What books do you remember reading during your childhood?
Even as a child, I loved mysteries. My mother taught me to read when I was very young, so early on I was reading Trixie Belden mysteries, Enid Blyton books, The Bobbsey Twins — that sort of thing. I also immersed myself in the Canada-wide-and-beyond-famous Anne of Green Gables series. My aunt gave me the first three books for my ninth birthday, and I ended up reading them all. Wonderful works for girls.
What has been the best thing about living in Saskatchewan, Canada your entire life?
It has sort of been a combination of things. It’s home, my family is/was here, I understand this place in my bones and love it in my heart. It has just always felt right.
What encouraged you to make the switch from fact to fiction?
I’m not sure if “encouraged” would quite describe my experience. It was more like a brain explosion. I had gone through a very hard time and was unable to really function for several weeks. One night, I awakened in the wee hours as usual, but instead of misery, there was a plot in my head. Over the next few months, I wrote Adam’s Witness. It saved my sanity.
Do you remember the first mystery novel you read?
I don’t, I’m afraid. I read so many of them as a kid! But I think the one that made me a lifelong addict of mysteries was the great Dorothy L. Sayers’ Busman’s Honeymoon, part of her Lord Peter Wimsey series. Then I read Gaudy Night (out of order; it’s the previous book) and that was it. Total adult fan of Sayers and of mysteries, as I had been as a child.
How did you come up with the plot of "Griffin's Cure"?
To be honest, I wanted to murder someone at a scientific facility. We have the perfect thing in my city: the Canadian Light Source, which is a synchrotron. This enormous source of intense light helps scientists peer at matter at the molecular level. Unfortunately for my novel and fortunately for society, it would be next to impossible to get away with murder there; but I worked around that and had the death occur on-site just the same. I also wanted to explore the place of plants in pharmacology; at the same time, I had an issue with certain things big pharma was up to. I combined these things into Griffin’s Cure.
What inspired the plot of the book, Broken Through?
Broken Through is based on a true crime — at least, almost everyone in the victim’s family and in the neighbourhood were convinced it was a crime. I had some first-hand knowledge of it because a friend lived next door to the victim. After months of abuse at the hands of her boyfriend, a woman was found dead in her basement. I took the nugget of the crime and created a fictional version that explores how women can be easily mistreated, abducted and murdered in a community where some people set up the conditions for such crimes, and where others look the other way.
What are some important issues you hope to discuss or bring to light through your books and your writing?
There are so many, a couple of which I described above in the two book questions. Fundamentally, the issues all come down to my fury over discrimination of all kinds and my violent loathing of corporate greed. Don’t misunderstand: I believe in business and commerce and their basic underpinning of the economy, without which we are in big trouble. But sometimes, the corporate agenda goes too far.
As to other issues: My first book, Adam’s Witness explores how people become homophobic and how completely ridiculous it is to dislike, fear, or hate those different from ourselves.
What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of a good romance story?
Goodness, that’s a good question. I don’t see myself as primarily a romance writer. I suppose the passion and chemistry between the two characters who are in love is the main thing for me. I want to practically see and smell that electricity burning up the page.
What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
Schedule? Writers have schedules?
Basically, whenever I’m feeling inspired and energetic, I just sit down and type like a madwoman.
If you could describe your journey as an author in one word, what would it be?
Transporting.
What are some of the things you know now that you did not know when you first started writing?
I was not expecting to be preyed upon by people professing to know everything about marketing and trying to persuade me to give them a lot of money. That is not to say all promotional sites are bad or crooked or anything; some are very good and helpful. But sadly, many of them are simply useless. Or worse.
I also had little idea about how to properly structure a novel. I had been writing for decades before I became an author and was very familiar with the formats used for magazine and newspaper articles, columns (commentary works), essays and so forth. I may still not really get the novel structure, but I have a better idea, at least.
What are the best ways to market self-published books?
When you find out, do let me know. Ha.
I have to say the thing that works best to give your sales a pop is placing your books with promotional sites (be careful which you choose). Social media has helped somewhat, but it has been more use in finding a community of authors for support, advice and friendship.
I cannot make advertising work well enough to make it worthwhile. Yet.
What is the one piece of advice you would like to give to young writers in the world?
Ahhh. One piece? Oh dear. I will try to jam this into one sentence and pretend it’s one thing. Read, read, read; then write, write, write; and once you have something you are not terrified to show your English teacher or a fellow writer, do it; then get the best editor you can afford.
Are you working on anything at the present you would like to share with your readers?
I am working on the sixth book (fifth novel) in my Adam and Grace series, entitled The Maddox Verdict. I am somewhere between one-third and one-half finished it. It has been a very difficult book to write, and I hope I will finally complete it by the end of this year.
When did you join AllAuthor? What do you think of the experience so far?
I joined a few months ago and have greatly enjoyed participating and voting in the cover contests. The cover of Two Hundred Bones actually won one of the contests!! I was so thrilled, particularly since I designed it myself.
I also love the review templates, the book memes and the tweets AllAuthor puts out for member authors. I’m very grateful for the help with these things. I still work for a living, so trying to do all the marketing myself is very hard. Thank you so much.
