Writer Wednesday with Roxanne Dunn
Roxanne lives across the Guemes Channel from me. It’s a nice five-minute ferry ride to another island—Guemes Island. Aren’t we lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the country? I first met Roxanne when she attended one of our Sherlock Holmes meetings. She’s here today to tell us about her latest mystery, Murder Richly Deserved.
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 Sierra Desert with a tribe of nomads, or sail around the world alone. Which would she choose?
ANS: As a cat burglar, Chloe is super fit, so running a marathon or climbing Mount Everest would be in her wheelhouse. Trekking across the Sierra with a tribe of nomads would be exotic, so might appeal to her. But she would never sail around the world alone. She might make it from Nice to Marseille, but that would be it. She’d scuttle the boat, swim ashore, and head back to Paris.
If your protagonist could live in another era, which would she choose and why?
ANS: The Belle Epoque. Paris during the glitzy, glittery, glamorous, extravagant years preceding WWI would have suited her perfectly. She’d love the opera, cabarets, gorgeous clothes, excellent champagne, and dancing with dashing men.
What do you and your protagonist have in common?
ANS: Nothing. She is in her mid-twenties, extravagant, audacious, and self-assured. I could be her grandmother, and I’m frugal, restrained, and introverted.
If you had an argument, who would win and why?
ANS: No one. We see everything through a different lens, but neither of us would be willing to let an argument stand in the way of our friendship. So, we would agree to disagree.
What do you want most for your readers to come away with after they read your books?
ANS: My promise to my readers is that the good guys always win and the bad guys always get their comeuppance.
What is the last book you’ve read purely for pleasure?
ANS: I actually just re-read A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters, the first of her series of Cadfael books.
What was the oddest job you ever had?
ANS: When I was in high school, I worked for a small, old-fashioned dairy with very old-fashioned equipment. One of my tasks was to fill rectangular pint cartons with ice cream. The cartons were waxed cardboard, and they came flat. I had to fold one end together to make a box, then balance it on my knee while the ice cream flowed in from a spigot. The ice cream never stopped coming out, so I had to hustle to close the previous carton, then pick up the next flat and make another box before the one on my knee got full.
Name three authors you would recommend and tell us what you like about their writing.
ANS: Each of the following authors grab me and pull me in with well-rounded characters, intriguing mysteries, romantic subplots, lush settings, and great tension—all the things that make me keep turning pages.
ANS: First, Elly Griffiths, especially her Ruth Galloway series. Ruth is an archaeologist, which is what I think I’d like to be in my next life. I’ve worked as a volunteer excavator at Vindolanda, a Roman fort near Hadrian’s wall, and love reading about Ruth’s methods of excavating and cataloging her finds.
Second, Ellis Peters’ Cadfael series. As a history buff, I love reading about Cadfael, a Benedictine monk in England in the 1100’s. Along with the mystery, Peters weaves in civil war, the jurisdiction and role of the sheriff, how herbs were used to treat the sick, the interaction of church and state, and much more.
Third: The duo of Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg: their series featuring FBI agent Kate O’Hare; just for improbable adventures and a fun romp.
What themes do you regularly employ in your writing?
ANS: Bad things happen to good people, but justice is served. The course of true love never did run smoothly. Things are not what they seem.
How did you develop the idea for your most recent work?
ANS: I meant to write a heist story. Then my editor said she thought the title should be Murder Richly Deserved. I was already a quarter of the way into the book, so I had to go back and invent a character who deserved to be murdered, and also a character who had a reason to say the murder was richly deserved. But overall, it’s a heist, so I had to come up with a series of bumps and turns that keep what Chloe wants just out of reach.
What was the best writing advice you ever received, and why was it valuable?
ANS: Don’t worry about details. If your character is stuck at the bottom of a well and you don’t know how she gets out, just write, “And she got out of the well.” Go on writing and trust your subconscious to figure it out. This conquers writer’s block.
About Roxanne:
Author of Murder Unrehearsed, Murder Undetected, and Murder Richly Deserved, Roxanne Dunn has studied writing in Paris and Seattle. A prairie girl first, big-city health care provider second, she now lives on a tiny island in the bright blue Salish Sea, where she writes, grows flowers, and is learning to tap dance. And cooks, cleans, does yoga, texts her grandchildren, tries to teach her husband how to make pie crust, and makes sure she has clean underwear. Her life is rich and full. She likes to quote essayist John Burroughs: “I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, and all the friends I want to see.”
Book Blurb: Murder Richly Deserved
Murder Richly Deserved: Targeted and groomed by a charming, sophisticated trafficker in stolen cultural treasures, Chloe Duval, smart young financial advisor by day and extravagant Parisian cat burglar by night, sets out to acquire the Queen of Persia diamond and races to stay ahead of a cadre of foes whose murky motives spell murder. In a world of opulent wealth, fashion, friendship among thieves, on-and-off romance, greed, and duplicity where no one is quite what they seem, even a high-society wedding or a quiet stroll down a Paris street can turn instantly to intrigue and danger.
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/roxanne.dunn.127