Freezer Burn by Gayle Carline
Gayle Carline's debut novel, Freezer Burn starts domestic, but like all the best things in thriller-world, it soon turns sinister. A home cleaner turned PI; it's a terrific premise. And, I put it to her, a particularly female one. "Well, they say write what you know and I am a girl,"says Gayle. "But (semi) seriously, I do love a clean house, and I've been known to sacrifice a new manicure for a well-scrubbed sink. My husband is, let's call it, more casual about dust and clutter, and our son did not inherit the clean gene, so it's kind of an uphill battle."
Gayle's heroine, Peri Minneopa hates her surname being mispronounced. So for anyone asking:
"It's Minn-ee-OH-pah, a Dakota word that means 'water falling twice.' There's actually a state park in Minnesota by that name. One of the rules of novel writing is to make your protagonist's name easy to read, but I broke it on purpose, to make it a running joke."
Gayle Carline has a regular newspaper column but her heroine originated with a short story. Which begs the question, what made Gayle feel that Peri needed a whole book? And is she anything like her creator?
"She actually began as a gag between my BFF and me: Peri Menopause, private eye, who solves every crime by crying, eating chocolate and bitch-slapping everyone until they confess. I gave her more dimensions, then combined her with a piece of flash fiction I wrote (and won a contest with), and voila - there was the story. She and I are both curious, impatient, and snarky, although I usually keep it to myself. Unlike me, she is tall, blond, and courageous."
As well as having a thing about dirt, Peri Minneopa is a sucker for a good martini. It turns out that she and Gayle have this in common too."As far as drinks go, I know a bartender who makes KILLER drinks. I asked him to recommend a signature drink for my heroine, one that she has when she's in the dough (otherwise, it's light beer). He fixed me a Grey Goose dirty martini with 4 olives and I was hooked. Plus it was brilliant - a woman who likes clean houses and dirty martinis!"
Every writer has their own technique, but with a first novel, the biggest challenge is often getting the structure right. Gayle was no exception.
"The most challenging had to be juggling all of the clues until it was time to solve the mystery. I ended up with an Excel spreadsheet (call me anal, I can take it) to keep track of who finds what and when. I also tended, at first, to leap around in time, so the spreadsheet kept track of what day I was on. Lastly, I made sure none of my characters had sound-alike names to confuse the reader. The most fun was the writing; once I had the story laid out, it was a lot of fun to put Peri in these situations!"
Gayle Carline has unearthed found Peri's secret diary. Check out excerpts on her blog: http://gaylecarline.blogspot.com or visit her website: www.gaylecarline.com
Liz Jensen is the author of six previous novels, including the acclaimed THE NINTH LIFE OF LOUIS DRAX, and ARK BABY, a New York Times
Notable Book. Her work has been nominated three times for The Orange
Prize and has been translated into more than 20 languages. THE RAPTURE
is currently in development as a major motion picture. ThrillerFest
ITW's annual celebration of the thriller world is the largest event of its kind, a meeting place for authors, readers, budding writers, and publishing industry professionals.
For 2011, we’ll be back in the heart of New York in July with the ThrillerFest conference including CraftFest and AgentFest.
ThrillerFest VI will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
The dates will be July 6-9, 2011.
More information to follow.
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