Shortly before our last book club, I decided I'd chance a quick email to writer Mary Anna Evans about her book Findings. It is a newer edition of her Faye Longchamp mysteries after reading her website (her photo comes from that site). I had hoped to hear from her at some time but she was able to write back shortly after I had emailed her.
I asked four questions and I shared her responses with the book club. I'll do the same here:
What do you hope we talk about with the book club regarding your book?
FINDINGS is an interesting place to start my series, if your members haven't read my work before. I write all my books so that they can be read independently, but FINDINGS is the culmination of the slowly developing relationship between Faye and Joe, so it's special to me because of that. I was also very fond of my historical couple, Jedediah and Viola. They were fun to write and people seem to respond well to them. My books are mysteries. To me, mystery is the literature of justice, in the way that some people call science fiction the literature of ideas. In a mystery, the world is set akew and it takes everything the protagonist has got to make things right. Things are not as they were--the victim is still dead--but justice has been done in a way that isn't always possible in real life. In a mystery, you can explore the boundaries of justice and right and wrong; what is just is not always right, and what is right is not always just. So, if asked what my first three mysteries were about, I would say, "Justice." Imagine my surprise when I wrote the last chapter of FINDINGS and realized that this book was not about justice. It was about love. There is no character who is not touched, for good or ill, by romantic love.
I've been looking at your previous interviews and user friendly webpage for talking points for the book club. Any special challenges for writing this book?
This book took me back to the setting of my first book, ARTIFACTS, so I didn't have to create a new setting. I did, however, need to communicate the setting and the recurring characters to people who hadn't read ARTIFACTS, without boring long-time readers. And I had to decide how to resolve Faye's and Joe's relationship...or whether to resolve it at all.
What is your writing and book promotion schedule like?
When my daughter is in school, I write from the time I take her to school until it's time to pick her up--basically 8 to 3. On non-school days, it's very hard for me to get creative work done, but I'll write then if I'm on deadline. More often, I do business or promotional work during the time when I can't be alone in the house. I promote heavily during the first few months after a book comes out, then I focus more on writing the next book. I still do events, but I tend to just go where I'm invited, instead of actively seeking appearances. It works out to about an event a month.
And how did you come to write mysteries?
I write in many genres, but Faye's stories are the ones that captured the attention of my publisher. And I'm glad, because I enjoy writing Faye. She's become almost like my invisible twin. :-)
[Hope this helps! Mary Anna]
Yes, it does. Thanks.
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