Spotlight Profile
July 2002
In our spotlight this month is Linda Jedlicka, our hard working, helpful and kindly SinC-IC websister. Linda "writes and messes about with web pages" from her home on Whidbey Island, Washington. Or rather, she says she attempts to write when she's not providing taxi service for live-in granddaughter Alexandra or helping husband Jim put the finishing touches on their home and garden.
Linda and Jim moved to Whidbey four years ago when she retired from IBM, and construction began on their retirement home. Granddaughter Alex arrived shortly after the furniture and boxes were unpacked, and is now a busy fifth grader and aspiring actress looking forward to her second year at theater camp this summer and middle school in the fall.
Let's get acquainted, Linda Jedlicka.
IC
Tell us about your involvement in the Whidbey Island Writers'
Association.
Linda
Shortly after moving to Whidbey, I saw an article in the local paper
about a group of writers who wanted to start a writers' conference on the
island. I joined the group and created the website for what became the
Whidbey Island Writers' Conference, and now an even larger organization,
the Whidbey Island Writers'
Assocation . The conference celebrated its fourth year this past March
with keynote speakers, Ann Rule and Catherine Coulter.
IC
This conference has an excellent reputation. Please tell us more.
Linda
The biggest benefit of being part of the conference committee, and
having a large living room, is hosting the Mystery Chat at the past three
conferences. The chats are the "lemonaid" the committee made from the
"lemons" of not having a large conference facility on South Whidbey.
Because the conference begins on Friday, the high school classrooms used
on the weekend are not available. So after the morning address and a
catered lunch, the several hundred attendees are separated into groups
of 20 or fewer and spend the remainder of the day at private homes and
small meeting facilities like the Hedgebook Farm Womens' Writing Retreat.
Aaron Elkins and Meg Chittenden were the first writers I hosted at a chat, and although I seriously considered having the chairs they'd sat upon bronzed, I didn't and subsequent occupants have included Nora DeLoach, Mary Daheim, Burl Barer, Judith Smith-Levin, and Larry Karp.
I also joined the Puget Sound Chapter of SinC and created and maintain their website. This has given me the opportunity to hang out with a number of Northwest mystery writers and help staff the SinC booth at the past two Northwest Bookfests in Seattle. The chapter also participates in the Whidbey Island Writers' Conference by hosting a mystery tea table at the Saturday evening reception. We wear flea-market-found hats and serve tea from tables where poison bottles and other (plastic!) weapons are artfully displayed amongst the tea sandwiches. We weren't sure how this would be received by the non-mystery attendees, especially when several let out shrieks as they bumped against "George," the chapter's bodyless arm that had been placed beneath one of the table's dropcloths. But we were invited back this year and again next year, so we'll have to work harder at getting ourselves banned.
Before moving to Whidbey, I was a software engineer (aka, technical writer/user interface designer) at IBM. During my career, I wrote close to 100 books with catchy titles like The MVS/DFP Catalog Administrator's Users Guide and Reference and spent four years on Corporate staff leading a group that converted more than 10,000 user manuals into digital format, storing them in a (really big) database used for delivering groups of manuals on CD-ROM, and for print-on-demand.
You can see pictures of Linda, some of her mystery visitors, and her home on her family web site, as well as at the top of this page. That's Linda pouring tea at this year's tea party. Isn't she just too cute for words?
IC
In your close encounters with many successful writers at the Whidbey
Island Writers' Conference did you get any advice for writers you wish to
share with the IC members?
Linda
Wow, what a question -- yes, tons of of advice, but the one bit of
advice almost almost every successful writer has given is to plant your
rear in your chair and WRITE. At every conference, the conference team
gives each attendee a thank-you gift. This past conference it was a small
plastic bottle of white glue on which we'd replaced the label:
BUM GLUE
Directions:
Apply to seat of pants.
Sit. Write.
Warning: Do not use while writing in the nude.
IC
Your web site mentions the Langley Mystery Weekend. Is it a separate
event or part of the conference?
Linda
It's a separate event, but we time our Writers Conference so it falls
the weekend after Mystery Weekend because some of our attendees like to
attend both events. The Mystery Weekend is a LOAD of fun. Have you ever
played one of those mystery games that comes in a box - the ones where
everyone plays a character in a mystery? Well, visualise an entire town
playing such a game and inviting the public to figure out 'whodunit'. A
local group writes an original play each year, the mayor and a number of
other townsfolks play the parts, the police help set up the 'crime scene,'
and the shopkeepers keep stacks of clues you go from store-to-store to
collect. It goes the whole weekend with the villain being unveiled Sunday
afternoon in the Middle School auditorium. J.A. Jance came down and did
the unveiling one year. The population of Langley more than doubles this
weekend so you have to make reservations months in advance if you want to
stay in a B&B.
The event is run by the Langley Chamber of Commerce. It's always held the last weekend in February (making our Writers' Conference the first weekend in March). Next year, Mystery Weekend will be Feb. 22-23.
I'd love to take a part in Mystery Weekend, but because it's the week before our conference, I'm swamped with last minute website changes and other conference stuff -- like building a life-size unicorn, but that's another story.
IC
You do so much with some writing organizations, including SinC-IC.
What can you say to encourage other SinC-IC members to become more involved?
Linda
It's a great way to meet people! But they're not just 'people', they're
folks who share your love of books and writing - and in the mystery/suspense
genre to boot! And because they also belong to SinC, they're willing -- no,
more than willing, EAGER -- to help, support, advise, celebrate with you in
your victories, and comfort you in your defeats. What's not to love about
this group? And the more you become involved, the more you get to know
members of this amazing community.
IC
What enticed you to write mysteries?
Linda
I've always been a voracious mystery reader (and collector, I currently
own over 3,000 first editions -- my hubby measures my collection in
portions of a mile rather than feet!), but it wasn't until I got involved
with the writers' conference and the Puget Sound chapter that I thought
about writing. My first, and so far only, published short story came from
our chapter's annual "flash story" night, where chapter members bring
something they've written to share with one another. Until this past year,
my role was that of appreciative audience, but I was sufficiently fired up
by the conference that had just ended to give writing a story a try. It
worked! Now, if only I could figure out how to rekindle that flame. (Note:
my short story, "Murder Most Fowl," is in the Feb-Mar-Apr 2002 issue of
Futures Magazine.)
IC
How did you get into collecting signed first editions?
Linda
Like many others, I was hooked after reading John Dunning's Booked
to Die. I've heard, but have no idea if it's true, that he was so
distressed by so many people being hit by the book collecting bug after
reading the Cliff Janeway books, he's refused to write any more in this
series. Bummer ...
I've always loved reading mysteries (and sci-fi and fantasy and espionage), but as I got older -- or printers found they could save money by using smaller print, yea, that's it -- I started buying books in hardcover because the print was larger. And because I've never been terribly patient, I started buying them the minute they hit the shelf. And because I'm a pack-rat, I kept them. So, after reading Dunning's books, I was amazed to learn I had a decent start to a first-edition mystery (and sci-fi and fantasy and espionage) collection. Now it's become a treasure hunt and, frankly, an obsession. It's no longer enough to own a first edition, I want the "true" first (only collectors know or care what this means) and I want them SIGNED, preferably in the year they were published! Fortunately, I have an understanding and supportive spouse. A neighbor once quipped to my husband that it could be worse, I could be addicted to drugs instead of books. I had to bite my tongue before responding that drugs would probably be cheaper ... It helps that my husband also loves books, but he actually reads every book he buys and they're about boring stuff like math and science.
IC
What do you have to do to get original signed copies of first editions?
Linda
It's painfully easy. First you look for mystery bookstores near where
you live, like Seattle Mystery Books near where I live now or M is for
Mystery in San Mateo near where I used to live. Then you look for stores
like The Poisoned Pen (Scottsdale, Arizona) that participate in mystery
conventions and have fabulous newsletters and websites, and for those
recommended by fellow addicts, like Postmortem Books in the U.K. You then
pounce on their newsletters and websites and order every signed book you
can. More importantly, you become really good friends with the folks at
your local bookstores so you're first in line at signings at their stores.
You also attend every mystery conference you can - ideally those within
driving distance so you can bring a carload of books to have signed. And
some writers, especially those who belong to SinC, are willing to either
sell you a signed copy of their book or sign a copy you send to them
(*ALWAYS* include return postage, of course!!!)
I occasionally buy a pre-owned signed book from an online bookseller (the mind boggles as to WHY anyone would sell a signed book!), but it's much more fun to have the book signed in person.
IC
Tell us about your writing.
Linda
Now that I no longer write technical manuals (and may it ALWAYS remain
thus!), my writing consists mainly of web pages and email. I'm terrible
about writing, actually -- my thank-yous from Christmas are still
languishing in an unfinished stack!
IC
The Pacific Northwest has several successful mystery and true crime
writers who use the locale. Does your writing employ a regional setting?
Linda
Well, we DO have farms and chickens here in the Northwest, but based on
what I've written so far, my location isn't an integral part of the story.
I truly love this area and the amazing variety of backgrounds and interests
of the people who live here. I'm sure I'll draw on this in future writing.
IC
Are there any questions you wanted me to ask that I missed?
Linda
You've done such a good job of asking, I can't think of anything to
add -- not a small achievement, because I'm RARELY at a loss for words!
IC
What about a favorite quote to leave with our readers?
Linda
That I can do:
"The buying of more books than one can read is nothing less
than the soul reaching for infinity and this passion is the only
thing that raises us above the beasts that perish."
---- A. Edward Norton
IC
Thank you, Linda, for the quote and the interview -- and the opportunity
to get better acquainted.
Linda
And thank YOU as well! I very much enjoy this feature of our website,
and I'm quite honored by being asked for this interview.
This interview was conducted during the months of May and
June 2002 for SinC-IC
by Janet B. Fudala.
Visit Linda Jedlicka on the web.
Visit Janet B. Fudala
E-mail Linda Jedlicka
E-mail Jan Fudala
Read an earlier Spotlight Profile
