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  Aileen Schumacher
Author and more
 

 
I think Aileen's e-mail signature line says it all: "'Well, places to go, people to kill, and all that...' Janne Kafka Skipper." Though not out killing people, she thinks about it. Virtually, of course. She's witty, sharp, and observant. As an engineer, one would expect Aileen to have the latter two characteristics. The humor is a bonus. Here is someone who loves her work -- whether it is engineering or writing. And it shows. One reads her novels not only to find out 'whodunit', but also for the thrill of discovering the engineering 'how". Let Aileen loose in a school and she'd recruit a whole generation of engineers. And surprise! She writes entertainingly and well, presenting us with more than just your usual puzzle to solve. Her novels feature Tory Travers, an owner-engineer in Las Cruces, New Mexico, not too far from El Paso, Texas. Tory contends not only with engineering related crimes, but a teenage son, a buttinski secretary, and El Paso Detective Alvarez, a man as stubborn as Tory. Her second book, Framework for Death was nominated for the 1999 Bouchercon World Mystery Convention Anthony Award. Read on to find out how Aileen manages to run an engineering business, raise a family, and write such good mysteries.

And, oh, yes, let's not forget how well she portrays location. Here, from the prologue of her first book:

It was a cool, dry, clear night, characteristic of summer in El Paso. The night brought only temporary relief from the summer heat, when not even the barest hint of clouds sheltered the parched earth from the sun, shining relentlessly down on this far western part of Texas. The most recent memory of rain might be two, or even three weeks past.

People died on nights like this.

Modern desert dwellers tried to escape the heat inside buildings where the whisper of cool air was continuous and seductive with its empty promise of soothing frustrations exacerbated by rising temperatures. But the heat continued to take its toll, and the effect was cumulative, exceeding some secret threshold when least expected.

People killed on nights like this.

Aileen Schumacher, Engineered for Murder

IC
When did you first realize you wanted to be an engineer?
Aileen
This is not a question with a simple answer. (Don't you hate it when people say that?)

I was a biology pre med student who got a summer research fellowship to Woods Hole the summer after my junior year, where I almost electrocuted myself while setting up some equipment in a wet lab. That's when I realized that for a "smart student," I didn't have any practical knowledge about how to make things like electrical equipment work. I went back to school and signed up for some engineering classes my senior year (including a graduate electrical engineering class that I should never have been allowed to register for). I started hanging around with engineering students (who have got to be some of the craziest people around) and I got to see some of the neat things they do--like build concrete canoes and have concrete canoe races!. When I graduated with my degree in biology, I was offered a place in a PhD program in immunology at a well known school. Simultaneously, I was offered a place in a master's degree program in civil engineering at New Mexico State University if I would take all my undergraduate deficiencies, take graduate courses, and teach a lab at the same time. It seemed like the scariest thing I could think of to do, so I did it. I spent the next two and a half years being constantly terrified that I wouldn't make it--so I guess I never really realized that I wanted to be an engineer until I got my master's degree and landed a job! Terror can be a wonderful motivator...

IC
When I was younger, I avoided walking by NYC construction sites. Have you encountered lewd comments and if so how do you handle them?
Aileen
What a loaded question. I think there's a distinct difference between encountering lewd comments when walking by a group of guys (whether it's on a construction site or not) and in working in a mostly (or all) male environment. For the former, I still don't get it. I've tried to find a middle ground by ignoring the comments but not changing my behavior. We live near a major lighted road with a sidewalk--a great place to walk at night. Guys in cars and trucks still honk and holler at me, and I'm 47! I try to tell myself that they just weren't raised right, but I don't let it change my walking habits.

Being on a construction site with a clip board in hand and in a position of authority is a different thing. I try to use a light touch and humor to begin with, but I have developed the ability to repeat myself endlessly and talk right over anyone who talks over me if I need to--and that was really hard to train myself to do--I was brought up that when interrupted, you stopped talking. It's not pleasant to encounter a situation where someone tries to undermine your authority, regardless of the methodology, but it bothers me a lot less than it used to--one of the few benefits of getting older. I guess it helps to be hardheaded to begin with and to feel strongly about your professional judgments--and where you want to walk at night...

IC
What prompted your decision to write a book?
Aileen
Three things--the fact that I love mysteries, the challenge of seeing if I could do it, and the belief that since engineers are problem solvers, an engineer would make a good mystery protagonist.
IC
Detective Alvarez seems to chafe over the disparity between rich and poor. Is he indicative of economic or racial problems in the Southwest or is this just an aspect of this one character?
Aileen
Ah, one of my favorite phrases, right along with "I'm not a feminist but..." is the phrase "It's not a matter of race, it's a matter of economics." Alvarez is amazed to have come as far as he has, considering his background. He is also realistic enough to realize that, almost always, being a person of color involves certain economic implications. He doesn't believe that all people get treated equally, but I don't think he lets it keep him awake at night. At least not most nights.
IC
Your books are fascinating in the construction/engineering details and economics of the development industry. Have you been surprised at how popular the books are with the general public?
Aileen
Yes and no. Yes in that I'm always afraid that the only people who will read my books are my mother and my father-in-law. No in that engineering is not boring, and neither are engineers. Engineering has been involved in some way with virtually everything you can see and touch in your daily life.
IC
How do you manage to run a business, take care of your family, and write your books?
Aileen
I don't. I just rent my purported family members for mystery conferences and special occasions. Please don't tell anyone. The same with my business--it's just an illusion. Please don't tell the IRS.

An alternative answer is that I have a very short attention span.

IC
What aspect of your business is the most fascinating to you?
Aileen
The fact that I never do the same thing on any given day. I may end up running calculations, listening to an employee talk about a family crisis, negotiate a contract, or give a marketing presentation in an effort to win a job. (Or I may end up doing something so mundane as run copies and staple papers together to help get out a submittal on time.) My favorite part of the business is when a check comes in full, on time--my second favorite part is winning jobs over the competition.
IC
Who is your current hero?
Aileen
James Lee Burke and Carol OConnell for writing--some of theirs is so good it makes me want to sit down and cry, because I don't think I'll ever write anything that good. In other areas, so many people have touched my life in positive ways I'd have to write a book to talk about all of them--I'll name just three. Bobbye Straight is my Parenting Goddess (and she's now working on her Parenting the Parents certification), Janne Kafka Skipper has more guts and courage than anyone else I've ever met, and Alene Pittman serves as a shining example of someone who truly lives her faith in God.
IC
Do you have a favorite animal, stuffed or otherwise?
Aileen
That's like asking if I have a favorite child! [ed. Aileen's dogs, Buddy and Kohli, are watching over her shoulder.] Buddy came to live with us as a found stray eleven years ago on my son's first day of kindergarten, and Kohli came to live with us four years ago when her litter was abandoned, then rescued by our local pet rescue association. If I said one was a favorite, the other one would bite me-- I can truthfully say that they are both equally spoiled rotten. 
IC
Per chance, is one of these a Transylvanian Hound and the other a Puli?
Aileen
We once owned both a Transylvanian Hound and a Puli, gifts from a friend who raises rare dogs. Those two, however, are now in that nostalgic category of Dogs Past, and if left to ourselves, our family ends up with dogs that have no one discernable breed in their entire heritage.
IC
Uh, Kohli--appears in one of your books not as a dog, but as a human. Who came first -- character or dog?
Aileen
This is where you're being so clever you're making me uneasy! I'd forgotten about this--Kohli the Dog came first. It goes like this--my past dog, the Transylvanian Hound, got written into the first book. Then I wrote my son's dog into a book that hasn't (yet, I hope!) been published. Then came the fictional Puli, which my daughter got to name, because the nonfictional deceased Puli belonged to her--are you following all this so far? But of course that wasn't the same as using the name of her living dog, and God forbid her brother get ahead of her in parental favors. So....I didn't have any current canine candidates when she brought this injustice to my attention, therefore I let my daughter name a human character after her present dog. As Meg Chittenden would say, the life of a writer is turrible 'ard...
IC
You have fun with your readers don't you? An example --an ME named Pat Cornell is asked by another character in Engineered for Murder if she'd heard of Patricia Cornwell.
Aileen
Yes, I admit to a real fascination with names, and the meaning behind them. I profess to believing that Keaton Crandell's life might have been different had she not been named Keaton, but let's not go there, let's simply let her have credit for naming her daughter Hero Dominique! Giving a character a name that has a specific meaning for me often helps me visualize the character. Case in point: a woman who I really admire lost her husband recently--I have consulted with her and plan to use his name for a character who represents reconciliation. And keep in mind that fact is often stranger than fiction--in one year, in business circumstances, I came across a Marlene Dietrich, a Jimmy Stewart, and a Paul Newman, none of whom were actors.
IC
You received your engineering master's from the University of New Mexico in Las Cruces and your books are sited there. What do you most miss about that area?
Aileen
Unquestionably, the desert. I love the desert. I grew up in El Paso within a bicycle ride of mountains and wide open country, and spent a good deal of my childhood roaming the desert with my then-companion mongrel dog. My children are both native Floridians, and when we fly into the Southwest, they look out the plane window and say, "Yuk, it's all brown." I look out the window and say, "Look at all that space. Don't you just love it?" 
IC
Now that you write mysteries, do you have time to read any?
Aileen
Of course. What else would I have to distract myself from whining, "I don't know how to write another book..."??? I am a compulsive reader--I always try to make sure I have a book with me--it really changes my attitude about having to wait on things with the kids, or having to wait on anything in general. Sometimes I venture into other genres, but 85% of the time, I'm reading a mystery. And geez, aren't there some wonderful writers out there? Here's a horrible confession--I had never read a single book by any of the other Anthony nominees when my book was nominated. I have worked my way through Nevada Barr's books, and am just now in the throes of delight at discovering Reginald Hill. I don't think I ever need worry about a shortage of wonderful mysteries, a thought that is always comforting to an addict.
IC
Do you have a favorite tale arising from attendance at an author / fan convention?
Aileen
Well, yes. I was a closet writer, and never had the nerve to attend a writers' conference until after I had sold my first book. The Sun Coast Writers' Conference had PD James as their keynote speaker that year, and their conference was within a two hour drive, so I screwed up all my nerve and signed up for it. I also signed up my son, who was twelve at the time, and took him so I would have some company. (Have you guessed yet what an extrovert I am?) I was so new to everything I had no idea why people were following PD James around and asking her to sign books! In any case, toward the end of the conference, Kevin and I ended up in an elevator with her, just the three of us. I introduced Kevin to PD James and started gushing about how she was the first mystery author I ever read. Then Kevin, who previously would speak to no one, started telling PD James in detail how I made him stay up and watch her PBS television specials, in spite of how much they gave him nightmares, and how The Whistler was the worst of the lot for keeping poor little innocent children awake at night. They had quite a conversation between the lobby and the thirteenth floor--she called him by name (off his name tag) and told him that his mother really needed to find an adult to watch those TV shows with. By the time she got off the elevator I was cringing in the corner and hoping that she didn't know Florida has a 1-800-report-child-abuse line. I still feel that after all these years and all those people at the conference, if PD James met me again, she would remember me. However, as much as one may crave recognition, this is not the type I would recommend.
IC
(An "Alvarez" question.) What is the wildest thing you did as a teenager? And it can't involve sex. Heh. 
Aileen
I attended an inner city high school in El Paso that was predominantly Hispanic, and was pretty rough. My senior year I was editor of the high school newspaper, and the three students comprising my editorial staff were pretty advanced for their age, and quite radical. (One has gone on to be a controversial political activist in Mexico.) Anyhow, we did some stories on racial inequities at our school without clearing them with the journalism teacher, and the editorial page of our newspaper got eliminated. This was at the end of the year, in l971 at the close of the Viet Nam era, when distributing certain political literature on public school grounds in Texas could be construed to be a felony offense.

The other three students asked me to join them in putting out an underground newspaper, and I did, and we did--I'll never forget it. There was exactly one issue and it was called The Door. (Pretty original, huh?) Anyhow, we got hauled into the principal's office soon after our venture into publication, and "expulsion" was a term that got thrown around some. I learned how quickly conviction can turn into cowardice--I thought I'd rather be shot than have to stick around and spend another year in High School Hell. I hadn't been in a mode of communicating with my parents for quite a while, and I kept wondering how I was going to break this news to them. Virtually the next day after our conference with the principal, we were notified that our newspaper had won a cash award for the best high school newspaper in the country, and the El Paso newspaper wanted to arrange a time to take my picture accepting the check. I guess my high school principal didn't think it would be good press for the caption to read that the picture had been taken moments before I and the others had been expelled, so we were allowed to finish out the few days remaining and graduate.

This made such an impression on me that I never took another writing course again--and to think, up until that time, there were people in my life actually advising me to major in journalism! 

IC
You've raised our awareness and appreciation for engineers. What thought would you like to leave us with?
Aileen
When I speak in the high schools, I challenge the students to take any item out of their backpacks or pockets, and I will relate engineering to it in three ways. (I feel fortunate that no one has handed me a gun or a condom so far!) As you sit and read this on a computer screen, keep in mind a structural engineer is responsible for the roof staying suspended over your head, a civil engineer designed the roads that got you to your destination, and a mechanical engineer designed the equipment that produced the clothing that you're wearing. (Some mileage may vary, and if you're reading this on a laptop while naked out in the woods, well, there are exceptions to everything!) Engineering is an integral part of modern life--and, as a group, engineers aren't boring, or even difficult to understand!

Thanks to Aileen for squeezing us in during the pre-holiday crunch. This interview was conducted during December 1999 by Louise Guardino for the Internet Chapter.

Aileen Schumacher's books:

visit Aileen's web site


Aileen@sinc-ic.orgspot@sinc-ic.org


Read an earlier Spotlight Profile

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