An Interview with:

MOLLY MACRAE

I grew up surrounded by siblings, pets, and books in a large house in a small town northwest of Chicago . I have a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Illinois in Champaign , a very flat place and a time improved immeasurably by a year studying British Prehistory at Edinburgh University in Scotland . I love haggis. Apparently unable to come up with anything better to do, I also earned an M.A. in Museum Education at the U of I, a time improved immeasurably by getting married.

My husband and I lived in Abilene , Texas , for four years. Then we moved. We spent the next twenty years in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Upper East Tennessee and would gladly have spent the rest of our lives there. For seven of those years I was the curator of the history museum in Jonesborough , Tennessee 's oldest town, and for another six managed The Book Place, an independent bookstore; may it rest in peace. For all twenty years, we raised our immeasurably wonderful children.

A job lost and jobs found brought us back to Champaign , Illinois . It's still flat, but it is improved by the surrounding miles and miles of cornfields and the occasional tornado. These days I push books on children at the public library.

My stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Hardluck Stories, and Mysterical-E. I won the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction in 2000. I am a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and the Dead Cow Society.

What is your approach to writing a novel: that is, do you outline or not? Do you keep files and piles of notes?

I've only finished two novels and at this point only one is published, so it's not as though I'm an expert. But I approached those two and the one I'm working on the way my husband approaches a vacation – over-prepared and packed to the gills. My motto is “If some is good, more is better.”

I have an outline (not necessarily complete.) I have pages of notes in files on the computer. My desk is littered with notes on scraps of paper. Notes fall out of my pockets. They're stuffed in a small shoe box (child's size 3). I have a gray, metal filing box (3” x 3?” x 5?”) half full of white index cards, each card representing a scene. There are more notes on scraps of paper attached to the index cards with paper clips. Behind those index cards is a set of colored index cards, but I haven't figured out a good use for them, yet. I walk to and from work so I don't have to worry about concentrating on traffic and can listen to the characters baiting each other in my head and stop to take more notes in a small notebook along the way. I love office supplies and make good use of them.

What are some of the tricks, pitfalls, etc. that you need to keep in mind when writing a mystery novel/story?

Three tricks come to mind. I let myself ignore the outline, scene list, and all those notes. I made them up, so I can do whatever I want with them. They're recyclable – literally and literarily. I listen to the characters. If they're real people they'll have ideas of their own. I look ahead and behind as I write. There might be another path worth exploring. One of my pitfalls is overuse of pet words and phrases. I keep a list and do a find function so I can keep things under control. It's like weeding.

What is it that kick starts a project for you: a character, a situation, or…?

Usually a situation, sometimes a phrase heard in passing or that's popped into my head. A couple of times something in a dream sparked a story.

What started you in writing? What keeps you writing?

The idea of writing first entered my head when I was five and my six-year-old brother, Andy, read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue to me. I remember thinking the five-year-old equivalent of “God, this is great stuff” and knew I wanted to write, too. I'll probably never write anything as deathless as Dr. Seuss, but I've been lucky enough to get some things published and maybe those pats on the head keep me writing. Probably I'd continue, anyway, and foist my stuff off on relatives who'd try to avoid me.

Can you tell us a bit about the first story you had published -- how did that come about? And how do you feel about it now, i.e. would you like to change it and how?

“My Trouble” was my first published story. It showed up in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine in January 1990. It was sparked by a situation, which led to the opening lines “My mother came to live with me in November. Which is only really interesting if you consider that she died in October.” And it conveniently developed into a story from there. I wrote it just after my mother died and I had her ashes in a box in my closet, waiting until we buried her the next summer. Because of that association with my mother, and because it was my first published story, there's a soft spot in my heart for it. It also came along at the right time. I'd given myself a deadline of having something published by the time my youngest child entered kindergarten. The acceptance for “My Trouble” arrived the month he started. Would I change anything about the story, now? No. At some point you have to stop re-writing. Sometimes it's hard to know when you've reached that point, but when you sell a piece, then that's not a bad place to stop re-writing it and move on.

How have you grown as a writer? What has gotten better? What things have you dropped along the way? What helped most in your growth as a writer?

When you start by writing “The Adventures of Belgravia the Bold” with a cat who shouts “What ho!” and “He's dead as a doornail!” and is fully illustrated (by the author!) with stick figures, it's not hard to hope you've grown as a writer. Although my next attempt wasn't much better. It was series of short mysteries I wrote for French class in high school. The protagonist was Francois Spagatini, l'Investigateur and the stories involved things like a red canoe, an exploding air mattress, and an escaped circus lion.

What has helped most in my growth as a writer? G rowing up was a start. Reading widely helped. Learning to read with a critical eye helped some more. Along the way, my characters gained dimension and their dialog improved. I hardly ever use exclamation points anymore and I'm almost never tempted to illustrate anything. But I was also lucky enough to have an English teacher in high school who trotted out two classic pieces of writing advice. I'd never heard them before and they went off like a gong in my head. They were “write what you know” and “revision is the key to success.”

How long does it generally take you to complete a novel – from conception to completion?

Uninterrupted time – six months to a year. But I lead an interrupted writing life. Wilder Rumors took about twenty years from conception to publication. A lot happened in those twenty years, most of it involving family and jobs, but including seven stories in Hitchcock, a second novel, and the start of a third.

How many revisions do you normally go through when writing a novel?

For whatever I'm working on, I revise as I go, revising the previous day's output and continuing forward. When I reach the end, the story or novel or whatever is pretty much finished except for final tweaking and polishing.

What's the most difficult stage in the writing for you?

For some reason there's always a spot about two thirds of the way into a project that gets mushy or murky and I have trouble slogging my way out. I've heard other people talk about sagging middles and I think this is my version of that. It's a point in any given piece when I hope for some sort of divine intervention to smack me between the eyes with a solution.

Who are the authors who you admire most, who inspire you, whose writing you think is most beautiful, moving, exciting?

That's a long list and it keeps getting longer. But there are some people writing for children and teens well worth anyone's time to read – Nancy Springer (Enola Holmes series), Peter Abrahams ( Echo Falls series), N.D. Wilson ( Leepike Ridge ), Kathleen Duey ( Skin Hunger ), Lois Lowry ( The Willoughbys ). Did you know Alexander McCall Smith writes mysteries for second or third grade kids? Try The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean. And I absolutely love Michelle Knudsen's writing in her picture book Library Lion . A list like this goes on and on, but here's one more – The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook by Jack Bishop – inspired and inspiring.

What do you find most satisfying in a book: a great plot, beautiful writing, fully realized characters?

I like it best when they all show up together.

How do you plot a mystery or a thriller – what stymies you most, what do you find easiest?

Perhaps action and pace stymie me most. I'm a quiet person and I have to guard against my writing being too quiet. Dialog is fairly easy for me.

What advice can you give on plotting a mystery?

Watch for incongruities and illogical shifts and jumps. Make sure there are appropriate reactions for the action.

Does the world you create in your novels continue to live in your mind after you've completed the novel? What implications does that have in terms of wanting to do a series in the same setting?

The first story in Hitchcock wasn't planned as the first in a series. But, yes, once alive and well in “My Trouble” Margaret and Bitsy started leading their own lives. I've been following them around ever since, eavesdropping and getting their stories down on paper. The same thing happened with Wilder Rumors . The possibility of more stories occurred to me as I watched and spent time with Lewis Wilder in Nolichucky , Tennessee . It's a nice town. I like the people.

If you have a series or a series character: When doing a series, how “into” the world of that series do you get? Do you constantly think about that world and compare it to reality, changing it or fixing it as you go along? What are the advantages/disadvantages of series characters?

Margaret and Bitsy have appeared in seven Hitchcock stories. They and their bickering intrude in my life to the point I sometimes burn supper while listening to them. The town they live in, Stonewall, Tennessee , has emerged from the mist and become more solid as the series has progressed.

The advantage of doing a series comes in knowing the people and the terrain. Starting a new Margaret and Bitsy story is like returning to a favorite vacation spot. I don't need a map or travel guide. I have their phone numbers memorized and I know how late the pizza place stays open.

The disadvantages are what scare me about doing a series. There's a danger in becoming too familiar, too comfortable, and falling into repetition. I might become lazy and stop exploring the characters and the town. I might not ask the right questions or look for surprises. I need to get out more often and not just be content to sit in Margaret's bookstore watching the world pass by.

What other kinds of writing do you do?

Stephen Johnston and I collaborated on the short story “Cookies” which appeared in the June 2008 issue of Hitchcock. That was a fun and challenging project, not least because we've never met and he lives in the Netherlands . Thank goodness he speaks English, because I don't speak Dutch. We know each other through the Short Mystery Fiction Society.

I've done a few short nonfiction pieces for magazines and ghost wrote a touristy sort of history of Jonesborough , Tennessee . I did some interactive dinner theater mysteries for a tour company called Positive Solutions through Stories and Tours that's based in Jonesborough ( www.positivesolutionstours.com ). The play they seem to like most is “Murder in Little Chicago.” It takes place during prohibition when Jonesborough's neighbor, Johnson City , was known as Little Chicago for its bootlegging prowess. The audience eats dinner while the play unfolds around them, some of the restaurant staff and some of the other diners turning out to be characters. After the murder is discovered (and after dessert,) audience members interview the suspects and try to figure out who plugged bootlegger Dutch Johnson in his little red roadster out back. That was a lot of fun to write.

The most unusual thing I've written lately was buried in July in a time capsule and won't be seen again until July 27, 2108. Or thereabouts. This was a really cool request from the Champaign Public Library administrators to write a “journal entry” showing a day in the life of the new library building as seen through my eyes as an employee in the children's department. Drawing on my museum experience and knowing the kind of details people like to find in old documents, I included things I hoped would interest readers a hundred years from now and maybe answer some of their questions and not just bore them to tears. Actually, no one has to wait a hundred years to read it. The library posted it on their website ( http://www.champaign.org/about_us/library_news.html ).

Can you share a bit of your article on Dark Mystery? What is your definition and why is it better the darker it is?

Ah, “Mysteries Are Like Chocolate, the Darker the Better.” That was a guest blog piece I did for Murder by 4, recounting a Breakfast Resolution discussion I led at Magna cum Murder last October. Participants in the discussion, a mix of writers and readers, settled on these points as characteristic of dark mysteries:

•  They troll the baser instincts.

•  They're more authentic and morally complex than cozies.

•  While not necessarily graphic, they are harsher, grittier, and have a stronger sense of violence.

•  Humor and a happy or satisfying ending are possible, though cynicism abounds.

I agree with all the points except b. I don't think a story requires grit and a strong sense of violence to be real or realistic, to be “authentic.” I don't think the smaller picture or the cozier picture is necessarily less interesting, less important, or less morally complex because it lacks blood. That might well be the case, but it isn't always the case and I don't see grit and violence as a point of superiority over wool and muffins. But for the record I do think dark chocolate is always better.

You've published a lot of short stories (a great number having appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine). What drove you to the short from?

Nothing drove me to the short form. I love short stories. I like their compactness. I like the concept of a microcosm and I think a good short story is a microcosm.

What do you like better short stories or novel writing?

I like both. Maybe I lean toward liking short story writing more, but that might just be because I've had the satisfaction of seeing more of my short stories in print.

Is there is difference in degree of difficulty between short stories and novels (other than length)?

Not that I've noticed.

What are your goals as a writer?

Nothing lofty. To continue publishing. To be entertaining. To be specific, though, I'd like to see the first Margaret and Bitsy novel published, finish two more novels in that series, and finish two more in the Wilder series. And a dozen or so short stories. Then I've got ideas for a couple of kids' series . . . .

What made you turn to librarianship and children's librarianship at that?

I'm actually a fake librarian because I don't have a library degree. And it was unintentional, though a good fit. For a couple of years we were in a position where I could stay home and write full time. In that time I had four stories in Hitchcock, won the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction, finished Wilder Rumors and wrote the first Margaret and Bitsy novel. Then my husband lost his job. Simple as that. We had two children in college. One is still there. But the public library is a great place to be and they're kind enough to overlook the fact my master's degree is in museums not books. And being paid to hook kids on books? Deeply satisfying.

You spent two years as an officer of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. What lessons did you learn in that position?

If revision is the key to success in writing, diplomacy is the key to success in moderating a group like SMFS. The Short Mystery Fiction Society is an Internet community of an amazing and wonderful variety of people willing to share their expertise, advice, and opinions. Stephen Johnston, who was president while I was vice president, is the consummate diplomat and he made our two year tenure a breeze. A line from Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas ran through my mind pretty constantly during those years, though: “Oh, isn't life a terrible thing, thank god?” I'll leave it at that.

You belong to organizations like SMFS and Mystery Writers of America, do you or have you ever belonged to a critique group? Do you recommend critique groups?

I've belonged to several critique groups over the years. I have fond memories of a group that met once a month in Jonesborough, back in the late 80s. There were five us, three women and two men. It worked well because we were all at about the same point in our writing. What's interesting is that we were also all the same height. I belong to a critique group, now, called the Dead Cow Society. There are four of us, and again, we're at about the same point in our writing. The others in the group write poetry and picture books, and one is working on a memoir. I also meet regularly with another mystery writer – you interviewed her in your Spring 2008 issue – Sarah Wisseman.

I recommend critique groups with a caveat. They're great for keeping me on task. Every couple of weeks or once a month I need to have something written and ready. The caveat is this – anyone can rewrite what you wrote. In the end, the only two people you need to please are yourself and the person to whom you're trying to sell a piece. A critique group can be a good sounding board; it can also be a snag you never get beyond.

If you could invite any five authors to dinner (all together or one at a time) who would they be (living or not)? And why?

How about meeting them on a train, instead? Chance encounters on a train would be so much more exciting and then there'd be no stress of expectations. So, because they're all brilliant, how about P.G. Wodehouse, Mark Twain, Eudora Welty, E.B. White, and Homer. Wouldn't it be a blast running into Homer on a train?

Why do you think mystery is so popular or is it?

Mysteries have gripping stories with satisfying endings, a couple of things we long for in our own lives.

Why do you suppose mystery has spawned so many sub-genres?

One size doesn't fit all. Mystery is ecumenical.

Talk about your most recent book and what it means to you.

The original spark for Wilder Rumors came from a snippet of a situation in a dream about a cat burgler. The story grew and morphed through pages of notes, an outline, and revisions of the outline. I started it, wrote about a third of it, realized it was completely awful, and shoved it in a drawer to fester. Ten years later, I pulled it out, started over from the beginning, revising the outline, changed Lewis Wilder's profession from doctor (a doctor? What was I thinking?) to museum curator and made myself finish it. I don't recommend that as a process for anyone looking for efficiency, though.

Which are my favorite characters? I'm fond of them all. I'd like browse in Marilyn Wooten's bookshop and drop in for a cup of coffee at the Come ‘N Get It. Maybe I'd run into George Palmer, there, or Lillian Bowman. I'd be happy volunteering at the Nolichucky Jack History Museum . I enjoyed describing the town of Nolichucky , which has a surprising and possibly suspicious resemblance to Jonesborough , Tennessee , a town I love. I miss Upper East Tennessee. Lewis Wilder and his neighbors in Nolichucky take me back there.

I also like Stonewall, the town where Wilder's Aunt Katherine and his buddy, Meade, live. It turns out that's the same Stonewall where Margaret and Bitsy live in their short stories. You'd think I might have known that earlier on, considering I invented the place, but I didn't. The two sets of characters don't seem to know each other, though. Yet.