Inspiration Interview #1: Untreed Reads Author Jack Bates

The first interview of the New Year, and the first in my series "Inspiration to Publication, is with my fellow Untreed Reads Author, Jack Bates.  Jack recently had a story titled "Ambrosia" published in the Untreed Reads Thanksgiving Mystery Anthology (entitled The Killer Wore Cranberry).  In addition to some general questions, I have also posed a series of queries about  what inspires his writing, and in particular, what inspired certain aspects of his story, "Ambrosia".

Please welcome to the stage:  Jack Bates!

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The Accidental Author:  For January and February, the theme of the posts and interviews on Accidental Author is “Inspiration”.  In general, what types of things inspire you to write?

Jack Bates:  I get a lot of my crime story ideas from surfing for small town newspapers. Whenever something happens, these are the places people are always quoted as saying, “I never thought it would happen here.” Plus, small governments are just as apt to be as corrupt as larger governments. It’s all there so I cull it, and think I think, “How would Lawrence Block slant this?”

AA:  When you formulate a character, do you tend to fashion them out of people you know and tweak them, or do you start from scratch?

JB:  I start from scratch. It took me a while to understand that the characters will flesh themselves out f I give them the space.

AA:  Specifically regarding your story, “Ambrosia”, what inspired the events in the story? 

JB:  I don’t really know. I had this image of a two story farm house out in the Currier and Ives holiday snow setting. It was dusk, the lights were on, it looked warm and cozy inside, but I was on the outside looking in and wondering, ‘Why is nobody talking to the guy on the porch having a smoke?’ Then the narrator arrived and I had my story. Plus, I’ve been to enough people’s houses to know there’s always someone there someone else doesn’t want there.

AA:  You set “Ambrosia” in Michigan during Thanksgiving.  What inspired you to set the story in Michigan?

JB:  Being from the Mitten state, it’s an easy default. I’ve traveled it from coast to coast and up and down the Thumb, and back and forth across the Mackinac Bridge.

AA:  You chose to have your protagonist be female.  Do you have any difficulty writing a female versus a male?  What were the challenges you faced?

JB:  It was a little interesting, but I know some women similar in demeanor to my narrator. Usually my narrators are smart-ass, quick talking men. Edie didn’t present herself that way, nor did she try to sound like she was the chief of police. Her job has forced her to be a patient observer. I tried to paint her story that way.

AA:  When you get an inspiration for a story, do you immediately set out to write it, or do you jot it down and let it incubate before you begin crafting a story?

JB:  A little of both, actually. And then there are the times I sit down and I can’t pull myself away from the keypad. I carry a pocket paperback Moleskin journal with me at all times.

AA:  For “Ambrosia”, when you look back at what inspired your story, as the revised the story, did the initial inspiration persist, or did the story take on a life of its own?

JB:  The only thing that came up differently was the antique lamp. It became a red herring. I wish now I had done something a little differently with the lamp as that plot device, but as I answer this, I realize it would have added about an extra 2000 words and that would have been too long for the anthology.

AA:  As you write and re-write a story, how do you know when you are ready to submit your work?

JB:  When I can’t possibly imagine any other twist, turn, or direction. When it reads like the snap of a whip. When I have nothing left to give and it has nothing left to take. After all of that, I close one eye, proof it to the best of my attention span, and then send it out.

AA:  Do you have a circle of people who read your work in order to get feedback?  If so, how valuable is that to the finished product?

JB:  I have a friend who is a member of SAG. When I was writing screenplays with her husband, she read a few. Sometimes I shoot her a couple of my short stories. Her husband and I collaborate quite a bit. I’ve also joined a few writers’ groups online. The best feedback source, though, is the editor or publisher. I’m not one to hold that every word I put down is gold. If a publisher wants a poodle, he gets a poodle. Freeing myself from my ego has propelled me further than the last 30 years of trying to justify something that only worked for me.

AA:  What genres do you enjoy reading?  Do you tend to write stories that reflect your reading preferences?

JB:  Crime fiction. Adventure fiction. That Hard Case Crime fiction line is superb. I really dig true crime and other nonfictions that have a story. I read one awhile ago about Teddy Roosevelt’s son hauling the former president through the Amazon after an accident crippled MR. Roosevelt. Fascinating read.

AA:  What are you currently reading?

JB:  Big City, Bad Blood by Sean Chercover

AA:  Finally, if you don’t mind my asking, what are you working on currently?

JB:  A guy I work with who originally inspired my Harry Landers, PI, character just gave an idea for a story that wasn’t that bad; I’m trying to develop a new lead and sidekick from it. I just finished a 35k word YA novel that I pitched and got a foot in the door with it. My collaborating buddy and I have one we’re sharing with his thirteen year old daughter. She says it’s boring and wants to know where the boys are in it. We may abandon that one.

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Jack Bates writes crime fiction. He has a private eye series featuring rookie gumshoe Harry Landers that is published through Mind Wings Audio Books. His stories have appeared online at sites such as Thug Lit, Beat to a Pulp, A Twist of Noir, and the cozier Pine Tree Mysteries.  Furthermore, he has had stories included in anthologies such as Shadows of the Emerald City, The Killer Wore Cranberry, and the accalimed Discount Noir.

Interview with Untreed Reads Author Lesley A. Diehl

This week's author interview is with Lesley A. Diehl, a mystery author that hails from both New York and Florida (although not at the same time).  Her recently published book, A Deadly Draught, is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound.  More recently, her story, "Murder with All the Trimmings" was published by Untreed Reads as a part of the Thanksgiving Mystery Anthology, The Killer Wore Cranberry.  Please welcome to The Accidental Author, Lesley A. Diehl.

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The Accidental Author:  First of all, I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for the blog.  Okay, now on with the interrogation.  I see from your website that you were a professor of psychology.  How do you feel that your previous career helped you in your writing? 

Lesley Diehl:  I was a lifespan or developmental psychologist, so I always write about the journey of life taken by my protagonist.  The reader gets to see part of that journey, and it is all about change.  I’ve always said murder is merely a catalyst in my work, a horrible event that propels the heroine to do something she might have done at another time in her life, but murder forces her to undertake that now.  In my newest book Dumpster Dying, Emily Rhodes is a retired preschool teacher, tiny in stature, dependent in personality, but she finds herself when she sets out to help her friend who is accused of murder.  This event comes together with another life changer—the death of her life-partner and loss of her retirement income.

AA:  Have you taken courses for creative writing, or is it something for which you have a natural talent?

LD:  I always liked to write, and I was encouraged by teachers in high school and college, but I went into psychology where my writing underwent a dramatic change from creative to scientific.  When I returned to fiction many years later, I had to reteach myself to write creatively.  I did so by reading, joining professional writers’ groups as well as writing and critique groups.

AA:  Your short story, “Murder with All the Trimmings”, available from Untreed Reads, is a traditional mystery story with some decidedly non-traditional characters.  What was your inspiration for this tale? 

LD:  When one of my oldest friends read the story, she said, quite correctly, that it was a story about my aunt.  My favorite aunt is the woman, Aunt Nozzie, in that story.  She was such a character, that, as anyone’s aunt, she would inspire a story.

AA:  In “Murder with All the Trimmings”, the menu for the meal was decidedly outside of the mainstream.  Having had a great deal of experience with Spam myself, I have to ask:  do you personally enjoy Spam?  If so, how do you like it prepared? 

LD:  I’m not crazy about Spam, but, having said that, let me add that I can and will eat about anything when I think I’m hungry.  I was raised by parents who experienced the depression and taught to eat what was on my plate, so I always think I’m hungry!

AA:  This is a bit of a “chicken or the egg” question, but when you are starting out a story, do you have a tendency to focus primarily on character development or plot? 

LD:  Both.  I seem to get an idea for a character along with the plot.  As I ripen the plot, the character seems to emerge clearly as well.

AA:  About revising and rewriting, have you joined any writing communities online like Zoetrope or Critique Circle?  If so, how valuable have you found them to be?

LD:  I belong to several online groups such as SINC (Sisters in Crime Internet Group) and the Guppies subgroup.  I’ve used them to exchange full manuscripts with another writer or to join one of their groups critiquing a first chapter or chapters.

AA:  Do you let other people (family, friends, co-workers) read your writing for input?  If so, how valuable do you find that input?

LD:  I have a critique partner.  She and I have exchanged work for the past four years, either when I’m in Florida (she lives in Okeechobee) or through the internet when I go back to upstate New York.  She and I cofounded the Okeechobee Writers league.

AA:  Most people who write also have an insatiable appetite for reading.  Is this the case with you?  Do you like to read the same kind of stories that you enjoy writing?  What book(s) are you reading right now? 

LD:  Right now I’m reading Dennis Lehane’s Moonlight Mile.  I just finished Janet Evanovich’s newest.  Burn by Nevada Barr is sitting on my desk and I’m working my way through John Sanford’s books.  I read almost nothing but mysteries although I have a friend who gifts me what she considers “good” literature in an attempt to give me some culture.  I prefer mysteries because I don’t have the patience for stories that don’t move quickly.  I have a lot of reading I want to do, so an author better grab me immediately.

AA:  You seem to have a great love for beer, especially microbrews.  In fact, I see that your novel “A Deadly Draught” centers on the microbrewery community.  Would you say that beer is one of your muses? 

LD:  I have gained great respect for microbrews as I’ve come to learn about them and have gotten to know several brewers well.  I have two muses, however, as I explained on Monday’s Dames of Dialogue.  When I’m in New York, my muse is the ghost who inhabits my 1874 cottage.  I don’t believe in ghosts, but I do believe in Fred who likes to play jokes on me.  My muse in Florida during my winter stay is the alligator who lives in the canal behind my house.

AA:  Speaking of “A Deadly Draught”, this is a traditional paper book.  Now that you have published with Untreed Reads, do you foresee yourself focusing on digital publishing more? 

LD:  I think a writer today would have to be made of concrete not to consider digital publishing.  I’m hoping to send Jay Hartman a book length manuscript as a holiday gift—maybe he’ll publish it!

AA:  If you don’t mind my asking, what types of projects are you currently working on?

LD:  I’m over halfway through my second mystery with Hera Knightsbridge, my microbrewer.  I’m polishing the manuscript for Jay Hartman about a writer whose house is invaded by guardian angels.  I’ve finished a manuscript set in Florida featuring a Yankee who owns a consignment shop catering to the wealthy who were taken by Madoff.  Of course, she discovers one of the matrons dead in her dressing room.  On a more serious note, I’m trying to get back to a manuscript I began several years ago.  It is set in upstate New York.  The protagonist is the mayor of a small village and the owner of an auction house.  Her husband has died and a man from her past reenters her life as a biologist hired to help the community understand coyotes whom they’re convinced are killing their sheep and calves as well as pets.

AA:  If you had one morsel of advice for the aspiring writer out there thinking about transitioning from “writing for fun” to “writing for fun AND profit”, what would that be? 

LD:  Write, write, write.  Get yourself into a good writing group.  Join professional writers’ groups such as Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.  Go to writers conferences and attend their panels.

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Lesley A. Diehl retired from her life as a professor of psychology and reclaimed her country roots by moving to a small cottage in Morris, New York.  In the winter she migrates to old Florida—cowboys, scrub palmetto, and open fields of grazing cattle, a place where spurs still jingle in the post office.  Back north, she devotes her afternoons to writing and, when the sun sets, relaxing on the bank of her trout stream, sipping tea or a local microbrew.

Check out her website HERE and her Blog HERE.