Spotlight Profile
October 2001
It was the worst of times ... the aftermath of destruction wrought by four hijacked airplanes ... but Eve K. Sandstrom is a pro, recently retired after more than 25 years as a newspaper reporter, columnist and editor. She tackled the questions posed by Spotlight and e-mailed back her answers without a wobble.
Eve has published six mystery novels, has been nominated for an Agatha and an Anthony for best short story, and is a winner of the Oklahoma Book Award. After serving on SinC's national board for three years, she heads the slate of officers to be voted on at the SinC meeting during Bouchercon in November.
Applause, please, for our member in October's Spotlight!
IC
Do you miss being in the newsroom during a national tragedy such as the one we're living through now?
EKS
In a way. Working on the news has a therapeutic
value at times like this. While everybody else is wringing their hands, you
have a useful job to do. I worked the wire on the day Challenger blew up (I
didn't run the picture of Christa McAuliffe's family reacting), and I worked the aftermath of the Murrah Building bombing; I happened to be off the day it
blew.
One of my more educational experiences was covering a tornado here in Lawton a long time back. I was sent to the emergency room to talk to the injured and their families. I thought I couldn't possibly do that -- be so intrusive. But I discovered that all I had to say was, "I'm from the newspaper," and people poured information on me.
That's when I figured out that 1) telling about a traumatic experience is therapeutic for the victims; and 2) knowing that the newspaper was interested validated their experience. I know many people hate reporters, but we do have a truly important function in a free society.
IC
Do you have a favorite quotation that you'd like to share with us?
EKS
The quote I have up over my computer is from Wayne
Gretsky. "You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take." I also like a remark made by Jean Hager: "Some people say that they can't write unless they're inspired. But the opposite is really true; you can't get inspired unless you write."
IC
Congratulations on your nomination to be the next president of Sisters in Crime. May we call you a goddess in training?
EKS
Right at the moment you can call me a scaredy-cat.
As the moment draws near, I'm terrified at the responsibility I've agreed to accept.
IC
What would you like to accomplish during your presidency? What do you think your biggest challenge will be?
EKS
The biggest challenge is likely to be speaking for
the organization. As you know, that's one of the rules -- "no one but the president can speak for the organization." I have a dread of getting a call from the New York Times and saying something really stupid. I'm good at that.
As for what I'd like to accomplish -- I'd like for us to take an overall look at our public relations program and get it coordinated. And I'd like to look at what we're offering to non-writer members. Why do they join? How can we serve them?
IC
Are you still wire editor at the Lawton Constitution? If so, how do you balance career with
family life?
EKS
I took early retirement three years ago, the moment I was eligible. Somehow retirement doesn't provide me with more writing time. My husband, Dave, is incredibly supportive of my writing, but my grandchildren (ages 2, 3 and 9) don't seem impressed.
IC
Tell us a little about your background. What inspired and/or prepared you for writing mysteries?
EKS
I always say I became a mystery writer because my mother was a bookkeeper
and my father was an engineer. The mathematics gene skipped me, but they
both looked at the world as a logical place, and I think growing up in a
household where events and people were expected to be logical pushed me
toward the mystery, which is the most logical art form around. (A musician
might disagree, but I can't carry a tune.)
Actually, my mother was a big mystery fan and was also a wonderful story teller. She never wrote anything, except great letters, but she could have. My dad was quiet, but when he told a story or made a joke, everyone laughed. He had a great sense of timing.
Like most women mystery writers, I read Nancy Drew, but I also ran into a similar series called "Beverly Grey." Beverly Gray was a reporter, though she spent all her time solving mysteries and rarely wrote a news story.
I always knew I wanted to write mysteries, and Beverly inspired me to go to journalism school, since I knew I'd have to support myself until I wrote that great American novel.
I always knew I was a writer -- even when I hadn't written anything. A form of egotism, I guess. I was in my late thirties before I really began to try to write fiction.
The first book I sold was a Harlequin Intrigue -- their mystery/suspense line. All Harlequin writers must assume pseudonyms, and I became Elizabeth Storm. The book was Firing Line and it was about a woman artillery officer who fell for her battery commander, a situation that could land them both in prison. Then a missile carrier was stolen from their unit and they were really in hot water.
Actually, it was a pretty good book, but I could never write another that suited Harlequin. If anybody runs into a copy, I'd be happy to buy it. I have only a couple in English, though I have several in Turkish. That was my only romance.
IC
You have two mystery series.
Books in the Sam and Nicky Titus series (early 1990s) are Death Down Home, The Devil Down Home and The Down Home Heifer Heist.
Books in the Nell Matthews and Mike Svenson series (late 1990s), featuring reporter Nell Mathews, are The Violence Beat, The Homicide Report and The Smoking Gun.
Do you plan to continue both series? If no, which will you drop, and why?
EKS
Neither series sold well enough to continue, I'm
sorry to say. So my editor at Signet suggested I "try something cosy." And to
show that it's different, it's to be published under a different name. Jo, Anna and Carl are the middle names of my three kids. Plus "Carl" is a lot higher up the alphabet than "Sandstrom." Right in there close to Christie. Maybe JoAnna's books will be easier to spot on the shelf.
IC
Thank you, thank you! It's agony, trying to bend over and look through bifocals for authors in the Ss and Ts and Ws!
EKS
This is not really a joke! However, two of my
favorite writers are Wentworth and Westlake, so maybe the bottom of the alphabet isn't that bad a place to be. I kid my husband about giving up being a "K" (for Kimbrell, my maiden name) for love.
IC
What can you tell us about your current work in progress? Is it the first book in a new series under the pseudonym JoAnna Carl?
EKS
The first book, The Chocolate Cat Caper, will be published in March. One of my daughters works for a chocolate company, and I've always found the operation very interesting, so I modeled the setting
on the company she works for, Morgen Chocolate of Dallas, but I moved
it to a tourist town on the shore of Lake Michigan -- not too unlike the
towns of Saugatuck and Douglass, where my husband's family has owned a
summer cottage for close to 100 years. Then I made the heroine, Lee McKinney, an accountant -- just happens my other daughter is a CPA. I even stole the cat from a friend who breeds Birmans because one of the color variations is "chocolate."
Anyway, it's been fun -- but challenging, since this is the first time I've tried a setting outside of Oklahoma. But I have lots of wonderful friends and neighbors in Michigan (my husband and I have vacationed there for 40 years and we spent two and a half months there each of the past three summers) and they tell me when I get stuff wrong.
IC
You received the Oklahoma Book Award, and were nominated for an Agatha and an Anthony. Tell us about the books and short story so honored.
EKS
The Oklahoma Book Award is presented by the Oklahoma Center for the Book (affiliated with the Oklahoma Department of Libraries) to a novel by an Oklahoman or set in Oklahoma. The Down Home Heifer Heist was the first mystery to win. That was for 1993. N. Scott Momaday was present to be honored with a lifetime achievement award that night. It was quite a thrill.
The Agatha and Anthony nominations both came for Bugged, a story in Malice Domestic 5, edited by Beth Foxwell. In fact, Beth suggested the name. At that time I'd sold six novels, but it was the first short story I'd ever been able to get published. Then it was nominated for two prizes. Ya never know.
I have two short stories out this year -- The People's Way by Eve K. Sandstrom in Love & Death, from Berkley, and The Chocolate Kidnapping Clue, by JoAnna Carl, in And the Dying is Easy, from Signet. I honestly think The People's Way may be the best thing I ever wrote. But I'm happy to say that The Chocolate Kidnapping Clue got a nice mention in Publishers Weekly.
IC
What was your first novel, and how do you feel it
differs from your present day writing?
EKS
My first published novel was the Harlequin mentioned above. (I won't bring up the actual first novel I wrote, but Firing Line was my third effort.) I
don't know if it differs a lot from my present-day writing. Since it was a
Harlequin, I tried to have the hero and heroine work together to solve the mystery, and I still do that.
IC
Was it difficult to break into the fiction writing market?
EKS
Not as difficult as it is to stay in it.
IC
Interesting answer. Can you elaborate just a bit?
EKS
That was basically a smart-aleck answer, but there's a lot of truth in it.
For one thing, I remember one of my writing teachers, the late Jack Bickham, telling our class we'd "never be satisfied." He had sold a paperback original, for example, and thought his dreams had come true. Then he found himself longing to sell a hardback.
I'm the same way. When I sold Firing Line, I thought my ambitions were fullfilled -- I'd sold a novel! Now I want to have a long-running, big-paying series, a novel recognized for its literary merit, a movie sale, a TV series, etc.
Secondly, right at the moment I know a bunch -- at least half a dozen -- top-notch mystery writers with no contracts. These are good writers, capable professionals, who have been published by what passes for prestigious houses, gotten good reviews, the whole schmear, but whose sales were simply not up to snuff, though they weren't always that poor. So they're out.
As I detailed, basically this is what has happened to me -- I'm terribly lucky that my publisher has stuck with me for one more try. All I can do is cross my fingers and hope that this one takes.
Sometimes it seems that publishers are willing to take a chance on a new writer, rather than hanging in there with an "old" one.
IC
What was the hardest lesson you had to learn as
a fiction writer?
EKS
Don't get over-confident. Once, my editor called me to say my manuscript was so good he didn't even need to write me an editorial letter. The next book I sent in, he sent me a five-page, single-spaced letter asking for a complete rewrite. God does these things to keep me humble.
IC
What do you enjoy most about writing mysteries?
EKS
I enjoy having written them. Frankly, writing those four to six pages a day can be drudgery.
IC
How do you promote your work? How successful do
you feel you've been?
EKS
I've never felt that my earlier series had "gimmicks" that made them easily promotable. The chocolate series, however, has possibilities. Expect to see me passing out chocolate cats. Does anyone need a speaker on chocolate lore?
I'm not too good at promotions. I was a public relations major in journalism school, and it gave me a jaundiced view of promotion, I guess. Frankly, a lot of what writers do seems really to be aimed at feeding their egos, not at selling books.
But what I do hasn't seemed to work either. I refuse to put a second mortgage on the house -- a tale told about some writers -- to finance a major publicity compaign, but I'll sign a book anywhere, I speak whenever I get the chance, etc.
IC
What was the best experience you've had at a signing/speaking engagement? What was the absolute worst?
EKS
The best that pop to mind were in California, one at
the Pasadena Public Library, where the librarian had developed a wonderful group of supporters and mystery fans, and in the old bookstore run by
Phyllis Brown in San Diego, where she had done the same thing. People pored in carrying lawn chairs, because she didn't have a lot of seating, they asked great questions and lined up to sign books. In both cases, the key was earlier development and promotion by the librarian (her last name escapes me, but her first name was Kevin) and by Phyllis.
The worst was the first one I ever did -- at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, bookstore now defunct. The owner was trying to develop "literary events" every Thursday night, and his efforts apparently didn't pay off. One customer came in all evening. Luckily, my local bookstore pal had warned me this might happen and advised me to use this as an opportunity to get acquainted with the staff, so I didn't consider it a complete loss.
The second worst one was at Book Carnival in Orange County -- AND IT WASN'T THEIR FAULT. Our signing happened to fall on the night the U.S. attacked Iraq. People weren't too interested in buying mysteries. But the owners there are wonderful, and they have a great customer base in ordinary times.
IC
You've lived and worked in Lawton for a long time. Are you a celebrity when you go to the grocery
store? How do you deal with it?
EKS
Believe me, I'm no celebrity in Lawton, America. Around here, I'm known as the woman who used to write a column for the newspaper. I rarely have anyone stop me and mention the books. On the odd occasion when someone does mention my writing, they say, "I still miss your column." Even most of my friends haven't read my books. Other questions I get include, "Did you have your books printed in Oklahoma City?" and "Oh? What do you write?"
IC
Do you have a room or home office dedicated to writing, or do you write wherever you happen to be?
EKS
My husband and I built a "last stop 'til the cemetery" home three years ago. It has three bedrooms and I glommed onto one as an office. I do have a trundle bed in there, so we can cram a couple of house guests in with the books and computer, if need be. When we began our lengthy trips to Michigan, I got a laptop. I love it. I'm answering these questions in the living room while Dave watches Monday Night Football.
IC
Do you work from an outline or do you make it up as you go?
EKS
Yes.
IC
Do you have a theme in mind when you begin a new novel?
EKS
I'm not even sure I have a theme in mind when I end a new novel. I have no
interest in producing something "littry." The theme of the mystery novel
should be good triumphs over evil.
IC
What is the hardest part of writing for you? The easiest? The most fun?
EKS
The hardest part is sitting down every day, turning off Freecell and
actually writing. The easiest -- talking about writing. The most fun --
thinking about writing.
IC
Besides Sisters in Crime, are you active in other writers' groups? What have you found to be the greatest benefits and/or source of enjoyment?
EKS
I belong to Mystery Writers of America, and I keep intending to join a couple of others, but I don't seem to get around to it.
The big benefit and source of enjoyment with SinC is fellowship. I think SinC is about making friends and networking, while feeling that we're doing something concrete to improve the lot of women writers. I love it.
IC
What is the best advice anyone ever gave you about writing?
EKS
Write every day.
IC
What advice would you give a fiction writer just beginning a career?
EKS
Write every day. And write to please yourself. I don't know how many writers I've had tell me, "I wasn't getting any where, so I thought I'd forget about the market and write the book I've always wanted to write." And that was the book that made it. Even if it doesn't make it, you have the personal satisfaction of knowing you finally fullfilled an ambition.
I'd also say, don't write to suit others -- editors, friends, anybody. Write to give yourself satisfaction.
IC
If you could go back and start over with fiction
writing, what would you do differently?
EKS
Remember to write every day. Self-discipline is my problem.
IC
What do you most enjoy doing when you have time and leisure to spare?
EKS
I read mysteries, naturally. I like movies. I like
to cook -- old-timey stuff, not gourmet. I don't like crafts in any form,
but occasionally I break down and make a Humpty-Dumpty pillow/doll of a
traditional family pattern for the grandkids. I have friends, and I try
to keep up with them. I serve on the Lawton Arts and Humanities Council.
IC
What are some of your favorite books when you read
for pleasure?
EKS
Mysteries -- Hillerman, Elkins, Evanovich, Ellis Peters. Others -- Billie Letts, Robert Flynn (a Texas writer -- should be much better known); Conan Doyle (notice his descriptions). As far as favorite books, True Grit, Treasure Island, Huckleberry Finn come to mind. Ellis Peters' Death and the Joyful Woman was the book which opened my eyes to the literary possibilities of the mystery novel.
IC
Have we overlooked anything? Now's your chance, you're in the Spotlight!
EKS
I may not aspire to be a literary writer, but I do think the mystery novel has a serious moral purpose and legitimate literary aims. Genre writing must meet the same standards of good writing that literary novels meet.
My grandmother hadn't attended movies in years, and she was in her seventies when television became popular. Much to the amusement of her family, she became a big fan of westerns -- particularly Gunsmoke. When I asked her why, she said, "They're uplifting. The bad people always lose, and the good always win."
That's really all I want to do.
IC
Many thanks, Eve, and best wishes for a very good year as president of SinC.
This interview was conducted during the month of September 2001 for SinC-IC
by Pat Browning.
E-mail Eve
E-mail Pat
Read an earlier Spotlight Profile
