with Sandra Brannan
We are delighted to welcome back mystery author Sandra Brannan to Omnimystery News today. She last visited with us in August 2012 writing about how "grains of sand can be worked into pearls".
Sandra's fourth Liv Bergen mystery is Noah's Rainy Day (Greenleaf Book Group Press; September 2013 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the opportunity to catch up with her to talk about the series.
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Omnimystery News: Tell us a little more about Liv Bergen.
Photo provided courtesy of
Sandra Brannan
Sandra Brannan: I can't help but make Liz a miner, considering I'm part of a fourth generation limestone family — yup, just like Fred Flinstone — who lives and works in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. It's most definitely what I know from my head to my tippytoes, which makes research a breeze. Although it was not my intention, the setting of quarries in the west has emerged as a character in my books, according to fans. So I am flattered that they are interested and hope I never interupt the tension I try to keep in my fast-paced storylines describing the surroundings too much.
As far as Liv Bergen is concerned, she could be the daughter I never had who shed all my bad habits and developed new and better ones. Isn't that true of every author's protagonists? They are born out of our desire to live vicariously through them? I must admit, Liv and I share the same propensity to eat … but not exercise.
OMN: Do you have a mental image of what Liv looks like?
SB: I was asked in an interview once "What is the highest compliment a fan has ever paid you?" and I answered it immediately how so many fans tell me how much they hate me for making them lose a night of sleep. I love when I can capture a reader and make them change their plans because they want to read on. I love books like that so I try my hardest to write books like that. I want the reader to share in the personal stake of the story from the first page. After that interview, I thought about that question and am not sure I'd answer it the same today, because one of the best compliments I have received in my writing journey was during my extensive book tour after book number one, In the Belly of Jonah. So many book clubs and fans mentioned imagining that book as a movie and speculating on who should play the role of Liv Bergen. So when I'd ask, "What does Liv Bergen look like to you?" most of the fans — at least nearly all the women — described themselves. Tall, short, thin, fat, red-head, brunette. My editor would say I did a poor job describing Liv. I would argue that I did a great job pulling the reader into Liv's shoes. Unfortunately, experience and skill overrode my inexperienced passion to leave Liv Bergen undescribed and I had to give her some physical characteristics in Lot's Return to Sodom. I continue to listen as book clubs debate who should play the role of Liv Bergen and Streeter Pierce and chuckle at how different the opinions continue to be.
OMN: How do you categorize the books in this series?
SB: My favorite books to read are suspensful stories with a little mystery and a lot of thrill. Although I do enjoy going far beyond the realm of cozy, I don't enjoy gratuitous violence or horror to get my point across. I prefer the artistry of Alfred Hitchcock, who mastered the technique of taking us by the hand and leading us there, then letting our minds torture ourselves. I have some fans suggest I don't go far enough. Other fans tell me how gruesome I am and those are the ones I enjoy tellilng to read the scene again and appreciate how active my fans' imaginations are.
OMN: Describe your writing process for us.
SB: Because my writing journey has been unique, I must warn writers "don't do as I do". I wrote novels — ten of them — over fifteen years before getting published. So I had plenty of time to work out my mistakes, my storylines, develop my characters, create this fictional world I escape to in my mind every time I write. By doing that, my process of thinking about where a story will go is nearly all done in my mind before sitting at my computer and hammering out a novel as a first draft. Then I love setting the manuscript aside for a few months and thinking about where I could "punch it up" and make it better. More twists, less linear, higher tension. And that's when I start my edit process in earnest.
But until I complete the novel, at one sitting preferably, I have a difficult time "finishing" the novel, if that makes sense. Completing the novel and finishing the novel are two different things. It may take me a good two weeks or a couple of months of weekends to complete my novel, but then it may take me months of stewing about what I wrote to finish it.
Remember I mentioned my writing journey is unique? I still have my day job and probably always will, since I can't just quit "the family". I have worked in the limestone business since I was a kid, my first job watering trees I planted for reclamation as a tweener. So I love what I do in both my jobs as a miner and a writer, which makes time management critical in my writing process. Especially now that my agent is shopping my second series, a really exciting thriller I hope fans will love. Cross your fingers that it sells!
OMN: What kind of research do you conduct while developing your storylines? Is there any topic that particularly challenged you?
SB: Most of what I write is what I know, how I live, everyday part of my life. So research isn't grueling. In my new series, the protagonist is up to her elbows in explosives all the time, using detonators and primers like most women use their credit cards and purses. In the Liv Bergen series, I hoped to capture the authentic voice of miners and westerners, particularly those living in the rural western states. If using guns and knives as tools confounds a reader from the inner cities of our coastlines, let me introduce you to the modern-day wild west. I mean, how many people can say they drive around with a crow bar, a bolt cutter, a snake stick, and a sig sauer in their cars? Oh, and a fresh tube of lipstick, of course. I do. Welcome to the west. Maybe Liv Bergen doesn't represent everyone out here in the Dakotas, but she certainly embodies the spirit of the women who work in mining. Ready for every eventuality.
I have found the most challenging topic I've written about to date was the inside view of the motorcycle gangs during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Interesting, because the view of Lot's Return to Sodom is from the FBI and my best friend who recently died of dementia was the FBI agent on the Sturgis detail nearly his entire career. Clearly the law enforcement applauded my depiction as accurate since I was invited up the day before the Sturgis Rally after the book released to motivate the local Sheriff's department, police department, and 911 dispatch teams. Their funding that year had been reduced drastically to keep 500,000 attendees safe in a town of 5,000 from the one percenters who were notorious motorcycle clubs. My FBI friend asked me to change the names of the characters in my book to protect myself and my family, which was tough for me. My opinion is if they are so proud of what they do, why is it so wrong to share their story with the world? I brought that book up to be second in the series when I learned my friend was dying in hopes of honoring what the men and women of law enforcement have to do for the rest of us to enjoy a really cool party in Sturgis every year. Thank you, Sturgis P.D., Highway Patrol, Meade County Sheriff's department, and FBI for keeping us safe!
OMN: Your books are set mostly in South Dakota. How do you stay true to the setting?
SB: My preference is to use real places and fictionalize very few settings, if any, in a book. Fans who have been to the places I describe enjoy the ride back to familiar places, anchoring to real sites and landmakrs. Those who are unfamiliar with the places I describe often tell me I inspired them to visit, which is quite the compliment. I do think one of the most shocking discussions I listened to during my book tours was at a book club once where the club leader travelled all the way to St. Petersburg, Florida to see the museum I had referenced in In the Belly of Jonah, telling the group what my intentions were in referencing each painting by this famous artist. To this day, the memory of my mom — my octogenarian body guard and wing man that year — leaning into me and asking "Is that what you meant by all of that in your book?" and me saying "Let's just go with that." In other words, my fans and readers store far more confidence in my ability to weave complex intricacies into my stories when my goal is to simply write a page-turner. I learned quickly every readers seeks different levels in his or her reading experience.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read as a child?
SB: My parents had nine children and I'm thrilled they did because I was seventh born. And the beautiful story is how engaged and loving my parents were in each of our development as children. My first reading experience that I remember was piled into one bed and having our mom read to us each night before going to bed. The Wizard of Oz series was scary as heck as a child and wonderfully impactful to me. Of course, I gravitated toward the usual suspects when I was young girl reading on my own, summers spent in the local library choosing books to read for the week, such as Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, but it was Encyclopedia Brown who capture the mass of my imagination, being the math and science geek I was.
As a teenager I gravitated to Stephen King, consuming every book he'd ever written with The Stand and The Dead Zone topping my favorites at the time (way before his brilliant books of The Green Mile and the best ghost story ever written, Bag of Bones). My father, probably concerned I might be getting too hooked on horror, introduced me to John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee and I immediately fell in love with the mystery genre. I have read every Lee Child, James Patterson, Harlan Coben, Sue Grafton, Mary Higgens Clark, Patricia Cornwell — again, all the usual suspects — at night to put me to sleep after long days at the mine. Those authors made me lose a night of sleep or change my plans because I love their books so much and I wanted to pay that forward.
OMN: You mentioned that Liv and you have a mining background in common. Anything else?
SB: I could never let what really happens in the mines make it to the pages of my mysteries … these people are still my coworkers. Although I do try to showcase how hard our jobs are to keep America moving. Our motto is if it can't be grown, it has to be mined. So if you think about every single thing in your life, it was either grow or mined first. So thank a farmer or miner the next time you run into them at your local grocery store.
If work is done, I enjoy hanging out with my family in the woods. I'm a competitive sort, so I like ot set goals for myself, like seeing how close I can get to a wild turkey or deer, how still I can stand to avoid an eagle's eye, or whether I can find a mink or beaver in the creek. I tend to post my pictures on Facebook if anyone is interested in what it's like to live in the woods, but rarely do those things make the pages of my books. I suppose because it's my relax time, my life, so what could be possibly that interesting about building a crawfish trap or coming eye to eye with a baby fawn?
OMN: How do you interact with your readers?
SB: Social networking was a complete mystery to me three years ago when I started, so FaceBook, Twitter, Skyping, FaceTime were all new to me. I'm getting there, but I still prefer conversations with folks, getting to know people, face to face, one on one. The last few years I've spent traveling all over this great country of ours meeting fans and booksellers, learning about book clubs, and speaking to various groups, at schools, in libraries, at various conferences and conventions. One of the skills you learn as a miner early in life is how to talk with everyone from all walks of life and taking the time to get to know one another. So engaging with people anywhere and in any situation comes fairly naturally after a quarter century as a miner. The beautiful thread with my fans is that when I mention something on Facebook or Twitter, like how the chokecherries are blossoming in the Black Hills, everywhere I go for the next month or two, fans bring me choke cherry jams and jellies and wines that they made for me. Is that cool, or what? I have gone to great lengths to say "thank you" to fans, such as hijacking their book club by breaking into their home (book club leader's surprise to her screaming club … second thoughts when I wondered if I might have been shot) to sending crime scene kits to any book club who invites me join their evening or day in person, via Skype or FaceTime, or telephonically. I am so grateful to my fans, especially those who have been there for me from the beginning. It's a fun and wild ride because of them.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.
SB: Speaking of book clubs, here are my Top 5 book club moments so far:
• Breaking into a home with a book club ten minutes into their discussion about a Liv Bergen book and not getting shot.
• A reenactment of scenes from a Liv Bergen book with dolls involving pomegranates and godfathers.
• The leader flying to St. Petersberg to visit the museum I'd mentioned in a Liv Bergen book and describing the artist's intention behind every painting I mention in my book.
• Hearing an account of a girl from the book club's community suffering a similar incident at the hands of a motorcycle gang as described in a Liv Bergen book.
• Having a book club member announce to her club that she was pregnant by mocking up a cover of my books and naming it In the Belly of Laura. Classic!
OMN: What's next for you?
SB: Focus this year is on my youngest child, a senior in high school, and on my parents. Life is too darn short to forget what's most important in our lives.
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Sandra Brannan lives in her hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota with her husband. Their budding family consists of four boys and three grandchildren.
Much like her character Liv Bergen, Brannan has spent her career in the mining business. Working her way up from day laborer in the company her grandfather founded to a top executive in the family business wasn't easy, as Sandra often received threats from those opposed to mining. These life experiences gave her a first-person perspective into the high-stakes scenarios of which she writes.
Brannan welcomes hearing from book clubs! E-mail her at sandra@sandrabrannan.com and let her know how she can spice up your next meeting! You can learn more about the author and her work on SandraBrannan.com, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Noah's Rainy Day
Sandra Brannan
A Liv Bergen Mystery
From birth, Noah Hogarty has lived with severe cerebral palsy. He is nearly blind, unable to speak, and cannot run, walk, or crawl. Yet his mind works just as well as any other twelve-year-old's — maybe even better. And Noah holds a secret dream: to become a great spy, following in the footsteps of his aunt, Liv "Boots" Bergen.
Now, freshly returned from training at Quantico, FBI agent Liv Bergen is thrown into her first professional case. Working side by side with veteran agent Streeter Pierce, enigmatic agent and lover Jack Linwood, and her bloodhound Beulah, Liv must race to find five-year-old Max — last seen at the Denver International Airport — before this Christmastime abduction turns deadly. Meanwhile Noah, housebound, becomes wrapped up in identifying the young face he sees watching him from his neighbor's bedroom window, but he can neither describe nor inscribe what he knows.
And his investigation may lead to Noah paying the ultimate price in fulfilling his dream.
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