We are delighted to welcome author D.M. Barr to Omnimystery News today.
D.M.'s new cross-genre thriller is Expired Listings (Punctuated Publishing; September 2016 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 principal cast of characters in Expired Listings. What is it about them that appeals to you as a writer?
Photo provided courtesy of
D.M. Barr
D.M. Barr: My protagonists are:
Dana Black, a smart, kinky but emotionally skittish Realtor who suffers from blackouts and seeks constantly seeks validation to make up for being abandoned as a child.
Aidan Cummings: a vanilla private detective who had to resign from the police force and who Dana implores to investigate a series of real estate murders plaguing her Hudson Valley small town.
What appealed to me: I love flawed characters and both are flawed. They do things for reasons that seem right to them but may not seem right to those around them. I love their banter and how they interact.
OMN: Into which genre would you place this book?
DMB: One of the issues with this book and one of the reasons why the Big 5 said they didn't pick it up (though I received 5 offers from smaller presses) is that it did not fall neatly into one category. I could have changed it to fit but then it wouldn't have been the story I wanted to tell. It's a mystery/psychological thriller with romantic, satiric and erotic elements. It is NOT erotica — there is no on-page sex, which seemed to upset some readers. The advantage of cross-genre is that you open readers up to something new and unexpected. The disadvantage is that publishers don't know how to market you and instead may choose to pass entirely.
OMN: Tell us something about the book that isn't mentioned in the synopsis.
DMB: This novel is a very satiric take on the real estate (MY) industry. The characters are written way over the top; no one would ever do these things and stay in business. However, not one reader has commented on that which makes me wonder (and fear) that people think Realtors are far more underhanded and unethical than we are (99% are hardworking and very honest!)
OMN: When starting a new project, which comes first: the character(s) or the storyline?
DMB: In this case, part of the storyline came first — the idea of unethical realtors, the idea of the dangers realtors put themselves in every day while doing their job — but then the story evolved based on the characters. Aidan Cummings wasn't even part of my original story and when Dana meets him, both she (and I) felt an attraction and things went on from there.
OMN: You mentioned you're in the real estate business. How much more of your personal or professional life have you included in the book?
DMB: Yes, I am a mass murderer and Dominatrix. Just kidding. I am a former travel trade journalist turned Realtor, so that's real. The situations the agents find themselves in are authentic — the things that end up killing them could, I expect, really happen. I write them in a somewhat comic way but that is the dangerous world we live in. Dare is based on a composite of three people I met while researching "the scene." Melanie and Deborah Lee are based on many ultra-driven agents I've met. Cassandra is a product of my own guilt and angst over working when my children were younger.
OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world to research the setting for a story, where would it be?
DMB: The South Pacific. I love the South Pacific. Unfortunately, I have no story ideas that would take me there.
OMN: Well, you could always come up with a story after seeing the place first-hand! What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these found their way into your books?
DMB: I love word games and competitive trivia as well as rescuing senior dogs. Those ideas have actually wormed their way into another book I wrote under another pseudonym but nothing under D.M. Barr. Not yet, anyway.
OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author?
DMB: Best advice: The first draft is going to suck. Just vomit it out so you see what you're working with and then go from there. The magic is in the revision.
Harshest criticism: This is NOT a murder mystery. You can't dismiss possible suspects right away. (Told to me by someone who writes lots of murder mysteries but didn't read more than the first 1/3 of the book and also didn't see the satire in what I was writing. Even so, I put the project down for 2 years after hearing that.) Someone else panned the book because I didn't use the word "penis" often enough. They just didn't understand that in the "scene", what's exciting to players is what's between the ears, not the legs. Advice from all that — everyone is going to have their own take and their own opinion on your work. Stay true to yours but stay open to considering if what they are saying might have any credence.
OMN: Why did you choose to write Expired Listings using a pen name?
DMB: I am writing a book that makes fun of Realtors. I am a Realtor. There is kink in the book. I didn't want the fact I wrote it to kill off my chances with potential clients down the line.
OMN: How did Expired Listings come to be titled?
DMB: "Expired Listings" are home listings that never sold. Not only did the idea of a murder mystery including the word "expired" in the title appeal to me, but also it's the idea that things are not always what they seem: the house might look great in the ad but not so much when you get there so it doesn't sell. There's also a cute explanation in the book itself but I don't want to give that away.
OMN: How involved were you in coming up with the striking cover for the book?
DMB: I wanted to find a photo that I thought combined kink and real estate and I found that photo online, at a stock photo site. I hired the great Kim Killion to pull everything together for me. I love the job she did; many people compliment the cover.
OMN: Have any specific authors influenced how and what you write today?
DMB: I love authors who combine humor with other genres. Therefore I love Marshall Karp (police procedurals), early Linwood Barclay and Harlan Coben (mysteries) and Jennifer Crusie (romance) as well as Jeff Strand (horror). I've actually had the opportunity to speak to all of them about the craft of writing except for Crusie.
OMN: What kinds of television series or films do you enjoy watching?
DMB: I like some comedy but mostly mystery and psychological suspense. Some of my favorite television programs are The Avengers (Diana Rigg/Patrick Mcnee) and Moonlighting. Both have the banter I love to hear and I love to write.
OMN: Suppose Expired Listings were to be adapted for television or film and you're the casting director. Whose agents are you calling?
DMB: I love this question because I've been thinking about this for awhile. Why they may not look as I've described them in the book, this is how I would cast it (I think you can tell from this list that I've been watching a lot of Unreal and The Catch):
Dana Black: Mireille Enos (from The Catch) or Amy Schumer;
Aidan Cummings: Orlando Bloom;
Dare: Peter Krause;
Melanie: Constance Zimmer or Natalie Portman;
Cassandra: Cloris Leachman (or if she's too old, Lauren Hutton or Cybil Shepherd or Jessica Lange made up to look 70);
Lorelei: Kathy Bates;
Endicott: Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman (from Unreal). Absolutely perfect … when I first saw him, long after I wrote the book, I said, "There's my Endie!";
Dr. Eleanor Lawrence: Ellen Degeneris;
Deborah Lee Decker: Kristin Chenoweth.
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By day, D.M. Barr is a mild-mannered salesperson, wife, mother, rescuer of senior shelter dogs, happily living just north of New York City. By night, she is an author of sex, suspense and satire.
Her background includes stints in travel marketing, travel journalism, meeting planning, public relations and real estate. She was, for a long and happy time, an award-winning magazine writer and editor. Then kids happened. Now they're off doing whatever it is they do (of which she has no idea since they won't friend her on Facebook) and she can spend her spare time weaving tales of debauchery and whatever else tickles her fancy.
For more information about the author, please visit her website and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Expired Listings by D.M. Barr
A Psychological Thriller
Publisher: Punctuated Publishing
What if people were dying around you and you weren't absolutely sure you weren't their murderer? Someone is 'deactivating' the Realtors in Rock Canyon and almost no one seems to care. Not the surviving brokers, who consider the serial killings a competitive boon. Not the town's residents, who see the murders as a public service. In fact, the only person who's even somewhat alarmed is Dana Black, a kinky, sharp-witted yet emotionally skittish Realtor who has no alibi for the crimes because during each, she believes she was using her empty listings for games like Bondage Bingo with her sadistic lover, Dare. And yet, mysteriously, all clues are pointing her way.
Along with clearing her name and avoiding certain death at the hands of the 'Realtor Retaliator,' Dana has an even bigger problem: she's inadvertently become a person of interest in more ways than one to Aidan Cummings, the sexy albeit vanilla detective investigating the case. While his attentions are tempting, Dana is torn — does she continue her ironically 'safe' but sterile BDSM relationship with Dare, or risk real intimacy with Aidan?
— Expired Listings by D.M. Barr
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