Growing up in a small New England town seems to have influenced your writing. What aspects of your hometown are most prevalent in your books? I’ve always preferred living in a small town – I’m not a city girl at all! I need space around me, nature to wallow in, and room for gardening. I have way too many flower gardens but it’s a passion and really, can you ever have too many flowers? I hope the slower pace in a small town and the ability to get away from the hustle and bustle of life shines through in my books.
Your mysteries are known for their twists and unexpected turns. How do you come up with such intricate plotlines and keep readers on the edge of their seats? Whenever the MC is happily living her life, something needs to change! I ask myself, what can go wrong? Or what’s the worst thing that can happen at a particular place in the story? There are always choices on any journey. When writing, I choose the dangerous path!
Living in rural Massachusetts with such diverse wildlife must be inspiring. How does your environment influence your writing and the settings of your stories? Being in nature is part of who I am. I love walking in the woods. It’s where my mind goes over the details of where I’m at in my story and without fail, something unexpected pops into my brain. Why? I don’t know but I think it’s the quiet that allows me to relax and put myself in the MC’s shoes. I try to add in details like walking on the beach, watching birds, collecting rocks—any element that adds to the scene but doesn’t overpower it.
Your black cat with an ‘extremely bad attitude’ sounds intriguing! Does your cat, or pets in general, inspire any characters or scenes in your books? My black cat is an interesting personality. He’s a survivor. My daughter adopted him in Africa when she was in the Peace Corp and couldn’t leave him behind. I think he has some of those wild African cat genes and I always have to be on guard around him or suffer a random attack. I suppose, he inspires the ‘bad guy’ in my books—unpredictable and sneaky. Not very likeable, is he?
My dogs on the other hand, have been happy go lucky companions. With Dash, in the Accidental Ghost Detective series, I imagine what I’d expect my dog to say or do and it’s usually comical because dogs are so in the moment and literal. I’ve always talked to my dogs and I take that one step farther in my books—they talk back!
What is your process for developing the colorful characters that populate your novels? Do you draw from real life, imagination, or a combination of both? I’m an observer, the person at an event who stays in the background. The person you need to be careful around if you don’t want to end up in a mystery! LOL. My characters come from everywhere. A snippet of a conversation I hear, or a physical characteristic I notice on a stranger. I never know what will work so I file lots of ideas away until the right time. Also, friends (and especially my mom) love to share what they think would work in one of my books. Sometimes they’re good ideas and sometimes not but you never know. Everything has a possibility if you think creatively.
You enjoy spending time in your flower garden. Does gardening provide a creative outlet or a form of relaxation that helps with your writing process? Honestly, gardening is when I clear my head of everything and try not to think about my writing. Pulling weeds, planting, watering, flower arranging is my therapy from mental overload; a way to get away from my characters. That might sound strange but the characters in whatever book I’m writing, live in my head and sometimes I need a break from them!
Hiking and spending time near the ocean are some of your hobbies. Do these activities influence your storytelling or provide inspiration for your book settings? My series that are set in the fictional town of Blueberry Bay on the coast of Maine is where I’d love to live someday. Whenever I get a chance to get away for a day, the ocean is my destination. I walk on the beach, have lunch at a local lobster shack, and inhale the salty ocean breeze. I love it! It all shows up in my books.
What do you find most challenging about writing mystery novels, and how do you overcome these challenges? I’m more of a panster than an outliner. I plan a few chapters at a time but then have to write to find out what will happen next. Writing a mystery is creating a puzzle. It’s easy to figure out how it begins and where it will end but connecting the pieces to get from the beginning to the end is tricky. To help on the journey, I create character images and keep track of important events as I write. The biggest challenge is to be sure everything lines up—timelines, who’s where when, who knows what detail, etc. The solution? Lots of careful rereading. Sometimes I wake up at night and realize something I’ve written doesn’t work and I have to get up to fix it!
Your stories often feature female characters in quaint, scenic towns. How do you ensure these characters remain fresh and engaging across different novels? That’s tough and I’m not sure I’ve been successful creating unique characters. I give them different habits, interests, fears, and desires. A new series is swirling in my head. The MC is in her 60’s so she will have a completely different personality and outlook on life than the characters I’ve written who are I their 30’s.
What advice would you give to aspiring mystery writers who want to create engaging and twisty plots like yours? Read a lot of mysteries and then start writing! There are so many books about writing but the best way to learn is to write. Come up with an idea, create characters, put them in an interesting setting, and have everything go wrong! It’s hard but satisfying when the story comes together.
BONUS: What is one book that you would consider to be your comfort read that you will always reach for? When I need to reset, I reach for Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The author, a botanist, embraces the idea that plants and animals are teachers. Her writing is both inspiring and timeless while connecting to the world around us, something I always strive for.
It’s too easy to get caught up in the drama of life. I try to enjoy each small wonder that passes through my day which is something that resonates in Braiding Sweetgrass.
