An Interview with Author Julia Buckley by E. B. Davis

Writer's apprentice Lena London is enjoying life in Blue Lake and being newly engaged, but is soon drawn into the terrifying disappearance of one of her closest friends....

Lena is starting to feel like having it all may actually be possible! She and suspense novelist Camilla Graham are busily plotting their next novel and she's got a brand-new diamond ring on her finger thanks to her fiancé, Sam West. The only blot on her Blue Lake life is a strange new corporation that has come to town called Plasti-Source. They seem to be intent on gobbling up prime real estate and changing the landscape of Lena's lovely adopted home.

When she and Sam get a call from their good friend (and Blue Lake detective) Doug saying that his girlfriend--and Lena's pal Belinda--isn't answering her phone and missed a date with him, they all head out to her home. The trio is shocked to discover that Belinda's purse and phone are at her house, along with a single red rose on her countertop--but Belinda herself is missing. Has she been abducted? Could the strange new corporation play a role in her disappearance? Lena is determined to find out and rescue her friend because she knows that the truth can be stranger and much more deadly than fiction...

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I started reading A Writer’s Apprentice Mystery series from the first book because I liked the premise of a young aspiring novelist, Lena London, working and living with a successful older woman novelist, Camilla Graham. The house, filled with their pets, sat picturesque by a lake. But I soon learned that this series wasn’t quite as cozy as I thought. Both women have had to be tough. But Lena has formed friendships in the community. Those friends help her solve the mysteries that befall them. They cocoon each other through the stressful adventures.

This series is one of five that Julia Buckley writes. Death with a Dark Red Rose is the fifth book in this series and will be released by Berkley on February 25. Please welcome Julia Buckley to WWK.                                                                          

                                                                                                       E. B. Davis

Where is this series set? Is it Blue Lake or Blueville?

Blue Lake is the town in which Camilla and Lena live. Blueville is a nearby town.

How far is it from Stafford?

The towns that border Blue Lake (like Stafford), are just twenty or thirty minutes away, just as suburban towns are often very close to one another. Towns like Blueville are a bit of a longer drive, but still less than an hour’s time away from Lena’s house.

The story starts with a group text among main character Lena London’s friends about a new factory opening in Blue Lake called Plastic-Source. What do they fear about this factory?

Cliff’s initial concern about Plasti-source is merely that it is ugly, and will ruin the view over the field he runs past during his morning jog. Soon their fears about this new company begin to grow, for a variety of reasons.

Lena’s cat is named Lestrade. Why did she name him that?

In the Sherlock Holmes stories and novels, Lestrade is the police officer who is always bested by Holmes, but he is also the long-suffering recipient of Holmes’ scorn. Lena is a fan of the Holmes series, so she names her cat Lestrade to show her appreciation of Arthur Conan Doyle. As an aspiring mystery writer, she wants a mystery name that is more obscure than Holmes or Watson, but is still recognizable.

Camilla has two German Shepherds, Heathcliff and Rochester. How do the dogs treat Lestrade?

Heathcliff and Rochester (also given literary names) are initially shocked to see a cat in their house, but they befriend Lestrade on the same day that they meet him (way back in Book One, A Dark and Stormy Murder).

How did One-Shoe Road get its name?

According to Lena, who heard it from Camilla, the townspeople rather whimsically responded to a single shoe that is left on the roadside. No one claims it (and don’t we all see these lost shoes here and there? It’s never a PAIR of shoes!), and someone humorously puts out a sign that says “I’m lonely,” next to the shoe, at which point other shoes begin to appear.

Is Belinda’s brother Carl autistic?

If Carl has been diagnosed with anything, it is not revealed in the novel (on purpose, since we often don’t know the specific diagnoses of our colleagues or friends), although his mother mentions that he is on medication to counteract his sometimes dangerous impulsivity.  Carl does have similar behaviors to some of my friends or family who are on the autism spectrum, and like them, he is very often delightful to be with because he sees the world through a slightly different lens; on the other hand, he also sometimes lacks a social filter for what he says or does.

Although Carl works in an IT department, he has another talent. What is it and how did he develop it?

Carl has a very rare gift—he is an intuitive chef, and can make delicious meals with any food.

Adam, Camilla’s boyfriend, takes her on a trip so that Lena can set up a surprise seventieth birthday party for Camilla. What special present have Adam and Lena created?

Adam and Lena have the inspired idea to make large wall-hangings out of the art for every one of Camilla’s published novels. They intend to display them at her party, and then to hang them in her house on the bluff.

Camilla’s publisher wants her to write an advice book for writers. You’ve started chapters with snippets from this book and alternate to pieces from a mystery work-in-progress of Camilla’s and Lena’s. How do they relate to Death with a Dark Red Rose? Are they foreshadowing?

The text that is “quoted” from Camilla’s works in progress always contains some theme that is pertinent to the chapter. Camilla’s writing advice often reveals something about her life that might pertain to decisions she makes or challenges she faces. The words quoted from her novel generally pertain to the Gothic elements of the fiction that she (and I) both write. It is a nod to the genre, and a link between Camilla, Lena, and me. (And yes, some of them foreshadow what will happen in the chapter).

After Belinda and Lena check out a video game store that Carl and Luis like, they are followed by a dark car. Once home and at twilight, Lena imagines sinister forces following her. Do all mystery/suspense writers create their own tension?

I think that mystery writers might be more conscious of things that look sinister because everything they see is potentially fodder for a future book. In the early chapters, Lena thinks that a man looks ominous, but dismisses the idea, saying that she’s thinking like Camilla and trying to turn life into fiction. However, her instincts are good, as are Belinda’s when she notices the dark car. In this respect, it is actually a drawback to be a mystery writer, because Lena might tell herself she’s being too imaginative when in fact her instincts are warning her to beware.

What is Sam’s theory about the pendulum effect?

Sam suggests that there is some magical quality, either to life in general or Blue Lake in particular, in which events seem to swing back and forth between extremes of happiness and despair. He offers examples of recent traumas he has suffered, followed by levels of joy he had never previously achieved. At some points in the novel, this “pendulum effect” theory is used to comfort characters who are suffering or unhappy.

 What’s next for Lena, Camilla, and the gang?

I can’t give anything away.  J