Liz Lindsay, Pam Blance, and I were members of an author online support group. It is always a pleasure to meet authors from different parts of the world. Liz and Pam live in Ontario. Several years ago, they joined forces and created a terrific cozy mystery series. Cultivating the Truth is their latest book. I’ll let them tell you about PI Dorothy Dennehy’s recent exploits.
- It’s time to get your protagonist out of their comfort zone. You want to present her with a challenge, and you’ve given her the following choices: climb Mount Everest, run a Marathon, trek across the Sararha Desert with a tribe of nomads, or sail around the world alone. Which would she choose? Dorothy Dennehy, our protagonist from the series named after her, is a runner. She might attempt a marathon, but her ultimate challenge would be a trek across the Saraha. She doesn’t mind being on her own but would enjoy the company of nomads. No doubt, before the trek ended, she’d have solved one or two tribal issues that would keep her investigative mind well-tuned. She’s very adept at discerning truth from fabrication.
- If your protagonist could live in another era, which would she choose and why? What a good question! Dorothy Dennehy is fortyish and our timeline is current (2017 – to present), she’s very independent, guards her heart, but when she’s your friend, she’ll be loyal to the end. Perhaps she’d be comfortable as a female gumshoe during the 40s. She’d be ahead of her time but would know how to keep her place when it was warranted. And oh boy, she’d love nothing better to solve a case before any over-confident, and sexist male police counterpart.
- If she could change anything in her life, what would it be and why? She would love to have had more time with her mother, who passed when Dorothy was a small child. Her father never remarried, which makes her think, or hope, her mother was special. She often wonders what traits she has inherited from her.
- How long have you been writing? “Jamie Tremain” was born in 2007 when we partnered together to write as one voice. What was the motivating factor that got you started? The long-held desire to write the same kind of well-written books we enjoy.
- What do you want most for your readers to come away with after they read your books? Because we write two series, with recurring characters, we hope that with each book, our characters grow and engage readers enough to warrant a reader wanting to come back for more.
- What interview question have you always wanted to answer but have never been asked? We are not always asked where we came up with the name “Jamie Tremain”. Pam’s family name was James and Liz has a family middle name carried through several generations – Tremaine – with an ‘e’. And voila – Jamie Tremain.
- Tell us about your latest book. We are currently about halfway through the first draft of our 4th book in our Grant’s Crossing series – Game Changer. The books are cozyish, but not without violent murder and uncomfortable situations. Alysha Grant is our protagonist who inherited, at age 27, a converted family farmhouse, which is now a long-term guest home – Leven Lodge – for 8 residents. In this book, a young lacrosse coach has been found murdered, at the same time as a flashy businessperson has come to town, wanting to film a documentary on century old Ontario farm dwellings. Is there a connection? Alysha, with her friends Jan and Dianne never shy away from messy situations. And of course, involving the small town’s Chief of Police who is more than a little interested in Alysha.
- What themes do you regularly employ in your writing? Our motto is “Jamie Tremain – Blending Crime, Mystery & Relationships to Create a Memorable Story”. We’ve been told on numerous occasions, that it is the relationships, in both series, which readers enjoy. Nasty things happen in real life, and in our books. Loss, betrayal, and romance are all at home with crime and mystery (and a little humour). So, relationships, their ups and downs, is a theme in all our books.
- How did you develop the idea for your most recent work? The rough idea likely hatched as we were wrapping up the final pages for Acting Off-Script (3rd in the Grant’s Crossing series) when we realized there were still more stories to be told around our characters. We try to ensure our characters each get ‘turns’ as the focus of a new story, so this time, we wanted to pay more attention to Jan Young, the live-in housekeeper of Leven Lodge. She is nearly 50, and lost the love of her life a couple of years previously. Now someone has suddenly come into her life, and she wonders if this is the real deal. Of course, only Jamie Tremain knows the answer to that – for now!
- What was the best writing advice you ever received, and why was it valuable? Before we even had our first book, The Silk Shroud, published, we received some personal, freely given advice from Louise Penny. She advised us to visualize a scene as we wrote, as if it was being filmed. See the details, what’s going on around the characters, what the other characters are seeing, how does the viewer (reader) know what those characters are feeling, thinking. It has been invaluable advice to help us bring depth and realism to our writing!
Jamie Tremain Bio
Did you know?
Jamie Tremain is not one person, but two! Pam Blance and Liz Lindsay are Jamie Tremain and have been writing together since 2007.
Currently, Jamie Tremain has two light mystery series. The Dorothy Dennehy Mystery Series and The Grant’s Crossing series. Jamie Tremain has recently collaborated with a third – yes, a third! – author as “Ferris Tremain” to write the Mechanic Falls Gem Caper series.
Even before their first book in The Dorothy Dennehy Mystery Series was published, they had been actively building their brand. Facebook, and then a blog, to a monthly newsletter, and now YouTube. Networking with the supportive writing community continues to be a priority.
Jamie Tremain belongs to Crime Writers of Canada and the International Thriller Writers.
Book Description for the latest Dorothy Dennehy Mystery – Cultivating the Truth
BETRAYAL REAPS A BITTER HARVEST
Private Investigator Dorothy Dennehy is approached by a potential client who tells of a crime not yet committed. She dismisses the rants of a disgraced winery estate partner, preferring to focus on the running of Maxwell’s Bar and Grill.
Her right-hand investigator, HB, has taken over much of the caseload for Quail Investigations, but before long Dorothy is pulled into a strange kidnapping case and a dysfunctional family who own and operate a successful winery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
Suspicions and theories abound. When the kidnap plans go south, the prime suspect becomes a dangerous threat to anyone involved.
The complicated case brings new relationships into Dorothy’s life, raising old feelings to the surface. Will a long-simmering, potential romantic interest finally be realized?
Or will the goal of a dangerous felon shatter it to pieces?
Links
Web Site JamieTremain.ca
YouTube (as part of Ferris Tremain)
Facebook Jamie Tremain Mystery Authors
Contact jamietremainJT@yahoo.com
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Thanks for being a guest today, Liz and Pam. Best of luck with your delightful mysteries.