Probably the two most well-known stories I’ve told about my books relate to Leaving Annalise (Eric and the potential Annaly burglars when he had a bunch of cash from a liquidation/estate sale, which you can read in Voodoo Spirits and Jumbie Houses) and Going for Kona (that I was mad at Eric one day and had written three chapters in which I killed a triathlete husband in the second chapter by that night, which you can read in How Do You Like Your Kona).
I didn’t plan to become a novelist, or a triathlete for that matter. I like my Kona in a coffee cup, with vanilla stevia drops and no-sugar-added coconut almond milk, to be exact. I barely even knew Kona as the name of the triathlon world championships until ten years ago, when I said “I do” to Eric.
On our wedding day, he bored into my soul with his eyes intense and green (which they only are when we are nose-to-nose—the rest of the time they are hazel) and asked me, “What do you want to be...
I enjoyed the books I read in the Emily trilogy but was somewhat perplexed by some of the characters in the book, Emily’s character in particular. I was struggling with the concept of church going, prayers to God for direction, protection, etc. while still having a sexual relationship out of wedlock. I am a Christian…believe God sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross for my sin as well as the sin of others, that Jesus was without sin and died in my place, was...
Setting/towns/geographies move me. I fall in love with the slope of a hill, the rustle of leaves, the way sunlight changes colors on the face of a rock cliff. I am fascinated with the how and why a place takes on a certain personality, how culture develops. Less populated areas intrigue me, where people are forced to be more self reliant, and where everyone knows everybody else’s business.
The Katie books came about because of my nearly ten years in the Caribbean.
Despite over a year of conversations about the plot and characters in the Emily books, it was on the eve of drafting Heaven to Betsy that game-changing inspiration struck. I discovered a terrorist group operating in West Texas, my childhood stomping grounds. As a potential plot river, it was timely (in light of terrorism in the name of religious beliefs occurring around the U.S.: Boston, Chattanooga, and others). But it is different from those. This is a domestic terrorist group of U.S....
Where to start? Earth to Emily was an accident. I had thrown out a few clients that Emily and Jack were working on when drafting Heaven to Betsy, the first Emily romantic mystery. I picked up the story of good-guy-in-a-bad situation and imagined it back to its inception, which required it to crossover the other storylines, in this case, Jack, the love interest, and Emily’s family life. As I sit here typing, it defies my own imagination where my husband and story partner Eric and I came up...
So here’s the truth behind Heaven to Betsy: I wanted to throw Katie’s best friend Emily back into her conservative hometown, after she’d moved away and become more moderate. Almost every element of the plot was written to show this hot seat she found herself in, where she questioned everything she was taught growing up, at the same time as she slowly came to appreciate some of it again. Her mother and Melinda Stafford most exemplified what she railed against. With her mother, at least, Emily...
When I sat down to write novels in my thirties, I had no idea what kind of writer I wanted to be or what sort of stories I would tell. I was just the woman who sent overly long emails filled with slice of life stories to my friends and family. I'd gone through fits and starts, flirting with every conceivable genre and incarnation of the written word. No matter how I tried to write "fresh"–unrelated to me–my stories came from what I knew. Being a wife. A mother. A daughter. A lawyer. A...
The story behind Leaving Annalise solidified who I am as a writer and bled into all my future books. First, Saving Grace and Leaving Annalise were, once upon a time, the same book, called Leaving Annalise (“LA”). I cut them in half and expanded upon them and named the first novel Saving Grace. Thematically, I was very clear that Saving Grace (“SG”)was about Katie growing up and getting past delayed maturation. She was a 25-year old woman in a 35-year old woman's body. The mystery and theme...
Once upon a time, an attorney from Texas moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands, bought a rainforest house, and learned to believe in everyday magic. She was me, and I fell in love, with the house, with the islands, and with the people I met there. If fiction is life without the boring parts, then it is no surprise that when I started writing novels, they set themselves in the never-boring USVI.
But it was more than just the house, islands, and people themselves that set the story of Katie (and...
I'm pretty Type A. I've been accused of being intense, over-structured, and the Energizer Bunny, notwithstanding long periods of getting less done.
I am a huge believer in outlining, character studies, writing-from-once-upon-a-time-until-the-end, and one-pass revision. So one day when I was out walking the dogs and had my digital recorder in hand, I pressed record and began to talk. But not just any chitter-chatter talk. I talked my way through a twenty thousand-word novella, a prequel to the...
You know what I love? I love a great series with characters I want more of.
You know what I hate? Series that flog me to death with characters who never develop, even if they were great in the first three, four, five, or six books. Not all long series are like this. I just binged on CJ Box's Joe Pickett series and can't wait for #17. But, to me, this is an exception rather than a rule, and has more to do with the protagonist taking a fairly minor role in the alternating points of view. It's...
While I was living on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix–an island that at the time housed the 2nd largest oil refinery in the Western Hemisphere–a local oral surgeon disappeared when he flew his private plane to Puerto Rico. Speculation about his disappearance was rampant. In the same year, a man died from a gunshot wound while in a vehicle on the road that led to my future driveway–I moved into 16 Estate Annaly one year later. Again, speculation was rampant. Both stuck in my mind until I...
On January 1, 2007, I married my island sweetie on St. John. But we spent the early days of our lives together on his home island, St. Croix (where I’d lived for nearly ten years).
Fast forward to July 2019, and his island son received the surprise of a lifetime when he thought he was eloping to St. Croix only to discover his fiancee had arranged for all their family and friends to meet them here. I’ve never seen him smile so big! And what a wedding week we all celebrated together.
Last week I promised in “Mom is not a Quack” to tell you about how “Annalise” welcomed us back when we were on-island for our son’s wedding, then made it hard to leave, and, finally, the big trick she played on us.
{For those just jumping onto this blog cold, I write mysteries. Several have featured jumbie (ghost) stories of our time living in a tropical rainforest house on the US Virgin Island of St. Croix. The house is named Annaly. In the books—Saving...
Taking our kids back to “Annalise” on St. Croix was a hoot. First, because they have become complete city kids since their younger days in a remote, exotic home in the tropical rainforest. Secondly, because their consensus going into the week was that Mom (me) and Eric were quacks for believing in this jumbie spirit stuff, especially in our own house.
{For those just jumping onto this blog cold, I write mysteries. Several have featured jumbie (ghost) stories of our time living in a tropical...
When I got the call from my father that he had metastatic prostate cancer spread into his bones in nine locations, I was with a houseful of retreat guests in Wyoming while my parents (who normally summer in Wyoming) were in Texas. The guests were so kind and comforting to me, as was Eric, but there was only one place I wanted to be, and that was home. Not home where I grew up, because I lived in twelve places by the time I was twelve, and many thereafter. No, home is truly where the heart is....
Was my father a volunteer on Wind River Reservation in the 1970s?
NO. While he has always been a student of—what was known at that time as—Indian culture (note: terms like American Indian and Native American were just coming into usage (First Nation and others came along only more recently) and were not favored by Indians until much later, according to both my memory and polls of Native Americans in the 70s and 80s) and he did write a term paper...
I’m ready to share the story behind the story of SWITCHBACK.
When I sat down to write my Fagan-family-inspired series, I started with four characters I knew well (Patrick, Susanne, Trish, and Perry), a Wyoming past (and present) that shaped my life, a fondness for the 70s in the throwback state, AND a collection of hilarious/endearing/mortifying stories from my dad’s life that I wanted to build stories around. I zeroed in on a couple for SWITCHBACK:
When a killer threatens his family before their testimony in a capital murder trial, Patrick Flint will do anything to keep them safe.
What is real in SAWBONES?
The hilarious doctor of the day story in the opening few chapters, minus the murder. Oh, my dad. For someone so strong, smart, and capable, he does the goofiest things!
What is not?
Everything else except for Trish’s horrible attitude!
