Thursday, March 26, 2015

A Conversation with Mystery Author Betty Jean Craige

Omnimystery News: Author Interview with Betty Jean Craige
with Betty Jean Craige

We are delighted to welcome author Betty Jean Craige to Omnimystery News today.

Betty Jean's new series of murder mysteries set in the north Georgia town of Witherston opens with Downstream (Black Opal Books; November 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats), and we recently had the opportunity to spend some time with her talking about it.

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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to the cast of characters in Downstream.

Betty Jean Craige
Photo provided courtesy of
Betty Jean Craige

Betty Jean Craige: Downstream is set in a (fictive) small town in north Georgia named Witherston where everybody knows everybody else. The Detective is Mev Arroyo of the Witherston Police, but she does not solve the mystery herself. Her identical 14-year-old twin boys are instrumental in figuring out who the murderer is and why he murdered his victims. They work with their Aunt Lottie, who writes a column for the community's online newspaper, and their friend Beau. I like the idea that "it takes a village" to solve a problem. So in my novel Downstream there are lots of folks involved.

OMN: How do you expect these characters to evolve over the course of the series?

BJC: The same characters appear in each of the novels, but they develop in time, and they get older. The twin boys were fourteen in the first novel; they turned fifteen in the second; and they were sixteen in the third, which I'm writing now.

OMN: How do you go about finding the right voice for your characters?

BJC: My main protagonist is a woman a generation younger than I who is married to a Spaniard. Her twin boys are young enough to be my grandchildren. I love trying to see the world from the viewpoint of characters not like me.

OMN: Into which genre would you place this series?

BJC: My novels are cozy mysteries. The reader knows all the characters and gets to figure out "whodunnit." I don't mind having my mysteries labeled cozies. I want to attract readers who like the genre, who don't really want to envision blood and gore, who want the intellectual challenge of detection.

OMN: Tell us something about the book that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.

BJC: The real theme of the novel is the medication of our planet. The prescription drugs that I take get into your water supply, and the drugs that you take get into my water supply. We're all getting estrogen, for example. A frog may grow an extra leg. A woman may get pregnant in her fifties. But even with this serious theme, the novel is funny.

OMN: How would you tweet a summary of the book?

BJC: Mr. Withers promises $1 billion to Witherston for supporting a drug factory. When he hears protests he vows to disinherit the community. Two days later he is dead.

OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the book?

BJC: Fifteen years ago I wrote a biography of Eugene Odum, "father of ecosystem ecology." And I've written a number of academic books about holism. I spent the last ten years of my academic career at the University of Georgia teaching a class in "ecocriticism" (ideas about nature), and I became interested in the pharmaceutical pollution of our environment. When I decided to write Downstream, which I had originally called We All Live Downstream, I wanted to show in an entertaining way the possible consequences of estrogen's saturation of our environment. In 2010 I departed from academic scholarship to write a lighthearted account of my parrot's learning to talk meaningfully (Conversations with Cosmo: At Home with an African Grey Parrot) and then a Sunday newspaper column ("Cosmo Talks") about animal cognition. I soon realized what pleasure I could get from non-academic writing.

OMN: Describe your writing process for us.

BJC: I think first of the theme I'd like to develop, because I want my novels to be both entertaining and enlightening. Then I imagine an intriguing situation in which my characters can develop. So I don't really know how my story is going to end. I have to follow the characters. Since I'm writing a series of "Witherston murder mysteries" I have to create a few new characters in each novel or I'd use them up!

OMN: Where do you find yourself most often writing?

BJC: I reside in Athens, Georgia, where I retired from the University of Georgia in 2011, in a home in a woodsy neighborhood. I see squirrels, birds, and occasionally deer from my desk. I live with a miniature American Eskimo Dog named Mary and a very talkative female African Grey Parrot named Cosmo. Although I spend a lot of time with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI@UGA), of which I'll be president next year, I am at my computer writing whenever I am at home. Usually Cosmo is on her perch behind me. When I'm silent for too long she'll say something to make me laugh, such as "Telephone for birdy!" To keep her intellectually stimulated and happy, I have to whistle with her — such tunes as "On Top of Old Smoky" and "Heigh Ho" — while I'm writing.

OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories?

BJC: My novels are set in north Georgia, a part of the United States I love. And they bring the Cherokee past into play with the present. So I have spent a great deal of time studying Georgia history on the web. I could not have written my books without the aid of The New Georgia Guide. And I say "Four Cheers for Google"! Since I started writing this "Witherston Murder Mystery Series" I have learned much about the history of my state.

OMN: How true are you to the setting?

BJC: My novels are set in a fictional town in non-fictional north Georgia. I try to integrate Georgia history (such as the 1828 Georgia Gold Rush, the 1830s Georgia Land Lottery, and the Trail of Tears) with the story I'm telling in the present.

OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these found their way into your books?

BJC: I enjoy cooking, having dinner with my friends, drinking fine wine, talking with my parrot, traveling in Spain, and collecting art. I speak Spanish, having lived in Spain. So one of my characters, Paco, speaks Spanish. Several of my characters are excellent cooks, and one of them loves fine wines. My second novel, Fairfield's Auction, which will be published in the fall, features an African Grey Parrot and addresses the question of animal rights.

OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author?

BJC: Start writing.

OMN: And the harshest criticism?

BJC: My friends told me that my first draft of Downstream was "too preachy." And it was. I had to learn how to stop teaching and start entertaining.

OMN: What might you say to aspiring writers?

BJC: I would say, "Write what you want to learn about." (That is not original with me. I read it somewhere and took it to heart.)

OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?

BJC: I started reading mysteries in the fourth grade with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Then I read all of the Perry Mason novels. But I spent my career reading and teaching great literature, so I didn't indulge my passion for mysteries until I retired in 2011.

OMN: Have any specific authors influenced how and what you write today?

BJC: I have been influenced by Barbara Kingsolver, Louise Penny, and countless mystery writers. But I've also been influenced intellectually by Charles Darwin, Edward O. Wilson, Eugene Odum, and Daniel Quinn.

OMN: And what do you read today for pleasure?

BJC: I have read all of Louise Penny's mysteries. They influenced me in my creation of the fictive town of Witherston.

OMN: What kinds of films do you enjoy watching?

BJC: I enjoy watching mysteries and thrillers, but I would love to write a novel as funny as Little Miss Sunshine.

OMN: What's next for you?

BJC: I hope to make a movie.

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Dr. Betty Jean Craige has published books in the fields of Spanish poetry, modern literature, history of ideas, politics, ecology, and art. She is a scholar, a translator, a teacher, and a novelist.

For more information about the author, please visit her website at BettyJeanCraige.com.

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Downstream by Betty Jean Craige

Downstream
Betty Jean Craige
A Witherston Murder Mystery

At the celebration of his hundredth birthday, local billionaire Francis Hearty Withers announces to the people gathered on the front lawn of Witherston Baptist Church that he has finalized his will. In it he bequeaths $1 billion to his north Georgia hometown of Witherston and another $1 billion to be divided up equally among the town's 4,000 residents — in recognition of their support of a Senextra pharmaceutical factory. Senextra is a drug that enables individuals to lead healthy lives well into their second century, but it has some unanticipated consequences.

The group assembled to hear Withers's announcement do not all applaud. One person carries a sign that says SENEXTRA VIOLATES MOTHER NATURE. Another, KEEP SENEXTRA OUT OF OUR SYSTEM. A third, WE DON'T NEED MORE OLD MEN.

Withers flies into a rage. He vows to change his will and disinherit the community. Two days later he is found dead.

A few humans die in unusual circumstances. A few others live in unusual circumstances. Who dunnit?

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