An Interview With Carol Pouliot

by Grace Topping

 

Murder at the Moulin Rouge

Paris, 1895. When a cancan dancer at the Moulin Rouge falls to her death from the top of one of Montmartre’s highest staircases, the police dismiss it as an accident. But, Madeleine was one of Toulouse-Lautrec’s favorite models, and the artist is certain she was murdered. Enter Depression-era detective Steven Blackwell and 21st-century journalist Olivia Watson who travel back in time to Paris to hunt down the killer. Before long, they learn that a second dancer—a ballerina and favorite model of painter Edgar Degas—has died. Two dancers dead in two weeks. Two artists grieving. Is the killer targeting young dancers, or does this case involve the enigmatic Paris art world?

From the moment Steven and Olivia arrive, Steven is out of his element. The small-town cop has no idea what techniques the French police use in 1895. Worse, he has no official status to investigate murder in one of the world’s largest cities. The sleuths soon discover disturbing secrets at the Paris Ballet. And when Olivia insists on going undercover to visit a suspect’s house alone, Steven fears he’s made the biggest mistake of his life.

Travel back in time with Steven and Olivia, as they enter the back-stabbing world of dance in one of the world’s greatest cities. Murder at the Moulin Rouge is their most daring and dangerous case to date.

 

To read a mystery requires us to suspend disbelief. But when the mystery involves time-traveling sleuths, one of whom lives in 1934 and the other in current day, we can forget about it reflecting reality. We just need to read it for fun. Carol Pouliot joins us at WWK to talk about her Blackwell and Watson time-travel mystery series where her two sleuths cross into each other’s time to solve crimes. 

 

Welcome to Writers Who Kill, Carol.

 

What motivated you to make your detectives time travelers, with one of them a bit ghostly?

 

I've never thought of any of my characters as ghosts. I based the series on a theory that Ei​nstein had. He believed there was no such thing as past, present, or future but that all time happened simultaneously. He also thought time could fold over if conditions were right. That's what happened to my two main characters, Steven and Olivia, in the beginning of the first book in the series, Doorway to Murder. They've been catching glimpses of each other across a doorway for several days when, finally, Olivia speaks up and asks Steven if he's real. That leads to their discussion of what's happening to them and to each of them proving to the other that they actually do live in the time they say they do. Steven lives in 1934 and Olivia shares the same house 80 years later in 2014. I write the books as dual time periods that happen at the same time. 

When 21^st century journalist Olivia discovers that Steven’s ghost is inhabiting her house, she is shocked, but doubly so when she finds herself able to travel to his 1930’s time. What has been the greatest challenge you face writing about characters who can travel to different times and places? 

 

In the beginning, it wasn't difficult but as I continue to write the series, Steven and Olivia have gotten used to a lot of things in each other's time. Because of their jobs, he stays in the 1930s most of the time and she does most of the traveling into his time. I chose to write it that way because I'm more interested in writing historical rather than contemporary fiction. 

 

Coming back to your question, although it's a series, I write each book as though it were a standalone so someone can pick up any book and enjoy it. In each subsequent novel, I make sure that I explain enough of Steven and Olivia's backstory so the reader understands their situation. What's tricky is that, as the series progresses, Olivia spends more and more time outside the house in the 1930s and has gotten used to most aspects of life there. She's no longer surprised at things she sees and hears. I have to constantly remember to put in little notes that let the reader know it makes sense that she's used to certain things, and that she even uses some of the slang expressions popular at that time. 

 

Olivia and Steven live in times eighty years apart. How does Olivia account for her absence when she is with Steven in his time? Is Steven able to travel to Olivia’s time?  

 

Olivia doesn't need to account for her absence because she lives alone. She has already told her two best friends about Steven and the time traveling, and she owns her own business—a research agency. She has an answering machine in her home office and uses email to stay in touch with clients. When she needs to physically meet with a client, she is able to do that. She spends enough time in the 21st century to get her research done and turn in the projects that her clients have requested. Steven rarely leaves the house in her time, but when he has it's been on an evening or weekend. They get together inside the house in both her time and his most evenings. As a single man living alone, he doesn't have anyone to answer to either. He's home enough evenings during the week and on weekends to answer the phone in case of an emergency at work. (He's a cop.) 

Is there anyone else besides Olivia and Steven that know about their ability to travel to each other’s time and beyond? 

 

Olivia talked with her two best friends after seeing Steven several nights and after realizing she wasn't in danger. She didn't know what was going on and was afraid she might be ill. They discussed possibilities of what might be happening. When she discovered that Steven was real, she explained everything to them. 

 

Steven and Olivia ended up telling his partner in RSVP to Murder. I can't tell you why because it would ruin part of the story for people who have not read it yet. 

 

In Murder at the Moulin Rouge, what was it about 1895 Paris that drew you to setting a mystery there and then? Could it have been your journey on the Orient Express? 

 

Ha! I'd like to say yes because that trip was amazing. But it was an extra that I added in after I began writing the first draft.  

Murder at the Moulin Rouge was actually the first of my five novels where I followed the advice "write what you know." I taught French for 34 years, and incorporated art and history into my classes. I've always enjoyed the novels of Balzac, which take place in the 1800s, and I love impressionist paintings. I knew I wanted to write a book that involved Steven's late mother, Evangéline, an artist from Paris. I took all those things, did the math, and came up with a year when it made sense in terms of Evangéline's age and when Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas would have been in Paris. That's how I came up with 1895. 

 

Olivia and Steven enter the world of famous painters and dancers to solve murders. As visitors, what pulled them into investigating those murders? 

 

It turns out that Steven's mother was also a time traveler, something he never knew. She appears in his house on Christmas Eve and tells him she needs him to go to Paris. She explains why, and he is intrigued. It also happens to be approaching the one-year anniversary of her unexpected and devastating death. Steven is still having trouble getting over that, and he realizes that he has a chance of a lifetime to spend a week or so with her even though she is a young woman and not the older mother that he knew. Olivia is a free spirit and adventurous. She's always ready for anything. She doesn't hesitate a second before she says yes, she will go with him. 

After years of teaching and running your own business, what motivated you to write crime fiction?  

 

I had been retired about five years and wanted a mental challenge. At the time, I had a subscription to Victoria magazine, which had a monthly feature article called Chimes, a memoir. I had a treasured memory that I still could see as clearly as though it had been yesterday. I thought my memory would be suitable for that feature. When I sat down to write it, an incredible feeling of satisfaction and joy washed over me. I knew at that moment I had to spend the rest of my life writing. 

 

Do your characters arrive in your brain fully formed, or do they gradually reveal themselves as you write?  

 

I thought of Steven first, and he arrived fully formed. I knew him as though he had been in my life forever. I knew his worst fears and greatest desires. I did add two interests for him based on those that my grandfather had. Steven was born in 1901 and my grandfather in 1900, so they would have been contemporaries. I knew giving Steven an interest in cars and baseball was accurate for a man at that time. I wanted a partner-in-crime for Steven, so I created Olivia. I made her someone who was very much his opposite, yet I gave her traits that would allow them to get along. As for the other characters—victims, suspects, killers—I create them before I write the rough draft, although they all evolve as I'm writing that particular mystery. There have been a couple of unexpected characters who popped up fully formed as I was writing my first draft. That's always a lot of fun! 

How was your journey to publication? A smooth road or one filled with potholes?  

 

My journey to publication was not pretty. Ha! I had no idea what I was doing at first and thought I was supposed to get an agent. I queried several people. Most of them loved the story idea but said the manuscript still needed work. I had no idea what that meant so I continued working on it without really improving it for a couple of years. When I finally joined Sisters in Crime, I started to learn the craft and made the improvements that I needed to. I met Marni Graff at one of our chapter meetings and learned about the author co-op she is involved with. That group ultimately published my first book, Doorway to Murder. I always knew I wanted a traditional publisher so I continued sending out query letters but to publishers this time not agents. Finally, after a year, I signed a contract with Level Best Books. I'm still with them. I will say that I found it extremely difficult and stressful to send out a query letter and not hear anything for months...or ever! This business isn't for the faint of heart.

 

What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned since you started writing?  

 

When I began writing, I had a very romantic idea of a writer—someone who sits alone in a particular setting writing day after day. Sort of like the classic writer in a Paris attic. The reality is we don't write in a bubble. The most valuable thing that I learned is that we need other people—writers who understand what we're going through at all the different and challenging stages of writing a book and getting it published, as well as people who can answer questions, whether it's about publishing or poison. The most wonderful thing that has happened to me since I became a published author is the incredible friendships I've made. It can be hard later in life to meet people who think and feel the way you do about things. I treasure the beautiful friendships I've made along the way.   

Where do you plan to take Olivia and Steven next? 

I'm working on book six right now, Death Moved In. It's 1935, and Steven and Olivia are back home in Knightsbridge, a small town in central New York near the Mohawk River and the Adirondack mountains. A local businessman is murdered in his bed while he sleeps one night. This is going to be a difficult case for Steven. At first, there are too many suspects. Then it seems that everyone with a motive did not have opportunity and everyone with opportunity had no motive. There are going to be seven books in my series so I'm also laying more groundwork for the end of the series. 

 

Thank you, Carol.