with Lia Farrell
We are delighted to welcome back mother and daughter mystery authors writing as Lia Farrell to Omnimystery News today.
Lia visited with us last month to introduce us to their debut book One Dog Too Many (Camel Press; November 2013 trade paperback) and we wanted to follow up with the authors to talk a bit more about it.
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Omnimystery News: Why did you choose to write a first in series mystery rather than a stand-alone?
Photo provided courtesy of
Lia Farrell
Lia Farrell: Because we created a fictional town, we felt that it needed to be populated with recurring characters that would be "resident experts"; showing the reader how it feels and looks to live in Rosedale, Tennessee.
We have several recurring characters in our books. The first is Mae December, 30 years old, a dog breeder/boarder, her boyfriend, Ben Bradley, Sheriff of Rose County, is also a recurring character. In addition, we have Dory Clarkson, the sheriff's office manager, Mae's parents, her best friend Tammy, her sister July, the Detective in the series (Wayne Nichols) and several others who will be recurring characters in our 3 book series. We definitely expect to develop the characters over time, especially Mae December, Ben Bradley, Detective Wayne Nichols and Dory Clarkson.
OMN: Tell us something about One Dog Too Many that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.
LF: Ruby Mead Allison, heir to a large chunk of expensive real estate, is dead. An autopsy reveals that she was pregnant. Sheriff Bradley would rank the father high on his list of suspects, if he knew who he was.
OMN: How would you write the synopsis as a tweet?
LF: Cozy mystery One Dog too Many from author Lia Farrell blends murder & romance. Mae December tries to solve the case; studly Sheriff Ben tries not to fall for her.
OMN: You chose to create a pen name rather than publish as written by two authors. Why is that?
LF: We decided to use a pen name mainly because we had two people writing the story and we wanted only a single author name to make it easier for others to eventually ask for/buy/order the book. Both our first names are short and start with the letter "L" and both our last names are longer and begin with the letter "F", so we chose Lia Farrell as our pen name. Advantages include ease of recognition of one name rather than two. Disadvantages are that people tell us they couldn't find our book because they were looking for our actual names.
OMN: How much of your own personal experiences did you include in the storyline?
LF: One Dog Too Many came into being one Sunday morning when we were reading an article in the newspaper about the county's plans to widen a nearby road, renowned for its natural beauty and dangerous state of repair. Lawsuits were being bandied about, and emotions ran high on both sides of the issue. The victim in our mystery was inspired by one of the more vocal opponents of the road widening — everything else is pure fiction.
OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you received while writing the book?
LF: The best advice we have received is to write novels as a series of "scenes." Setting and characters should be presented so that the story can be envisioned as a movie or TV show. The harshest criticism we dealt with was for our use of too many points of view. We felt that our story was best told from multiple POVs. We did whittle them down to 4, with each of us writing 2 of them, thus reaching détente with our agent and our publisher.
OMN: Complete this sentence: "We are mystery authors and thus we are also …".
LF: We are mystery authors and thus also people who try to figure out how to kill others and not get caught! In addition, we spend hours trying to portray the motivations of our characters, even the villains, in an understandable and sympathetic manner. Writing mysteries isn't for the faint of heart, and it isn't easy. It is critical to find someone, be they friend, colleague or family member, who will read your early drafts and mark every place in the story where they lose interest. Today's readers want a reason to turn the page!
OMN: You live in different states. How do you manage the process of co-writing?
LF: Our writing process is evolving. We started out using a general idea along these lines; "A woman in the process of divorcing her husband decides to fight the efforts of the county to widen her beautiful country road. She is found dead wearing one red boot." Then we spent a lot of time naming all our characters and figuring out who was going to tell the story. We did not write a detailed synopsis. One Dog Too Many definitely evolved as we went along. There are special challenges writing a book with another person. It can be lots of fun and there can be lots of conflict. We had plenty of both.
In our second book, Two Dogs Lie Sleeping, we again started out with a general idea. At that point, we had an agent (Dawn Dowdle at Blue Ridge Literary) a publisher (Camel Press) and a deadline. We had only 6 months to write this one. By then we knew that Lyn was going to write chapters narrated by the Sheriff and the Detective and Lisa was going to write the chapters narrated by the main protagonist (Mae December) and her sister. For Book 2, we made a chapter list, color coded as to who was going to write each chapter. This method worked much better, although toward the end we had to do a lot of talking to be sure we tied up all the loose ends.
OMN: Describe your respective writing environments.
LF: Lyn uses a desktop computer in her office, with an ever present corgi, who walks into the office at 9:00 a.m. every morning to send Lyn a strong hint that she needs to get busy writing. Lisa usually writes on a laptop, either at home on her porch in Tennessee or on the balcony of their cabin in Northern Michigan.
OMN: How did you go about researching the various plot points of the story?
LF: The most challenging topic for our research to date was identifying the particular mental illness that drives the killer in One Dog Too Many. We needed to find a type of mental problem that would cause her to kill our victim while still making her believable and able to function as a good person in other ways. We settled on an impulse control disorder, one of a class of psychiatric disorders characterized by an inability to control urges that might be harmful to her or to others. The person feels an impulse, followed by growing tension, they then take action and feel pleasure from the action, relief from the urge and finally guilt. To look into this, we reviewed the American Psychiatric Association DSM III Manual of Mood Disorders and talked to a clinical psychologist.
OMN: You mentioned that the setting is fictional. What is it about the setting that appeals to you as authors?
LF: One Dog Too Many is set in a fictional town in middle Tennessee similar to the small town where Lisa lives. The story is enhanced by the natural beauty of the area, and the abundance of quirky Southern characters that populate it.
OMN: Were you involved with creating the book's cover?
LF: The book cover was a serendipitous happening. The contract we signed with Camel Press stated that they had control over the cover image. Neither of us liked the first image they sent us. Lisa wanted to hire her own graphic artist, but the publishers would not agree. Lyn started trying to find images on Shutterstock; images that looked like the dogs in the story and the red cowgirl boot the victim was wearing. The graphic designer, who is clearly brilliant, took all of our complaints and images and came up with our current cover. We love it, our friends and family love it. We were instantly thrilled.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?
LF: As a child, Lyn mostly read classics such as the Pollyanna series, Little Women, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. More recently, she was enthralled by the Harry Potter series. Lisa enjoyed Harriet the Spy, The Secret Garden and any mysteries she could get her hands on. Both of us love books with a strong sense of place, and mysteries solved by unlikely protagonists. Clearly, we were influenced by our favorites to create the books we are writing today.
OMN: And what do you read now for pleasure?
LF: Most of the time we either read mysteries or literary fiction. The problem with reading mysteries and writing mysteries is that sometimes the reading experience starts to be too analytical. You find yourself watching for errors in POV, for loose ends that the author failed to tie up, etc. Literary or historical fiction can give us a break.
OMN: Have any authors influenced how and what you write?
LF: Lyn and Lisa have been recently influenced both by Louise Penny (the Inspector Gamache novels) and Tana French (the Dublin Murder Squad). In the area of cozy mysteries we respect Jane Cleland, Susan Wittig Albert, Jenna Bentley, and many others. In the traditional cozy mystery genre, we enjoy Agatha Christie, Alexander McCall Smith, Rhys Bowen, and too many more to mention. Of all the older mysteries, Lyn's favorites are by Arthur Upfield about his half white, half aboriginal detective who finds killers in the Australian bush. Lisa loves the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich.
OMN: Do you have any favorite literary or series characters?
LF: Lyn's favorite character of all time is a detective named Napoleon Bonaparte from the Arthur Upfield novels about Australia. Lisa's favorite is Owen Meany from A Prayer for Owen Meany.
Lyn's favorite mystery character is a detective named Cassie Maddox in Tana French's first (In the Woods) and second (The Likeness) novels. Cassie takes immense risks, is fearless and lonely, a terrific combination. Lisa is a big fan of Stephanie Plum and Grandma Mazur, as well as Ranger in Janet Evanovich's books.
OMN: Given that One Dog Too Many has just been published, what kind of feedback would you like to receive from readers?
LF: Since this is our first book, we don't know what to expect. However in our writing and critique groups, we appreciate readers who tell us when they find a character's motivations hard to believe, or when they are moved by events in the story.
OMN: What kinds of films do you enjoy watching?
LF: Lyn enjoys drama and mysteries, especially set in other countries or locales, as well as true stories of courage and heroism. Her favorite movie is Out of Africa. Lisa's favorite movie is The Princess Bride. She likes all kinds of movies as long as they aren't too gory or frightening.
OMN: Suppose One Dog Too Many is optioned for film. Who would you recommend to play the lead role?
LF: First, it's important to say that we would be over the moon if such a thing happened! We would love to see Scarlett Johansen play Mae December.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? Have any of these found their way into your book?
LF: We are both great animal lovers and our protagonist, Mae, runs a dog boarding and breeding business. Dogs show up in all our books as real characters. We both love nature as well as gardening and think that it helps us make our settings vivid and immediate. We are both voracious readers and reading fuels our writing. We are both story tellers and stories are at the heart of writing fiction.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.
LF: Top 5 books you should read:
Tana French's The Likeness
Louise Penny's The Beautiful Mystery
Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany
Leif Enger's Peace Like a River
Top 5 places you should visit:
The Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece
Glenn du Lough in Ireland
Charlevoix, Michigan
Sacre Coeur in the northern area of Paris
Switzerland in summer
OMN: What's next for you both?
LF: What's next for us writing-wise is creating the third book in our series. It's going to be called Three Dog Day, and will deal with the mystery of what happened to Mae's first fiancé Noah West.
Lyn is also writing a novel called The Cottonwoods that tells the story of a family's escape from Romania in World War I and their subsequent settlement of a farm in Wisconsin. Told in alternating voices are the stories of Constanta Morand (1916 to 1918) and the experience of her great great granddaughter Jenn Bradshaw who returns to the abandoned family farm, finds Constanta's Journal, repairs the old farmhouse and falls in love.
Lisa has several ideas for children's books that she plans to work on, as well as getting back to painting murals and design consulting.
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Lia Farrell is the pen name of the mother and daughter writing team of Lyn Farquhar and Lisa Fitzsimmons, who live in Michigan and Tennessee, respectively. Both are life-long readers who are also dog lovers. Lyn owns two Welsh corgis and Lisa has two pugs and a Siberian husky. Lisa works as a Muralist and Interior Designer and Lyn is a Professor of Medical Education.
For more information about the authors and their series, visit their website at LiaFarrell.net.
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One Dog Too Many
Lia Farrell
A Mae December Mystery
Mae December runs a successful dog boarding business in Tennessee. When her neighbor, Ruby Mead-Allison, fails to pick up her unruly Pomeranian from Mae's kennel, Mae pokes around and discovers the woman's body. It is clad in one red boot, and there is a vehicle counting cord wrapped around its neck.
While delving into the mystery of Ruby's death, Mae encounters handsome Sheriff Ben Bradley. Together they find no shortage of suspects. Ruby was standing in the way of a project that would widen the road and make the area safer. Was she killed by an angry neighbor? Her estranged husband? Her disinherited brother? The sheriff may not appreciate Mae's amateur detecting, but he does respond to her as a woman. Meanwhile the murderer thinks it's time to put a permanent stop to Mae's meddling.
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