An Afternoon in Lala Land: Interview with Lala Corriere

“Since early childhood, Lala has been passionate about all the arts. She is a painter and a former stage performer. Early work careers blended high-end real estate sales and presiding over an interior design firm…” So begins the Amazon biography of this month’s featured author, Tucson native Lala Corriere.

(Courtesy Chuck Corriere)

15) Lala, you’re a self-described “desert rat.” What made you and your husband choose to live in the desert of Arizona and how does it inspire you while writing your mysteries?

One four-letter word. SNOW! I have vivid memories of the magical day we sold our snowblower. While we had frequented Scottsdale and Phoenix, we had never been to Tucson until the moment we stepped off the plane to buy a home. There were other factors. My mother lived with us and she was using the highest level of oxygen in Denver due to her COPD. When we transitioned down here the level of need decreased dramatically. Mom had a longer lease on life.

We found the desert to be quite sacred and deserving of reverence. How does this inspire my writing? We are framed by mountain ranges and national parks. Nature is often my muse. But I’ve learned a few creepy things along the way. Did you know that a terrific way to get rid of a body is to slather it in peanut butter and dump it in the deep desert? The animals take care of it. I did not know this. The idea freaks me out, but I did write it in a scene.

14) Your one series character is your Tuscon-based private eye, Cassidy Clark. Tell us about her and what makes her tick.

Cassidy is my alter ego. We’re both redheads and we’re both feisty, but the similarities end there. I can write about the red blood spilling into the crystal glass filled with amber-colored liquor, but I would pass out if I were to see it. Cassidy’s gutsy. She’s strong mentally and physically. Fear is not a word she recognizes. Because of her, I try to live with less fear in my life and more love.

13) You’ve made frequent mention of being mentored and endorsed by the late legend, Sidney Sheldon. How did you come to meet him and what was your relationship with him?

Early in my discovery of my passion for writing, as many young authors do, I joined various writing critique groups. While I won’t claim this, many of my peers compared my voice to that of Sidney Sheldon. I emailed him, along with many other authors, seeking guidance and blurbs. He was the ‘big name’ that responded but it is important to mention that the writing community, as a whole, offers no ego and lots of help. Sheldon had no ego. He offered me straightforward guidance and resources to master the craft. And, yes, in time, one great blurb!

12) As with so many of my Authors of the Month, you’ve had a very eclectic vocational life ranging from painting, stage acting as well as careers in interior design and real estate. Had any of those careers paid off since you’d made the transition to fiction in 2001?

I made no money with the painting and the acting although I still like to pick up a brush. As a Realtor, I worked hard for the money, but I was totally dissatisfied. Interior design? It isn’t as glamorous as it seems. Painters would show up stoned. One morning I read the newspaper to see in the business section that a barge had sunk in the middle of the Atlantic. My client’s furniture was on it and the client blamed me! Then there was the new construction home. Special order carpet needed to be installed before the certificate of occupancy and I had a great crew that worked all night to lay it. Unfortunately, with little lighting, it wasn’t until the morning that we went in to see the work. The carpet had come in with two different dye lots. It looked like a checkerboard! Looking back, I suppose this is what gave me a bit of the tough spine to get through mean book reviews.

11) Did you read mystery fiction when you were growing up? Who were your favorites, biggest influences?

My mother was my biggest influence. She gifted me every Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys’ book. She would read each afternoon and she favored Agatha Christie, then Mary Higgins Clark and Sidney Sheldon came along. She never lived to see my published works, but she was elated to know of my relationship with Sheldon.

10) Describe your average writing day: Do you write in a notebook or laptop exclusively or both? Do you set word goals for yourself and if so, what do you aim for?

           Day and night! Sometimes I wake up in the wee hours and if it’s a word or a sentence impaling my brain, I try to scribble it down in the dark. Sometimes, thoughts are emerging into full scenes and I get up and onto my computer. Have you ever thought that you would remember a dream only to wake up and it’s gone? I’ve written many a scene in my head and then failed to retrieve it come morning. Sometimes I’m only up for thirty minutes. Other times I find myself doing the BICHOK (Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard, for the gentiles at home) thing in the middle of the night for hours.

            It brings me back to the desert in that I often take a spiral notepad and pen outside to write. We have our share of cold nights but mostly, I can go outside and do my mind-dump. I then have my first draft and I complete a second draft when I commit it to the computer. Only twenty to go!

I don’t know that I aim for a word count but that I am reminded of my father’s friend, the great Ashley Montague, that taught us if we only write a page a day by the end of the year we will have a book. Sharing and encouraging as we do, I gave this advice to a well-known, respected, and hard-working investigative reporter. His book, a memoir of unimaginable events, has a spring release date.

9) Do you currently read other mystery novelists who set their stories in the desert?

I am honored to be a friend of Betty Webb. The first time I met her was at a writer’s conference in Scottsdale and I more or less cornered her in the ladies’ room! This brings me to one more point. The power of asking. I have received great blurbs from Webb. All they can do is say no. Two more regional authors are J.A. Jance and the remarkable J. Carson Black. With all their words, you’ll be breathing in the desert dust, feeling the sun on your back, accidentally be pricked by the spine of a cactus, and drinking juicy pink Prickly Pear Margaritas. Tea, if you prefer.

8) Recently, you branched out into inspirational fiction and began a series of short stories called the Traveling Cane (In which Cassidy Clark makes a cameo). What led you to write and publish this series of short stories?

My cane is my new buddy. I love him. I had been wanting to write something inspirational for two full years but without a story. The true tale came when my dad visited. He forgot his cane and has mobility issues. Buried in there is his story as to how he came by one, and with that my cane came to life as being at the right place and at the right time for the person in need of his assistance. There will be more stories. He’s nagging me. Next up he will be interacting with another inanimate object. He is crudely crafted by meager means, but he is about to meet a fine Parisian scarf spun of the finest silk.

7) You just recently had your Dad over for some picking sessions. Has he ever helped you with your writing? How much support do you get for it in your nuclear family?

That was such fun! My husband picked back up the guitar this year. Dad hadn’t played in decades. Who would think that little me can belt out the alto? We jam! These two men have supported me and my crazy ideas. Full support. My husband is my first beta reader and sometimes he comes back into our bedroom and tells me he’s afraid to sleep with me. “Where do you come up with these ideas?” It is a good question to which I don’t have the answer. It’s a mystery.

6) What do you envision for the future of the mystery genre? How has it evolved since say, our childhood?

What a great question. None of us know but we see the general movement toward more profanity and sexual content as being the norm. I think if it adds dimension to the scene this is appropriate. There certainly is an outreached arm toward fantasy and the paranormal.

5) What do you consider the most difficult aspect of writing? What’s the easiest for you?

How interesting that the answer is the same. It’s about the diligence. I don’t have a 9-5 job, although one rude reviewer suggested I get one. I simply show up, whether it be on the patio or right here in my den. The statistics are vague but suggest that less than one percent of persons who say they are going to sit down and write a book actually finish it, and this is true even after the amazing opportunity of self-publishing. It’s about diligence. I suppose we all have that occasion of facing writer’s block and that is the time for a walk in the desert.

4) Plotter, pantser or plantser?

I am totally a planster. I can plot. It’s good to plot and then my characters tell me that they don’t like my plot, so off I go into panster mode.

3) If there’s any one thing to which you give especial attention in your fiction, what would you say it is? Plotting, character delineation, dialogue?

I do the character boards and they are all over my den at this time. I need to know my characters intimately. They hate kale and went to Harvard and they’re allergic to cats. And then, they’ll tell me that they are allergic to kale of which I know they are not. Sometimes they lie.

            I move my stories forward with dialogue, but you can only do this when you are deep into the heads of the different characters.

2) Are you planning another series besides Cassidy Clark or will you continue that plus your standalones?

I’m eager to write Cassidy’s next journey. She’s a bit psychic, as most competent private investigators may admit to, and she knows her lover, missing in the drug-fueled party island of Ibiza, is alive.

1) What’s next in Lala Land?

           Cassidy will travel to Ibiza. I do not know what will happen to her.

           My traveling cane will be enjoying that Parisian scarf as he realizes he has many more persons to help along his way.

Lala? I’ll set my sights on The Today Show. Oprah? Certainly, not the stage!