In writing a mystery series, do you find it helpful to have been a psychotherapist?

For the particular kind of mystery series I'm writing, it's essential. I'm fascinated by the lies criminals have to tell themselves in order to do the things they do. To intentionally set out to hurt somebody, people have to tell themselves that every bad thing that has ever happened to them was somebody else's fault, that they have no responsibility for their own pain. So they lash out in a kind of vindictive fury to make somebody else hurt as much as they do. That's what I explore in my mysteries. Not just the lies the killers tell themselves to justify what they do, but the lies we all tell ourselves from time to time -- that we're not in any way responsible for the fixes we find ourselves in, that it's all somebody else's fault, that the choices we've made didn't have anything to do with it.

Don't you think some bad things happen to people that they had no control over?

Of course. But we do have a choice about how we respond to them. The ability to make a choice in how we respond is really our only freedom, our only true power. In my series, Dixie Hemingway has suffered some awful losses, and she's still reeling from them, but she realizes that she can continue to hurt or she can enjoy life. That's ultimately the only way any of us grows, to have the courage to let pain go and enjoy life, and Dixie tries to do that. She doesn't always make the best decisions, none of us do, but she always gets up stronger and wiser and more willing to fully live.

So where do we stand on the series?

Five books are finished, and the sixth is in the works. I enjoy Dixie so much and I want so much for her to have the happiness she deserves that I start another book the minute the last one was finished. I'll keep writing them until Dixie's story is done, whenever that is.

Dixie Hemingway is like a real person to you, isn't she?

Dixie is as real to me as anybody I know. I have lived with her for so long now that I actually have the feeling she's out there doing things that I'm not writing.

Why are so many "literary" authors turning to mystery-writing?

Traditionally, the works we call "literary" have been explorations of the internal landscape, the struggle of individuals to find authentic ways of living with themselves and those close to them. Readers gained insight by reading those explorations because they recognized their own challenges. But the world has changed. People can now get that same kind of insight by watching an hour of Oprah, and they're not so focused on their own individuation. With so much violence in the news, people are now increasingly focused on how to retain their integrity in a bizarre world. That's the stuff of mysteries, horror, and sci-fi -- stories in which one imperfect person tries to bring order and meaning to a frightening world.

To get the whole skinny on Blaize and the Dixie Hemingway series, visit www.blaizeclement.com and tell her I sent you.

Contributing editor, Christine Goff is the award-winning author of the bestselling "Birdwatcher's Mystery" series.  She began her career writing non-fiction for local, regional and national publication.  Chosen Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' 2002 Writer of the Year, two of her novels were named finalists for the prestigious Willa Literary Award for Best Original Paperback Fiction; and her latest novel, DEATH SHOOTS A BIRDIE, was a named finalist for the Colorado Authors League 2008 Best Genre Fiction Award. Her novels focus on environmental concerns through bird-related issues. Currently, she is working on a new book; a thriller set in Israel.