“I came across a story about an unhappy-looking blonde who had checked into a Hollywood hotel and was linked to the scandalous murder of Cecil Wells in far-off Alaska.” Okay, was it just because you couldn’t find anything written on this story that captured you to write it? What continued to intrigue you? When I read about the circumstances of the murder – and the later suicide of Diane Wells – I was astounded there wasn’t a movie about the case, let alone more information online, as it seemed such a quintessential film noir, especially since the inter-racial affair between Diane and Johnny Warren would have been a big deal too. Later I found the story had indeed been covered in many magazines – both of the serious and pulp variety – but more than that, I was just curious. What had really happened the night of the murder, and what happened to Marquam Wells, the 3-year-old son of Cecil and Diane? When I found out that the family members knew little about what had happened either, and hadn’t seen Marquam in years, it became a real mystery that got its hooks into me. Now however I was trying to find answers not only for myself, but for several generations of people. Why chase this story and not an untold Hollywood story since much of your other work is involved in Los Angeles? Well, about half of The Alaskan Blonde does take place in Hollywood. It was where Diane and Marquam came as soon as she made bail, and where her friend William Colombany, the so-called “Third Suspect”, also came to as well, in order to be her constant companion. He was arrested in LA twice too, and of course Diane committed suicide in Hollywood. The Alaska connection was especially interesting to me though, as I knew very little about the huge state (which in 1953 was still a territory), and that added another level of complexity. I found I couldn’t put this story down. I needed to find out “who did it.” I am fascinated, however, with your take on Diane at the beginning of your investigation—compared to your overall discovery. How did you find yourself relating to her as the investigation developed? Thanks, I’m so glad that you found it a compelling read. It’s ultimately a difficult and unhappy story overall, with so many contradictions and ideas that change over the course of the narrative. Initially, Diane was very much seen by many people – and particularly the press – as a young, blonde gold-digger who was clearly after Cecil’s money, and probably killed him for it so she could run off with her *gasp* Black lover. But talking to people who knew her, especially her eldest daughter from her first marriage, Saundra, revealed a different, more complex person. Saundra and her younger sister Bonnie never saw their mother after the divorce, and Saundra was justifiably angry about that – but my research led me to believe Diane hadn’t forgotten her daughters at all; her letters and calls probably weren’t passed on. Other stories too showed Diane was someone very different from the narrow, titillating media portrayal. She was no angel per se (she was always the most attractive woman in the room, and seemingly initiated a short but passionate affair with Johnny, despite her many denials), but in Cecil she had an abusive, jealous husband, and found herself living in a very small town with challenging extremes of weather. Moreover, it seemed she suffered from postnatal depression, then a condition all but unknown to the medical community (as was the term “domestic abuse”), and before she died, she was depressed and taking barbiturates. I couldn’t relate to much of that directly of course, but I began to get more of an understanding of her – or at least what might have been an understanding – the more I heard and read about her. You write from a journalistic and investigative point of view, but I found that you sometimes gave a “first-person” opinion. Was it hard not to become involved with the characters you presented? I was urged by several friends – and potential publishers – to put more of myself in the story; to relate it more to my life, as that is very much a popular tactic in true crime writing. It’s true to say that true crime books are often written by people directly connected to the case or the victim, but that wasn’t the case with me. I didn’t know anyone involved, had never been to Alaska (at the time), and wasn’t even alive when it happened. The focus should be on the living family members I felt, not on me. And besides, as a journalist I always find other people more interesting; they’re the ones I want to meet and interview. You will occasionally step away from the investigation to offer historical information about Alaska or other biographical information on organizations or witnesses. Why did you feel this added information—not necessarily relevant to the actual murder—necessary? Again, that was something suggested to me, mainly because most people know very little about Alaska, let alone Fairbanks, even today. I spoke to some people in The Big I pub in Fairbanks who told me that tourists – foreign and American – often think Alaska is an island. Why? Because it’s in a box on the TV weather forecast, so they assumed it was like Hawaii! As for background about other organizations or witnesses, I included that because I wanted to give a rounded look at the whole picture. More practically, I didn’t have an overabundance of witness interviews to draw from, as the case happened 70 years ago. If you were to write another True Crime novel, what would you like to tackle as a mode of craft that you didn’t attempt here? I would still be uncomfortable about inserting myself into the story unless it actually happened that way, though I would certainly try to avoid reexamining crimes from so long ago because, as I mentioned, almost everyone involved with them has passed away, or cannot remember much about it. The police/FBI files related to them are less likely to still be available either. What advice would you give someone wanting to write a True Crime book? A golden rule is to befriend and always be kind to the librarians, archivists, historical society volunteers, museum staff, law enforcement officials and others that you encounter during your research. They nearly always really want to help, and can access places and have ideas you’d never think of – maybe even find something vital that will help you. As for doing interviews, just be patient and respectful, and make sure to listen to what your interviewees are saying, even if they take some time getting to the subject. Recalling and talking about an act of violence or tragedy – even if it was decades ago – is always going to be difficult if not traumatic, though I often found that people wanted to talk, and wanted answers (even if they weren’t the ones they wanted to hear). Almost anything is better than the black hole of not knowing. I always find coincidences to be karmic. You suggest this in your Epilogue. Do you still feel that way? Have you written other stories that have given you this same cycle of events in life? As any true crime writer will tell you: you couldn’t make these things up. There’s also nothing stranger than real people, and what they will do and say to each other. In fact, there was another utterly bizarre karmic coincidence that I found out about after the book had been published. In the early days of my research, a bookstore called Book Soup in West Hollywood asked for local writers to come and be “living exhibits” in their window. My wife Wendall Thomas, who is the novelist behind the Cyd Redondo mysteries, and I both signed up, and there’s a picture of me in the window, sat at a desk with my laptop. I took a large picture of Diane in a frame with me too, so I could show passers-by who I was writing about. Years later, I found a picture of where the mortuary where Diane was taken to after her death: it’s now the location of the Book Soup bookstore. I know your Gourmet Ghosts books. Do you plan to do more of these, or do you plan to stay with true crime? People often ask about another book, but I vowed that the bars, restaurants and hotels I featured – and the true crimes, ghost and celebrity stories that happened behind their doors – must have a solid backstory in terms of the newspaper archives/witness accounts, and though I look into new and old locations all the time, I still haven’t found enough good ones to justify a whole new book. As for true crime, there was another death that happened in Fairbanks – coincidentally also in the Northward Building, where Cecil Wells was murdered – that someone messaged me about. It’s a very suspicious suicide from the 1970s, and I’ve got a couple of witness interviews already, though the current family members, of course understandably, have not replied to any of my letters, emails, messages or calls. Unless I hear from one of them or more, whether it’s a book or not will probably come down to whether I can get the FBI file on the case. I have the file number, but they sent a standard response to my FOIA request, and so I appealed. If that doesn’t go my way, I may well use the circumstances of the case as the basis for a fictional mystery/crime story in the future (though that’s moving into my wife’s lane, as she calls it, so I have to tread carefully!). What are you working on now? At the moment I’m writing and pitching the travel/lifestyle/feature pieces I write as a freelance journalist, and working at my regular day job – got to pay those bills! But every now and then I come across a great historical crime story, or just a very weird one, and go down the research rabbit hole. Sometimes there’s an article in it for Crime Reads, or LA Magazine or somewhere else, but sometimes not. Even so, the thrill of finding something in the archives and wondering “what happened?” keeps me going!
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Quoted from his book: THE UNDERHANDED “I don’t care what the experts say—someone put these things in motion through cyberspace and social media. Then fear and anger took over, and the movements fed themselves as mainstream politics moved them forward.” Your bio supports your credibility in writing an espionage novel. You are a Silver Star recipient and a former CIA paramilitary officer. Why did you decide to add Novelist? My desire to write fiction is fairly simple, I think. Yet, the reasoning behind it is perhaps a little more nuanced. Fundamentally, after all my years in uniform and then with CIA, I wanted to create something that people could appreciate, that entertained, that captivated, that made people think. I had this need to write stories that people would want to read, and when they turned the final page, felt like they’d left a real place and said goodbye to people that they enjoyed getting to know, spending time with, and perhaps wanted to see again. Like most authors, I’ve been a reader my entire life, and for some books, I can tell you exactly where I was when I read them going all the way back to elementary school. I devoured fantasy, literature, historical fiction, and of course, spy thrillers. In some of the most challenging periods in my life with the Marine Corps or as a paramilitary officer, books gave me joy. And even though they were a form of escape, books grounded me. Thus, about twelve years ago while on an operation in Africa, I had some time, and that’s when I wrote my first scene for what would become my first book. This book has not been published—the manuscript is in a box in my office—but that was the beginning. And nine years later my first novel, Landslide, debuted. I’ve loved every minute of it. I very much like your protagonist, Professor William Dresden. He is broken yet equally heroic. What were your thoughts when creating this character? In addition to serving as a Marine and CIA officer, I am an academically trained historian, and during graduate school, I met a professor about my age. When he was an undergraduate in the 1990s, he’d gone to Bosnia to work in orphanages. When I was a young Marine, I’d served in the Balkans, too. We didn’t know each other at the time, of course, but we both witnessed some of the horrors wrought by that conflict. This shared experience allowed us to bond and we are still friends to this day. Fast forward fifteen years, and along with two other prominent experiences in my life while in Eastern Europe with CIA, I started formulating the idea for The Underhanded. I appreciate intelligent mysteries, spy thrillers, and action/adventure stories, and I love when historical elements and conspiracies are woven into the plot. Therefore, I wanted my protagonist to add the intelligent and historical components, yet also have had experiences and a background that would justify his actions as well as his layers and complexity. Professor Dresden was the result … Knowing that many of your readers won’t have your extensive background, how do you determine how much background history needs to be given? I read somewhere to never talk down or underestimate the knowledge of your audience; meaning, don’t explain every little thing or action. But how do you know if your readers will understand a unique aspect of tradecraft in espionage or know about a particular time in history? I think that’s why fiction is a form of art, because we’re trying to walk a line using words to illustrate a story, but not getting bogged down and lost in details and explanations that detract from the plot and characters. Therefore, I try not to spend time excessively explaining real-world events or things, assuming that my readers will already know about them or, if they don’t and want to know more, will quickly look them up. But, if I’ve added fictional elements, that is when I spend a few sentences or paragraphs to give that background or additional insight. How do you balance that information so your information and explanations don’t slow down the plot? For my writing, I strive to make the background, the technical explanation, the context, the description, or whatever is—I endeavor to make it part of the action. I don’t want to explain, I want the background to come out in the heat of the narrative. Perhaps the conversation about someone or something’s background will be confrontational with another character, or the use of a technical device will happen just as the security guard is about to come through the door … I want to give just enough so that a reader will believe the events credible, but then get back to the story and characters and keep the plot moving. I thought it interesting that you placed your protagonists' backstory more towards the end of the story. I found this a good builder to the ending conflicts to climax. As a reader, I continued to gather questions, which you then answered. Did you style this plot structure after other authors you have liked? I really admire authors who in the beginning of their stories create intrigue about their characters, which they then slowly reveal throughout the narrative. As you said, it’s the idea of creating questions and mysteries that readers want answered, so they keep reading. Placing a critical element of Professor Dresden’s backstory in the final third of the book was intentional because of what it was. I referenced these aspects of his background—major events—at the beginning of the book, but those experiences were so traumatic and suppressed that he would never discuss them casually. Therefore, I felt I had to put the characters through some shared trials for Professor Dresden to finally reveal that dark history of his life. Authors that you feel mentored you in this genre? Without a doubt, James Rollins, Brad Meltzer, Dan Brown, and Steve Berry. I love their work and the blending of historical intrigue with contemporary conspiracies, and I wanted to take those elements and add my perspective and insight having been a US Marine and intelligence officer doing covert action. The result, I feel, was a blend of spy thriller fiction and action/adventure. Your first book, Landslide, was well-reviewed and received. How did you work to meet the pressure in creating an equal -- not part of the first series-- if not a better second book, The Underhanded? Thank you for your kind words about my novels. When I am writing my books, ideas for other stories are constantly popping into my head and I don’t want to lose these nuggets. Therefore, I will either write down a short note or, in some cases, take the time to write a quick summary. Consequently, I already had a basic foundation for The Underhanded while I was writing Landslide. And with everything I learned writing Landslide, I built upon that to craft The Underhanded. And because I am a very diverse reader, I like the idea of being able to write books that are in different genres or that blend genres, and to create series with different storylines and worlds. The Underhanded is not part of the first series, yet it ends as if it can be one. Do you plan to continue the characters or antagonist? Absolutely. I’m writing the next book in the series now. The series pressure is now on. Readers are waiting--One book a year needs to be published. Have you found your writing schedule has changed? Plotting more? Writing requires time and discipline—you have to make the effort to write every single word and eventually put approximately 90,000 of them together in a coherent stream. However, due to other personal and professional commitments including having a family with two young children, I must carve out time in the day to write. It’s tough, but I have chosen a routine where I wake up a little after 4am and write for a few hours before the day begins. That is my protected time when it is still dark outside, I have my coffee, and the rest of the house is still asleep. And then, if I can find a stolen moment later in the day or if I’m not too tired at night, I’ll edit or focus on other aspects of being an author like promotion or outreach or preparation for upcoming events and conferences. What are you working on now? Will we soon find the second in the Mason Hackett series? I have three projects going on right now. I just finished the manuscript for the sequel to Landslide, and Mason Hackett will return with a vengeance as he tries to thwart a Russian plot to destabilize NATO and penetrate a CIA operation. I also just started writing the sequel to The Underhanded where Professor William Dresden and Adeline Parker team up with a mysterious operative to subvert the machinations of an authoritarian leader in Eastern Europe. And the third project is a memoir of a contemporary of the Kennedys, the late John Carl Warnecke. I am working with the family as the editor for the memoir, and this book should be coming out in the next year. There is no question in your ability to produce a scene so terrifying the reader experiences it along with the character—Alison, lying on her bathroom floor covered in a wet blanket, waiting to die in the bushfire. How were you able to write the scene, keeping the description of what was happening equally balanced with her fear? At the time of the Black Saturday fires in Victoria, I was working as a court reporter for The Age newspaper, and the courts round is one of those collaborative kinds of rounds, where journos from all the publications work out of the same office, and help each other out. Of course, if you’ve got an exclusive you keep it to yourself, but the big trials and crimes, we’re all in there together. One of those journalists nearly died on Black Saturday, and he wrote a searing, visceral account of his experience for his newspaper. After the fires, I was transferred to the State Politics round and I went out on a lot of stories where I met people who had survived Black Saturday, or saw the ruins of the towns and bush. I drew on all of that when writing that scene, and I think if you can marry description with emotion, it is far more powerful, and that’s what I tried to do the whole way through the book. Radiant Heat, defined at the beginning of the novel, becomes a major theme. Why did you decide to use this as the title? I love this question because it allows me to do something I love to do and talk about how writing a novel is both an incredibly solitary thing, but also, it takes a village. When I began working on Radiant Heat it had a working title—After the Fire—and I didn’t love it, but titles are not my forte, so I just went with it. In my first workshop for Columbia’s Fiction MFA I submitted the draft first chapter of this book, and when my friend Michael handed me back his draft with markups, he had circled the words ‘radiant heat’ in the dialogue between Jim and Alison and written “Title?”. As soon as I saw it I knew he was right. Because Radiant Heat is the silent killer of a fire. You can’t see it or anticipate it, and it’s not the danger you’re paying attention to. There’s a lot of that in Alison’s life, it just fits. How did you create and plot the minor themes using this major theme? I think there’s obviously a lot of symbolism in fire, and I wanted to write a book that considered that the lives of the people who are devastated by natural disasters had befores, and they have afters. How do you deal with catastrophe and manage your life? How does something so extreme change us, and how does it affect everything else we’ve got going on? For Alison, fire or not, there was something coming to shake her up and put her in danger, but the fire changed the game, turned it into something else. And that’s what I was interested in. How does that change how you behave. I think Alison would have reacted very differently to what was coming had there been no fire. So without the fire, there’s no book—but the fire isn’t the story here, and so while it’s an anchor, it also inspired me to find those other threads, and bring together a world around it. A world that felt true to Australia, and to the other things I’ve seen as a reporter that I wanted to unpack. The fire reflects the 2009 Black Saturday fire in Australia. How were you affected? I lived in Melbourne at that time, and I’m lucky that my family is pretty much all in Queensland, very far from those conditions, and so I wasn’t personally affected by the fires directly. I remember that day so well. It was so so hot, but also really dry, and the sky was dark and orange and you could smell the smoke on the wind. No one knew how bad it was. The fire moved so fast—it was days before we understood the extent of it. I remember I was out for breakfast with my friends on the Sunday morning, and the late edition of the paper had it as front page news, with a horrible death toll of—I think—around 40. That number would quadruple in the coming days. I think we were all in shock. I wanted to go out and cover the fires like so many of my colleagues at the paper, but there was a huge trial in the Supreme Court, and another one in the County, someone had to stay and write them up. When I talked to my friends after they came back, they were all so quietly shaken by what they had seen. I read all the coverage, every story of survival, every list of names. It was devastating, and consuming, and profoundly sad. On the one year anniversary, I was sent to talk to a family who had survived about their year. They were still living in a shipping container on their land, waiting to rebuild. Their two children had a menagerie of pets the little girl wanted me to meet. I was so struck by their stoicism, their optimism. I think about them, and about everyone I met during that time a lot. I admire them greatly. The bushfire almost becomes a character in itself. What advice do you have not to let your event take over the story? And was this even more difficult since it was an event you experienced? I think landscape and place are always characters in our lives and stories, so it is important to me to bring that into my fiction. Having been in Melbourne for Black Saturday made me perhaps more cautious about how to write about something like it. I didn’t want to sell it short, or to exploit it salaciously. I hope that’s a line I’ve managed to walk, and that the bushfire is respected for what it is, a terrible, awesome force of nature that we have absolutely no control over. This is your debut book after a career as a journalist. How hard was it to transition? What tricks did you learn to help? A lot of great journalists also write novels, and for those of us who became journalists to write (which is why I did it), it makes sense. The parts of the transition that are hard are really also, I think, made easier by the experiences of being a reporter on a newspaper. Writing to deadline every day, whether you want to or not. Finding the human interest in a boring political announcement or a dry report. Observing details of places and people so you can bring them to life on the page. Journalism teaches you a lot about people, and a lot about writing if you’re paying attention. And I don’t see it so much as a transition, but more of an extension of my skills, a meandering maybe. Writing for a job and taking on a second career as a novelist, advice? You have to have space to write the book. That sounds obvious, but it’s actually really hard to use your words all day at work and then come home and find new ones for your novel. I was really lucky that while I was writing Radiant Heat I was, largely, not doing much outside work. I was studying for my MFA full time, and then I was doing some freelance work that didn’t take up a lot of my time. I know a lot of other novelists who have completely unrelated jobs, and some who teach writing, and some who do PR or grant writing or work in offices… the only thing that matters is making space for your personal writing work and finding a way to prioritize getting it done. What are you working on now, and when can readers seek it out? I’m deep in the first third of a new book—it's about a lot of things—friendship, destructive love, late-stage capitalism to name some of them—and like Radiant Heat it uses a disaster as an entry point, but it’s a man-made one. There’s murder, a lot of madness, and a deeply destructive friendship at the core of the narrative. I’m excited to get it on the page—and then to readers, as soon as I can! Thank you for chatting with us about your work. I liked the way you started this novel, “Opening Credits.” It gives the reader more than a prologue for the subject and character. Do you start all your work in this way? I do start every one of the Clare Carlson books with the “Opening Credits.” Yes, it’s a quick introduction to Clare and the story and sets the tone for the rest of the book. In BROADCAST BLUES, for instance, I have Clare talking about her insecurities about approaching her 50th birthday - and the impact that might have on her career and on her life. There’s also a quick setup for the crime story that will follow. Every author likes to have a unique way to introduce his book to the reader, I guess - and this is mine. Voice: not that a man cannot write from a female perspective, however many male writers cannot capture a female’s essence and persaonlity. You have no trouble with that. In fact, it’s the voice of Clare that pulls me from one page to the next, wanting to know more about her and her “big story.” Why a female protagonist? And how do you get into the female mind-set so brilliantly? Clare is a female protagonist because she needed to be a woman for the first book in the series. No spoilers here, but the plot of that one involved very personal things - traumas only a woman could experience - from Clare’s own past. So I had no choice on the gender. Having said that, I’ve used female protagonists in the vast majority of the 21 novels I’ve published so far. I somehow find them more interesting to write about than traditional male heroes. How do I get into the female state of mind? I’ve known - and I’ve worked with - a lot of terrific, talented women in my own journalistic career. Clare is a composite in some ways of many of them. Funny, your female characters in this novel were pretty much “all business,” while the male characters are more sexual-based. Are you making a statement here? To your male readers or female? I’ve never really thought about that. It may well be true. But Clare herself is certainly “sexual based” in terms of pursuing her romantic relationships even though she’s “all business” on the job. I just try to create all my characters - men as well as women - to be the most interesting I can. That’s because I believe the characters are the most important part of any book. Sometimes that involves making them “sex-based” or “all business” or maybe even both. But I don’t do it as any kind of a gender thing. This duality “sex-business” also worked well to emphasize your theme of abusive relationships. Do you begin writing by deciding what themes you want to discuss? Or find a plot that has prominent themes? I don’t really have any kind of political or issues agenda when I write my books. I just go where the story takes me. In this book, that idea of a private investigator who spied on cheating lovers led to “abusive sexual relationships” in some cases. Previous books of mine have dealt with the #metoo movement and the homeless and even the treatment of military veterans. But all of this is done simply to tell the story, not out of any political push on my part. With an extensive career as a journalist, what motivated you to write mystery and thrillers over non-fiction? Ha! I’ve always done both so there was really no decision to make. I began writing crime fiction very early on in my journalistic career and published numerous novels at the same time I was working as a top editor at the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News. Non-fiction and fiction have always been a fun combination for me. I’ve gotten the opportunity to chase facts as a journalist, then also just make stuff up for my novels! You can’t beat that… “Newcasters—don’t have to be cute, perky, young talking heads to succeed in the media world…” This quote from the novel accentuates the fine line you provide with Clare. She is defined as being personable and witty, while also very serious about her intent and career. Do you plot in order to keep this witty/professional tone level in the story? Yes, it’s a balance. But you can be a serious journalist and still be fun too. Believe me, I’ve known a lot of journalists like that. I’ve tried to create Clare as a colorful character - the kind of person you’d love to work with or just hang out around - but someone who is also very serious and dedicated about her job in journalism. Hopefully I’ve accomplished that. Clare’s female boss and Clare are very competitive. More competitive in personality and tone than any of the other characters. What are you saying here? The owner of the news station is male, why make Clare’s immediate boss female? The horrible female boss, Susan Endicott, is a new addition to the series. Up until the last book, Clare had an older male boss that she respected and liked. But I wanted to shake things up in her career a bit, so I replaced him with Susan Endicott. She is what I think of as “The Boss From Hell” - totally cold-blooded and ambitious and verbally abusive to Clare and others at the station. She’s someone I want the reader to hate. And I like the fact that she presents a whole new challenge for Clare to deal with in her job. I like the subplot of the novel, Clare turning 50. It definitely helps lighten the more serious tones of the mystery. Do you think subplots should be used to lift the story as well as to create deeper themes for the overall plot? Every novel - especially a crime novel - needs a subplot. It might be an alcohol problem or a divorce or a medical issue or any of the other things people deal with in everyday life. Clare has had a LOT of problems in her personal life. But I did focus on the age issue in this book because of the emphasis on youth and sexiness for TV newscasters, especially the women. I also was able to work in an added subplot (related to turning 50) about her relationship as she grows older with her own daughter and granddaughter. Readers should be aware Broadcast Blues is the recent Clare Carlson mystery, it is the 6th in the series. However, there is no problem reading them as stand-alone. What are you working on now? I have three new thrillers coming out in April, but not under my name of R.G. Belsky. These are written under the pen name of Dana Perry. (There are four earlier Dana Perry books too). The ones coming out in 2024 feature a new protagonist, FBI agent Nikki Cassidy - who returns to her hometown searching for a serial killer and uncovers shocking new secrets about the long -ago murder of her own sister. All three of these Nikki Cassidy thrillers will be released simultaneously by Bookouture publishers to produce a kind of “binge-reading” experience. In other words, you’ll be able to read all of them one right after the other. First time I’ve ever done anything like this, it should be interesting! I think you answered my first question in the book: “Autobiography? I didn’t want to write a book about myself. Who would be interested? ” So, taking off from that answered question, instead, what has it become to you since its publishing? I’ve received some wonderful reviews and emails from readers who it touched, either because of my personal story or because they related to it in their own experiences. My greatest hope was that it would help others, so these contacts are very meaningful to me. Much of your story—or as you say with Jennifer’s help—is the story of your daughter’s murder. Yet again, in your book, you state you had no need for catharsis for her death. Why do you think—or feel—it is necessary to share your spiritual journey at this point in your life? I was pushed and prodded by Spirit into writing the book. As I have said, I thought at the beginning that I would write Jennifer’s story, but the ending was too sad. Now, 23 years later, I have a story to tell—what I’ve learned from my spiritual journey since her murder. I have learned a lot—and there is much more to learn. I speak about my experiences to anyone willing to listen. What I’ve found is—many people have spiritual experiences, but are afraid to share them in case people think they are crazy. I don’t worry about that—at this point in my life I believe that someone’s opinion of me is not my business. You share your experiences of having been brought up as a Jehovah's Witness. Without that part of your life journey, do you think you would have reached this point? I didn’t realize just how strong an influence those twenty-seven years as a JW had on my life. If I had grown up in Church of England or Jewish, I have no idea who I would be now—maybe a medium! I wish my maternal grandmother had been able to share her experiences and beliefs with me about Spirit. That would have been a very different path than the one I’ve been on. What would you like your readers to come away with from having read your autobiography? I didn’t mean to write an autobiography, but as I was writing the memoir, which is supposed to be about a specific part of one’s life, it kept expanding. I let it because it felt as though all the details I included were necessary. What I would like readers to get from it is, there is more to life than what we see with our physical eyes, and we don’t need to fear the unseen. After all, none of us question or worry about microbes and bacteria—we can’t see them, but we know they are there and we feel their effects, many of which are necessary and beneficial. Being willing to accept the unseen world is the first step to spiritual freedom. Rarely have I read a memoir—ok, I hear it, “no autobiography”—that was so honestly written. Many write their life stories to review the past as a means to move on to the future. But for you, I felt in writing this you were embracing the present. Am I off here? This is a comment I have heard from many readers, and it makes me wonder if I blabbed too much; was too self-revealing. I wrote the book in 27 days, which makes me believe that Spirit was helping. Therefore, I guess I wrote what I was supposed to. Or is that a cop out? 😊 If you were to advise someone on how to write their life story, where would you tell them to begin? Some of your chapters didn’t always seem to be sequential, yet flowed together as one. Did you write them In order, or write the different chapters and then put the book together? We live life in a linear fashion, but it may not be as interesting when told that way. I recommend reading a few books on memoir and biography, such as Rachael Herron’s “Fast-Draft your Memoir in 45 hours.” I applied much of her advice, plus what I’ve learned as a mystery writer. Reedsy also has an excellent free video on the topic. I started with index cards, giving each one a chapter title that covered a part of my life. Later, I shuffled them around a bit, got rid of some, added others. Once I had finished writing in Word, I uploaded the book to Atticus, the software I use for formatting books, and was able to easily move chapters around when it made more sense for them to be elsewhere. As an author, I see “my story” through my fictional characters and plots. As the adage goes, “There is a little truth in every story.” Can fiction be used as a memoir tool? I guess I anticipated this question in my previous answer. We may be writing fact, but the parts we use in fiction are a great way to keep it interesting—dialogue, setting, characterization, etc., takes those facts that might have otherwise just been a dry recitation and brings them to life. Pema Chodron’s book, “How We Live Is How We Die” states that appearances manifest as powerful sights and sounds in the bardo (afterlife), later as specific forms. This is, to some degree, how we experience things even, or if we slow down enough to notice. In any encounter, first, there’s open space. Something moves toward me and the encounter is wide-open, full of possibilities, not solidified in any way….Then it comes into focus…” Sometimes it is not until I have written something that the embodiment of why I felt compelled to offer the story comes to me. It is after I give the work space that I see the need for the storytelling? Since the writing of your story, what clarity if any has come to you, or what has manifested showing further possibilities? That was so poetically put, DJ, but I am probably too pragmatic to go there. I got the story down as I wanted to tell it. I published it, and released it into the ether. I have not wanted to return to think about any of those details because they are often painful. I do feel that in some way my actual writing skills advanced to a different level, which is my goal with every book I write. It has been fun interviewing an author on such as interesting topic. Is there anything you would like to tell others about your fictional work, or what you are working on now? Thank you, it’s been fun for me, too. I write two suspense fiction series, and one of them is about a young woman who communicates with Spirit—okay, she talks to dead people and helps solve murders. In my forensic series, my protagonist Claudia Rose does the same type of work I do—forensic handwriting examination. She doesn’t directly solve mysteries with her skills, but she does get to understand the characters that people the story through their handwriting, and that helps solve the mystery. I also write nonfiction books about handwriting. My next project, MAXIMUM PRESSURE, is a Claudia Rose story of murder at a high school reunion. Any offerings of what it takes for someone from wanting to be a writer, to being a writer, and how to stay on the path? "Being a writer” can mean so many different things and what it means is highly personal to everyone who writes. My first book (nonfiction) was published when I was about to turn 50; my first fiction came 7 years later. I can’t say I like writing, but I do like having written. Editing is the part I like best. For me, writing is a compulsion. I don’t do it for fun; I want readers to get involved in the story and I work hard to make that happen. There is no greater compliment when someone sends an email or posts a review that says, “I was up all night turning pages; couldn’t put it down!” What I tell aspiring novelists is this: first, hone your craft. Be a good writer before you ask the public to invest in you. And be prepared—writing is hard, getting published is harder (even if you publish independently), and getting your books in the hands of enough readers to make all your efforts pay off is the hardest of all. There are loads of resources to help you take all those steps, so educate yourself and, in the words of Neil Gaiman: "(1) If you’re going to be a writer, you have to write. (2) You have to finish things.” And knowing that unless you are unique, you are going to face many rejections, keep on going. It’s been 16 years since Poison Pen was published by Penguin and I’ve just finished re-editing my entire forensic series, applying what I’ve learned over those years. Improving is an unending process, and it should be. I wish you well.“ Again, thanks for the chat, Sheila. Thank you for introducing yourself to my readers. I enjoyed reading Incentive for Murder. The novel reads like a police report: Stick to the facts, maman. Even when moving out of the significant protagonists' POV, the narrative sounds like witness statements in the report. Was this voice a specific decision? Or is it your writing style? You give me too much credit here. It was simply the voice I heard in my head and translated to the written words. Special Agent in the Office of Special Investigations in the Air Force, a law degree, and a law professor; that is quite a career biography. What moved you to write novels, or have you always written? I have been a compulsive reader since age 12. I have consumed 2 or 3 books per week my entire life. For the past 20 years, I have been focused on how authors assembled their plot, developed the characters and maintained the pace. I have wanted to write novels for a long time and finally started reading “how to” write books, taking online seminars, and attending writing clinics taught by published authors. A lot is happening in this novel: in a week, two detectives need to unravel seven murders. The plot brings the reader along as if the reader is also a character. Where did the idea for the story come from? Surprisingly enough, it came from a television commercial. One night I saw a television ad about selling your life insurance. It occurred to me that could turn out very badly if your life insurance fell into the wrong hands. From that paranoid thought, I worked backward to develop the story line. I liked the use of Sherlock quips. "Kind of Sherlock Holmesian, isn't it?" Then, later on, continuing this quip: "Using my Sherlock Holmesian skills…" Are you a big Sherlock Holmes fan? Do these quips come naturally to your protagonist, Detective McDermott, or you? When I was young, I loved following the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle. I also liked the later imitators. Quips flow naturally from my twisted brain. Detective McDermott (Mac) Burke is an interesting protagonist. His relationship with his ex-wife (they still live together although divorced) is fascinating. And logical in subtext. What was your character motive in having this cohesive separation? I wanted to create a different relationship between divorced spouses than is normally portrayed. It made me smile at times. Maggie (his ex-wife) is also an investigator but for an agency. Did you see this division of offices (departments) as a way to create various plot events? First, I started out with Maggie keeping secret from her ex-husband the fact that she actually worked for the CIA. Second, I then complicated the picture by making her boss at CIA the mastermind behind the crimes being investigated by her husband. They mostly worked in parallel without directly assisting each other until late in the book. Do you plot your work before writing, or are you a panser and write then plot? I am definitely a plotter. I spent a month developing the plot line before I ever started writing. It makes the writing of the first draft go so much faster. I read that you were an avid reader when you were young. Who do you think influenced your desire to write in this genre? I have long been fascinated by mysteries of all types. Frederick Forsyth’s Day of the Jackal captured me when it came out in 1971. It is one of only two books that I have ever read twice, fifty years apart. The book held up very well on the second reading. As a reader, what do you want to see in a mystery or thriller when picking it up to read? The story has to capture you early. Pace is very important throughout, including a climactic ending. What was the last mystery/thriller you read? I just read Joseph Finder’s Buried Alive and Vanished (two of his Nick Heller series). Currently reading the rest of the series. I taught logical argument, and your writing reflects your skills in writing legal documents and fiction. Where would you say your craft in writing developed? And has your legal writing influenced your work? How? Good point. Over my four decades as a lawyer, I wrote many appellate briefs which generally had a limitation of 50 pages. A lot of editing and re-editing went into making the most persuasive arguments possible. As many authors say, writing is all about editing. I look forward to reading more of your work. What are you working on now? I am currently working on the next book in the Mac Burke series. The working title is “Prepare to Die.” Again, thanks, James! I love this quote. Placed at the beginning of your novel, this quote below offers both the atmosphere and tension for each character: “On the wall, his father’s clock counted out seconds like a warden’s pocket watch ticking down to an execution.” Quotes such as these are an author’s marvel in keeping the reader involved for the entire book. What skills do you work at to keep such tension? Every chapter must have emotional conflict either on the surface or under it. I try to insert the tension in the descriptions, the dialogue, and the internal thoughts. The point of view in the descriptions can also add to that tension, like the simile you quoted above. Similes are very hard. When they work they are powerful. But when they don’t they clang through the whole chapter. Even the one above functions better in the context of a very tense scene than it does standing alone. I think the opening chapter of a standalone book must immediately grip readers so that they both feel for the characters and are curious about what follows. I try to get emotion in through the way the characters act and in their thoughts. With multiple points of view, I have the opportunity to illustrate how characters both misunderstand and comprehend each other. These contradictions add both tension and realism. As a thriller, the predicaments in my book should affect readers because they are both familiar and different. I want them to think, “That could be me.” I also want the reader to empathize with the impossible choices my protagonists must make. No matter what they decide, they will be both wrong and right, and the decision will unite and separate them. If readers think,“I don’t know what I’d do,” they feel the tension. Conflicting emotions also add tension. In Saving Myles, the son resents and wants to distance himself from his parents. But he also wants their love and respect and regrets betraying his mother. The mother will not forgive her husband for being an absent father but still needs, admires, and loves him. The father has been totally focused on his work but longs to re-connect with his family and have a more meaningful life. That’s why he goes to yoga and takes up the guitar. All three protagonists feel guilty for their flaws and want to be good people. Because of that, the reader roots for them even as they fail and contradict themselves. Creating the natural tension in the prose is hard. I had to learn how to show these character reactions more than tell them. And how to choose the descriptions that had emotional impact. Even a description without any attitude or point of view can work. For instance, I initially described the son’s kidnapping through his eyes in the third chapter. The reader would feel his terror as he was kidnapped. But then I realized the book would have more unexpected tension if the parents and the readers didn’t know what happened to him. I left out the abduction and just had the boy go into a dark and dank basement garage with a stranger. The cement on the ceiling is crumbling and he sees the shattered edges of a broken lightbulb next to the only exit stairs. That seemed to carry enough foreboding. You have tackled many themes in this novel: marital relationships, parent-child relationships, the effects of tough love, the need for dignity, truth, secrets, redemption, etc. When do you decide what themes you want your novel to present to the reader? What would you say your central overall theme is? I try to write the book and discover the themes for different characters as I go. After I’ve made a few revisions I draw them out. Besides the themes you described, there are other ones like the ouroboros, the Jungian shadow, and the hero’s journey. Andre, the bank owner, is perhaps the most complex character. He seeks spiritual redemption and is a kind of New Age philosopher…but also involved in crime. I thought alchemy was the perfect interest for him. In alchemy, a man must rise to a higher spiritual level in order to turn lead into gold. Andre thinks that the ultimate form of laundering is the transformation of the man himself. This is his theme. The overall theme/message is that, no matter how broken the family, they can draw together so that they forgive and cherish each other again. And sacrifice for one another. That is the only way they can survive. While this is a crime, domestic thriller, what other audience were you targeting with this story? What was the message you wanted that reader to come away with? I never want to forget that it can’t be boring. The story has to propel readers to turn the pages of another chapter. But I also want them to ride along with the characters as the characters evolve. That means my audience is people who like plot that is driven by characterization. The plot in Saving Myles amplifies the fissures in the main protagonists’ family. There are actually two messages I want the reader to come away with: that even the most dysfunctional family can reconcile, and also that no matter how broken a marriage or a teenager, heroism hides inside them. The relationship between husband and wife, Fiona and Wade, feels remarkably honest. How deep did you dig to show an honest portrayal of parents working hard to be perfect parents and how this affected their marriage? I decided to go for honesty, no matter how uncomfortable, to make it more real. The turmoil of bringing up a difficult teenager when the father is absent corrodes any family. When the explosions hit, the parents have clash over what to do. They can’t stop blaming each other and themselves. At a loss for how to help their child, they feel the only way to save them is to send their kid to a wilderness program or a treatment center. Their marriage inevitably suffers, and one parent may have an affair to feel something positive in his or her life. The novel offers three points of view. Was this also a method for getting into the heads of husband, wife, and teenager? Yes, it was. They are three very different perspectives. Writing their thoughts and emotions helped me identify with them more. When I first started the book I just had just Wade’s point of view. Then my agent suggested I include others. So I added Fiona and Myles. Those were hard. I’ve never written in a female POV and I’m a long way from being a teenager. For Fiona I read a lot of literature on why women separate from their husbands and have affairs. For Myles I looked at blogs and the language of teens. In the end, I tried to mimic more a young person’s thinking and emotions than the words they use. I hope that readers will feel for all these characters, even when they do selfish things and are not particularly likable. You offer two perspectives on cartel families; what was your goal n presenting the contrasts? I decided that a cartel, like any other organization, must have different factions. There are the warriors who regard life as “us versus them.” They either restrain their emotions or get a high doing the wet work. Then there are others who are repulsed by the violence. They are involved in the clean, business side of the cartel. These are the money launderers. Andre’s wife is a warrior and Andre seeks redemption from the violence. But even the warriors have nobility. The villain tells the protagonist wife that there are two principles in life: 1) the children must survive, and 2) the children must have better lives than their parents. He’s a killer, but who can’t identify with that? I see you have a banking background. With the adage that you should write what you know, was your financial crime in this story easier to plot? Do you see yourself becoming a financial-crime thriller author? Some of it was easier because of my banking background. I know how banks are organized and how they look at business. I also used to finance imports and exports and understand how those mechanisms can be used for laundering money. But I didn’t know much about all the other types of money laundering. That led me to the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS), an international organization that trains people how to spot and prevent financial crimes. I took some courses there and went to a few seminars. The people at there were primarily bankers and employees from the US Treasury, Homeland Security, and prosecutors’ offices. I could see them wondering about me, but they let me stay. I also talked with two agents from the FBI and two from the DEA to get more up to speed on both money laundering and kidnapping. I guess I’m a financial-crime thriller writer now. My first book, Murderabilia, also took place in the banking world. My next one will too. But I think I want to expand beyond that setting for the book after that. Why did you write this stand-alone instead of a series? I like how a stand-alone gives me the opportunity explore new characters. However I think it takes longer because I have to invent bios, tics, fears, motivations, etc. for new people in each book. That requires research and re-writing. With a stand-alone I also feel freer to try new things like a different voice or point of view or setting. That stretches my writing skills. How do you plot your story to provide equal emotional trauma and plot twists? I constantly re-arrange scenes to keep momentum going and to vary the rhythm. For instance, I don’t want two life-threatening scenes in a row, if I can help it. At the same time, I don’t want too many chapters in a row of back story or character-oriented subplot. I want the the plot to immediately drive the story forward while the characters establish an emotional connection with readers. That’s hard to do—especially in first chapters. As the book proceeds, the characters’ emotions must rise and fall as they gradually change. The end, like in most thrillers, is do or die. But by that point I hope that readers are emotionally involved in what these characters have to do to survive. What are you working on now, and when can readers access more of your work? My first book, Murderabilia, is available on Amazon. My original publisher closed its doors and gave me the rights back. Therefore, I am selling it as print-on-demand. I am revising a third book. We still have to sell it to a publisher and go through the long publishing process. This book involves a different bank environment and different kind of family. The protagonist is a branch banker and deals with smaller companies. He is mourning the death of his wife. When his close colleague dies from a drug overdose he can’t believe she was using drugs. He is determined to find out what really happened. This book deals with grief and how a man can gradually recover to love again. Thank you for introducing yourself and your work to my readers. 1. I read a great many books and Bell in the Fog offered me not a protagonist that wasn’t necessarily broken (although, emotionally he was), but one so emotionally honest I immediately became attached and will not forget. How important was it for you to keep an emotional honesty in this novel? Well first, thank you for your kind words! I think all novels rely on emotional honesty. Even with an unreliable narrator or third person, emotional honesty is at the core of why we feel for characters, relate to them, and sympathize with what they’re going through. So it’s always one of the most important things. 2. The novel is set in the 50s, after WWII, and before Korea, reminding readers what society was like at that time regarding social issues. I am so grateful we are evolving. Was that your intent, to remind readers what that time was like so they could reflect on the present? This is an interesting question, because intent is such a hard word for me. Going in, I think my only main intent was to write a good mystery and show the vibrant world of pre-stonewall gay life during a time when queerness was so actively persecuted. But once I set that intent and wrote these books, I do start to see similarities with queer oppression today, and while I might not try to make clear parallels, they’re kind of inevitable. With both The Bell in the Fog, and the first Andy Mills mystery, Lavender House, I found myself constantly stumbling into historical parallels I actually worked hard to make more subtle. 3. Andy is vibrant in his portrayal that I am sorry he is not a real person and I can meet him for coffee. How did you get beneath his skin and into his heart? So much of Andy started with his opening scene in Lavender House. I knew I wanted a detective, caught in a raid on a gay bar, his life over in some regard, but I also knew I wanted that to be a gateway to a new life. But the question was always “what kind of gay man becomes a cop when the cops are raiding gay bars?” And that resulted in a complex guy; scared, proud, and genuinely hoping to help people but often so concerned with protecting himself he misses opportunities to do so. Now, in Bell, we get to see him trying to make up for that, trying to become someone better. That was the important thing I kept in mind writing him this time. He’s trying to help, he’s trying to be better. 4. You offer a male homosexual perspective and that from a gay woman. Was it important to you to widen your gender base? And don’t forget Lee, who I think today might identify as genderqueer! I wanted to show a whole spectrum of queer identities, to show that we’ve always existed, in our myriad ways, even when what those identities meant at the time were different. So even though these books are first person, only from Andy’s point of view, I tried to have all kinds of queer people and their experiences on the page. 5. Love is exploded in your novel as a prominent theme: romantic love, friendship, renewed love, complicated love, and letting go of love. I probably am not naming all of the minor themes under love or misnaming some. When you write, and the story evolves, do you also see your themes evolving? And if you do, how do plot them to arc so nicely? I try not to map out thematic stuff. I start with character, and getting them into what I think is a situation that’ll allow me to explore them, the world, and let them attain something important. Level up in some way. Once I’ve mapped that out and start writing it, the theme tends to become clearer to me, and it’s only in editing those early drafts that I try to make sure it all lines up and evolves. So while I knew this would have an ex and a new potential relationship, because that’s a fun set-up, the ideas of love weren’t mapped out until after I had plot and character down. I think theme evolves from those. 6. You bring in the higher brass. While your characters are past lower Navy seamen and women, I see why this was important to the story. But how do you think this broadened the overall mystery for the readers? Well, it required more research on my part. But I did really want to explore the queerness of the military in WW2. There’s an amazing book, Coming Out Under Fire, by Allan Berube, that I used for a lot of my research. I could only use a fraction of the things in it, sadly, but it amazing how queer the military was. WW2 brought together a lot of people from across the country, which meant that suddenly, the one gay guy from his small town in Iowa was on a base in San Francisco with hundreds of other queer people. It created queer communities, and that crossed ranks. But in terms of the mystery, I think introducing people with more power always raises the stakes, because power over other people is always a weapon, waiting to be used. 7. This novel reads so smoothly that I visualize the scenes. Have you played with screenwriting? In college, I was originally a playwriting major, until I started writing a novel. So I’ve dabbled, sure, most writers have. But it’s not something I’ve done on any professional level at this point. 8. I see you have written YA books before this detective series. What brought you to the mystery genre? And I may be just uninformed about your YA books. So please let us know what you like to write. I write everything. My first novel was an adult steampunk romance, and since then I’ve done literary middle grade, YA romance and thrillers, adult sci-fi… I write what I would like to read, and I read broadly. But I’ve always loved classic noir. I was raised on the old bogart and bacall movies, and I knew I’d do a historical mystery at some point, I just needed to find my way in, my version of that. A visit to San Francisco and reading about The Black Cat did that for me. 9. Whether YA or mystery, who has most influenced your work? I’m not sure any one thing influences my work more than others. What makes an authors voice unique, no matter what genre the write in, is the sum of their parts; why they wanted to write this book, why they wanted to write it this way. The author themself may not have a solid answer to those questions, but the answer is in who they are, everything they’ve experienced, whether that be life events, or art that touched them in a particular way. It all influences us. Well, Lavender House is out in paperback in just a few days, and The Bell in the Fog is out next month! After that, in November, is Emmett, my YA contemporary queer version of Jane Austen’s Emma. After that, the third Andy Mills book will be out next year, and the fourth the year after that. There are some other things in the works too, but nothing announced yet. The best place to find out more, though, is on Instagram, where I’m @LevACRosen, or on my webpage, www.LevACRosen.com. Thanks so much for talking with me! I enjoyed reading your work and getting to know you, Linda. Thank you for the opportunity to introduce you to my readers. I liked that this novel surprised me right away. Not a mystery of who did it, but the suspense of a woman assassinator assigned to do it. What inspired you to take this perspective? The first book in the series began as a short story. I was playing with the idea of what it would take for a “nice” person – say, someone like me – to kill for money. What would have to happen in your life for that to occur? The resulting short story was very powerful and this character who is still with me now, is very engaging in ways it’s difficult to understand. Despite her actions, she is sympathetic. How is that possible? It creates an interesting dynamic for the reader… and the writer! A female assassinator vs. a male assassinator. What did you see as the definable differences in character? In a very general way, I would say nothing, but then I’m one to see (and search for) commonalities rather than differences. I am more interested in how we are alike than how we are different. Did this influence your theme of “child loss”? Without giving readers the ending, of course. No spoilers in my reviews! That’s such an interesting question, DJ! See, for me, the theme of Dead West is not child loss but when you ask me that, I can see how you might think that. The question of theme is itself interesting. What is it? Where does it come from? I never go into a book with a theme in mind. Rather there is a situation, or something has happened and I follow the story from there. Afterwards – on my first reading after the first draft is complete – I go in looking for the theme. And there always is one! It’s a miraculous part of the process for me. And then I take those threads and deepen them, so that the theme is more sharply felt. In the case of Dead West, the theme I discovered was belonging. This is the third book in The Ending Book series. In this book, her moral justification seems to wane. Yet, she finds herself moving to a need to kill as she investigates why her “target” vanishes. What are you trying to say with this character’s coming to the thought of leaving her “trade” and still have the urge to kill? I would not ever say she has an urge to kill. Urge implies she does it for some sort of satisfaction. She doesn’t do that. Rather she finds herself in situations where she decides killing is the best option. And I don’t think she ever does it lightly, though she seems so detached, it might be possible to see it that way. She is not careless with it. She kills for money. Or she kills for self-protection or the protection of others. That does not mean it’s justified, but maybe she has justified those killings for herself. I think that’s why she’s so conflicted all the time. It’s difficult for her to know what is right. I don’t think she sees that as clearly as you or I. I thought the love interest added to the mystery of your story. But, as I thought back, I wondered the difference between a male author and a female author writing this story. Would a male author feel such a need to protect the man she was sent to kill? I don’t know about that. The emotional connection of those characters, in this instance, was a way for you to feel them more completely. Without that element of love in the air, you would feel all of it less keenly. Also, without that connection it’s a different book. She goes in, kills him as she’s supposed to, then moves on. I’m not certain the gender of the storyteller has much to do with it. This book (and I want to emphasize that it can be read as a stand-alone) is not your first rodeo in publishing novels. You also have a Madeline Carter series. So why do you like writing series over stand-alone? I don’t. All of my series have begun (in my heart and mind) as standalones. In the course of writing the books I guess I deepen my relationship with the character. And I start thinking: well, what if this happened? Or: what about that? In the case of Dead West, the entire main plot of the rancher and the wild horses and Arizona began as a subplot in Exit Strategy, the previous book in the series. In the course of writing that book, when this “subplot” got somewhat out of hand (it grew and grew and grew!) I pulled all of it out and set it aside, suddenly realizing I had found the heart of book three. I know you will want to talk about Wild Horses. A reader can feel your passion for this subject. And you also wrote the book Wild Horses. So, I take it that the idea for this book came from your research on the subject. Or did your interest create the plot for this story? Which came first? The non-fiction book came first, for sure. Writing that book was very painful in ways I just didn’t see coming. When I pitched the wild horse book to my editor at Orca Publishing, I thought it was going to be an easy, joyous ride. I had written a book on elephant seals for them not long before. (This is Return from Extinction: The Triumph of the Elephant Seal published in 2020.) I had so much fun doing that book, I wanted to do it again. And I know a lot about horses and thought I knew about wild horses. I thought it would be fun! It was not fun. To discover what was really going on with wild horses in America was incredibly painful: the politics, the manipulation, the money. And the book is for nine- to 13-year-olds. How do you distill that into something that is both true and correct, but for kids? It was so difficult. I didn’t mean for it to leak into the novel. Honestly, I did not. But it did. Initially, as I’ve mentioned, as a subplot. Then it took over a whole book! But it was not my intention. What do you want the reader to take away after reading Dead West? Is there a message in the title? There is no message in the title, though the title occurred to me very early and everyone liked it, so it stuck. If anything, it’s like a triple entendre. She’s in the west for most of the book. Very rural Arizona, which is a very western vibe. Things around her often get dead. And dead west is, of course, a heading: if one is driving dead west they’re doing it exactly. So the title just seemed to fit nicely on every level. Please, give us an idea of your writing schedule. I don’t really have a schedule. I write every day, that’s the one solid rule I have: even when I have houseguests or I’m traveling or whatever. I have to write at least a small amount each day. That helps keep the story I’m working on alive in my heart and mind. (And there is always a story I’m working on!) A typical day might be I get up, make coffee and write for a bit. Then I pack up and go to my club, where I’ll write before tennis or a workout. After that, I’ll write for a bit in the lounge, before a steam and a sauna and shower, etc. Then more writing, either poolside or in the club somewhere. Then I might hit a Starbucks or something: more coffee, more writing. Then home for still more writing. I should add that first thing in the morning, I’ll be transcribing the previous day’s work. All the rest is longhand, which will be transcribed the following morning. Hmmm… it sounds like I do have a schedule, after all! What are your following goals as an author? Trying different genre forms? Different craft techniques? Another series? What challenges you? I want to keep always growing as a writer. I know that at this stage in my career I’m a stronger, better writer than I was a decade ago. A decade from now I hope to have the same feeling. Also, I aspire to continue to have the privilege of telling these stories. And it seems to me that it is a rare privilege to have people (agent, editors, readers) looking forward to these tales I get to continue telling. Thank you so much, DJ. They were terrific questions! First, let me say that Nora is the perfect character. She is respected immediately by any reader for her family values, honesty, sympathy, empathy, and continual conscious effort to do the right thing. Her name, Nora, Biblically stands for awing. Greek, "she knows." You hit the name on the head! And so that I am not adding more to this name than you meant, how did you choose the name Nora for your protagonist? Thank you for the compliments about Nora! And I love that you looked up the Biblical meaning of her name! I have a “Name Your Baby” book, which I use when picking out the names of my major characters. The book explains the origins for various names, too. For my heroine, I had it down to two names: Marge or Nora. Both seemed to go with the WWII era (Nora Charles was the name of Myrna Loy’s character in THE THIN MAN series from a few years earlier in the 1930’s). I was leaning toward Marge, but my editor preferred Nora. My editor won. THE ENEMY AT HOME is my 24th novel, and it’s getting harder and harder to pick out names that I haven’t already used for my main characters! Nora joins the women's workforce during the onset of WWII, becoming a Rosie Riveter. My husband's aunt also held this title. What about this period of US history drew you to set your story? That is so cool about your husband’s aunt! Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been interested in World War Two—the Home Front, in particular. I remember being very moved by the David O. Selznick film, SINCE YOU WENT AWAY (1944), where Claudette Colbert and her two daughters, Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple, keep the home fires burning while the husband/father goes off to fight. I became fascinated by everything that happened on the Home Front during the war: the air raid drills, blackouts, scrap drives, war bond rallies, victory gardens, rationing, the constant uncertainty and the patriotism. I’ve always wanted to set a thriller during that significant period of US History, and Rosie the Riveter seemed like the perfect heroine. Why set this story in Seattle? I’ve lived in Seattle since 1980, and most of my thrillers are set here. For THE ENEMY AT HOME, setting this World War II story in Seattle seemed like a no brainer. It was one of the major cities for war production—with Boeing churning out B17’s and the shipyards making destroyers, mine-sweepers and battleships. There were also several important army and navy posts in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle enforced blackouts, where the whole city went dark after eleven at night—to discourage potential aerial attacks from the Japanese. The blackouts accounted for an upswing in crime and auto accidents. Seattle was also one of the West Coast cities where Japanese-Americans were rounded up and sent to internment camps—a shameful, tragic footnote in the war. WWII really put Seattle on the map. I read that you wrote this story during Covid. Did you see parallels between the epidemic we just went through and the effect of the beginning of the war on people? Yes! I couldn’t help noticing how we compared with the “greatest generation” when it came to “doing your bit” and making adjustments and sacrifices during these crises. I don’t think we could handle the demands made on the population from 1942 to 1945. Then again, in my research, I found out that not everyone “did their bit” during the war. There were also a lot of injustices that were tolerated—or even endorsed. Like the recent pandemic, WWII seemed to bring out the best in people and the worst in people. This novel is set in one month's time period. How did you plot your book to get so much in so little time? I always outline my books, and THE ENEMY AT HOME was no different. I originally intended to have the storyline happen over a period of several months—so the reader could see Nora become more independent and self-assured thanks to her war job. But once I actually started writing the book, everything accelerated—especially after Nora began to investigate the murder of her friend. After the mystery and thrills really kicked in, I had a hard time slowing down and leaving time gaps. As a thriller author, I’m always aware of the pace in my books, and keeping the reader turning the pages. The Enemy at Home is a good title, and the story resonates with this theme by bringing up issues of racism, homophobia, and misogyny. Enemies can be found at home as well as abroad. Did you find it challenging to have Nora confront these issues in her time period, keeping out how you might feel about them today? Or are you trying to say there were many people during this time that were more accepting than history gives credit to? That’s a great question! When I started writing the book, I figured I could show Nora having her eyes opened to different injustices; but during that time period, it would have been anachronistic for her to take a strong stand against the socially-accepted racism and homophobia of the time. However, Nora makes some steps to counteract the prevailing prejudices—like holding onto family keepsakes for her incarcerated Japanese-American friend, standing up for a closeted homosexual who was accused of murder, and sitting in the unofficial “colored” section in the work cafeteria. I love Nora dealing with her teenage son and how her imagination runs as Chris is gone more and more without letting her know where he is. Parent of a teenager? No kids, but I have 17 nieces and nephews—and I’ve watched them all grow up. I’ve also gotten an earful from my five siblings about what it was like raising kids, especially teenagers. Family is a massive theme in the novel. Nora struggles with the trust and acceptance of her brother. I found this a considerable risk for readers who may not have considered some of Nora's decisions. How did you see this character and subplot? You mentioned in your first question that Nora is always trying to do the right thing. That’s so true. She feels responsible for her younger brother, Ray, whom she more or less raised from the time he was a baby and she was a young teenager. He was only eleven years old when she married and moved away, leaving him with their awful grandparents. Nora feels like she has abandoned Ray. And Ray never lets her forget this. So, later on, when he comes up with a scheme to get out of active duty in the Pacific, Nora feels horrible for refusing to help him. Then she’s really distraught when one of his schemes results in an explosion on a naval base. She’s torn between being a decent citizen/patriot and protecting her family’s reputation. One of the things Nora learns within the book’s arc is that everything isn’t just black and white. There are a lot of shades of gray. Great, putting a serial killer within a heroic industry of war effort. What gave you the idea? I got the idea of a Rosie the Riveter killer years ago, and pitched it to my editor. But at the time, he felt that my readership expected contemporary thrillers from me. So—I waited a while, and re-pitched the idea in 2020. I was ready to shake things up and write something a bit different. Knowing how WWII stories have become more and more popular, my editor gave the story the greenlight. We both liked the idea of a serial-killer thriller set in a time before the term “serial killer” was even coined (that didn’t happen until the 1970’s). I based the killer on Albert DeSalvo (The Boston Strangler) and Ted Bundy. Apparently, a primary reason Bundy killed was because, at the time, Women’s Liberation was taking hold, and he’d built-up a resentment toward women in power. It wasn’t much of a leap to use this same lethal resentment as a motive for the Rosie the Riveter killer. Because I also need to ask you questions many of the writers who read this interview might be interested in, can you say something about your writing process and discipline? I have a great, longstanding (27 years!) relationship with my editor at Kensington. When I get an idea for a book, I’ll pitch it to him—or he’ll pitch an idea to me. Then I’ll start working out the basic plot and characters who work interestingly within that storyline. All the while, I keep asking, “What if?” and “Why?” Once I have a few pages of notes, I’ll let my editor in on what I’m doing. If he likes it, I’ll start writing a detailed outline for him. It’s usually about 80 pages (The outline for THE ENEMY AT HOME was actually 127 pages—because of all the historical details). I think this is a pretty unique writer/editor process. My outlines read like a condensed novel with dialogue, descriptions, cliff-hanger walk-offs, and everything. So once my editor gets this outline, he knows exactly what he'll be getting in the final draft—with maybe a few twists and turns and surprises. This makes the actual writing easier for me, and I have fun fleshing things out even more. Once I submit that final draft to my editor, he usually has very few notes or corrections for me, because he’s already reviewed and discussed with me all the major plot points. It’s a great process that works for us. Are you working on something new? Yes, I’m nearly finished with a new outline—for another thriller set in Seattle during World War II. The plot is quite different from THE ENEMY AT HOME—with a woman on the run settling in an apartment complex where a neighbor dies mysteriously. There’s a bit of Hitchcock influence (Rear Window and Saboteur, especially) at work here! Are you sticking with your branding of being a suspense author, or do you also have urges to try other genres? Or do you enjoy a blending of genres? I’ve really enjoyed blending the thriller and historical fiction genres. After this second WWII thriller, I’d like to come up with a thriller set in the late fifties or early sixties—maybe something within the film world, so I can utilize my love for Hitchcock movies. We’ll see! Thanks for your enthusiasm for THE ENEMY AT HOME and all the wonderful questions, Dj! |