Spotlight Profile
October 2005
Susan Wittig Albert is the author of the China Bayles Herbal Mysteries, which feature herbalist China Bayles as "a hot-shot Houston criminal attorney" who has exchanged her career in law for proprietorship of an herb shop in a small Texas town between Austin and San Antonio. She and her husband, Bill, collaborate on the Robin Paige Victorian mysteries and share a variety of other projects. Susan and Bill share their 32 acres of Texas hill country with two black Labradors named Zach and Lady, a black cat named Shadow, and an assortment of ducks and geese. Their website, www.mysterypartners.com, includes articles, interviews, and herbal recipes and is well worth checking out.
IC: You write several different mystery series: the China Bayles Herbal Mysteries, the Robin Paige Victorian Mysteries, and The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, featuring the beloved children's author and illustrator. How did you decide on each of your protagonists and what in particular drew you to each of them?
SA: I began working on China in 1990, when the experience of leaving my career (I was a university VP and professor), moving to the country, and becoming deeply involved with herbs and gardening was all very fresh. China's character reflects those concerns and interests. In my years at the university, I didn't have time for women friends: friends and community are important to China. Intimacy was difficult for me, too, in those years: it's a challenge for China, as well. While my other three women protagonists are all in some ways like me, I'd have to say that China is closest.
I write the Victorian/Edwardian mysteries with my husband Bill, as Robin Paige. Our protagonists, Kate and Charles Sheridan, reflect the interests I share with Bill in history, early forensic sciences, life at the turn of the century, and all things British. (For the first five years of our marriage, we teamed up to write young adult novels-among them: Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries; we really enjoy working together.) Kate, a writer, has started a "school for the practical arts" of horticulture and farming for women-something that was a major innovation in her day. She's the kind of woman I'd love to have been, if I had lived in her era.
Beatrix Potter is my heroine! She was a remarkable woman with a great talent for drawing and storytelling for children, and a passionate love of rural life. She overcame enormous challenges (among them, the opposition of her strict Victorian parents) to marry the man she loved and build a farming life for herself. Doing the research and working closely with Beatrix's two major biographers have been great pleasures in my life for the past four years.
IC: Each of the China Bayles mysteries addresses a larger theme, such as animal abuse, forgiveness, materialism, love... Do you decide on the theme first, and then come up with a plot and a supporting cast to illustrate that theme, or do you come up with the plot and cast first and see what theme emerges?
SA: I usually have a theme in mind; it shapes the characters to some extent, and the characters shape the plot. But this is all very synergistic, so that character/plot/theme all interact, dynamically reshaping themselves as I move through the book.
IC: The China Bayles mysteries demonstrate a wealth of knowledge about herbs. Did you choose the series because you already had an interest in and knowledge of herbs, or did you have to acquire the knowledge when you began the series?
SA: As a kid, I grew up on a farm, where we had a large garden and many herbs. In my incarnation as a university professor, I was a medievalist, and as I studied texts of the Middle Ages, I learned a great deal about herbs. When Bill and I moved to the country, my first instinct was to plant a garden. So yes, I had an interest and some knowledge. But China has taught me a very great deal about herbs, and taken me in directions (for example, learning about dye plants) that I wouldn't otherwise have gone. I just finished a new book called The China Bayles Herbal Book of Days-all about herbs!
IC: Along the same lines, how much research do you do for each book? Is it different for the historical novels than for the modern series?
SA: The research is much more intense for the historical novels, of course. Those fictions are all anchored in fact, and I'm passionate about being sure that the facts are accurate-which means that when we're writing a Robin Paige, we live in books. But there's a lot of research involved with the China Bayles series, too, given the focus on herbs, and the Central Texas setting. The books have taught me a lot I didn't know about the state of Texas!
IC: You and your husband, Bill, collaborate on the Robin Paige mysteries. It sounds as if the two of you have a wonderful relationship. What is your process for completing these books? Do you each work on different chapters? Do you alternate? Does one of you write and the other edit? How do you balance the business of writing with your personal relationship?
SA: It's hard to believe, but we've been writing together for nearly 20 years! On the Robin Paige books, we collaborate in choosing the real person involved (Rudyard Kipling, for instance, or Winston Churchill). Bill collects the research materials and begins drawing out plot lines (the books typically have five or six interwoven plots). We work through the book from beginning to end. Bill writes most of the "Charles" chapters; I write the "Kate" chapters. Bill handles the technical forensic stuff; I handle the setting and period details. So we divide it up, but since the final product comes out of my computer, I have the last word on style.
Bill also handles the "other" part of the writing business: he is our agent and manager, which means that he gets to deal with all those details that I don't enjoy! But he does, so it all balances out. It has always seemed to me that having to learn to collaborate in our work-compromise, adjust, respect the other's interests, trust the other's instincts - means that we collaborate better in the other parts of our life, as well.
IC: You and your husband are prolific writers, with 90 or so books between you. How do you manage to be so productive?
SA: Actually, it's more than 100 now, when everything is counted. But we don't keep score. We just go to work every day, following our interest. We're productive because we love what we do!
IC: You also write non-fiction. Is there anything you'd like to say about that?
SA: My non-fiction (I've written about career leavers, about writing, about herbs) grows out of my interests and passions. Right now, I am passionately interested in the concept of place and in the practice of solitude as a means of personal growth. My next non-fiction will be called Landscapes of Solitude-part memoir, part exploration of the way place shapes our sense of self. I've had to put it on a back burner, but it's still cooking. I'm hoping to have time to finish it in a couple of years.
IC: When did you first know you wanted to pursue writing as a vocation, and how did you go about pursuing that goal? What led you to write mysteries in particular?
SA: I knew when I was a teenager that I wanted to be a writer. I began submitting magazine fiction when I was 19, and had enough early success to encourage me. By the time I reached mid-life and had achieved what I wanted to achieve at the university, I was ready to strike out into full-time fiction. I chose mysteries because I very much enjoy genre fiction and because I like the challenge of writing narrative that demands strong plotting. I VERY much enjoy writing in series (primarily because of the work with continuing characters, continuing community), and mysteries (unlike other kinds of genre fiction) are written in series. Also, when I started the China Bayles series, I could hope that it would have a long run and enable me to count on continued work-a hope that was realized, as it turns out. I'm working on book #15 right now, with contracts for more in the works.
IC: Any advice for aspiring authors?
SA: Learn the craft. For me, the five years I spent writing young adult novels (1985-1990, roughly) was an apprenticeship. It was a good investment of time and energy.
IC: How did you become involved with Sisters in Crime?
SA: Carolyn Hart invited me to join, back in 1991 or so, before the first China Bayles book was published.
IC: What would you say is the most valuable lesson or greatest benefit you've received as a result of your membership in SinC?
SA: Encouragement and the sense that we are all in this together. I have learned from some of the trail-blazers: Carolyn Hart, Nancy Pickard, Joan Hess, others.
IC: You're in the Spotlight. Is there anything else you'd like to add or any other topic you'd like to address?
SA: Just one other thing, and that is the influence of the Internet in the last 6-7 years. When we first spoke, you asked about our website. I design it, yes. But we have a terrific web mistress, Peggy Moody, who posts the pages, sets up things like the bulletin board and my blog, keeps up our email list, and mails our e-letters. The website makes it possible to reach many more potential readers than any print mailing we could ever do. A strong Web presence creates interest, draws readers, and creates what author May Sarton called "friends of the work"-loyal readers who return to the books over and over, recommending them to friends and family, encouraging libraries to acquire them. My blog (which is called LifeScapes) is another way to reach out to readers, because (to some extent, anyway) it opens to view my life as a writer and as a person who consciously and carefully inhabits a particular place.
The books are the most important thing, of course. But the Internet gives us the opportunity to interact with readers in a new way, and I am fascinated by the idea of being part of that community.
This interview was conducted for SinC-IC
by Elizabeth Terrell.
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