Denise Swanson: Interview

Questions & Answers with Denise Swanson I. Introduction II. Background and Influences III. Fiction vs. Reality IV. The Sleuth: Skye Denison V. Pathways to Publication VI. Covers and Titles VII. Writing Techniques VIII. Book Promotions IX. Personal Favorites X. Future Plans and Goals Music: David Stybr: Rosie: a Waltz for Orchestra (Rosie was a friendly cat at the B&B where we stayed in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.)
	Interview
		Back * Home * Next Scumble River Mysteries: 12: Murder of a Wedding Belle 11: Murder of a Royal Pain 10: Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry 9: Murder of a Botoxed Blonde 8: Murder of a Real Bad Boy 7: Murder of a Smart Cookie 6: Murder of a Pink Elephant 5: Murder of a Barbie and Ken 4: Murder of a Snake in the Grass 3: Murder of a Sleeping Beauty 2: Murder of a Sweet Old Lady 1: Murder of a Small-Town Honey Skye Writing * Home Cookin' Biography * Interview Awards * Bibliography Schedule an Engagement Personal Appearances Links and Press Kit Denise Swanson on the Lam E-mail to Denise Swanson

I. Introduction * Return to Top
Q:

These are books I thoroughly enjoy reading. Would you tell readers unfamiliar with the Scumble River Mystery series something about it to pique their interest?

One of the first questions I'm often asked when I speak about my writing is why I chose to write mysteries instead of romances (I assume this is because I have such an innocent face). My answer is simple: after twenty-two years in public education there are many people who need to die, but very few I want to sleep with. (laughs) The Scumble River Mystery series is set in a fictional small town in Illinois, and features a school psychologist-sleuth named Skye Denison. It's got a lot of humor and a bit of romance. I was a school psychologist, and many of the stories are based on my personal experiences — although I've never found a dead body — at least not yet.

I love the sense of justice a well-written mystery brings to its readers. Justice seems too rare in real life, so it gives me a sense of fulfillment to have it happen in my fiction. One of the reasons I enjoyed being a school psychologist is my abiding interest in people. I love studying them and figuring out what makes them tick. This is also why I enjoy writing. My books are character-driven and I enjoy examining relationships, between Skye and her mother, her coworkers, the townspeople and the men in her life. Throughout the series my sleuth is torn between two lovers, as the song goes, and my readers are very interested in this relationship. When I do book signings there have even been skirmishes between readers who have different opinions on which guy Skye should end up with!

II. Background and Influences * Return to Top

How did you settle on a school psychologist as your main character?

I put a lot of thought into who I wanted to be my sleuth. I wanted something different, and somebody who had a good reason to be involved in solving murders. It dawned on me that in my own profession as a school psychologist, we were trained investigators. We were trained to examine files, to interview people, and to search for answers. As a small town resident for most of my life, I also realized that a school psychologist was probably the only mental health person in a small town. I couldn't go into a grocery store without conducting a counseling session over the lettuce, so I knew this was somebody people would tell things to, whether she wanted to know them or not.

A more personal reason was that I knew we school psychologists were the invisible men and women of the school system, even though we did significant and important work. Because of that, the profession has a shortage of school psychologists. So I thought maybe I could use my mystery series as a platform to highlight the profession and to show that it's important even though few know it exists. People have told me that they were in college, read my books and decided to become school psychologists.

I was a school psychologist for twenty-two years, and until five years ago I worked at a junior high school. I've worked in almost every school setting, from the poorest areas surrounding Washington DC to upscale suburban Chicago, and from rural to urban. I have heard so many stories and seen so many bizarre situations that I will never run out of plots.

I'll bet. Is that what influenced you to write?

Actually I've been writing since kindergarten. Do you remember the Big Chief tablets and Jumbo pencils? I learned to read and write pretty early, and by Thanksgiving I told the teacher, "I've written a book!" Her reaction was not what I'd hoped. "You've used all your paper! What will you use for the rest of the year?" My first bad review. Those tablets were only 29 cents, so we weren't talking big bucks. And she wasn't my worst critic.

My second attempt at writing met a similar lack of enthusiasm. In junior high school, I read Harlequin Romances. At that time (the early 1970s), they were pretty pure — the characters barely kissed. I attempted to write my first fiction book, a spicier romance, in seventh or eighth grade. Unfortunately, I wrote it in my English class and the teacher caught me. "If you're going write it in class, you'll have to read it to the whole class." Well, she didn't know who she was dealing with! I started reading a scene about French kissing and the teacher had a fit. She said, "If you're going to write that kind of junk, don't write anything at all. Unless you can write like Dickens or Shakespeare, you shouldn't even be writing." She took me to the principal, who was an ex-nun, and I was almost kicked out. I hate to think what that teacher would say if she knew I am now writing a romance.

I took that to heart, and stopped writing fiction for a time. I wrote articles for the school newspaper and the college newspaper, and I edited a school psychology journal. You have to be careful what you tell kids, because they really do believe you.

What made you decide to write again?

I started writing again twenty years ago, when I worked in a small town as a school psychologist, and discovered a pretty bad secret. The social worker and I tried to solve the problem, but in small towns, too often people don't want to hear about it. We were treated badly — threatening phone calls, tires slashed, police telling us to mind our own business, etc. Finally the social worker quit her job and moved to Montana, and I quit too. Then I had time on my hands, so I tried to write the story of that small town, but it was just too sad. It wasn't the cathartic experience I expected. This was a very dark, gritty, psychological story, but I realized that I have a certain sense of humor. If I can't let that out in my writing, then I can't write.

Well, I still wanted to tell the stories of being a school psychologist in a Midwestern small town, so I tried a different approach. At first, I didn't realize I was writing a humorous mystery, but I guess that's how I look at life — how I got through twenty-two years as a school psychologist without punching out someone. All my books are based on true-life experiences, with the types of characters you might meet in my hometown. They're humorous, but with some truth beneath the humor.

This being a mystery series, how do you find a balance between the humor and the mystery? Your natural comic flair comes through loud and clear, without resorting to rapid-fire one-liners. Is it a natural talent or one you've had to cultivate?

Working in the mental health arena, I've developed a fairly dry sense of humor that work wells with the mystery genre. The murders take place off the page, so there isn't a lot of gore or violence in my books, which makes the humor work better. I think most good writers write in their own voices, and I don't think you can take a serious person and say "write me something funny." That drives me crazy with so many writers' associations — they think humor is fluff and writing about a serial killer is the hard thing to do. I don't remember who said, "Dying is easy — Comedy is hard," but it's absolutely true of humor with a solid foundation. Writing something others find funny is hard, and you always walk that fine line of offending people if it isn't done right. Readers have told me that the humor is what attracted them to my Scumble River Mystery series in the first place, but it's the sincerity and realism of the characters and their situations that make them want to read each and every book.

III. Fiction vs. Reality * Return to Top

Is Scumble River based on a real town? It sounds like a place I'd really like to visit.

Scumble River is a combination of my hometown in Illinois and some nearby small towns. I originally used my own hometown by name, but my husband said, "Can you say 'lawsuit'?" So, I fictionalized the name and looked through a dictionary for the right word. I liked the word "scumble" and the way it sounded. (Scumble is a real word — an art term that means "to obscure.") I do a lot of library talks in small towns, and I love talking to the people. What I like about my personal experiences is that I know they could happen. They say that truth is stranger than fiction, and it really is. After all, fiction has to make sense! (laughs)

You make good use of your background as a school psychologist to flesh out your characters, making them feel as real as the Midwesterners I know and love (or not). Skye Denison is a great heroine. Are the characters in your books based on real people?

Some characters may be composites of several people I know; but Skye, May, Jed and Vince are the only characters based on real people. Skye Denison is a school psychologist, and the kind of person I'd like to be. Part of what I admire about her and young psychologists today is that they have a vision that they can solve the problems of the world and make things better for their students. Her other characteristic I love is something I never had: Skye's ability to stand up to people and stand up for her beliefs, not being afraid of being fired or of saying the wrong thing. Her mother May is based on my mother, and they have the same close relationship that my mother and I have. Jed is based on my father and Vince is based on my cousin. All the other characters are fictional.

May's Concrete Goose

Denise's mother's concrete goose also makes occasional appearances.
In the first book, Skye is back in her hometown. She'd been fired from her first job, jilted by her boyfriend and she maxed out her credit cards. Home is where they have to take her in. She's not happy to be there, and they're not really happy to have her back, so it starts on a rough note. Skye still thinks she wants to leave, but the evidence suggests that she really is happier there. She just doesn't see it yet.

Are you still finding out new and surprising things about your characters, or do you know them so well that nothing surprises you anymore?

They're like really good friends — you think you know everything about them, but there's always something you don't know because people keep things back. Sometimes they don't think it's important, and sometimes it's something they don't feel comfortable to share. The characters surprise me every time I write about them. In Murder of a Smart Cookie, they all surprised me, especially Simon. The secondary characters are almost more fun than the main characters because I know less about them, so every time one takes a role in a book, I find out something new. For instance in Murder of a Barbie and Ken, Simon's mother appeared out of nowhere; before then I thought she was dead. In Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry, Skye's current boyfriend Wally's father comes to town and reveals a family secret she never would have guessed. It's almost like the story is revealed to me the same time it's revealed to the reader.

Do you have a favorite minor character? Some of them are a lot of fun.

Probably my favorite is Skye's best friend Trixie. I was a huge Trixie Belden fan as a youngster and I have all of her books in all their editions. I went crazy on eBay, and believe it or not I also happened to find a huge boxful of them in a second-hand bookstore when we were on vacation in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia! I always wondered what happened to her after she grew up. My character is a salute to Trixie Belden, and I always wanted her to marry her friend Jim Frayne, so she became Trixie Frayne. It's amazing how many adult women are still Trixie Belden fans, and a whole group of them came to one of my book signings in Ohio. It was just super!

How much of your books are based on real-life experiences? In Murder of a Real Bad Boy, the "real bad boy" is a totally inept contractor. Having experienced a totally inept contractor in my own life, you must have had something like that to write about it as you did.

You know, I did. When I was writing Murder of a Real Bad Boy, my husband and I made the possibly stupid decision to add a four-seasons room onto our house. The contractor said it would take five weeks. Well, I knew we were in trouble after we signed the contract and handed over the down payment, because I was instantly transformed from "Mrs." into "Babe". Instead of five weeks, it took five months. Then it took a year and a half to correct all the leaks in the roof, until we finally had to threaten a lawsuit. When the contractor saw all the photos my husband had wisely taken during and after construction, he suddenly sent a crew to seal the roof as they originally should have done it, free of charge. That's when I knew a contractor had to die in my book. (laughs) I actually did him a favor, because in my book I made him an incredibly handsome Adonis. In real life, he looked like a yeti, and when he took off his shirt, our cat ran away and hid. It's amazing how many people have had the same trouble. At some of my book signings, people told me stories about their own construction nightmares, and we gave away prizes.

The first book, Murder of a Small-Town Honey, began with an incident over twenty years ago. One November I walked out of school as it was getting dark, and thought I saw two dancing bears. I thought: "We don't have bears in Illinois, and if we did, they wouldn't dance." It was the principal and the mayor having a fistfight! They both had beer bellies and short arms, so they weren't landing many blows. They were fighting over the town festival: the principal wanted to change it from the beginning of the school year — the kids played hooky, the teachers called in sick and he couldn't find substitutes — but the mayor refused. Later I learned the town was divided between those who made money on the festival, and those who felt it disrupted their lives. Murder of a Royal Pain came about after I heard some of my cousins complain about "extreme prom moms" in high school. These are mothers who go to outrageous lengths to ensure their children are the king and queen of the prom.

IV. The Sleuth: Skye Denison * Return to Top

How do you and your lead character handle the confidentiality in your profession?

I never use cases I've worked on. I may take an idea from something a colleague has said and twist it 180 degrees, but there are no real clients in my books. In the third book, Murder of a Sleeping Beauty, which deals with body image among teenagers, Skye is caught on the horns of a dilemma. She has to sort out what she knows from sleuthing from what she knows from being a psychologist, and keep the latter confidential.

That book came from seeing how every year more of the heavy girls in my school became the Frannies, and we lose what they have to offer because many of them withdraw. I was surprised by my research when I found a large number of parents living their lives through their kids, and the rising number of teenage girls who think they are only a pretty face and thin body. And I'm sick of the mothers, coaches and people who encourage that thinking. I had a figure skater in counseling who wanted to quit competing, and her mother tried to have me fired when I supported her! It is tough on kids to be so perfect and carry everyone's dream on their backs. Luckily I had a good high school experience myself, but I had a fairly strong ego considering I was the fat girl.

Denise, your sleuth, Skye, is obviously very comfortable in her own skin, and I enjoy reading about her approach to life. I think it's wonderful. She isn't tall, she isn't thin, she isn't blonde, she isn't rich — she's my kind of person. Do you think your readers appreciate a character they can identify with?

Yes, they really do. I hear from a lot of readers who love who Skye is and felt inspired to enjoy life more, especially women whose sizes run in double digits instead of double zero. She's a realistic woman, not a runway model. The only negative was somebody didn't think "a woman of her size could attract men as she does." I've been plus-size my whole life and always had boyfriends, because attraction has less to do with dress size and more to do with character and personality. If you have warmth, confidence, humor and emotional intelligence, your weight won't hinder you. Many readers agree: — "I know many large women who have a level of confidence and contentment I don't find in a lot of my thin friends. Their positive attitude draws people to them." — "In most books the heroine is this reed-thin girl, but the average woman is size 14. I've encountered my share of men who like us big bountiful women just fine." — "For any readers wondering, 'can fat women find love?', the answer is darn right. I'm 26 years old, size 32, newly engaged and happily planning married life. My fiancé finds that beauty is not simply a number on the scale." — "My daughter-in-law is a gorgeous and confidant plus-size lady. She doesn’t stress about her weight, and most men I know (including my tall, thin and handsome son!) find her very attractive." — "As a full-figured bombshell myself, I'm very heavy and my husband hasn't complained! We fat women are loved in real life, so there's no reason to exclude us. A hero attracted to the woman within and finds her beautiful is truly romantic."

I agree with you there! Maybe the message will get out, and we'll see more double-digit-sized characters in books and TV and movies. Have you ever owned a 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible as Skye does? Or is it your dream car?

No, I wish. I've looked at several of them. One year my husband and I were in Reno, Nevada for "Hot August Nights" with classic cars. I just had to find one and have my picture taken.

1957 Chevy Bel Air, Sparks, Nevada

V. Pathways to Publication * Return to Top

After you wrote your first book, what were some hurdles on your path to publication?

My Scumble River Mystery series probably never should have got off the ground. First, it is in the rural Midwest. Scumble River is seventy-five miles south of Chicago, and fifty years behind the times. Many mysteries are in New York or California, or the Deep South, or the British Isles. Big East Coast publishers then didn't believe anyone wanted to read about the Midwest. Chicago is okay, not small-town Illinois. They told me to move my small town to the South, but I can't write what I don't know. Now the Midwest is a good market, so maybe I set a precedent.

The second strike was the protagonist, who is not a fashion model. Skye Denison is a full-figured woman with generous curves — not your usual "run ten miles and beat up the bad guys" kind of girl who never breaks a nail or messes up her hair. She solves mysteries through her intellect and curiosity rather than physical conflicts. The third strike was me. I lived in Illinois, not on the East or West Coast, and had no contacts.

How could you overcome those obstacles?

I'm incredibly persistent and pursued it for five years. I sent query letters, networked with other authors, and still got rejected. Finally I realized that a good path to publication might be writers' conferences, where I could meet people in person and connect faces to names. I chose conferences that have contests where you submit your manuscript, and the prize was an appointment with an agent or an editor. You want to get your material in front of an editor or, better yet, an agent. Hardly any large publisher will accept material that isn't from an agent.

After a year of contests, rewrites, critiques and more rewrites, I got some good responses. My turning point was the Harriette Austin Writers' Conference in Athens, Georgia in July 1997. They had a jury selection: send in the first fifty pages of your manuscript and a synopsis. If you ranked in the top fifteen, you got an appointment with an agent or an editor. I was very fortunate because my manuscript was critiqued by Sara Ann Freed, executive editor of Mysterious Press. She loved it, pronounced it "cozy writing at its finest," and generously let me use her quote to query agents. Those same agents who had turned me down for five years suddenly became very interested. So I chose five agents I really liked, sent each another query letter with her quote, and all five wanted my manuscript! Then the agent I hired shopped it around and sold my manuscript to Penguin in New York.

VI. Covers and Titles * Return to Top

How much input do you have for your book titles and covers? I love your titles. Was this how you saw your series from the start?

When I started writing, I was terrible with titles. My first book was supposed to be "The Catfish Days Murder", which might have been partly responsible for how long it took to be published. When Penguin in New York bought my book series, my editor came up with Murder of a Small-Town Honey, which I immediately loved because it expressed the book so well. But the second book title, Murder of a Sweet Old Lady, stinks. I wanted to call it "Deadly Relations". That's another thing: the publisher wants the titles in a series to sound alike, like Janet Evanovich and numbers, or Sue Grafton and letters. Publishers want something easily identifiable.

Authors have almost no control over book covers. My first three book covers have a cartoony look, and got very good responses. Then my publisher decided the books would draw more male readers — my demographics were already high with female readers — with a more "noir" cover. My favorite is for Murder of a Snake in the Grass. It's a 1950s, Route 66 cover, which I love.

There is a pig on the cover of Murder of a Small-Town Honey ... but no pig in the book! My editor said their marketing department — who really rules in publishing — decreed that pigs sell Midwestern books. My second book, Murder of a Sweet Old Lady, had another pig on the cover, but I didn't want a pattern. So I told my editor that I needed to rewrite the book, and add a pig. His name would be Arnold, and he would talk. Suddenly we got a black cat instead. There is a black cat in the book, so I was in hog heaven, so to speak.

The covers of Murder of a Barbie and Ken and Murder of a Pink Elephant have nothing to do with the plots. The Barbie and Ken in the book are a supposedly perfect couple living in a modern house, but the cover shows them as snowmen in front of a Victorian home. Pink Elephant is the name of a rock band, but the marketing department of Penguin Signet put a pink purse and knife on the cover to promote the book as "chick-lit." We've all heard the expression "don't judge a book by its cover" but people do anyway. Those covers are very popular with readers, so maybe marketing was right.

On the other hand, I am very pleased with the covers of Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry, Murder of a Smart Cookie, Murder of a Real Bad Boy and Murder of a Botoxed Blonde. I love the broken tiara on the cover of Murder of a Royal Pain, and the knife in the wedding cake on the cover of my next book Murder of a Wedding Belle which will be released next April.

VII. Writing Techniques * Return to Top

How do you go about writing a book? Do you make outlines or charts of some kind?

I start with a radial graph that looks like a spider web. In the middle is the victim, my starting point. Then I radiate out to the suspects, settings, point of view, information passers (people who aren't suspects but are part of the story because they pass on clues, a.k.a. gossips), and finally the subplot. Without a subplot, the book is too short, and has no relief from the main plot. The subplot also lets me put in a lot of clues.

When I start my outline I try to come up with suspects, but I usually need to find a couple more as I go along. I use both minor (and sometimes not-so-minor) characters from previous books, as well as bring new people into town. To me anyone is fair game. My background as a psychologist helps me use personality assessments to create characters. All characters, except one-page walk-ons, have complete profiles which I keep in a file. When one considers that I may have twenty or thirty major and minor characters, and they all must be three-dimensional and consistent, this can get pretty involved.

What kind of research do you do for your books?

My sleuth is a school psychologist and I'm a trained school psychologist, and I keep up professionally, so that research is already done. But I always need to do some research for each book. For Murder of a Botoxed Blonde I had to go to a spa, and I know some readers will say "oh poor thing", but I'm really not a spa kind of girl. It was a traumatic experience, and I used that as the opening scene of my book. They told me to strip and then they wrapped me in seaweed and wrapped that in tinfoil, put me on a stainless steel table, turned on the heat lamp and left me there. I was not happy, and as I was muttering to myself, I heard a scream. Of course my sleuth would have rushed to the rescue, but I hobbled over to the door and locked it! (laughs)

Aspiring authors might be interested to know your editing procedures. Would you highlight for aspiring authors and readers the work you put into each of your edits?

After I've outlined my story, I try to write the first draft without stopping to "fix" things. My second draft is when I work on pacing; add description, humor, clues, etc. I usually add about thirty thousand words at this point. My third draft is when I smooth out sentences, check for continuity, look for echoes, and passive voice. And my last edit (before my editor sees it) is purely a polish where I tweak words, check punctuation, etc...

Publishers want seventy to eighty thousand words per book. A suspense thriller might be a hundred thousand words. More is not always better. Publishers may want shorter books due to the cost of paper and publishing. They might accept a longer book, but probably will want you to cut it down. I've been lucky because all of my books were also optioned for large print.

One "fun thing" after you submit your manuscript is the revision letter. It's from your editor and can be anything from a paragraph saying "we love it, don't change a thing," to seven pages single-spaced with so many changes you wonder why they bought the book in the first place. You might hear that editors don't edit anymore, but a lot of editors do a heavy amount of editing. So you may have another two or three months of work after the revision letter. Changing one little thing may have a domino effect and force you to change a lot of other things.

Generally I am juggling three books. Besides writing one book, I'm promoting the book that is currently out, and I'm copy editing the book that's just been finished.

VIII. Book Promotions * Return to Top

You seem to spend a lot of time on the road. How do you handle book promotions?

Promotion is something many authors don't think about. They think submitting a manuscript is all it takes, but you must go out and promote your books. Promotion really works, because I've had twelve books published in ten years, and all still sell well. One way is to arrange book signings. These should be set up several months in advance because many bookstores have newsletters. Libraries are wonderful, and many pay speaking fees. For my first book I arranged eighty signings, and toured Texas, California, the Midwest, New England, Washington DC, etc. Often I arrange book tours around book fairs, festivals or conferences, and sign books at area stores. So far I've autographed books in forty states (plus the District of Columbia and Saint Thomas) from the West Coast to the East Coast, and from the Deep South to the Northern Tier. My husband is very supportive, and he has a lot of vacation time, so he can often be my personal assistant and navigator.

Although I haven't made any official overseas book tours, I have fans abroad too. When I've toured border states like New York, Michigan, North Dakota and Washington, a lot of Canadian readers come from Québec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. Besides Canada, Bermuda, the United Kingdom and Australia, overseas readers have said they bought my books from English-language sections of their local bookstores in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan, Japan and even Yemen!

Mountain Top, Saint Thomas, United States Virgin Islands

Mountain Top, Saint Thomas, United States Virgin Islands: Denise and Dave enjoy a beautiful day overlooking Magen's Bay. The British Virgin Islands are on the horizon.

You also need to send out press kits. This usually contains press releases, a short summary of the book, the cover, newspaper clippings, quotes and your photo. You need a good photo of yourself. One of the best things is to get a nice newspaper spread, and a press kit can really help. Another way to promote your books is to hire a publicist, but it's expensive. When I checked into this, it cost way more than the advance on my first book, so I didn't do it.

A web site is a great way to communicate with readers about my personal appearances, make announcements etc. It helps that my Personal Assistant (and husband) David Stybr is a software engineer who maintains my web site and keeps it updated. Dave is also a composer, and he wrote some nice music especially for my books. If my e-mails are anything to judge by, the age range of my readers is 13 to 93. One thing I really love is seeing a grandmother, daughter and granddaughter ... all reading the Scumble River Mysteries. They like having the books in common — passing them around and creating their own little book club.

You are the only mystery author I know whose series has music. The theme is Scumble River Legend and it's delightful. It helps that you're married to composer David Stybr.

Scumble River Portrait is a suite of seven pieces: Scumble River Legend (a ballad on the front page of my web site), Lazy River Waltz and my favorite, Rolling River Rag. He also wrote Prélude to a Muse (and to Amuse) for my fictional band Pink Elephant; the "Bad Boys and Blondes" Bossa Nova for two books, Murder of a Real Bad Boy and Murder of a Botoxed Blonde; Dance of the Three Witches for Murder of a Royal Pain; and Wedding Belles for Murder of a Wedding Belle.

When his Contrabassoon Concerto was premièred by a soloist and orchestra in the Chicago area, I was his Personal Assistant for a change. Dave has had a lot of requests for his music, from Oregon (Andante Cantabile for String Orchestra), New Jersey (Brass Quintet in C Minor) and Germany (Contrabassoon Concerto). His ContraBassooNova was released on CD last year, which is very exciting!
	Rosie: a Waltz for Orchestra by David Stybr (6 minutes, © 2004) Rosie was a friendly cat at the B&B where we stayed in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

How has your life changed since you became a published author?

Well, I can no longer take out the garbage in my pajamas. One morning my husband forgot to set out the garbage, so I ran out and did it. My neighbor saw me, so he and his wife came over and asked me to autograph their copy of my book. He also wanted to take a picture of me autographing the book with his wife. I said not in my pajamas, but I'd be glad to do it at noon when I was presentable.

Now every time I meet a stranger I have to ask "Do you read mysteries?" Now whenever I shake hands, I have to hand out a bookmark. Now when I go into a bookstore, I have to check to see if they have my books. And I'm never satisfied. If my books are on the shelves, I ask, "Why aren't they selling?" If my books are not on the shelves, I ask, "Why don't they have them?" So I'm never really happy. (laughs) We went to Bermuda on vacation one summer, and my husband wanted to see if a bookstore had my books. Yes it did! My husband and I like to travel a lot, and we've gone to a lot of exotic places like Europe, Australia, South America, all over. Now we generally go where my book tours take us, which is a great way to see parts of the United States we haven't seen before — and meet the people too.

IX. Personal Favorites * Return to Top

I'd love to ask more about your books and writing, but it's time to get to know you a bit better. Who are your favorite authors?

My favorites are almost all women. I like amateur sleuths versus police procedurals. I like humor but not books that are over-the-top, and not books where women look stupid in order to be funny. Other than that, my favorites cover a wide range: Charlaine Harris is one of my very favorites; I love all of her series. I'm a big fan of Earlene Fowler. Someone who does humor really well without making her protagonist look stupid is Nancy Cohen; she writes the Bad Hair Day murders — her protagonist is hair stylist in Florida. I also like Sara Hoskinson Frommer but she doesn't write many books, about every three years. Her character heads an amateur orchestra in Indiana. I like Carolyn Hart and Joan Hess, and another really neat series is by Jane Isenberg, who writes about a menopausal sleuth.

Which writers most influenced your work?

Depends on my age. When I was younger, I was extremely influenced by Trixie Belden. (I liked her better than Nancy Drew. Trixie was more realistic — she lived in small town, babysat and had chores to do.) As I got older, probably in my teens, I had read everything in the children's part of the library, so the librarian steered me to books by Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart and Daphne du Maurier — a little romance, a little mystery together. They all influenced me. I didn't start reading mysteries until after I got married, mostly because Carolyn Hart and Joan Hess started writing mysteries with strong women; their books were fun, with a bit of romance in them. Carolyn Hart was for some time the only book of that kind I could find. I was definitely influenced by her books. I would say that when I first started writing my own books — I was thinking Carolyn Hart, Joan Hess, Earlene Fowler, that group of writers.

X. Future Plans and Goals * Return to Top

I'm so pleased to have had the opportunity to get to know you. Before I say good-bye, however, here are just a few more questions. What future books are on your horizon?

My twelfth book, Murder of a Wedding Belle, will be released this coming April, so I'm preparing the promotional build-up, and scheduling events and book tours for 2010. I'm booked to speak at three national conventions: the National Association of School Psychologists in March, my sorority Alpha Sigma Alpha in early July, and the Romance Writers of America in late July. My Personal Appearances page has more details. I'm also writing my first draft for Book Thirteen, tentatively titled Murder of a Bookstore Babe, for Penguin for release in 2011.

Now that your series is off and running, what are your long-term goals?

Now that I write full time, I'd like to produce two books a year, and in other genres too. I'm working on a paranormal romantic mystery, a couple of romances, and of course the next Scumble River Mystery. Although I enjoy writing mysteries because I like knowing that the bad guy is going to get caught and pay for his crime at the end, I would like to write in other genres such as romance and fantasy.

Thank you for a wonderful interview. Anything else you'd like your readers to know?

Years ago when I considered giving up writing, someone sent me a quote, which I keep taped near my computer monitor: "It's not how good you are, it's how badly you want it."

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Created 25 December 1999 * Updated 25 December 2009 * Website 10th Anniversary!
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