It's Mystery Thriller Week Sun., Feb. 12 - Weds. Feb. 22!
Today, meet USA Today Bestselling Author Jean Rabe
** Today also go to Jean's blog and read about my mystery-horror-tinged book,
Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter! (Sign up for giveaway here to 2/22)
10 Questions with Author Jean Rabe
You’re
working on a novel right now…what’s it about?
I’ve got two in progress, but the
one I’m focusing on is The Dead of Night,
the second Piper Blackwell book. It’s a cold case and later I add an “old”
case. Having fun with it, especially the research into what forensic
anthropologists do.
Do
you have any more Piper novels planned?
I hope so! There are a few ideas
I’m mulling over, but I got to get The
Dead of Night finished first. I want to have one with lots of bullets
flying.
Piper
was well received. If you could go back and add a chapter, what would that
chapter cover?
I would do a flashback to one of
her downrange assignments in Iraq. In fact, since I really want to do one—and
purchased a DVD about the 101st in Iraq for reference—I’ll probably
have such a chapter in the third Piper book.
What
is your favorite setting description from The
Dead of Winter?
The Christmas Store. When I took
a trip through the county for research, I stopped at the store, bought a couple
of ornaments and a couple of pieces of fudge. I think anyone who steps into the
store must be compelled to buy something.
“Nothing,” she
said. “It’s nothing. Nothing.” She pulled into the parking lot of what looked
like a small strip mall but was basically one long cheerful-looking store,
turned off the engine, stuck her gloves in her jacket pocket, and got out.
Softer: “Nothing.”
A banner read: Cheeriest Store in the World—Every Day is a
Very Merry Christmas.
The air felt
brittle, cold, and clean, the breeze nonexistent and the sky cloudless and
bright baby blue. A big contrast to last night’s snow, which had kept plowing
crews busy until the early-morning hours. The snow along the edges of the
sidewalk and on the roof, coupled with the splashes of red on the exterior made
the store seem too happy. Piper thought that most of Santa Claus looked too
happy. It was one of Spencer County’s biggest towns, with a population chasing
twenty-five hundred.
“Merry
Christmas,” her dad said, his gaze sweeping across the long building. “Gotta
love a town called Santa Claus. And gotta love a store devoted to Christmas.”
Piper didn’t
have to love it.
Describe
a typical writing day for you.
Wake up.. Let the dogs out. Feed
the dogs. Fix a pot of tea and toast a bagel. Start writing. Let the dogs out. Go
back to writing. Fix some lunch. Give the dogs a little lunch. Let the dogs out.
Play with the dogs. Go back to writing. Let the dogs out. Go back to writing. Let
the dogs out…
In the evenings I watch a little
TV and jot ideas for future stories in a notebook…oh, and toss tennis balls and
tug on dog toys. On the weekends I like to indulge
in role-playing and board games, keeping a notebook with me for ideas when it’s
not my “turn.”
How
do you approach plotting a novel? Chapter outline? Rough idea? Fly by the seat
of your pants?
Usually I make detailed
chapter-by-chapter outlines. The lone time I wrote a book without an
outline…took me three times as long to write. With The Dead of Night I’m trying something different. There are all
these scenes I want to put it. I’m outlining the scenes on 3 x 5 cards, then
putting the cards in the order I want stuff to happen. It’s working fine, but
the book after this I’m going back to my detailed chapter-by-chapter outlines.
That’s what works best for me.
How
do you build your main character?
Because I love character-driven
fiction, I build the main characters before I outline the book. For example,
when I decided I wanted to write a mystery, I mulled over who the lead should
be. I settled on a young woman, fresh from the military, who lands a sheriff
position because of her last name. Then I worked to make the character
plausible. I visited the county to learn about its politics and under what
circumstances she could have won the election. I called Fort Campbell in
Kentucky, and the public affairs officer crafted her military background so she
would feel real.
What
about other characters?
Next, I built Piper’s “second,” a
chief deputy old enough to be her grandfather, Jewish, and not pleased she
bested him in the election.
THEN I started ladling in the
plot elements, alternating some chapters from these characters’ points of view.
I really like these characters.
I’m glad I’m putting them in another book.
What
is your favorite mystery character from books or movies…and why?
Harry Bosch is my favorite
character. Because he is Harry Bosch.
What
lured you to writing mysteries? What’s attractive about the genre?
All the while I was writing fantasy
and science fiction I read mystery novels. I didn’t want to read in the genre I
was writing; didn’t want to be influenced. Problem was…I was being influenced. I was being drawn deeper and deeper into
cozies, suspense, hardboiled, and all the other taglines for mysteries. I was
reading these books and wanting to write those books. And I started attending
mystery conventions.
Writing a mystery is attractive
to me because they’re more difficult—for me, anyway—to write. I have to use the
real world, not one of my own sculpting. I have to obey real-world laws and
follow roadmaps and weather patterns. I am loving the challenge and the
research, though.
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