Q. Tell us a little about yourself and your
background?
A. I'm retired, now, after a life full of twists and turns. A real
mix of joy and tragedy, opportunity and challenge, like most lives.
After more than thirty years of teaching, research and writing about
substance abuse and mental health issues, I have picked up a
longstanding interest in fiction writing that combines mystery with a
dash of romance and humor. I'm currently writing the Jessica
Huntington Desert Cities Mystery series set in and around Palm
Springs, Ca where my husband and I have retired.
Q. Thinking back, what were you like in school?
A. I was a voracious reader, a good student who finished high
school at sixteen. I loved to sing, but figured I was headed toward a
career in science, so did not pursue a career in music. I was always
serious, a little standoffish, and kind of shy and awkward, like many
teens. A child of the late sixties I was bit of a flower child. At
seventeen I ran away to Tijuana and married a rock guitarist because,
well, love is all you need. The authorities didn't think so. They
picked me up as a runaway. When the band broke up we learned to cook
and went to work in the hotel kitchens at Disney World. The 'mouse
factory' put us through the Walt Disney World University Chef's
school. My high school drop out husband discovered he liked studying,
got his GED, and we quite working for the mouse. Years later we ended
up as professors. Lots and lots of winds in the road, but somehow
things worked out. I'm still married to the same guy more than 40
years later.
Q. What are your ambitions for your writing career?
A. For years I published in traditional outlets during
my university career. That's a very different kind of writing and I
have had to unlearn some habits acquired while writing nonfiction.
So, one of my ambitions is to continue to improve the craft of
writing fiction. The first two books in the Jessica Huntington
series, A DEAD HUSBAND and A DEAD SISTER are out now. I'm just about
to release book 3, A DEAD DAUGHTER. I have several more books I'd
like to write in that series.
I also have just completed LOVE A FOOT ABOVE THE GROUND,
mostly romance with a touch of mystery and a bit of humor. This is
something of a tearjerker, but also a story about love overcoming
loss. The main character is Bernadette, Jessica Huntington's sidekick
in the Jessica Huntington desert cities mystery series.
My next book, once A DEAD DAUGHTER is released will be
book 1 in a new series, The Betsy Stark Desert Cities Mysteries, book
1 I'm tentatively calling The Cleaning Man...not a nice guy.
Q. Give us an insight into your main character. What
does he/she do that is so special?
A. Jessica Huntington seems to have it all--wealth, beauty,
education, a member of the one percent married to a one-percenter.
Her well-planned life comes apart: her law career tanks, her marriage
is in trouble and her attempts to have a baby and save her marriage
go nowhere. The final blow: catching the love of her life in her own
bed with a Hollywood starlet. Talk about a kick in the teeth!
She is ill-prepared for what happens while hiding out from the
bomb that has gone off in her privileged life. In part, she's
Stephanie Plum with a black AMEX card. When her best friend's husband
is murdered Jessica stumbles into sleuthing in an effort to get
justice for her friend, Laura, and Laura's dead husband, Roger Stone.
Jessica goes toe-to-toe with lowlifes, many of them living the high
life. Before she knows it she's fighting off thugs in pantyhose,
stilettos, Bruno Magli shoes, and Armani suits, using high heels and
cell phones as weapons. Jessica Huntington is a flawed heroine. Like
Monk, the 'defective detective', she's angst-ridden, anal retentive
and given to panic episodes. She also has a shopping 'jones'
with plenty of money to support her habit. Jessica is also funny,
resourceful, generous, smarter and tougher than she realizes. She'll
have to be because the high-end lowlifes keep coming in books 2 and
3.
Q. What genre are your books?
A. The Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery series is mostly a
series of mystery books, but her romantic life is in the picture too.
Dealing with divorce, her ex-husband and his new wife, argh! There
are also a couple very interesting men that come into her life, if
and when she's ready to open her heart to love again.
Q. Which actor/actress would you like to see playing the
lead character from your most recent book?
A. I think Erika Christensen who plays a lawyer on the TV series,
Parenthood, would be perfect. She's a talented actress, the right
age, coloring and build. Anna Kendrick is also about the right
age, a brunette and close in height to Jessica. Minka Kelly has a
great smile, like Jessica.
Q. When did you decide to become a writer? Why do you
write?
A. My first go at writing came about as a consequence of the
choice to become a social scientist and professor. I did not get,
until I was thrown into to kicking and screaming, that when they say
publish or perish they mean it. In graduate school it dawned on me
that writing was a central part of the career I had chosen--they
don't let you out with a Phd until you have written a
dissertation--typically a book length manuscript. Then, when you take
a job at a university you're on probation for seven years. If you
don't write and publish enough in that period of time they give you
the boot! My fiction writing started as an antidote to all that
rigid, confining, scientific writing, but the 50-70 hour work weeks
in the ivory tower really made it difficult to do much fiction
writing until I retired. I also had children to raise, lots of
community obligations, consulting and training, so fiction writing
got put on the back burner.
A lot of the same issues that interested me as a nonfiction writer
are still present in my fiction writing. Why do people do heinous
things? Is it just part of the human condition? Is it mental illness
or substance abuse, sickness or evil? Can those who hurt others be
stopped and brought to justice?
Q. Do you have a special time to write or how is your
day structured?
A. I try to get up and have coffee, do household tasks,
and plan my day by 10:00. Then, I write for 3-4 hours--aiming to
produce 1000-2000 new words. I may also do some editing during that
time, but prefer to do that after lunch or in the evening. Afternoons
I have more chores, exercise--indoors on a stationary bike I can get
an hour reading done. I also like getting out to walk or hike, too,
though and sometimes have errands to run like shopping, doctor
visits, etc. Evenings I work 2 or 3 hours on social media activities:
Twitter, Facebook, maintaining my website and blog, author
interviews, like this one.
Q. Where do your ideas come from?
A. They come from all over the place--snatches of dialogue I've
over heard, chance encounters with strangers, family, friends and
colleagues all provide life experiences that inspire stories. Jessica
Huntington popped into my head while we were hunting for a retirement
home. I do not have a black AMEX card, but looked at a lot of guard
gated communities that are havens for the one percent. I wondered
what life was like for them in their multi-million dollar homes with
their designer clothes, expensive cars, trust accounts. How would a
rich young woman, tossed into circumstances like those Stephanie Plum
faces, react? Does money help you deal with divorce, murder and
mayhem? What if,even in a desert paradise, life is full of unpleasant
surprises like a dead husband?
Q. What was the hardest thing about writing your latest
book?
A. Moving from a single point of view to multiple
POVs--circumstances of the story demanded a second point of view, and
I added a third. That posed all sorts of new challenges for
story-telling. I also had trouble deciding on the outcomes for one of
the lead characters in the book--mercy or no mercy? Hmmm....
Author Link
Buy a Dead Husband
Buy a Dead Sister
