IC
Can you give us a preview of the very new and different series you've sold to a different publisher?
Donna
It's a mystery with a bit of science fiction twist: the detective is an artificial intelligence personality, who lives in a huge corporation's computer system. Her name is Turing Hopper--after Alan Turing, the British cryptographer and computer scientist who helped create the field of artificial intelligence, and Admiral Grace Hopper, one of the pioneering women in computing. When the programmer who created Turing disappears, she's afraid something has happened to him, and decides to play sleuth.
One thing I've tried to do in writing about Turing is avoid being too technical--to make sure that you don't have to know a lot about computers or artificial intelligence to enjoy the book. My mother reads a lot of mysteries, in addition to mine, and I have a 95-year-old great aunt who's an avid mystery reader.
I tried to keep them in mind when writing Turing, to make sure that while the technology used was accurate as far as it needed to be, it was also very much behind the scenes; that you didn't have to love or understand computers to follow and enjoy what happens in the book. And I hope I've succeeded.
IC
Is this a special passion, or do you just want to shift gears from humorous cozies?
Donna
I grew up reading voraciously, with a particular love for fantasy and science fiction, and although I did read some mystery books as a kid--especially Sherlock Holmes and Freddie the Detective--I really began developing my love of mysteries in college.
I've heard people say that you need to write a million words of whatever you're trying to write before you get good enough to be published--I think you also need to read a few million words. Or maybe it's just that what we try to write is what we love to read. Either way, in college, although I was just starting to read mysteries, I had come out of an intense apprenticeship of reading and emulating fantasies and mainstream literature, and that's what I was trying to write.
I don't remember the year, but I remember reaching a point when I wasn't as interested in most of the new fantasy I saw. I bought or borrowed new books as they came out, but they stayed around longer before I read them.
Which doesn't mean that whatever book I had picked up was a bad book--just that I was tired of that kind of book. And I realized I was devouring the mysteries I bought or borrowed with the passion I'd once felt for fantasy, and slogging through the fantasies as if they were course work, and that's probably when I started on course to become a mystery writer.
Having said that, I should note that I've regained some of my lost interest in fantasy--either the field has diversified, or I've gotten better at finding the things I like. And there were writers active then who I still liked, or would have liked if I'd discovered them then. Writers like Barbara Hambly, Lois McMaster Bujold, Emma Bull, Charles DeLint, Will Shetterly, and Jonathan Carroll.
And I love any kind of crossover between mystery and fantasy or science fiction--Rosemary Edghill's Bast mystery series, Mercedes Lackey's Diana Tregarde books, Lee Killough's vampire-cop and future-cop books, Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake stories.
I also think the period when my primary allegiance shifted from fantasy and science fiction to mystery was a time when the mystery field had begun an incredible period of growth, not just in the number of books published, but also in their range and quality.
I keep a list of books I read--at least my organized side tries to; half the time my creative side forgets to write things in. Anyway, if I flip back to the 80s and look at the writers I was reading--not only past masters like Christie, Sayers, Chandler and Hammett, but also more contemporary writers, some of them already established, some just becoming known--writers like Charlotte MacLeod, Sue Grafton, Barbara Mertz in both her incarnations, just to list a few names that pop out of the notebook pages at me--I think I picked a wonderful time to become addicted to mysteries, and I still think the field has attracted some of the best writers you'll find anywhere.
IC
You've said that you didn't enter St. Martin's contest a year earlier because your manuscript wasn't ready. In what way?
Donna
A few pieces of it were still missing. I'd recently gone through a career change--from writing and editing for print to working on the corporate website--and I found I'd gone to work in a demanding field for an incredibly demanding boss. I'd started Peacocks before this change, and gotten very close to finishing, but the new job situation torpedoed my schedule, and very nearly derailed me entirely. But eventually my innate stubbornness began to surface, and I began trying to take back my life.
Going to Malice in May 1997 was a turning point. I sat in the audience and watched Ruth Cavin announce Robin Hathaway as the 1997 winner of the St. Martin's contest. And I read myself the riot act--told myself if I'd been fiercer about protecting my writing time, maybe I could have finished my book in time, and polished it, and maybe it could have been me up there on the podium.
And I vowed that I was going to finish my manuscript and send it to the contest that fall, even if I had to quit my job to do it. And as I carried out that resolution, I realized that however painful it had been, my difficult work experience had been valuable.
I used to be one of those writers who needed perfect conditions to write--a large block of time, the right setting, no interruptions or distractions. Having almost no time to write taught me how to make use of small scraps of time in less than optimal conditions.
If fifteen minutes at lunch was all the time I got to write in one day, then I'd try to use it productively, rather than whining or being discouraged. I also learned a lot about making priorities and standing up for them. I think I came out of the experience a much more disciplined and professional writer.
Now that Robin has become a friend, I realize that the other, accidental benefit of my not finishing the book as soon as I might have is that Robin and I could both win the St. Martin's contest and then the Agatha in successive years.
IC
What was your most positive experience in connection with entering that contest?
Donna
One positive aspect is that it gave me a goal and a deadline; I think deadlines work well for me. I set my own when I don't have them set for me. I knew I had to get the manuscript ready to send, and that made me focus a lot more than if I just had the vague idea that "as soon as I'm sure it's all ready, I'm going to query some agents."
Also, once I'd sent the manuscript off, I had the feeling that I'd done something positive toward getting published, and I could put the book out of my mind, and focus on the next thing I was writing. I knew that if I did not win, I would then have to begin the unpublished writer's usual paper chase, but at least I didn't have to worry about it now.
IC
What advice would you give a first-time novelist planning to enter this year's contest?
Donna
Make sure your book is the best you can make it--and that includes having someone else, or preferably several someone elses, read it--then send it and get on with your next project. It could be six months before you know whether you've won or not. Don't worry about the contest, don't sit back and do nothing waiting for the contest to be over, and above all, don't count on it.
Have a plan in mind for selling the book if it doesn't win--have your query letter written and the agents or editors you want to send it to chosen, and resolve that if you hear you haven't won the contest, the book is going out the next day to the next place on your list.
IC
Why do you think Peacocks is so popular? What do your readers tell you?
Donna
Judging by things people have said, I think that many (not, of course, all) people like Meg's voice--that they enjoy "listening" to her. That's one criteria I have when reading a book, especially one written in first person: that the narrator is someone in whose head I want to spend a whole book, or more than one book.
And also people find the book funny, but affectionately so. I've had a lot of comments from readers that Meg's family reminds them of their own relatives. They laugh at the characters, but they like them at the same time.
Beyond that--well, I think writers are sometimes the last to know why what we do succeeds. I'm just trying to keep writing things that I enjoy and hoping they entertain other people as well.
IC
What was your reaction the first time you saw your books in a bookstore or on a library shelf? Did you want to shout, "Hey, I wrote that!" or did you want to become suddenly invisible, or was it something in between?
Donna
Actually, a and b, simultaneously. I was doing some messy fixing up around the house, and realized I needed some supplies, so I dashed out, still wearing my paint- and grime-spattered clothes. I happened to walk by a Borders, and you know how hard it is to pass a bookstore without browsing a little.
I poked my head in, just to see if there was anything interesting on the new book tables in the front of the store--and there it was: a stack of Murder With Peacocks. I wanted to run around and tell everyone in the store that it was mine, but I looked down and gulped, and I had this vision of the booksellers saying, "Oh, yes, the author came by the other day--she's actually a bag lady, you know."
So I slunk home, and came back to introduce myself the next day, wearing my normal clothes.
IC
You came through California like a wildfire in June--nine cities in ten days. How did you prepare for a killer booksigning schedule like that?
Donna
Well, actually, I rather enjoyed the whole trip. Okay, the beginning, when United Airlines dumped me overnight in Denver without even trying to find me a hotel room wasn't fun; and the fact that I was getting over a cold when I went out was a bit of a bother. But I was staying with friends most nights, which made it a little easier than if I'd been staying the whole time in impersonal hotel rooms.
And although it probably was technically nine cities, Hanford and San Diego were the only cities that weren't part of either the Bay area or the greater Los Angeles area. I avoided over-scheduling myself, so I only had one day when I was worried that traffic might make me late for an event. And I just tried to pace myself and enjoy the trip.
IC
What would be your three best pieces of advice to a new author contemplating a booksigning tour?
Donna
The first thing is start early, a couple of months in advance, so you've got plenty of time to juggle schedules, and then enoughlead time for both you and the bookseller to publicize the fact that you're coming. I'm lousy at this part, but learning.
Second, get someone local to help you figure out what to do, and how much you can reasonably do in a day. Two places that look close together on the map may be half a day's drive apart in L.A. traffic, for example. I was lucky enough to have a lot of friends in California who helped me a great deal in this area.
And finally, pack everything you think you'll need, and then take it all out, lay it out on the floor, and get rid of half of it. You won't wear half the clothes you brought, and the people in San Francisco won't know you already wore that outfit in San Diego.
You probably won't do any of the useful projects you bring to fill the time between signings. Unless your book tour includes a camel ride through the Sahara or a boat trip to the source of the Amazon, a lot of the things you pack because you just might need them end up taking space and making your shoulders ache.
IC
The character Meg kept up a fast pace in Murder With Peacocks. The pace slowed in Murder With Puffins. Did you deliberately make the second book different?
Donna
Yes, I did set out to make Puffinssomewhat different--part of my way of dealing with writing a followup to something as successful as Peacocks. I had started working out the plot while I was polishing Peacocks, but I didn't begin writing it immediately after finishing the first book. I actually wrote the first drafts of two other books in between, one fantasy and one mystery.
So during the time I was writing Puffins, Peacocks came out and was starting to become successful, and I wanted to avoid the danger of working too hard to copy what had been successful before.
And in a sense, I don't think I've just created a protagonist for the series; it feels more like a repertory company, where all the actors are sitting around demanding larger parts in the next production, and I'm trying to balance that, because I can't give them large parts and bring in some new people to kill off without making the whole thing longer than War and Peace.
So taking some of the characters on the road to Monhegan was a way of coping with that; I couldn't very well bring all of them.
IC
How do you write? What kind of schedule works best for you?
Donna
I usually start by doing a detailed outline--the outline could be as long as ten percent of the length of the finished book. And then I run the outline by my critique group and let them pick it apart before I actually start writing.
Once I have an outline I'm happy with, I start writing at the beginning and try to keep going straight on through with the main body of the book. But even before I finish the outline, some scenes just pop into my head and I know exactly how they should be written, so I capture them then, and put them aside, until the main body of the book overtakes where they fit in.
Sometimes the scenes I've written from later in the book inspire other scenes, and join together to form huge chunks, and by the time I finish the book, I'm usually down to writing transitions between the chunks. I almost always write at least a draft of the end reasonably early on.
I also polish as I go along, so by the time I have a complete draft of the whole book, a lot of the earlier parts have been polished quite a bit. In fact, that's one of the things I do to get myself going; if I'm having trouble starting to work productively, I go back and polish and revise earlier parts, and that gets me back into the mood of the book.
I work by quotas, not by time. I decide when I want or need to be finished with a project, and assign myself a certain number of words a day--more on weekends and holidays, and time off if necessary for holidays or mystery conventions--and I work as long as I have to work to make my quota.
I also try to warn everyone I know who commutes along the same route I take to the office that I often work on dialogue while I'm driving. In fact, I wish I could have a little sign attached to both sides of my car: "I am not a lunatic. I am a writer, working on dialogue."
Then again, when other drivers see me talking to myself--often with a great deal of expression and occasionally a gesture, for the really dramatic scenes--maybe they give me a wider berth, and in Washington traffic, that's not a bad thing.
IC
What aspects of your education, formal and otherwise, have proved to be the most useful in your fiction writing?
Donna
I think having good teachers who encouraged me to write as a child was important--especially Miss Gregory and Mrs. Iddings, both of whom were actresses as well as teachers, and believed in encouraging creativity in their students.
I took classes with several excellent writers at the University of Virginia, including John Casey, Paul Theroux, and an English writer named Richard Jones who's not as well known in this country as he probably ought to be. They all made a valuable contribution to my development as a creative writer.
As far as becoming a working writer, and a published writer, the experience of earning my living as a non-fiction writer for a large company was priceless--that filled in the holes that my formal education missed. Learning about discipline and deadlines, and dealing with edits and critique, learning to write for an audience and not just for my own pleasure--all of that I learned on the job.
And I can thank Sisters in Crime and mystery conventions, especially Malice Domestic, for whatever limited but useful knowledge I have about the publishing industry.
I like to think that I'm a better writer than I was when I graduated from college and first started trying to get published, but I know my practical skills and industry knowledge are light years beyond where they were then.
IC
When you read for pleasure, what do you read?
Donna
Depends on the mood I'm in. When I'm reading mysteries, I read across the spectrum, from very hard-boiled to very cozy. Oddly enough, if I'm in a down mood--stressed or depressed or whatever--I often read something fairly hard-boiled. And if it's well-written, often it will pull me out of the mood.
I've treated recent temporary funks with books by two of my more hard-boiled friends, C.J. Songer and Susan McBride, and now I'm making my way through Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series, with Jan Burke's latest in reserve on my nightstand.
An overwhelming part of my current reading tends to be books by people I know, or people I'm going to be on a panel with at conventions, and I've discovered a lot of wonderful books that way--for example, I hadn't read Helen Chappell's Sam and Hollis books before we were on a panel together at Malice Domestic, and now they're among my favorites.
I first read books by Jerrilyn Farmer, Taffy Cannon, Charlaine Harris, Rhys Bowen, Kathy Taylor, and Rosemary Stevens after getting to know them at mystery events, and now they're on my regular reading list. Or members of my local Sisters in Crime chapter, which includes Sujata Massey, Laura Lippman, Marcia Talley, and Judy Fitzwater, among others.
I also have several old favorites I go back to when I need to get myself in the right frame of mind for writing or polishing--Dorothy Sayers and Charlotte MacLeod in particular. I'm sure I'm forgetting some names that I ought to include, so I'll grovel in advance.
If you deprived me of books and magazines, you would probably find me lying in a gutter, reading the ingredients on old candy bar wrappers. I can think of worse addictions.
IC
If a genie promised to make all your wishes come true and told you to make a list of books you want to write, things you want to do, places you want to go, what would you put on those lists?
Donna
Arg, do you have a year? I think, to avoid overworking the poor genie, I could settle for wishing that I can continue to write well enough to make sure publishers keep buying my books and readers keep reading them.
If he's still got any energy, he could throw in that I can manage to give up the day job before TOO long, and let me turn out to be one of those feisty little old ladies who's still going strong into her 90s. I'd like that.
Winning a few awards here and there would be nice, and also being able to write with sufficient range and variety that some people are surprised all my books are by the same person.
Places I want to go...I want to go back to California and England and Venice and St. Malo; and someday I'd like to see Australia; and beyond that, I think the perigrinations of the various mystery conventions will keep me pretty busy. I never imagined I'd be going to Alaska in February (Left Coast Crime 2001), for example.
IC
You're in the Spotlight, Donna. Take your bow and say anything you want to.
Donna
Okay, can I say a little more on growing up to be a writer? My family has always liked visiting historical houses and going on house tours--you know the Garden Week deal, where you go to houses that are fancy, but owned by real people. I think my mother gets the biggest kick out of it, because she loves architecture. If she'd been born a little later, she might have become an architect.
Anyway, if she gets carried away while inspecting the architecture, and finds she's lost track of my father, my brother and me, she never has any trouble finding us. She just goes back to the room with the most books, and she'll find us there, usually standing in a row, in the same pose--hands clasped behind our backs (because you're not supposed to touch), leaning forward, peering at the book titles.
Unless we're in one of those occasional houses with no books, in which case she knows we'll eventually wander by, muttering in shocked tones, "But where are the books? Don't these people have any books?"
Given that kind of background, it's no surprise that I wanted to grow up to be a writer. I think I'm incredibly lucky that I turned out to be pretty good at doing what I've always wanted to do.
This interview was conducted during the month of August 2000 for SinC-IC by Pat Browning.
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September 2000
