Interview with Debbie De Louise
“Debbie De Louise is a
reference librarian at a public library. She’s a member of Sisters-in-Crime,
International Thriller Writers, Long Island Authors Group, and the Cat Writer’s
Association. Her novels include the four books of the Cobble Cove mystery
series: A Stone’s Throw, Between
a Rock and a Hard Place, Written in Stone, and Love on the Rocks. Debbie has also
written a romantic comedy novella, When
Jack Trumps Ace, a paranormal romance, Cloudy Rainbow, and two
standalone mysteries, Reason to Die, and her latest
release, Sea Scope. She lives on Long Island with her husband, daughter,
and three cats.”
15) Debbie, you write the Alicia Fairmont-McKinney
Cobble Cove cozy mystery series. Like you, Alicia’s a librarian. How much of
you go into her character?
Alicia has many of my
personality traits. In the first book, A Stone’s Throw, when I introduce her, she’s
afraid of change but realizes that it’s necessary when she decides to travel to
her dead husband’s childhood town in search of answers about his past. I, too,
have had periods in my life where I’ve resisted change but have also learned to
accept that one can’t experience life without taking risks.
There’s one major
difference between me and Alicia. When she first meets Sneaky, the Cobble Cove
library cat, she isn’t sure how to befriend him because she’s never had a cat.
I grew up with cats and have always been fond of them. Of course, Alicia not
only befriends Sneaky, but becomes very close to him as the series continues.
14) You have an MLS degree in Library Science. How much
has that aided you as a mystery novelist?
Quite a lot actually.
As part of my job, I order the fiction and mystery books for the library by
reading reviews from publishing journals. That gives me a feel for the current
market and mystery writing trends. I also have access to research databases and
other sources that I use in my writing. I’ve given presentations at my library
and other libraries about my books and have applied my library background and
knowledge for plotting the scenes and events at the fictional Cobble Cove
library in my mystery series.
13) As with Wendy Corsi Staub (Mundy’s Landing),
you’ve set your mystery series in a small New York town. How much of Cobble
Cove is purely fictional and how much was inspired by your native Hicksville?
Cobble Cove is very
much a fictional place. It’s smaller and less populated than my hometown. The
location and stone houses are more like those of New Paltz which is a real
upstate New York town that I’ve visited. I like the idea of creating an
imaginary place because readers can fill in their own vision of what it’s like.
I wrote a guest post once about the town. Here’s the link to that post: http://bit.ly/31wSgKe.
12) You’ve won several awards! What were they
and for what titles?
I received the Laurence
C. Lobaugh Memorial Award for Journalism in my Sophomore year at Long Island
University/C.W. Post Center for my feature writing on the student newspaper.
This award included a medallion and an engraved plaque displayed in the campus’
Great Hall.
I also won the Glamour
Puss Award for my article on pet grooming in the Cat Writers’ Association
contest. This award featured a glass plaque from Purina engraved with a cat and
also check. The article can be read here: http://bit.ly/2ZKStJ2.
As for my fiction
awards, I’ve won Certificates of Excellences from the Cat Writers’ Association
for my short story, The
Path to Rainbow Bridge, and my latest Cobble
Cove mystery, Love on the
Rocks. I’ve also recently won TopShelf Magazine’s
June cover contest for my standalone psychological mystery, Sea Scope.
11) Cats feature prominently in your life and
work. How have your cats in particular and cats in general influenced your work
as a novelist?
My cat Floppy who
passed away in 2007 inspired me to publish my first book, Cloudy Rainbow. I featured him as a character in the book, and many of
the cat scenes I described actually happened except for how Dulcie, the main
character, came to have him. That book was republished with new edits and a new
cover for its 10th anniversary in 2018.
I also used my
knowledge of cats in general to write about the antics of Sneaky the Library
Cat in my Cobble Cove mystery series. Sneaky was loosely based on my Siamese,
Oliver, who died two years ago this November.
I almost always include
a cat in all my stories and books (sometimes more than one and also dogs and
other pets occasionally). Some play larger roles than others. I feel that
people enjoy reading about animals, so I like to include them in my writing. In
my standalone mystery, Reason to Die, I even feature a bird, although I’ve never owned one.
10) Without resorting to the official synopsis,
tell us about your latest standalone release, Sea Scope.
Twenty years ago, a
brother and sister found a body near a lighthouse in South Carolina. The dead
man was a guest staying at their family-owned inn. After an investigation, the
police term the death a suicide, but there are many unanswered questions.
The book begins in present
time when Sarah Collins nee Brewster, now married and living on Long Island, is
invited back to Sea Scope, the inn which is now her aunt’s. Sarah has been
having problems in her marriage, and has recently lost her brother, Glen, who
was killed in a car accident in Los Angeles where he worked as a psychologist.
Sarah decides it’s best
for her to get away and takes the trip with her friend, a writer whose
children’s books she illustrates. Returning to the inn, she meets people from
her childhood including the man who kissed her for the first time. She also
receives messages from someone claiming to be her dead brother and that the man
whose body she and Glen found that summer 25 years ago didn’t commit suicide
but was murdered.
As the story
progresses, it shifts from the present to the past as family secrets are
revealed and what happened that summer at Sea Scope is finally discovered.
9) Describe your typical writing day. Do you
use notebooks, laptops or both? Do you have daily word goals, and do you write
at work?
I use a desktop
computer. I don’t have writing goals, although I did participate in Camp NaNoWriMo
that helped me move my WIP along. I write early in the morning before work. I
usually only have 15 to 20 minutes, but I’m a fast typist (I once worked as a
secretary), and I can think while I type. I try not to think too much, though,
because I like to let the words flow to keep my creativity active. I often
think about the book throughout the day and especially at night and let ideas
pop into my head to extrapolate upon in the morning.
8) If you were ever offered a Big Five
contract, would you jump at it or would the control freak side that’s common to
every indie author insist on independence?
I would definitely jump
on it. It’s my dream, and I’ve queried agents on different books but haven’t
had much time to do so. I think it’s something I need to prioritize.
7) Who were some of your favorite
authors/fictional detectives in your formative years and would you say any of
them influence you to this day?
When I was a teenager,
I loved Gothic romance. My favorite authors were Phyllis Whitney and Victoria
Holt. I gobbled up all their books. I dreamt of emulating Phyllis Whitney and
even wrote to her once. She was a local author, and she answered me. I’ve been
searching for her reply since I married and moved away. I’m still hoping it
will turn up one day because it will give me even more inspiration to keep
writing.
As I got older and
interested in cozy mysteries that feature cats, I read Carole Nelson Douglas’
Midnight Louie Series; Shirley Murphy’s Joe Grey series; Lillian Jackson
Braun’s Cat Who books; Carolyn Burns’ Fear Familiar series, and other cat
writers. It was my pleasure to meet Shirley at a Cat Writers’ Association
conference in Kansas City many years ago, and I also met Carole who autographed
the anthology of Cat Crimes Through Time in which we both had stories. She and
Carolyn are also Facebook friends of mine.
6) Plotter or pantser?
Definitely a pantster.
I keep most of my ideas in my head. I only create a general character outline
as I work. Sometimes I surprise myself the way my characters act and the twists
that turn up in my books. For instance, I killed off a character that I hadn’t
planned to in one of my books. I find being a pantster makes it harder to edit
my rough draft, but it also leaves more room for creativity and the unexpected.
I enjoy when my characters take over and the plot moves in a direction I hadn’t
foreseen, and readers often tell me that they love the surprises.
5) Just so the readers know, you don’t write
just cozies. You’ve also started a hard-boiled mystery series (Lang and
Thompson) set in Connecticut. Tell us a bit about the world of Reason to Die (which I’ve just
bought).
Thank you for
purchasing my book. Reason to Die, while not a cozy, takes place in a small, Connecticut
town. Detective Courtney Lang is assigned the case of the “Handicapped
Strangler,” a killer who targets disabled people. While on the case, she is
paired with her old partner and ex-lover, Bill Thompson, who was shot and
disabled by a mugger. She believes that same mugger, who was never caught, is
responsible for the current murders and sets out to prove it while trying to
sort out her feelings for Bill and her current boyfriend, Mark Farrell, also a
detective. Her search leads her into dangerous territory where she must face
demons from her own past and avoid being killed at the same time.
4) Are your books in your own library? If so,
were they put into the system by an acquisition librarian or did you do it
yourself?
I order them myself. I
am the acquisition librarian – lol. I order the fiction and mystery books for
my library. Actually, I can’t place orders for my book directly because I use
Baker and Taylor to order books, but my books are only available on Amazon. Our
library uses Amazon as an alternate source for books, but the head clerk of
technical services processes those orders after I give my selections to her. We
use Amazon Prime, so the books arrive within two days or so. I’m then given them
to autograph and put on the shelf.
3) The old tropes of detective fiction are
giving way. How do you see detective fiction changing in the years to come?
I’ve seen a shift
toward more thrillers. There seems to be a blurring of lines between fiction,
mystery, and thrillers. We have a mystery section in my library where my Cobble
Cove mysteries are located, but some of my other books are in general fiction.
Popular authors such as James Patterson who write mysteries and mystery series
are usually housed in general fiction. I also see more amateur sleuths who are
common in cozy mysteries making more appearances in detective fiction of all
types. People identify with amateur sleuths and try to solve cases along with
them.
2) What do you see as the most difficult challenge facing
mystery novelists?
Mystery novelists have
the same challenges as novelists of other genres. The market is overflowing
with books. Agents receive hundreds of queries each day. To stand out, your
book must not only be good, it has to have market appeal and a strong push
behind it. That isn’t easy for most authors because they tend to prefer to
write than promote their work but need to do both. A good promoter could do
wonders for an average title, but a poor promoter has a hard time selling a
superior book.
1) What’s next for you, Debbie?
I’m halfway done with a
new standalone mystery. I won’t say much about it because it still needs to go
through several drafts before I’m ready to submit it to a publisher. I would
also like to start my fifth Cobble Cove mystery at some point. I have a short,
true story that’s already been accepted for an upcoming anthology of rescue cat
stories and several other books in varying stages of completion. I’m also still
querying the first book of a new cozy mystery series to agents.
Debbie and her work can
also be found at the following links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Deblibrarian
Amazon Author
Page: http://amzn.to/2bIHdaQ
Website/Blog/Newsletter
Sign-Up: https://debbiedelouise.com
posted by jurassicpork @ Sunday, August 11, 2019
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