Interview with Susan McBride
Interview by M. E. Wood

Living single and enjoying the mystery writer's life with a couple of cats and a comfy sweater, Susan McBride is living the dream. McBride was a finalist in the St. Martin's Press Best First Traditional Mystery contest with And Then She Was Gone (Mayhaven Publishing, 1999), her breakout novel. This was followed by Overkill (Mayhaven, 2001), both part of the Maggie Ryan series.

Blue Blood (HarperCollins/Avon, 2004), the first in the new Debutante Dropout series has gone into multiple printings, was a featured alternate selection of the Mystery Guild and stayed on the Independent Mystery Booksellers top ten list for three months. I had the opportunity to review Blue Blood for Linear Reflections and had a blast. I hope you enjoy getting to know Susan McBride as much as I did.

Where are you from?

Right now, I live in St. Louis, MO, which is where I plan to stay. We've got a wonderful group of mystery authors in town: John Lutz, Ridley Pearson, Scott Phillips, Eileen Dreyer, Rett MacPherson, and Eleanor Sullivan, among others. So maybe living in the shadow of the Arch makes for good crime writing! My mom's side of the family goes back six generations in this city, so I feel like my roots are here, though we moved around a lot when I was growing up. I was born in Kansas City, MO, and have lived in Indianapolis, IN; Winnetka, IL; Overland Park, KS; Mission Hills, KS; Greenwich, CT; Houston, TX; and Dallas, TX. I figure that makes me a mutt.

What is your specialty?

Though I wrote all kinds of manuscripts after college (one a year for ten years until I was published), right now I'm focusing on mystery fiction.

Do you write full-time?

I am writing pretty much full-time now. I still hang onto a part-time job with an orthopedic surgeon's office as a back-up, but I've been traveling so much this year and now am writing the third book in my series, so I haven't had much time to spare. (And, yes, my budget is tight!) When I'm working on a novel, I need to be able to put my whole head into it. Some folks can write in airports and in hotels, but I'm not one of them. I need quiet, and I need to find that "zone" where I'm thinking about the book 24 hours a day. It's the only way I know how to do it.

What other "day jobs" have you had?

While I majored in public relations at the University of Kansas (graduating with a B.S. in journalism), I ended up working a variety of part-time jobs in order to support myself and have writing time. By juggling a couple of gigs, I could create blocks of "work time" and blocks of "writing time." I pretty quickly fell into doing medical transcription, however, and I did that for a dozen years. I'm a very fast typist (about 125 wpm), and I loved learning the terminology and the feeling like I was putting someone's story down on paper. It might sound kooky, but I enjoyed it. Plus, it gave me great contacts in the medical field, so I have people to go to when I need to ask questions like, "How much blood would there be if a middle-aged man was stabbed with an ice pick in his stomach?" The doctors love it!

When do you do your writing? Do you get dressed to go "to work"?

Oh, boy, I'm dressed now as I will be for the rest of the day:  in a University of Kansas basketball T-shirt, flannel pajama bottoms, and fuzzy slippers. Pretty elegant, huh? This is basically what I wear when I write, because I need to be comfortable. I don't want to worry about zippers pinching while I'm working. But when I'm promoting, it's a different story. Then I go for the good stuff in my closet: cute shoes, lots of black, silver earrings. It's a fun balance.

Describe your office.

Ah, my writing room. It's my favorite place to hang out. I just repainted this January, so the walls are a Benjamin Moore color called "Decatur Buff"-- it's sort of a deep tan with a hint of gold. There's a border near the ceiling of books on a shelf, and it runs around the whole room. My desk is from an antiques mall in Dallas, and it's an old dining room table, no leaves. The wall in front of the desk has a framed Blue Blood signing poster from a Barnes & Noble event earlier this year. On either side of it-- also framed-- is the top of a Waldenbooks display in which Blue Blood was featured and the covers for Blue Blood and The Good Girl's Guide to Murder. I have the fortune from a fortune cookie taped to my monitor that says, "You have two strong points in life:  perseverance and confidence."  I also have Calvin Coolidge's quote about persistence taped up, too:

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrequited genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

What is the setting of most of your novels?

I'm really drawn to Texas; Dallas, in particular. I lived in Houston for 11 years growing up (the longest stint I've lived anywhere) and in Dallas for nine. That's half my life, so it's a part of the country that's in my blood. I also think it's somewhat easier to set a book in a place that you know well, but aren't actually living in anymore. It gives you a bit of distance. My first published novels, And Then She Was Gone and Overkill, featured a police detective in a fictional town outside Dallas. (Those were published by a small traditional press.)  Blue Blood and the rest of the Debutante Dropout Mysteries are/will be set in Dallas, because that's the turf of my protagonist, Andy Kendricks, a 30-year-old woman reared in high society, who refused her debut, and prefers working as a web designer and wearing jeans, not haute couture. Dallas is such a juicy setting for novels. It has everything you could ask for: interesting and diverse people, great locations, and, of course, big hair. My second Deb Dropout book, The Good Girl's Guide to Murder, deals with a Martha Stewart-type domestic diva who has more enemies than JR Ewing.

What genre do you write? What made you decide to tackle the genre of novels you  write in?

I grew up on Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown, so mysteries are a natural. I love the puzzle, figuring out whodunit. I actually tried to write in other genres before I found my niche. I wrote a couple of romances after college which seemed to have more suspense than love scenes. I tried my hand at three contemporary literary novels, which helped land me an agent, but never sold. By then, I was deeply into the Sue Grafton books and thought, "Why not do this?"

After a couple attempts, I found my voice and my rhythm with And Then She Was Gone. It was a finalist in the St. Martin's Press Best First Traditional Mystery contest, won the National Writers Association's Best Novel contest, and garnered first place in Mayhaven Publishing's first-ever Award for Fiction, with the prize being publication. It went into a second printing, and they also published Overkill, the second novel to feature Detective Maggie Ryan. I have a third done in the series, which needs a revision before my agent can market it in NY. So, I hope Maggie Ryan will live on.  Those books are a lot darker, more psychologically tense. The Debutante Dropout mysteries are lighter and humorous.

What kind of research do you do to make your novels realistic?

For the Maggie Ryan stories, I needed to know police procedures and forensics. I do have lots of nonfiction books in my own library that deal with such issues. I also have contacts in the field who answer my questions, in particular, police officers and a man who trains crime scene investigators. For the Andy Kendricks (Debutante Dropout) books, I mainly need to keep up-to-date on Dallas: restaurants, the social scene, shopping, scandals, and politics. I use the web, talk to friends in Big D, and I subscribe to the Park Cities People newspaper. I get two issues in the mail every week, and it's chock-full of all the doings in Highland Park and University Park, the areas I write about most. It's the best research tool I have.

Do your books have a specific and distinctive quality, characteristic, or concern? If so, why is this important to your books?

What I love about mysteries is that they allow the author to weave in social concerns or important issues without banging readers over the head with them. Though Blue Blood and The Good Girl's Guide to Murder are funny books, there's also a deeper level dealing with tougher issues. But, people can choose to pick up on those or not. I really love characters, so I hope I do well to bring them alive in readers' minds. My goal is to continue to write stories that don't have any good stopping points, so folks read to the end and then say, "Wow, what a great ride."

Tell us about your latest project.

The second in the Debutante Dropout series, The Good Girl's Guide to Murder, came out on January 25, 2005 (it's also a Mystery Guild featured alternate), and I'm currently in the midst of the third book, tentatively titled The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club, due out in February of 2006.

As we speak, I'm just past the halfway mark on The Lone Star Lonely Hearts Club, which deals with murder in a posh retirement community and a matchmaking service for wealthy widows and widowers. Once I finish that up and turn it in to Avon, I'll get to work on revisions of Walk into Silence, the third Maggie Ryan book.  This one deals with the disappearance of a married woman, who was last seen shopping at a discount store, and involves a death from the past that may or may not have been murder.

What ways have you found to effectively promote your books?

I really enjoy doing signings, conferences, conventions, and book festivals: any place that'll have me. I love getting out there and talking about books. I'm just a chatty Cathy, so I have a great time and enjoy meeting people. I did start a group called "The Deadly Divas" five years ago, when And Then She Was Gone came out. We're a gang of female mystery authors who often tour together, do a group website, and also send out a newsletter twice a year (http://www.deadlydivas.com). Promoting with a group is wonderful. Not only do you have that support behind you, but it's so much more cost-efficient, plus working as a team is far less lonely than going solo.

Promotion is very hard work, but so important these days with shelf space so crowded. My own website has been a wonderful tool, and I try to do contests a couple times a year. Avon ran a sweepstakes in the back of Blue Blood-- and will do the same with The Good Girl's Guide to Murder-- and those were very effective at getting readers to my site and signing them up for my mailing list. I keep trying new things and see what works and what doesn't. Promotion is a lot of trial and error, but I would recommend not spending too much money on advertising doo-dads. Great-looking postcards and bookmarks are always good choices and make sure you have professional business cards at the ready.

How do you find time to write, promote, and take care of everything else in your life?

I'm still figuring that out! I am in awe of my friends who manage to do what I'm doing AND have kids to care for. Now that's miraculous. It's really tough fitting everything in and something generally has to give. For me, it's time with family and friends. I hate having to give that up, but I always tell myself it's only temporary.

Besides writing, what do you do for fun? What are your hobbies?

I love to read. I have more books in my TBR stack than I will likely ever get to. I started a book club in conjunction with my local library and we now have 34 members. Antiques, movies, and penny slots at Harrah's-- those are definitely some of my favorite things!

Is there anything that you would like to share with readers?

First off, thanks so much for spending a little time with me! For those who are writers and finding it hard to break in, my advice is to hang in there and keep writing. I didn't sell my first manuscript or my fifth...I sold my tenth. (You should see my linen closet-- one shelf is packed with unpublished books.) Sometimes, it takes a while to find your true niche and your voice. I'm so glad much of my earlier work was not put into print. It just wasn't ready. So read, write, and network. I didn't network until after I was published, so I had a lot of catching up to do. Most of all, enjoy yourself and listen to your heart. Don't let people tell you that you can't. You can. I'm living proof.

Visit Susan McBride's website at http://SusanMcBride.com.
 

Read Linear Reflections’ review of Blue Blood.

M. E. Wood lives in Eastern Ontario. Visit her website, http://www.m-e-wood.com.

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