Interview With Author Laraine Stephens
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
After thirty-five years as a teacher-librarian, I decided that it was my time to have a book on those shelves. Historical crime fiction was my genre. I attended workshops at Writers Victoria, read lots of blogs and advice columns, and started writing. Suffice it to say, my first novel was awful and is stashed in the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet. I soldiered on, producing book number two, and started submitting it to publishers. Bingo! I now have a six-book contract with Level Best Books (USA). My fifth in the Reggie da Costa Mysteries has just been published.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is ‘The White Feather Murders’. I read in the newspapers from the 1920s about poison pen letters and the damage they did. There are many famous cases in which innocent people were targeted by poison pen writers, who accused them of scandalous behaviour, often without any evidence to prove the truth of what was asserted. Reputations were ruined, recipients committed suicide, suspicion fell on townspeople who might have been innocent or guilty. In one case the authorities even called in a hypnotist to crack the suspects. The very fabric of towns was ripped apart with tragic results.
This fascinated me and I decided to give it a twist. When the Poison Pen column in The Truth newspaper shames five members of the public – the president of the Melbourne Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, a nurse, a politician, a doctor, and a priest – exposing their hypocrisy and lies, it barely raises a ripple of interest. But when three of them end up dead, each clutching a white feather, The Argus’s senior crime reporter, Reggie da Costa, feels compelled to investigate why someone wants them dead. Can Reggie unmask the Poison Pen and bring a murderer to justice?
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
So many plot lines and problems are solved when you walk. It’s a case of freeing your mind rather than staring at a keyboard. I also jot down ideas in a notebook dedicated to each novel. At times, I read through the entries I have made over the time I take to write a novel to see what I should have included. Sometimes I jot down a word, such as ‘Conflict’, to remind me that I need to keep the tension going. I might send myself a text message because I can guarantee that I will have forgotten it by the time I get home.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’ve been a reader all my life. I read everything in the school library that started with ‘The Mystery of…’ or ‘The secret of…’ Sad, isn’t it? And then I discovered Sherlock Holmes: the mysteries plus the creation of a world of hansom cabs, gaslit cobblestone streets, opium dens and the grit of working-class London. Crime fiction has been my passion although I have read and loved the classics. Jane Austen. The Brontes. More recently, I have embraced the novels of Val McDermid, Peter Temple, Anthony Horowitz, Peter Robinson and Ian Rankin.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on ‘The Bathing Box Murders.’ The bodies of J. Arnold Witherspoon and his wife are found beneath the bathing boxes along the Dendy Street beach in Brighton, Australia. It was assumed that they were travelling abroad given that their lawyer has received written instructions regarding their financial affairs. But how can there be letters from a man who’s been dead for seven years?
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I love giving author talks, speaking about the historical background to my novels or my journey to becoming a published author. I have addressed Rotary and Probus groups, book clubs, University of the Third Age groups, been interviewed on community radio and spoken at libraries. Whether it’s the best method for promotion, I can’t say, but it’s certainly the most enjoyable.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Here’s what I have learned:
Read in the genre you’re writing and learn what works and what doesn’t. Join a writers’ group, one which offers workshops and support services. You need objective appraisals of your manuscript, not the advice of friends and family. Be prepared to write numerous drafts before you submit. Leave your final draft for a few weeks then come back and read it with fresh eyes. Once you’ve sent it to a publisher and it’s rejected, that’s it, folks! If a publisher asks for three chapters, a 200 word biography and a 500 word synopsis, that’s what you send. Keep versions of cover letters, synopses, etc. and adapt them to suit submission requirements. Think outside the publishers you know. I started with Australian ones, then branched out into the United Kingdom, then to the USA. My main recommendation is to persevere.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t take rejection personally. Publishers are overwhelmed with submissions and it’s luck if you are offered a contract.
What are you reading now?
‘The Marble Hall Murders’ by Anthony Horowitz.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m thinking about the plot for Book #7 and I like the idea of a sophisticated burglar who discovers something he wasn’t expecting. I’ll call him Godfrey Gladstone, attired in an evening suit, educated at the best schools, able to scale a drainpipe and escape the bluestone walls of Pentridge Prison.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Persuasion’, and ‘The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes’.
Author Websites and Profiles
Laraine Stephens Amazon Profile
Laraine Stephens’s Social Media Links
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