Recently I sat down with Clea Simon to talk about her newest mystery, Grey Matters.
Give us a brief overview the second Dulcie Schwartz mystery- Grey Matters
This series centers around Dulcie Schwartz, a literature grad student at Harvard University, who is trying to write her thesis on an overlooked Gothic novel from the 1790s... only murder keeps getting in the way. In this second outing, Grey Matters, everybody has got something to hide. Dulcie's office mate is acting furtive, her roommate is avoiding her, and even her boyfriend seems to have gone AWOL. And when our grad student heroine literally stumbles over a dead body on the stoop of her professor's Tory Row home, she knows she's going to need some help. Pity her professor seems more concerned with his departmental politics - and even the loyal specter of her late, great cat, Mr. Grey seems to have gone silent.
How did the idea for this book come to you?
Within the parameters of a cozy with paranormal aspects (that ghost cat!), I wanted to play with a classic mystery paradigm - the case where lots of people seem to be reasonable suspects. I was thinking a lot about motive when I planned this book. I was thinking that most of us have secrets and things that we are desperate to keep out of the public eye, but with that in mind, which of us could be pushed over the edge? It is very important to me to have my characters be real, to feel real, despite the paranormal aspects, and that means coming up with a villain who has an emotionally believable motive.
You have paranormal aspects as well as detail regarding academia in this book - what research did you need to do to pull this off?
You mean, did I channel any ghosts? Nope, but I have talked with others who have lost pets and many of us share the otherworldly feeling that our pets remain with us. My ghost cat plays on that - that feeling that our pet is really just there, just out of sight. We hear them, we sense them... but they're not there in any real, physical sense. Just ... sort of a spirit in the air. In terms of academia, well, that was fun. I'm a Harvard grad and I live right by the campus, so I've gotten my alumna library card and I get to go play in the libraries and re-read 200-year-old books and call it research.
People are always intrigued by a writer's path to publication - tell us a bit about yours.
It's all a question of persistence. I was a journalist for many years and my first books were nonfiction books. My very first book started as a Boston Globe Sunday magazine article - that article served as the proposal and sold the book. When I turned to fiction in 2003, I had to start all over, though. Suddenly I was sending out queries and manuscripts cold again. It can be disheartening! But I don't have any special stories - just keep on keeping on. And when you get any feedback, listen to it. You can reject it, but at least keep in mind that there might be something in it that you can use.
Which writers have been most influential for you?
Probably not the ones you'd think! While I read a ton of contemporary mysteries (and am currently catching up with Frank Tallis's Vienna series), I think that for this series I am most influenced by the whimsy, heart, and conviction of my childhood favorites - specifically C.S. Lewis's Narnia chronicles and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. If you are going to stray from reality, you need to throw yourself into your own created reality, and they taught me how to do that.
Recently, I've been reading a lot of Hilary Mantel and Denise Mina. Neither are cozy - Mantel doesn't even write mysteries - but what I love about them is how much they imply. Very little needs to be spelled out in their books. They're subtle and that's more effective. I aspire to that.
What is the most challenging aspect of the writing process?
Doing it. Sitting down every day and starting. Once I've gotten into something, then it just flows. But starting? Oy. Though, hmm... I also find revising pretty painful. I mean, I know what happens so the stories almost always seem dull. Or the opposite happens - I love something I've written and I think, "I will never be able to do that again." That said, writing regularly and revising thoroughly are definitely part of the process. They are what makes a professional writer. They are necessary, and I do them.
Do you believe our pets do come back?
I believe that love endures. I've lost many people in my life, as well as pets, and while I am not religious in any sense, I find it restorative to think of them. Same with pets. Any creature that helps you to love gives you something that lasts. So, well, I'm not really convinced that our pets come back - but I guess I also don't really believe that they are ever completely gone, either.
Clare Langley-Hawthorne was raised in England and Australia. She was an attorney in Melbourne before moving to the United States, where she began her career as a writer. Her first novel, CONSEQUENCES OF SIN, has been nominated for the 2008 Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery Macavity award. The second in the Ursula Marlow series is THE SERPENT AND THE SCORPION. Clare lives in California with her family
