All of my books have come with their own unique sets of challenges. For the Monster Hunter series, researching the various cryptids and how they can fit into the fabric of Wisconsin history is a fun challenge. Fitting the cryptids into modern-day reality is also challenging.
I think Mack Dalton in the Mack’s Bar Mysteries was the most challenging character and series for me in part because of the neurological disorder I gave her: synesthesia, a cross-wiring of the senses. It’s a real disorder, though I gave her a hyper version of it, and she uses it to help solve murders. Each of her sensory inputs—smell, sight, taste, sound, touch—had a second sensory experience associated with it. Those sensory experiences were consistent and often repeated out of necessity—if the color blue triggered a ringing sound in her ears in one book, it had to do that in subsequent books as well—and it was a definite challenge to keep track of the various reactions she had, particularly across the six books in the series.
It was also challenging because I was writing both the Mack’s Bar books and the Mattie Winston books at the same time, putting out two books a year while still working as a nurse. Those six years are kind of a blur.
Wow, that’s cold. Have you ever thought of contacting that person now, after all your successful novels? Honestly, the more I learn about you the more impressed I am at your persistence.
I’m a good multi-tasker, an essential trait for working in the ER, or as a nurse in any setting. I always have something I’m working on. I have an idea I’ve been developing for more than a year now that I work on in between books. And when I turn in a book, if I have another under contract, I start on it right away. Typically I’m in the middle of that book/plot when the editorial feedback comes in for the book I just finished, forcing me to put the new project aside until I do a rewrite of the finished project. Then it’s back to the new project for a bit until the copyedits come for the finished book. Then it’s back to that book, doing another whole read and (hopefully) minor rewrite, once again setting aside the new project. After I turn in the copyedited manuscript, I return to the new project but there will be one more interruption when the page proofs for the finished book come through. That requires one more read-through of the whole book and a last chance to fix any errors or make any changes. You learn to hop from one to the other. It’s the nature of the business.
I’d be lying if I said it had never occured to me to send that agent a copy of Cold White Fury but it’s always been enough for me knowing that I was right and he was wrong. I might have modeled an annoying, pompous character after him in one of my later books and maybe, just maybe, I killed him off in another book. Maybe.
I took a look at your touring schedule, and wow, you look very busy! Do you book those events yourself, or does your agent? It looks like almost all your dates are in Wisconsin. Is that on purpose? Have you visited bookstores in other states, or do you ever see yourself touring in other states (Oregon, for example, LOL)? Are there any fun stories from the road you can share?
That’s a tough question to answer. I love all of my books. They’re kind of like my children. If I had to pick one I would go with Working Stiff, only because I worked on it for years, rewriting it dozens of times, self-publishing it at one point, convinced on the overall theme and the main character. I never gave up on it. From inception to traditional publication was 14 years. I believed in it even when all the signs said not to. And it became the first in a successful 12-book series with a 2-book spinoff. It’s like the child I had to coax through some tough times who finally found her wings and took off.
Working Stiff also survived the apparently horrible title I gave it: The Vicarious Liver. I thought it was quite clever as Mattie solves the crime because of the finding in a liver during an autopsy and there is a character in the book who is living vicariously under someone else’s identity. But the publisher hated it and retitled it Working Stiff. I was okay with that but in the months before it was due to come out I started Googling the title to see if I could find any early reviews or mentions and the first several pages that came up in my search were all porn sites. So maybe my title wasn’t so bad after all.
We seem to be nearing the end of our three-day window - which I find sad, because I’m enjoying your comments tremendously. Before we wrap up, is there anything we didn’t touch on that you’d like to add/note/discuss?
All of the above. Field trips are one of the perks of this job. I visit all my locations and try to incorporate the local color, history, and customs as much as possible in the books. I’ve had several emails and reviews from readers of the Monster Hunter Mysteries that say how much they have enjoyed visiting and exploring the various sites in the stories. I also interview professionals whenever possible, either in person or via email. Getting the facts right is key for me (unless I’m making stuff up on purpose) and I find people love showing and talking about what they do. And then there are the many fascinating, time-wasting rabbit holes I’ve gone down on the internet. I love research.
I “write” in some manner pretty much every day. Even if I’m not in front of my computer or sitting at my desk, I’m often sorting through a plot problem or planning a scene in my head. On average, I am putting words on the page (or taking them off the page, or rearranging them) at least five days a week. I tend to edit as I go, though I also do at least three major whole manuscript edits before the final one.
Because I’m now able to get contracts with just a synopsis for a proposed book, I always outline the plot ahead of time, though it’s very general. It’s typically 3-4 pages of here’s the main plot idea, here are the characters, this is who dies, this is who did it and how, and these are the important subplots that will be developed. It’s important with a series to have some overarching plots or themes that cover multiple books as well as the singular main plot. However, those synopses aren’t written in stone, and I rarely consult them during the process of writing the book. I think of the synopsis as my original plan for a road trip, one I’ve mapped out in my atlas (aging myself there) with a starting point, a few possible highlights along the way, and an end point. But once I hit the road, I’m free to deviate from the planned route if I see an interesting side trip I want to take. Sometimes my end point even changes. I’ll get three-quarters of the way through writing a book thinking the killer is who I planned it to be in the beginning, only to realize it’s not that person, it clearly has to be THIS person. Then I’ll go back to the start and edit to make sure I put enough clues in to play fair with the reader and I often find the clues are already there. My subconscious knew all along who the killer was but the rest of my brain took a little longer to figure it out.
I think in a lot of ways, my ER training has helped my writing. As an ER nurse you are constantly making plans and then having to shift course and adapt to change, often midstream. A lot of people don’t like change but I’ve always embraced it in my “real” life, my nursing life, and my writing life. Most of the changes that seemed awful to me at the time have led to better things and been a part of getting me to where I am today.
Like life in general, writing fiction is an organic and dynamic process, one that’s less about the plan than it is about the journey.
