Q: What did you do before you wrote?

I taught writing at the University of Colorado for ten years.  Before that I went from one working adventure to the next.  I was a massage therapist, directed fund-raising publications, mowed lawns, raised kids, free-lanced for various magazines.  Way back in the 70’s I was a flight attendant for Delta Airlines—that was when even the thinnest among us was required to wear a girdle—does anyone even remember girdles?
 

Q: What distinguishes your work from other mystery authors?

The most obvious differences are the Caribbean setting, the focus on underwater crime scene investigation, and the environmental sub-themes.  All of these elements go hand-in hand in the novels.

Q: Should I read your books in order? 

The books all stand by themselves but it’s nice to follow the characters as they change and develop.  Here’s the order:

1-SWIMMING WITH THE DEAD
2-DARK WATER DIVE
3-DANGEROUS DEPTHS
4-UNDER PRESSURE

Q: Do you base your characters on real people or real events?

Yes, many of my secondary characters are offshoots of someone I’ve met, though not one of those people would ever identify themselves—they aren’t that mean, sinister, or laughable.  Many of the scenes, especially those that occur on sailboats, are based on events that occurred to me while sailing.  Of course, all the underwater descriptions are developed from my diving.

Q: How long have you been diving?

Twenty-five years.  And sailing for twenty.

Q: What do you like best about writing these books?

I love being able to write about the ocean, but Hannah is what makes the books tick.  The pressure on her is largely self-imposed.  She is gutsy, determined, strong-willed.  But driven.  It is her strength and yet her major flaw.  It makes her vulnerable.  She takes risks in her relentless pursuit of bad guys.  She is uncompromising when it comes to justice.  As a result, her relationships suffer.  She is at odds with her boss, with her diving partner, and most importantly with the man she loves.

Q: How does the tropical setting in your novels affect your writing? 

The island locale allowed me to develop an idea, one that Joseph Campbell explores in his writing about myth, that in a complete world there is good and there is evil and that without one, you can’t know the other.  Hannah doesn’t accept this and she’s tired of the violence she’s encountered as a homicide detective and dive team leader in the Denver.  She thinks she can escape the violence by going to the islands. Yet even in paradise she finds evil.  Her nature prevents her from doing anything less than trying to correct it.

Q: What is your writing process?

It changes based on where I am in the process, researching, writing, rewriting, or scrambling to make a deadline.  Basically though, I write five days a week for at least four to six hours, unless I’m completely immersed in a project.  Then it turns to eight hours a day, seven days a week and I miss meals. 

I start a project by doing research and some general plotting.  I simply can’t outline.  It’s like walking into a brick wall. Instead, I do time lines and character descriptions.  Quickly the need to start writing takes over.  I find comfort in Anne Lamont’s statement that everyone deserves the luxury of writing “shitty first drafts.”  Mine definitely fit that category.  But it happens that I love the rewriting process.  My first draft is my chance to discover meaning—what it is that I really want this book to be about.  When I have a story—a beginning, a middle, and an end—I revise and revise.  I move scenes, drop characters, cut, paste, add, subtract and then I toy with prose.  One day, I realize I’ve finished and it’s time to put the book in my readers’ hands.

Q: What do you like or dislike about writing?

I hate the days I sit for hours in front of a blank computer screen, type a sentence, delete, go fill my coffee cup, type another sentence, delete, decide to take the cat on a walk, and oh yeah, the plants need water, and I should probably clean the toilet.  Back at the computer, I haven’t even managed a sentence and I know I’m not cut out for the writing life—it’s just too darned hard.  But the next day, I again face the blank screen and one of my characters decides to take over.  I realize I’ve missed lunch, the cat has been clawing at the door for the last hour, it’s getting dark, and my husband is cooking dinner, knowing full well that he can’t count on me.  That’s when the writing is rewarding and I feel that perhaps I am a writer.

Q: What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Plant yourself in a chair and write.  Forget about waiting for inspiration to strike.  Inspiration comes when you write and if it doesn’t, well you have to write anyway.  You need to start and finish.  When you believe you’ve written the best piece you can, then send it out.  And when rejections appear in your mailbox, send the manuscript back out.