Fiction Scribe

I always find it amusing where and how I find people who turn out to be writers. Published writers, even. Thus I was pleasantly surprised to find out Bobbi Chukran of Earthly Garden here at 451press is a published mystery author!

I’m pleased to bring you an interview with Bobbi A. Chukran, mystery author, garden blogger, writer.

Tell us a little about yourself.

My husband and I live on seven acres of rocks in the Texas Hill Country in a small town outside Austin, and raise a herd of six ornery cats. We live in a house we designed ourselves, and collect and drink rainwater. I’m an avid gardener, and also write the Earthly Garden blog here at 451press.

How did you get into writing?

I started writing when I was very young. I remember writing a lot of short plays and trying to force my brother and sister into memorizing parts in them. They all seemed to be science-fiction or deep sea adventures for some reason, maybe because I watched a lot of that on TV at the time. I also wrote a lot of poetry when I was a pre-teen, and although it was probably really bad, I did submit a few pieces to a magazine. Odd, I still remember the theme—the “human spirit.� They were rejected, but when I found out that magazines and such actually paid money for writing, I decided that was pretty cool!

When I was in high school, I had one English teacher who was very supportive of my writing, and encouraged me to enter a contest, although I didn’t get any support for the writing as an occupation. Although I wrote a lot of short stories, poetry, etc., it never occurred to me to pursue a career in writing since girls my age assumed we’d either be secretaries, housewives/mothers, school teachers or hairdressers—or all of the above! (Yes, I know I’m showing my age. LOL)

Ironically, I ended up actually studying art in college instead of going into writing because my grandfather was an artist and I’ve always loved art and crafts. All it took was a little push from him. I came back to the writing, though, after graduation when I put together a sourcebook for fiber artists that was published in 1984. I wrote full-time while trying to do the art career thing, but the writing took over. At that time, I was doing all non-fiction, and got burned out on it in a major way after getting contracts for two different books within a day of each other from two different publishers (after waiting a year to hear back from both of them)!

What that meant was that I had to produce two very large books–one, another sourcebook and the other a how-to book, in about 5 months–over 650 pages that required lots of research, correspondence, hours on the phone collecting information and conducting interviews, designing and writing up projects, doing experimental stuff and more…without e-mail, I might add. The stress almost killed me. After that, I quit writing for several years except for website stuff and e-mails. I tried going back to the art from time to time, but never did very well at it.

I suppose all writers dream of writing a novel. I can’t even remember when I started thinking about doing it. When I finally started the novel, it was a good change for me. The process was so different, and for the first time, I actually felt like a real writer instead of just a person who collected facts and regurgitated them. Weird! It was just so freeing to be able to take a notebook and pen and go sit in a coffee shop and write. I loved it!

How did you get into writing historical mysteries in particular?

Good question! I’m not sure I consciously made the decision. I knew I loved reading mysteries, and had grown up reading Nancy Drew and watching a lot of western TV shows and was influenced a lot by those. Another thing, it felt “safer� to me for some reason for a first book, maybe because it was removed from my real life, not contemporary. That was during the time that “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman� was on TV, too, and I discovered I really liked that time period.

Tell us a little about your book.

My book, Lone Star State of Death, is set in the 1880s in central Texas, and actually includes a few real people, incidences and businesses that were in Austin and surrounding areas at that time. I did a lot of research to get it right, and of course my previous experience with the non-fiction helped in that.

What brought together historical fiction and mystery for you?

A few cool coincidental things came together…I knew I wanted to write a mystery, but didn’t really have many ideas on what it would be about. I had recently bought an old Time-Life book and read about women who had come west as “typing machine� operators, and women who worked on newspapers. That sort of lodged in the back of my mind. A few weeks later, my husband and I were strolling along Main Street in a nearby small town where I saw an antique Linotype typesetting machine in the window of the newspaper office there. Bingo!

All of a sudden, I had a setting, I had a time period, and I had a character….a spunky young woman who comes to a small Texas town for a job at a newspaper as a typing machine operator, and becomes the editor there after her employer is killed. She investigates the death, and discovers that none of the residents in the small town are innocent. Other totally unrelated things worked their way into the plot—my love of horses, and a few facts I’d picked up on a trip to Louisiana several years before. I spent about a year on the research, then within about 8 months, I had a new novel.

What is it about writing historical mysteries that you love?

The research, and the fact that the characters actually come alive for me and start walking around and talking in my mind. I really could visualize it as if they were in a movie. That was freaky, because it had never happened to me before.

Anything about it you hate?

Not really, other than it’s very intense, fiddly work. I do dislike the fact that the market for historical mysteries isn’t as large as for contemporary ones, so naturally publishers don’t publish as many of them. And it’s harder to find readers of historical mysteries, too.

Are there any authors who inspired/inspire you in your writing?

There are several. I love anybody who has a sense of humor and can come up with great quirky, funny characters. For mysteries, I love the humor and characters in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. I love anything by Mel Brooks and Tim Burton. I was recently introduced to the Madea character in the Tyler Perry plays and movies, and love his work now. And of course, it occurs to me that none of these are historical mysteries!

For how-tos, I’m very fond of Kenneth Atchity’s book, A Writer’s Time, because it taught me how to plot stories. Also Jack Bickham has several how-to books out that have been very helpful because they taught me how to write a scene and keep it suspenseful, and the book that taught me the most about writing authentically is Writing from Personal Experience by Nancy Davidoff Kelton.

Do you have a muse? If so, who or what is it?

My muse is anything that inspires me to write and gives me ideas. It might seem strange, but my garden figures prominently in that. When I’m tired and need a break from writing, all I have to do is walk around in the garden, maybe dig in the dirt a little, and ideas come to me, and I get recharged and ready to start writing again. Gardening is a way of turning off the clamor in the brain. My six cats are also my muses, because they are great examples of how to enjoy life and not take things so seriously.

Do you have any guilty pleasures when it comes to writing?

Lately I’ve discovered chocolate covered Bing cherries. I’ve never been a snacker, and try not to snack while writing, but it’s hard. Anyway, fruit is good for you! LOL. I enjoy a few glasses of white wine if I’m writing late at night, but try not to overdo that.

What are your dreams for your writing?

To be able to find what I’m best at and say what I need to say before I die—I’m still trying to figure out exactly what that is, and what form it might take. I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of time and want to catch up. I want to cut through the crap and get to the place where what I’m writing is authentic to myself—and especially, to be able to reach an audience without putting too much emphasis on just the selling of something.

I hope I can tell the truth in my stories, because I think that’s what makes the best writing. And mostly, to write things that people will actually read, things that will make a difference in somebody’s life, things that will make a person laugh. That’s important to me, I guess, to make people laugh. Although, I’ll admit that I’m not afraid to rile people up a bit, too. That comes with telling the truth. Anything that evokes emotion is good writing, I think.

Any advice for historical mystery writers?

Pick a time period that you’re really interested in, because you’ll be spending a lot of time with it. You’ll have to dig up excruciatingly small details. Such as, if a woman in a rural town wanted a really fancy dress, where would it come from? Where would she get something like silk, even if she could sew? What types of weapons or transportation was used at the time? What did they eat? What was the slang of the day? What was the judicial system like, and what was law enforcement like? What types of medicines did they have? Believe me, if you get it wrong, your readers will let you know it! In a historical novel of any genre, it’s important to get the facts right, even though it’s fiction.

When I wrote Lone Star State of Death, I wasn’t even online yet. I didn’t have all the great resources that I have now.

Any advice for writers in general?

Write what you love to read, write what really jazzes you. Don’t expect to sit down and write a book completely from beginning to end. This is the one BIG lesson that I learned while writing my novel. You might first think of a scene that belongs in Chapter Four. Write it down! You might know the ending, but not the beginning. That’s fine, write it down! A novel is written as you write. Big surprise–you probably won’t know the whole story when you sit down to begin. That’s OK! You might start with a character, a funny line you overhear, a strange thing you see, a setting that really moves you.

All of these are valid ways to start a novel, whether contemporary or historical, whether a mystery or not. Ask yourself “What if…?� and take it from there. Don’t get too attached to all your clever ideas, because they will change in the course of writing the thing. The characters really do take on a life of their own, and sometimes do surprising things….mine certainly did. I think of writing a novel as gathering little bits and pieces from here and there…ideas for scenes, snippets of conversation, facts…then re-arranging them into a pleasing whole that makes sense. Sort of the way a detective gathers facts in a case to solve it.

Have any more questions for Bobbi? Let me know, and I’ll posts the questions up with her answers.

You can also find her at BobbiChukran.com where you can find information on her books and other blogs.

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