Interview with Randee Green

“I come from a long line of criminals. Moonshiners, rumrunners, and drug dealers. Horse thieves and carjackers. Bank robbers, burglars, pickpockets, and con artists. And then there has been the occasional killer. You name it, whether it’s a felony or a misdemeanor, somewhere along the line a member of my family has committed it.”

So begins Randee Green’s, Criminal Misdeeds, the first entry in the Carrie Shatner mystery series.

15) Randee, how does a girl from south central Pennsylvania wind up writing an entire series that takes place in East Texas? What attraction does that region have for you?

I was born and raised in Pennsylvania, but Texas has been my spiritual home ever since I first heard Pat Green’s music. Pat is from Texas and his style of music is Red Dirt Country. I also listen to a number of other Red Dirt Country singers who are from Texas. Their music just speaks to me in ways that other music never has. It’s because of my love for Pat Green that the Carrie Shatner Mystery series is set in Texas. It is also why I chose the last name of Green for my pen name.

The other reason that the Carrie Shatner series is based in Texas is because when Carrie popped into my head, she insisted that she was a Texan. She bounced around the state quite a bit before I finally settled on the Pineywoods of East Texas, but I was never able to take her out of Texas and place her in another state. Texas was just where she belonged.

14) Describe for us the psychological landscape of Carrie Shatner. Why is she so different (most days) from her outlaw family?

Unlike most of her family members, Carrie Shatner has a moral compass. That moral compass might not point to true north, but at least it points somewhere in the general direction of northwest. Yes, Carrie has been known to break a law or two (or a dozen), but she does so to clean up after her criminally inclined family members. The Shatners have been breaking the law for as far back as the family can be traced. These days, they make moonshine, grow marijuana, sell illegally obtained prescription drugs, run a chop shop, and launder money—just to name a few. When she was younger, Carrie was somewhat proud of her family’s lawbreaking past and her family’s ability to break the law and get away with it. The older she gets, the more she learns about her family’s criminal ways. She’s no longer proud of them. But she loves them enough that she wants to protect them. Hence why she uses her job with the sheriff’s department to clean up after them. But Carrie is reaching her limit, and she’s had about all she can take of her family’s antics. CRIMINAL HISTORY and CRIMINAL JUSTICE focus on Carrie’s moral struggles when it comes to dealing with her family and what she plans to do about it.

13) You’re not only ready to launch the third Shatner novel with your publisher, you’re also planning a wedding. How do you cope and keep your sanity?

There has been a lot of internal screaming along the way. And, just because writing, working my day job, and planning a wedding isn’t stressful enough, we’ve decided to start house hunting as well.

Originally, my fiancé and I were supposed to get married in Las Vegas. Ever since I was a kid, my dream was to get married by an Elvis impersonator. Thanks to COVID-19, that’s just not going to happen this year. Instead of pushing back the wedding to next year, we decided to just get married locally and then get remarried by Elvis in the future. Unfortunately, the new wedding involves a lot more planning than the Elvis wedding where all we really had to do was fly to Vegas, get the marriage license, and then go see Elvis.

Alexander and I are obsessed with Halloween. We met working at a haunted attraction. After getting engaged in July of 2019, we decided that Halloween 2020 was the perfect wedding day for us. Due to the change of plans, we are now having a Halloween-themed wedding. It’s given me an excuse to stock up on even more Halloween decorations. I’ve also been making a bunch of decorations including centerpieces and faux cemetery columns and gravestones for the altar. While the arts and crafts interfere with my writing time, it does provide a nice break and allows me to step away and think about my novels.

12) You’d told me recently you were wrapping up the Shatner series with the fourth book. How do you feel about concluding a series that’s gotten some rave reviews?

It’s been tough. Writing CRIMINAL JUSTICE was hard because I knew it was the last novel in the series. I kept dragging out the writing process, and that made it harder for me. Carrie Shatner has been with me since late 2005/early 2006, so it’s hard to wrap up her story and say goodbye. It’s like losing a friend—or a whole bunch of friends. I’ve spent about fifteen years thinking up Carrie’s world and coming up with new ways for her family to drive her nuts. It will be very weird not “hanging out” with Carrie anymore. But wrapping up the series allows me to move on to other projects.

11) After Carrie Shatner, how will you continue your writing career? Another series, a spinoff series, standalones, crossovers?

I plan to keep writing mysteries. I have a cozy novel that I began working on periodically since last year. Now that the Carrie Shatner series is about wrapped up, I plan to get back to that novel and finish it up. I also have ideas for two other cozy mystery series. I have been doing research for one of those series, and I have been playing around with ideas for the other one.

I would also really like to write at least one historical novel. There’s one that I’ve wanted to write for a long time, and I have been doing research on it off-and-on for years.

10) It’s been said many times that all novels tell just two stories- Someone going on a journey or a stranger arriving in town. Which one is the Shatner series?

The Carrie Shatner series is a “stranger arriving in town” type of story. The “stranger” in Carrie’s world is the murder victim, and Carrie’s job of investigating is what makes up the story.

9) Criminal Chokehold, the second in the series: What do Carrie and her lawless family bring to the table that they hadn’t in the first book?

The Shatners continue to bring the craziness in CRIMINAL CHOKEHOLD, but they take a bit of a backseat in the novel. None of them are the murder victim, and none of them are really considered suspects. The Shatners spend most of the novel lurking on the periphery and causing headaches for Carrie. They jump back into the driver’s seat in CRIMINAL HISTORY as Carrie is forced to confront her past as well as her family’s various crimes. The fourth and final novel, CRIMINAL JUSTICE, focuses on the Shatners and how their many crimes are finally catching up to them. Overall, everything that the Shatner do—and all of the crimes they commit—force Carrie to finally do something about them.

8) Plotter or pantser or plantser?

I am a plantser. I will thoroughly plot out my novels scene by scene before I begin the writing process, but I don’t always stick to what I’ve outlined. Just because something seemed like a good idea during the outlining process doesn’t mean that it will continue to be a good idea as the novel takes shape.

7) While in college, you’d earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, plus a Masters and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Do you think your college degrees helped make you a better writer?

Honestly, I’m not sure how much my Bachelor of Arts in English Literature or my Master of Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing helped make me a better writer. Yes, I learned a lot about writing while earning all three of the degrees. I also was introduced to a lot of different styles of literature that I otherwise would not have read. I am a strong believer that extensive reading helps a writer improve their craft. But it is writing something that makes a person a writer. A piece of paper and a fancy degree does not. I learned far more from putting pen to paper (and hands to keyboard) than I did by studying any textbooks.

6) What are the easiest and most difficult aspects of writing mysteries?

For me, the easiest thing about writing mysteries is coming up with unique ways of killing off my victims. I am constantly on the lookout for items that would make interesting murder weapons. I also enjoy coming up with different motives for my suspects. It should be no surprise that I watch an unhealthy number of documentaries about serial killers and murder investigations for inspiration.

As for the hardest part… I would have to say that would be limiting my suspect list to only a few people. I find that as I’m writing, I start throwing in secondary characters with credible motives. I think I do it because I want to deflect suspicion away from the guilty party. But having too many suspects can be confusing for the reader. I also tend to get lost in the mystery part of the novel and forget to give my main character a personal life. Carrie Shatner (and my future main characters) need to have something to keep them occupied between solving mysteries.

5) Describe your typical writing day, if you have one. Do you write exclusively in a notebook or laptop or do you use both? Do you set daily word goals and if so, what’s your threshold?

I write whenever I get a chance during the week. Sometimes that will be over my lunchbreak while I’m at work. Other times it will be in the evening. Saturdays are my main writing day. My fiancé works on Saturdays, so I have the place to myself. My only distraction is the dog. I usually get in 6 to 8 hours of writing depending on if I have anything else I have to do. I don’t really set daily word goals because I’ve found that it stresses me out. I see any progress as good progress whether it’s revising a scene or writing 15 pages.

I do all of my writing on my laptop, but when I’m finished with the first draft, I will print everything out and go over it with colored pens. I really only use my notebook when I need to jot down notes.

4) You and I have one thing in common in that my latest release and your concluding entry in the Carrie Shatner series both feature haunted hayrides. You told me you’d actually taken a job at one just to get a feel for the atmosphere. What gave you the idea to begin with?

I worked at Field of Screams in Mountville, PA for three seasons. It’s located about fifteen minutes from where I grew up. I’ve always loved Halloween and going to haunted attractions. Ever since I was a kid I had wanted to work at a haunted attraction, but I just never did it. Finally, in 2017, I was looking down the barrel at turning 30 and knew that if I didn’t do it that year, I would probably never do it. I wound up working at the Redneck/Hillbilly/Moonshiners’ skit on the haunted hayride. It was a lot of fun playing the role of Mama Redneck. I also learned a lot about the working at and running of a haunted attraction. Plus, I gathered a bunch of great stories—some of which make it into CRIMINAL JUSTICE. I had only planned on working at Field of Screams for one season, but I wound up going back for two more. And it’s a good thing that I did because I met my fiancé there during my second season.

The reason I decided to have the CRIMINAL JUSTICE crime scene at a haunted hayride was because, in CRIMINAL MISDEEDS, I briefly mention that the Shatners operate a haunted attraction. I had every intention of setting one of the Carrie Shatner mysteries in the fall so that I could use the haunted attraction as a backdrop for the story.

3) You and your fiancé have a little menagerie with at least one dog and one cat (Mr. Snookums G. Cat). What do they bring to the books and the writing experience? Have they made or will they make appearances?

Snookums is currently living out his retirement years at my parents’ house. He’s too old to move to a new place, and he enjoys going out in the fenced in yard. Snookums was with me while I was writing most of the Carrie Shatner novels, and he makes an appearance in all of them. In the series, his name is Manny. Manny was the name that his original owners gave him. Snookums was my neighbors’ cat, but they had dumped him outside to fend for himself. He started hanging out around my parents’ house and we let him move in. Since I didn’t know his name was Manny, I started calling him by random endearments. Snookums stuck.

My fiancé and I have a dog named Daisy. She’s a pit bull/Staffordshire terrier mix. Getting her was fate. At the time, Alexander had a pet snake. We swung by the pet store to get a feeder rat, and there happened to be some adoptable puppies in the store. Daisy and her sisters were rescued from a high-kill shelter in Texas and transported to Harrisburg so that they could be adopted. I took one look at her and burst into tears. I guess you could say it was love at first sight. Luckily, everything worked out and we were approved to adopt her. Daisy is my constant companion. She goes to work me during the week, and she’s always following me around at home. Despite always being close by when I’m writing, Daisy has yet to make an appearance in any of my novels. She will someday.

2) What words of advice do you have for novice writers trying to break into the publishing business?

When I was in grad school for creative writing, the mentors kept telling us to “just write the damn thing.” It has been my motto ever since. If you don’t write it, it’s never going to get written.

1) I know I sort of asked this question earlier, but I always round out my interviews by asking this. What’s next on the horizon for Randee Green?

Once the wedding and house hunting/moving craziness is over, I plan to spend as much time writing as I possibly can. I have so many ideas, I just haven’t had the time to get as much writing done as I would like. One thing I can say for sure is that there is going to be more moonshine making and pro wrestling in my future mystery novels.

Bonus Question) What literary pilgrimages have you made?

Back in summer of 2010, right after I graduated from college with my undergraduate degree, my parents and I went on a two-week road trip of the Midwest. While on the trip, we visited almost all the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites. The first one we visited was the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri. Charles Ingalls’ fiddle is on display in the museum, and I was so overwhelmed that I started crying when I saw it. Since then, I have visited all the Little House sites and would love to go again. It was an amazing experience getting to see all the places that were in the books, and it was basically a religious pilgrimage for me.

If you’re interested in reading Randee Green’s books or learning more about her, here are some links to get you started:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/RandeeGreenAuthor

Instagram: @randee_green_author  

Twitter: @RandeeGreen_12

Criminal Chokehold:https://www.amazon.com/Criminal-Chokehold-Carrie-Shatner-Mystery/dp/1603817115

Website: https://www.randeegreen.com/