An Interview with Michele Drier

Michele Drier is a member of SINC and a Guppy. She recently finished writing her first novel, Edited for Death, and sold it to Mainly Murder Press. As a former news reporter and an art lover, she was able to pull a potent story together using her reporter experience and her love of art. The tale takes the reader back to World War II and is tied into the present time. It’s a story that keeps you guessing and will surprise you with its twists and turns. It’s one of those stories that is hard to put down. You will want to keep reading to find the next clue.
Dee Gatrell (DHG)

DHG: Tell us a little about yourself, Michele. What part of the US do you live in? Children, pets, grands?

MD: I live in California. That’s a pat answer, because right now, I live in the Central Valley (summer heat!), but through the years I’ve lived in all parts of California from Humboldt County (redwood forests, rugged seacoasts, 40 inches of rain a year) to Riverside (SoCal, Palm Springs, Mojave Desert, Disneyland, 12 inches of rain a year); from San Francisco (summer fog) to the Sierra foothills (winter snow).

The first member of my family to arrive here came to San Francisco from St. John’s, New Brunswick in 1849, and another ancestor, from Long Island, arrived in 1850. I have a great-great-grandmother who crossed the Isthmus of Panama by mule in 1852. I think the adventuring spirit was finished though, because most of us have never left, but we sure moved a lot!

I have one daughter who is a Neonatal Intensive Care RN (I’m very proud of her!), two granddaughters and, currently only one aged, lame cat. As all my animals over the years have been, Djinn was a rescue and was injured before I met him.

DHG: When did you start writing?

MD: I guess I’ve been writing, in one form or another, all of my adult life. I’ve been a newspaper reporter, had short stories published in college anthologies, wrote more grants than I can remember, have written white papers, policy statements, newsletters and annual reports. As many reporters do, I’d always thought about writing a novel. In my case, it just took about ...let’s just say a LOT of years to do it.

DHG: You just published your first book. Please tell us about Edited for Death. How did you get the idea? Are you an art or history fan?

MD: I’m both an art AND history fan! I’ve dragged friends and relatives through more cathedrals, castles and museums than they ever wanted to see. These two passions helped me mold the story in Edited for Death. Newspaper editor Amy Hobbes thinks she sees a way to write a book when California’s senior Senator dies, and she discovers he was born and raised in a small, nearby town. The quest into the Senator’s life and his family leads Amy to a secret that’s been kept for more than 60 years and now has ended three people’s lives.

DHG: Who published your book and where can it be bought?

MD: Edited for Death is published by Mainly Murder Press in trade paperback and is available at their website, at Amazon and at Barnes & Noble  or ordered from your favorite bookstore.

DHG: How many books have your written? Can you tell us a little bit about them? Which genres?

MD: Although Edited for Death is the first book I wrote, I published my second book, SNAP: The World Unfold in e-book formats this past summer.

Unlike “Edited,” a traditional mystery, “SNAP” is a flight of fancy...a vampire romance! It was an interesting challenge to write in two different genres. With “Edited,” although fiction, the plot, characters, settings have to be plausible. If the sun is low in the sky behind the Golden Gate Bridge, it dang well has to be setting!

With “SNAP,” although the sun still sets in the west, the whole premise is vampires...and though there may be plenty of people who want to believe in them, well, they haven’t been proven. There’s more latitude in writing a story that’s totally fantasy.

DHG: What is your favorite genre to read? What genre do you favor when writing?

MD: Probably mystery. I like a good tale that introduces interesting characters and keeps bringing up new plot possibilities, and characters who have a range of emotions and experiences. I prefer traditional mysteries, with complex threads. I love P.D. James, Elizabeth George, Kate Atkinson. If I never read another psycho thriller with a sociopath leaving women’s body parts all over the landscape, that would be fine. As a woman and a feminist, I also don’t like reading about “woman as victim”.

On the other hand, I love action! Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Daniel Silva...bring ‘em on!

DHG: How many rewrites do you do on your stories?

MD: Oh, wow! Wholesale rewrites, probably two. Piecemeal, it can be several. I start a story by sitting down and writing Chapter One, and each time I come back to it (hopefully, every day, but lately, less than that) I read the last 10 pages or so already written. That can set me off on a different tangent, so those last 10 pages may get sliced to pieces. I’ve cut chunks out and moved then to another chapter; written a prologue and turned it into Chapter Four. “Edited” began life as a third-person, past tense novel. It’s now (and should have been from the beginning) a first-person, present tense.

DHG: Are you a pantser or a plotter?

MD: Oh, definitely a pantser! From the previous answer, you can see there are some drawbacks to that way of writing, but I don’t know how to do it any other way. In school, I was the one who always wrote the paper and then went back and outlined it. I never mastered how to make an outline first.

My characters will surprise me by acting in a way that I wouldn’t have thought about, or get into a situation that reveals hidden traits I didn’t know about. It’s a fun, but sometimes frustrating, ride!

DHG: Other than writing, what other career path have you taken?

MD: I’ve had two distinct and separate careers over the years. First was in the media, and I spent years as a reporter and editor. I was in and out of the business twice. Being in print media today is very, very sad. A newspaper was always expected to make money, but in today’s cutthroat advertising milieu, and the push-back to make more and more profit, telling a good story or covering an interesting event has fallen by the wayside.

The other career, for almost two decades, was as an Executive Director or CEO of non-profit social justice agencies. I’ve managed organizations that counseled sexual assault and domestic violence survivors; established day-care centers for low-income working mothers; led a state-wide organization that advocated for affordable housing and homeless programs; created and ran a large-scale agency that supported and encouraged the arts and arts education, and was the CEO of a legal services program that served about 10,000 seniors in Alameda County.

I guess I’ve always liked a challenge, and writing for publication in today’s environment sure fits that bill!

DHG: Thank you, Michele. Here’s hoping your books sell lots of lots!

MD: Thank you Dee, and thanks to the Writers Who Kill, for giving me this opportunity to share!

Ideal writing space and dress

Would dressing nice while writing make you a better writer?

I just read this article that says how you dress can affect your writing. That means I’m doomed.

My idea for dressing while I’m writing is either be in PJ’s, shorts, t-shirts and jeans. Imagine sitting 

in your home office dressed in a slinky dress and high heels. Or wearing a boa while typing. If you’re a 

male, would you sit all day long in a suit and tie—gads how do men stand those ties?

In comes your dog. He jumps at you and rips your pantyhose. Does anyone even wear them anymore? 

Or worse yet, your cat rubs against your navy blue pants and you stand up looking like you’re wearing 

a pair of fur pants.

I used to watch those shows like Ozzie and Harriet where the wife always dressed up and wore heels 

around the house. I have to admit, I wondered how she mopped the floors in those heels without falling on

her behind.

So okay, I can understand when you are meeting the public, an editor or agent, you may want to dress

properly. You’ll want to impress them. But why bother impressing the animals?

The next article is about work space. Do you need to have a neat office? If so, does that make you write 

in an orderly fashion? Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me. I’m looking around at my desk. I swear I

clean it off at least once every two weeks. Or is that months? But I know where everything is. Most 

of the time. 

I’m sure my characters are probably neater than I am. And they file correctly. I doubt they throw stuff in 

the wrong files and then can’t find it later, like for the next year or so.

Hmmm. Do I really want to transform my writing space? Does my space make me want to put in a load 

of laundry? Sometimes it does. After all I can hear the washer and dryer running in my office. Mostly I

tune them out.

Do you know our mood depends on the light we have in our room? Well, that’s good. I sit beside a 

window and can watch those nasty squirrels walk on my window screen. Of course it’s fun to scare them

off. Last year they took up eating my screens. I would've thought that would've killed them. It didn't. 

I simply have big holes covered by bricks on my screened in porch.

This article says you shouldn’t look at your neighbor’s brick wall. Imagine walking over to Harold and 

asking him to take it down so it doesn’t interfere with your muse. 

Looking at something pretty can trigger an endorphin high which will make you more creative. Or if 

you’re sick, it’ll make you heal faster.

Well, it’s time to put my muse to bed. It’s dark outside, the blinds are closed and my endorphin 

dumped for the night.

Tell me, what is your office like? Neat? Messy?

Time sure flies by fast. Have you noticed?

One of my cousins emailed me some old pictures. As I looked at them, I thought back to the days when life was simpler. 

In the breakfast nook at my Aunt Mildred’s house sits my Aunt Mildred, my Aunt Mary and my cousin Mary Alice. Mary Alice looks like she may be about 12 years old. The wallpaper on the walls behind them is busy, the chrome kitchen set sits in the small area with two long windows on either side. It was summer in Ohio, the windows are open and my aunts and cousin are wearing shorts and sleeveless shirts. Aunt Mildred’s cigarettes lay on the table.

Both my aunts are gone now, and Cousin Mary Alice is now a grandmother. When I went to college at the age of 38, I wrote articles for newspapers and magazines. My aunts were very proud of me. They made me feel like I was someone smart. Somehow I’d never thought smart and me belonged in the same sentence.  

Going to college and then writing gave me the self esteem I lacked as a child. Writing is therapeutic for many of us. I read once that writers are their own psychologists, and I believe that’s true.

When I worked as a reporter, I found it fascinating that I could be nosy, ask questions, find out about people and their lives—and get paid for it. I also took the pictures that went with the stories at some of the newspapers. 

As farm page editor, I learned a lot about farm animals, farmers trying to save their family farms, and how they struggled to save their crops during a draught. Another year they were the ones helping out farmers in another state who had a draught by sending hay and straw to them.

I interviewed 4-H children. Some were talkers and were excited to tell me about their pigs, cows, sheep or goats. Others, well, there were times it would’ve been easier to interview their animals. One young girl raised beef for her 4-H project. But for several years she couldn’t eat at McDonalds as they bought her prize beef. She feared her hamburger might be one of her cows.

A woman who was in her twenties raised rabbits for their fur. They were her pets and the fur they provided was turned into yarn to make sweaters etc. One night some wild animal broke into her crates in the barn and killed most of her rabbits. She was devastated. 

The one thing I had a hard time dealing with is when I learned people raising goats not only used them for their milk but also for their meat. I learned that goat meat is the number one meat in the world. Truth is, I fell in love with some breeds of goats. They reminded me of dogs. I always thought I’d adore sheep, but learned they aren’t overly smart or affectionate—at least not the ones I met. One goat in particular caught my attention at the county fair. He’d stand in a corner and pout the whole time he was at the fair. I was invited to come to their farm and see the goat a few weeks later. Like they said, the goat had a very different personality at home—he was friendly and loveable.

The younger people I worked with at the newspaper used to say to me, “So now I know everything I ever wanted to know about pigs, cows and all those other animals,” when they proofed my stories.

Funny, I kept all these articles in albums never thinking I’d pay much attention to them, but my grandkids may want to see them some day. They don’t seem to show much interest. However, I’m finding I am looking through these stories for writing ideas.

Do you find life is passing by too fast, too? Do looking at pictures and stories give you writing ideas?

Kissing Can Kill You

Did you know that kissing could kill you?

Really, it can. So how can you use this in your mystery novel? Say your bad guy is harassing the heroine. He killed her best friend and she wants to get even with him. He’s allergic to shrimp. Maybe she knows it and maybe she doesn’t. He follows her to a seafood restaurant where the steam from cooking the shrimp lingers in the air. Even that will affect a person with shrimp allergies. It’s toxic to him and he struggles for his breath. The ambulance doesn’t arrive on time. Bingo, he’s dead.

Or say an abused woman’s boyfriend won’t let her alone. She knows he’s allergic to shrimp. She eats the shrimp and the oil lingers on her lips. He grabs her and kisses her, but instead of telling him not to, she lets him kiss her. His allergy is severe and in minutes he could be dead. She waits five minutes before calling for an ambulance. He’s dead by the time they arrive.

What should she have done if she really wanted to save him? She would brush her teeth several times, rinse her mouth three or four times and then scrub her lips. The oil from the shrimp would remain on her lips which would be passed on to the kisser and kill him. In addition, she would have to wash her hands many times in order rid all traces of the shrimp from her body.

However, if she wanted him to die, she would simply tell the police she didn’t know what happened to him, and when they discovered the shrimp allergy, she’d say she had no idea he was allergic to the shrimp or that it would harm the man.

As for the adults in the stories, they knew they had those allergies, but if they were determined to destroy the person who followed them to the restaurant or to kiss a person who didn’t want kissed, then they got the kiss of death. 

Think of the possibilities to kill off someone this way. Kiss that man and watch him croak. Who would ever guess that’s what he died from? 

Or the person who’s allergic to bees and doesn’t have one of the pens to inject can die off pretty fast, too.

Recently on the local news it was reported children at a certain elementary school won’t be allowed to bring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school, or anything else that contains peanuts. Why? Because some children are allergic to peanuts. The school announced the police will bring in dogs to sniff for peanut butter.

Of course we don’t want a child to die, but I think it’s ludicrous to make P&J sandwiches outlawed. These are hard times and people struggling sometimes find P&J sandwiches are all they can afford to feed the kids for lunch. And not everyone is eligible for the free or reduced lunches, especially if it was recently they lost their jobs. Another reason to make the kids P&J sandwiches is because some kids are darned fussy and that’s the only sandwich they want to eat. 

I do feel bad for the child or children at schools who have this problem. I also find it strange that when I was growing up no one I ever met had an allergy to peanuts. What is put into the peanuts today that wasn’t there before?

Shaun the Sheep and writing

Shaun the Sheep

I watched a British cartoon online with my grandchildren this weekend. Shaun is the smallest sheep but he always gets into trouble. A head of cabbage flies out of a truck and he decides to play soccer and gets the other sheep to go along with the idea. 

There’s one very large furry sheep that ends up with items stuck in his fleece. When Shaun kicks a head of cabbage and it breaks a window, he goes up the steps and retrieves it, throws it out the window and it ends up in the mass of fleece. In order to retrieve it, he first pulls out a boot, then a horn and finally the cabbage.

When thinking about writing a novel, it seems we do the same thing. We start out with a small idea. Then the thought (the head of cabbage) flies out at us and gives us something to work with. We play around with the ideas, kick it around, get a goal and think we finally have it.

But alas, the cabbage gets kicked out of the field and there’s that sagging middle. How can we save it? The dog guarding the sheep falls asleep and the sheep continue struggling with the head of cabbage. The pigs snatch it, but the sheep retrieve it and go on with their game.

 

Finally, their game is back on track and the cabbage gets kicked into high gear. A flying duck ends up swallowing it and bloats up, flying off with the cabbage.

If we think of it, that’s how our stories go. We start off, get the idea, play around with it, get stuck, get more ideas and finally get the novel to where we think it should be.

Sometimes it works and we have our novel where it should be. Sometimes that flying duck takes it in the wrong place and we start on draft two or three or even ten. Eventually we’ll get there. But like the sheep, we have to keep trying and trying.

If you want to watch Shaun and his friends, take a look. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/691228/shaun_the_sheep/

Happy Writing! 

Managing Writing Time

Managing Writing Time

I’m supposed to be writing nonstop this week and do so without editing. I haven’t found time to start.

My excuses? I really do have some. Yesterday was a granddaughter’s birthday and I made a big pot of chicken and dumplings, enough to serve at a soup kitchen. I never know how many I’ll have to feed. As it turned out there were only 8 adults and, 2 toddlers and 2 babies.

Of course, I had to bake a cake. Certainly not one from a box, it had to be from scratch. And then for those who didn’t want chocolate, I had to make the pie, from scratch. By the time they all left and I cleaned up the mess it was time for Desperate Housewives. I can’t help it, I’m hooked on them. And besides my cousin from Oregon called and we talked nearly an hour and then I told him I simply had to go to see the housewives and what sort of trouble they were getting into.

I got up early this morning and had to go through emails. Yep, had to talk to the Dell guy to get my son’s computer ordered and read all the mail. And I still haven’t finished this blog. But I did work on the stuff for my future web page that a friend is building for me. Shouldn’t this all be considered writing time?

As I sit here typing, I wonder how I should proceed with the novel. Which direction should my main character take? What danger can I lead her to? Should I let her get shot or step into a trap of the bad guys and see how she manages to escape? Really, I can’t do it all for Ellagrace. She needs to tell me what she wants to do.

Tell me how you manage to handle your writing time vs your family time. Maybe I can learn how to ignore my family and write!

To Cuss or Not to Cuss

To Cuss or Not to Cuss

When writing a cozy mystery, how do you handle your character’s language? Do your main characters use cuss words, or only your secondary characters?

I was reading on the Sinc Guppy Cosy group a discussion about swear words or even some words like “dang” or “darn” and writers wondered if even those words are okay to use in a cozy novel. I’ve always wanted to write a cozy, but somehow, somewhere, one of my characters will say a cuss word—not the worse ones, but maybe “shit” or “damn”. And I’m not sure I wouldn’t slip up and put one of those words into the mouth of a sweet little old lady.

I find my main characters watch their language, but my secondary characters aren’t so good. Maybe that’s because when I was growing up the women in our family didn’t cuss but some of the men could cuss like sailors, including my father.

When I married I was surprised to learn my sweet looking mother-in-law could throw out some words I wasn’t used to hearing out of the mouth of a woman. But that was when she was younger. As she aged, her language didn’t include so many of those words.

I have an older woman in one of my novels that doesn’t cuss, but she says mean things. She tells her daughter-in-law she’s an idiot or a hussy and she flirts with all the men and asks them to take her dancing. She’s in her 80s and has dementia.

My mom had dementia and until I could get her out of the unit, they stuck her in with Alzheimer’s patients. One night while visiting her, a woman came into her room and said to me, “Do you see all those people outside dancing?” There were none. So she then sang and danced for us. And when my cousin would visit she’d say to him, “When the others leave, you can come to my room.”

I wonder how much of what we write comes from people we’ve met over the years, or family members. One of my grandmothers used to kick her leg in the air when she was in her 80s and say, “Look, kid.” My grandfather would get upset because I didn’t want to kiss him. He chewed and spit tobacco and had a stained mustache. My dad’s family cussed when playing cards. Grandpa would roll his beer bottle on the floor and yell to my grandmother to get him another beer.

My other grandmother was from Croatia and sometimes made us hide when people came to the door, because she feared they were gypsies. Later in life I learned we did have gypsies that hung out not far from Grandma’s house. But at the age of 5 or 6, I didn’t believe her. She made us kids hide behind the couch. I also learned her fear was valid. Gypsies in Croatia are known for kidnapping children. And by the way, Grandma could cuss in Croatian, but we kids didn’t know what she said, only that our mothers told us those were bad words and not to repeat them.

I guess my question is, to cuss or not cuss? And which type of writing do you use profanity in and what books do we leave out those words?

Although I love reading a cosy novel, I’m afraid one of my characters might just slip up and be naughty. Guess I better pass on writing them.