Bambi Harris Interview Published on: 31, Jan 2020

It was not so much designed as it was something that evolved. Like my writing, my husband and I had a love of history and wanted to bring the past to life. It is like walking into various time periods. We have a 50's kitchen, an 1800's general store, a Victorian era carriage, a two story mural and even mannequins in antique clothing. It is constantly changing, something creative when I'm taking a break.

Unconventionally I was never a big reader growing up, and am not one now either. When I have read books they are mostly about ancient Rome or the medieval period or true crime. I have always spent considerable time daydreaming, so I created more by living inside my own head instead of anyone else's.

I didn't think of writing until I was in my late twenties and I pursued it on a whim. When I was younger I wanted to be a singer or actor until I tried various things out and discovered it wasn't for me. I could have done radio more though, but I am happy with how things turned out.

I actually write predominantly for adults but my writing doesn't have profanity or overtly sexual or violent 'scenes' so young adults can enjoy them too. I have had people of all ages enjoy my books and I am glad that my stories can be both fascinating, haunting, intriguing and include murder and darker topics but be versatile enough to garner audiences from all walks of life.

The lead male protagonist in The Room is a crime scene photographer. Researching crime scene photography during the 1930's was truly fascinating. I like my characters to be unique and multi dimensional. It helps to research certain elements of the time periods I set my books in. The early days of crime solving were compelling because they were limited forensically. There was a lot of improvisation but they were more advanced than people would assume in their objectives and methods.

I liked the idea of someone finding old photographs, something tragic and mysterious, secretive and dangerous. It was a simple concept that I then built upon. To have a woman find old newspaper articles and photographs from her father's past after he died. An enigmatic man turns up on her doorstep saying he wants to help her find answers and she is not sure if he is trustworthy or not. What they find is remarkable, and that's what I wanted to capture the essence of. A picture tells a thousand words; what she sees solidifies her need to find out what happened.

I do not use any real people as inspiration for my characters (except Penny Lane in The Afterlife Series has a lot in common with me). I love the name Gilpin and with most of my books being set in different time periods, I like to use more old fashioned or unique names, but nothing that lacks feasibility. Naming characters is one of my favorite parts of the process. I loved the name, Hollis McCrae (from The Antiquarian) so much, that I nearly used his name as the title of the book.

I wanted to do a series about a post mortem photographer in the 1800s. I have always been fascinated by the common practice of taking photographs of deceased love ones during that time period. There was a high mortality rate and photography was new and expensive so a lot of the time families didn't get photographs taken until someone had died. I thought it was a wonderful eerie setting, a widower, Claude Deering, on the outskirts of town bordering a church cemetery. Specters start to appear in his photographs and his assistance is sought in solving murders in the area. I wanted something dark, poignant but hopeful, it is all of those things.

Oh I don't worry about challenges too much. If I hit an obstacle I have plenty of tricks in my bag to meander around something instead of being halted by it. All of my books are set in different time periods but they are character based. They are not about epic battles or upheavals during the period, rather they are about the personal stories of a small group of people separate from what is happening outside their walls. The missing is set in a house on a property near some woods and an old cemetery. The characters are a distance from the main town so the war was over and the radio was a good source of entertainment. Just the same, the characters are spending most of the time looking into a century of missing people so other than their garments, not too much is overly stressed as far as the era itself.

I had an affinity for the 40s both in music, decor and clothing. I just loved the idea of telephone operators. I imagined they would have heard just about anything, both mundane and salacious in their line of work. To patch people through and hear what was said, I thought there could be so many scenarios to capture one's interest in that concept alone. Homestead Hills is a fictional small town, the book is set in summer during war time of bonds and rations and it is one of my favorite settings. Violet lives a peaceful life with her dog in a house with a tire swing in the backyard and then suddenly there are strange lights in the sky at night and unusual eerie sounds and voices on the line. A mysterious man turns up seeking her help with the calls she is getting. I generally didn't have to research a lot, I already had a base knowledge of the era being an avid documentary watcher. I really enjoyed writing that one and it is still a fan favorite.

Oh my gosh, so many challenges. Just knowing what to do, how to do it, where to go, who to ask. I didn't even know what questions to ask. It took me a long time to write my first book because I really didn't know if I would publish it. It is a daunting thing to face when you don't know what you're up against. Money, marketing, editing, formatting, how to publish it, it was overwhelming. It took me five or six books before I started to branch out on my own and take over the creative process. I am helping a writing group now and I hope I can ease their pain substantially by them utilizing my experience instead of going through what I did.

There is a song from 1979 called, 'Video Killed the Radio Star' it is about how video clips and television came along and all the regular radio shows were no longer listened to because this new medium was a lot more exciting. I think some people might feel we are facing the extinction of paperbacks but even now they are bringing back record players. Nostalgia has a strong pull to it. A lot of people don't like electronic reading for comfort, lighting reasons and also because they like the feeling of turning a page. Like always, each generation will conform according to what is easiest and most popular but I don't see us facing electronic only reading just yet.

I am two chapters into my current stand alone novel, Eerie Bluff. I am still in plotting stages but I hope to be done with it by April 2020. I usually write 3-4 books a year and can tell when a book is going to take longer to write. I always wanted to start a book with a woman's body being found in a river. It is set in the 30s and concentrates on a handful of mysterious deaths in the small foggy town of Eerie Bluff. The bodies have no obvious cause of death and it mirrors a centuries old case that was never solved. Like most of my books, it will have elements of death, murder and the paranormal as well as romance and mystery.

I am instinctively a story teller that writes things down. When someone pulls someone aside and starts telling them something remarkable that happened, that is a good story. It has to be astonishing, captivating and most of all compelling. You want the reader to seek answers, no matter what kind of genre. You want them to ask themselves, what happens next? They want to turn that page because there are questions in the air. They want to know more. A good story will take you by the hand and walk you through another world. It will make it effortless for you, it will all be laid out and the reader will simply be swept up in it.

I believe it was an internet search about sites for authors. I like that it encourages a social element while featuring the authors, offering them opportunities to share their promotions and works. It has a good marketing foundation and has a personal feel to it.