Welcome to my Familiarise Friday slot. Today, my guest is Erin Farwell, author of the mystery novel - Shadowlands. Erin's a very interesting lady I've met through my Writing, Wranglers and Warriors Blog - the one I post for every second Saturday (must remember to post there tomorrow). The interview below isn't for a character this time - instead I've asked Erin some questions so that we can get to know her...
Your days sound
pretty busy, Erin. How do you fit in your
writing with other business and leisure commitments? This is my current challenge. It seems
that writing is always the last thing I do rather than the first and I am
working to change that priority. I have made a commitment of a certain word
count I need to do per day and I believe that this will help.
How long have you
been writing fiction? I started writing when I was about seven. I had a
little notebook and a box of crayons and would match the mood of the story with
the color I wrote it in.
How many books have
you published so far? I have one novel, one short story and a
self-published non-fiction book about being a woman business traveller.
I'm sure the travel done for your job gave you lots of fodder for fiction as well, Erin. Can you tell us a
little about Shadowlands? Cabel Evans physically survived the Great War but
mentally and emotionally he bears many scars and lives in self-imposed
isolation. A fellow veteran arrives on his doorstep asking for help in solving
his daughter’s murder. He has to return to the world, face his past, and find a
killer, just a small to-do list.
I tend to draft and
redraft a lot in my novel writing - About how many draft stages did Shadowlands
go through? There were two major drafts but as detailed rejections letters
came in, found places that needed reworking or a scene that needed adding or
deleting. It was an on-going process. I worked with a great editor at my
publisher who helped me through the last revisions.
What’s your main
protagonist like in Shadowlands? Cabel is wealthy and was heir apparent to
his family’s business. After the Great War, he returned to the business and did
well until the pressure of pretending that he has fine broke him. At the start
of the story he is still grieving for the friend he lost in the war and feels
guilt over the men who died under his command. In his mind, he’s ready to die,
yet he clings to life, looking for a reason to live. He’s seen hell in the
trenches and feels stained by what he has witnessed and done, yet he still
finds the world a hopeful place.
Does your past work in
healthcare have any bearing on the darker aspects of Shadowlands that you have
chosen to write about? When I worked as a consultant, I specialized in
brain injury. I found it fascinating that someone could look exactly the same,
yet be very different from what he had been. Cabel suffers from PTSD, although
they called it shell-shock at the time, and it was much the same. He looked
like he had before the war, but was a very different man inside. How he and
others deal with that is part of his struggle.
Are you a plotter or
a pantser? I am a mix. Before I
start writing, I know my beginning, two or three middle points and the ending.
How I get from each point is an adventure in writing.
Did the mystery
develop as the story emerged, or did you see the ‘depth’ of the mystery before
you began to write the first draft? I always knew I was writing a mystery.
The why of the story changed as the I researched and came across an odd fact
about Al Capone.
I research a lot for my novels. Did you need to do a
lot of research for Shadowlands? Yes, and it was fascinating. I have lived
in both Chicago and in Berrien
County, Michigan where St. Joseph is located,
but I became fascinated with learning things about places I thought I knew. I also
needed to learn about the Great War, the 1920s and many points in between.
Basically, I needed to know as much as Cabel would know during the course of
his life to date.
Do you think you will
only write in one genre, and for one particular age group? I love mysteries
and until recently couldn’t imagine writing anything else. However, a call for
short horror stories had me rethink this. Hmmm. As for age group, I was reading
adult mysteries since I was thirteen so I think I’ll stick with this group.
Has your work as a
lawyer, and as a business consultant, helped you with the marketing aspects of
your novel? I went into this knowing that I would need to market. I’ve done
this for myself as a consultant so I understood how uncomfortable it can be at
times but also necessary. I had a marketing plan developed before I finished
the first draft. It was naïve and incomplete, but it I feel I went in with my
eyes open.
That sounds like the best beginning. Many authors, myself included, don't have a clue initially that marketing will take up so much of their time. When not doing marketing tasks what will be your
main writing goals in the coming year? Finish the sequel to Shadowlands, a
must for me. I’d like to do at least one mystery conference and submit one or
two short stories. My website is currently being overhauled and I’d like to get
that done and have a regular blogging schedule. I will continue to market as
much as possible, but I find it difficult to have sales goals as so much of
that is outside of my hands.
One word section:
Eat in or eat out? in
Travel in the US or World
travel as a preference? world
Most favourite place?
St. Johan im Pongau, Austria.
Favourite drink? Raspberry
martini
Leisure reading
preference? Mystery
Although I have degrees in business and law, I
currently teach art classes for the City of Roswell, volunteer at my daughter’s school,
and write mysteries. I grew up in southwestern Michigan
and lived in Chicago for several years before
becoming an Atlanta
resident 15 years ago. My husband and I
have climbed Kilimanjaro and traveled to China
to adopt our daughter, Willow. My first novel, Shadowlands, was released in August of this year. It is an historical mystery set in St. Joseph, Michigan and Chicago, Illinois
in 1927. At that time, the Silver Beach Amusement Park
sprawled along the lake front on the Michigan
shore with the carousel, rollercoaster, games, food, and the Shadowland
Ballroom. The park was a wonderful place, filled with
laughter, fun – and murder.
Reach Erin at these places:
In July of 1927 prohibition is the law of
the land, Al Capone controls the city of Chicago
and Cabel Evans wants to die.
Haunted by nightmares of the Great War and
devastated by the loss of his friend in battle, Cabel Evans lives in self-imposed
isolation in his family’s summer home in St.
Joseph, Michigan
until a fellow soldier asking for help in discovering who had murdered his
daughter, Kittie. Cabel refuses until
the soldier reveals that Cabel owes him a debt.
From the innocent distractions of the Silver Beach
Amusement Park to the dark enticements
of a Chicago
speakeasy, Cabel’s past and present collide as he searches for the truth about
Kittie’s death. While he finds more
questions than answers, he soon realizes that the murder of the innocent
sixteen-year-old girl in the small town of St. Joseph,
Michigan is connected to Chicago’s underworld; a place ruled by Al
Capone, where violence and corruption are currency and everyone is a pawn in
someone else’s game.
What began as a chance to repay a debt has
become an opportunity for redemption. Yet just as Cabel realizes that he wants
to live, someone else wants him dead.
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Thank you for those great answers, Erin. I'm delighted you've visited, and wish you the very best for great sales of Shadowlands.
Slainthe!
Really great post. It is great learning about how other writers work.
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