Valley from Berkeley in order to have our horses with us instead of at a boarding stable. We enjoy many advantages in living on a five-acre, tree-covered hill in the midst of California1s wine country. I love the physical beauty of our ranch. I love having the deer eat my flowers and watching the horses from my windows. Final Cut is set in our valley. Grape Noir is set in the region, too, although Bad Actors is set in Margot and Max's home territory of L.A.
SinC-IC: Tell us a little about your family.
KS: My husband is a professor of government at St. Mary's College. A fine horseman, he runs a program for teaching riding and horsemanship to people with disabilities. Son, Jonathan, is bilingual from years of teaching in Costa Rica and now teaches junior high in L.A. Daughter Annie works as an artist. She made the collage that is Final Cut's cover and then designed the Anthony-nominated cover of Grape Noir. She is also the creator of the cover for Bad Actors.
SinC-IC: What's your next book, number four?
KS: The next one is called Last Words and is a "literary" mystery in the sense that a book is a main character. Max is filming a great cult classic novel, a novel that everyone feels is theirs to interpret, and he and Margot find that nothing, including the book's famous plot, is what it seems to be... I'm having fun with it.
SinC-IC: What was the very first mystery fiction book that you read?
KS: My step-mother handed me Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time when I was eleven. It had just come out and was a great hit in the United States. I adored the book and was "hooked," as we say in America, on mysteries in general and on British writers specifically!
SinC-IC: What made you decide to write mystery fiction?
KS: Actually I just wanted to see if I could write a book. Since I loved mysteries, I decided to try the genre. I love the idea of puzzle-solving. And, since my books, are heavily slanted on characterization, I liked the idea of several books involving the same people. I never thought I'd finish one novel, much less a series!
SinC-IC: Who were your influences when you decided to start writing?
KS: Since I didn't begin writing full time until I was forty-five, I had already read a great deal of everything! My favorite writers are an eclectic bunch, from Graham Greene (I think his opening paragraph in Brighton Rock is my favorite first paragraph, period!) and John Le Carre and C.P. Snow, to Jane Austen, Dorothy L. Sayers and P.D. James. Hm, they're all British! And, in many of their books, they have continuing characters. There seems to be a theme here!
SinC-IC: Do you still find time to read crime fiction yourself? If you do which genre do you prefer to read and why.
KS: I tend to reread my old favorites. I still prefer the cozy where the emphasis is on characterization and ambiance. I love to read description!
SinC-IC: Do you enjoy being part of the mystery community?
KS: Yes, it is lovely for all us writers to emerge from our quiet rooms to find like-minded people, thanks to the Internet, and then, hopefully, to meet these new acquaintances face-to-face. The Internet was how I met Lizzie Hayes and learned of Mystery Women! I do hope to come to England someday and attend one of your events!
SinC-IC: What were the last five books that you read?
KS:
1. Personal History, the autobiography by Katharine Graham, the famous newspaper publisher-absolutely a stunning book. I couldn't put it down, all 600-plus pages.
2. Gaudy Night by D.L.Sayers, this is the most ROMANTIC book I've ever read! This summer I've reread all the Peter Wimsey novels. I do enjoy rereading my favorites at different stages and ages of my life.
3. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. Yes, I'd never read it and next I plan to read his Treasure Island!
4. Wordstruck by Robert MacNeil. I do love biography.
5. Writing the Mystery by my dear friend G. Miki Hayden. She's a great editor/teacher/writer and writes about all the things I should probably be doing in my novels!SinC-IC: I understand that you are a movie buff? What is your favourite movie and why?
KS: That's a wonderful question. To me, it's akin to what is my favorite book? The answer being, it just depends. Since I've been interested in my characters' relationship lately, I'd say a great favorite film of mine is Moonstruck from 1987. It has a wonderful ensemble cast and is about all sorts of family relationships. It is funny and hopeful. Also The Thin Man series, the Nick and Nora adventures from stories by Dashiell Hammett from the thirties and forties, are very stylish, very American and fun.
SinC-IC: FINAL CUT is all about the movie business and Hollywood? What made you decide to set your first book amongst these people and how come you know so much about the movie industry?
KS: A good friend of mine is an excellent film editor. She introduced me to many of her co-editors. The film editors I met were all women; smiling, quiet, unobtrusive, rather shy people. And all their technically creative work was a long way from the perceived glitz of Hollywood. The concept of filmmaking as this utterly collaborative industry employing hundreds of people with diverse personalities, talents, and goals appealed to me deeply. My protagonist evolved out of this setting. Also, perhaps even more helpful, my artist daughter Annie (who does my covers!) often works in production and tells me all the gossip!
SinC-IC: Your second book GRAPE NOIR is set in the wine valley. Why did you decide to set it there?
KS: The wine trade is another traditional business which is yet another collaborative industry aiming toward a different goal, great wine. It's fun to take an established organization and throw a wrench into their well-oiled gears. Plus the ambiance of wineries is so beautiful. I like the idea of mayhem in those tranquil surroundings...
SinC-IC: Margot is very shy and retiring while Max is very opinionated what do you think makes their relationship work?
KS: I felt it important to team reticent Margot with a partner who is all the things she isn't-a partner who insists on dragging her out of her wallflower mode and into real life. Max is also handsome, faithful, talented and funny and he loves her. He may be a trifle shallow, but he's a devoted father to their teenage son and he thinks Margot is wonderful. As a friend said of Max, "What's not to like?"
SinC-IC: What's next for your characters film editor Margot O'Banion and her lover flamboyant director Max Skull?
KS: I don't believe marriage is in their future. They work together, they're together most of the time, but they live apart. Each of the them deal with the tensions of their professions differently and, believe me, Max would not be a tranquil domestic partner. But they're both secure in their live-elsewhere romantic relationship and also in their business partnership.
SinC-IC: What do you find the most difficult when you are writing?
KS: The middle. Seriously, writing the middle of the book is somewhat of a chore for me. It's necessary to maintain momentum and to keep the story building, but compared to writing the beginning and, my favorite, the climactic ending, writing the middle is hard work!
SinC-IC: Do you have a website and how can people contact you?
KS: I have a fun website at www.kitsloane.com. I do hope people will log on, sign my guest book, say hello, and look around! Also our publisher's website is attractive and informative: www.deadlyalibipress.com.
SinC-IC: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?
KS: Read. Reading is the writer's best friend.
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