Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Birders and murders.
Welcome to my world.
To be honest, I didn’t start out wanting to write murder mysteries. I originally wanted to be a poet. Then I wanted to be a teacher. Then I wanted to be an astronomer. Then I wanted to be a priest. Finally, I thought becoming an ornithologist would be cool. I even collected little bird models that you snapped together and painted. They cost about twenty cents each and some had wings that, instead of laying flat against the tiny plastic body, stuck out like the bird was flying. Realism – what a wonderful thing! Then I started first grade and the next thing I knew, I had graduated from college in Denver, gotten married in California, moved to Minnesota and given birth to five kids. At that point, all I wanted was to get some sleep.
But life, I’ve found, has a funny way of unearthing the embers of old passions and fanning them into new flames. Especially when you’re rested enough to notice. Back in the 1990s, I spent five years writing a weekly newspaper humor column called “Trust Me” about raising my family, a few columns of which turned out to be rather poetic. I went to graduate school and got a master’s degree in theology, which resulted in my first published book, Purpose, Passion and God: Awakening to the Deepest Meaning of Life. After six years of working in a high school career center, I went to graduate school again to get my master’s degree in English and discovered my own passion for teaching composition. One night a few summers ago I lay on a beach on Minnesota’s North Shore with my family and watched a meteor shower (astronomy is still very cool!). And ever since my kids were little, I’ve been pointing out to them the birds that visit our yard or fly overhead.
And then one day it hit me. I should write a murder mystery series about this really nice Minnesota guy who has a passion for birding, but keeps finding bodies along with the birds.
Yes, I confess: the fact that my son and husband had been birding for years influenced me a teeny, weeny bit. But they hadn’t been plotting murders – that was all my idea. (You know how long our Minnesota winters can get…) So I took my concept and started writing. Except that a concept is a long way from finishing a novel, let alone finding a publisher. But if nothing else, I can be stubborn, and so, four years after conception (talk about a long gestation!) – my first Bob White Birder Murder mystery appeared in 2008, titled The Boreal Owl Murder. It introduced readers to the wonderful world of birding (sans sunburns and ticks) and me to the crazy world of being an author of fiction. Now it’s five years and four more books later, and I’m working on the sixth novel in the series, slated for publication in September 2014. I hope you enjoy Bob’s adventures as much as I enjoy writing them!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“A Murder of Crows” was published in 2012. We live quite close to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, and visit frequently, but I hate their scarecrow display in October each year- it is just too creepy! So I decided to set a dead body among the scarecrows and that was the initial inspiration for the book. I threw in wind power as the conservation issue, a former celebrity wrestler (can you say ‘Jesse Venture’?) turned faculty member, and Halloween for good measure.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Besides not writing habitually, no. I’m great on meeting deadlines, but lousy on writing every day.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series was a huge influence for me – I loved her wacky humor. And I liked Nevada Barr’s focus on natural resources, so that became a part of my plots. Dave Barry, too, has been an inspiration for me for decades.
What are you working on now?
I’m writing book #6 in my series, titled “Swift Justice.”
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook has been huge. I’ve also seen good results from networking on LinkedIn since my books are about conservation and birding, and my contacts are all professionals in those fields.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write for a specific audience! It will give you a headstart when it comes to marketing, which, like it or not, is a huge part of the job of being an author. Even though you might think everyone would enjoy your book, you have to categorize it to find your audience. Think of your ‘ideal reader’ – age, cultural background, education level, hobbies, income range, music preferences – the more you can see that person, the more your writing will appeal to him or her.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t eat yellow snow.
Oh, you mean with writing?
In that case, the best advice I ever got was from a book. It said to learn how to write a novel, take a novel you love, and copy it, word for word. I didn’t do that, but I did outline chapter by chapter a novel I enjoyed. By doing that, I learned how to structure a novel, how to build suspense, and what keeps a reader reading. It’s very tedious, but it was invaluable as I learned to write fiction.
What are you reading now?
“The Paris Vendetta” by Steve Berry and “Media Magnetism” by Christina Hamlett.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Writing 6 more Birder Murders to have a complete set of 12 – one book for each month of the year, since birders look for different birds depending on the month.
What is your favorite book of all time?
That’s a tough call. “The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver is phenomenal, but then again, I’ve read “Bored of the Rings” a few times over.
Author Websites and Profiles
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