A Conversation with Mystery Author Gretchen Archer

with Gretchen Archer

We are delighted to welcome back mystery author Gretchen Archer to Omnimystery News today. She most recently visited with us last May to tell us that her research is more fun than yours!

Gretchen's second book in her series of crime capers featuring casino security team member Davis Way is Double Dip (Henery Press; January 2014 trade paperback format).

We recently had the chance to catch up with the author to talk about her books.

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Omnimystery News: What is it about series books that appeals to you as a writer?

Photo provided courtesy of
Gretchen Archer

Gretchen Archer: I love the depth and development of a recurring character.

OMN: The books in this series are categorized as "crime capers". Is that how you see them?

GA: The Davis Way books are humorous romantic mysteries, although reviewers and booksellers categorize them as cozies. Readers have an easier time finding titles if they're categorized by sub-genre, and that's an advantage to pigeonholing a series. I don't find labeling restrictive, although I'm not a perfect fit in cozy: my series doesn't take place in a small town, my heroine isn't an amateur, and there is a little violence.

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

GA: What you won't know until you read a Davis Way book is you might actually learn a little something. In marketing and promoting the series, my publisher, agent, publicist and I focus on the heroine, quirky Davis, and the setting, a Southern casino. What comes as a surprise to readers, and a component we don't sell upfront, is that Davis tackles big issues. In Double Whammy, it's an information technology con. In Double Dip, it's Medicare fraud and elderly abuse. In [the next in the series] Double Strike, it's social media-meets-slot machine and money laundering.

OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included into your books?

GA: My experiences come into play when writing the casino setting. I don't do nearly as much research as I'd like — casinos are fun — but it would be impossible to write about a casino if you weren't a fan. I'm a fan.

OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author? And what might you say to aspiring writers?

GA: The most advice I get, and it's all good, is from my agent, Stephany Evans of FinePrint Literary Management. It's generally industry information. Nothing stumps her. (Everything stumps me.)

The harshest criticism comes from reviewers who don't like my writing style, because I can't/won't write a straight story. I insist on going off on tangents, writing backstory, and switching streams in the middle of the horse. I can't write, "She did this. Then she went there. Then she said, 'Ooops! Oh, my!'" Honestly, I would die of boredom, and I do take heat for it.

I watch other authors for marketing and industry know-how, and my advice to aspiring and newly-published authors? Family first. Don't check your rank when you're out with your husband. If you must obsess over reviews, obsess over the good ones.

OMN: Tell us a little more about your writing process.

GA: When I'm on a blank page, I know the scam and what will happen in my character's personal life, so I always have a base. I don't write the book before I write the book, so subplots and minor characters do show up.

OMN: And where do you typically write?

GA: My office is the former maid's quarters of a mountain stone home built in 1932. And I don't have all that much space; it's hard to believe someone lived an entire life in these two rooms. My daughters will occasionally drop in and paint it different colors. Right now it's pumpkin and lime green. (They're hilarious.) I have two slot machines in my office, two antique desks, and a million books.

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

GA: Everything by the seat of my pants. No, really, in many ways. I do Internet research. I consult with experts; I met with a Georgia DEA agent a few weeks ago. Yes, I do first-hand research at casinos. I learn from the minor characters, researching their jobs. For example, in Double Dip, there's a character, Fisher Iboch, who manages the Waste Treatment Department of the fictional casino, the Bellissimo. Through research, I learned that a place as large as the Bellissimo would generate 115,000 tons of waste a year, including what would add up to $40,000 in loose change. Interesting, no?

OMN: And what about setting? How true are you to the coastal area of Mississippi?

GA: My books are set on the Gulf in Biloxi. I love the area and try to stay true to it. The Bellissimo itself is fictional, and I take all manner of liberties with it.

OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a mystery author and thus I am also …".

GA: "I am a mystery author and thus I am also surrounded by promotional material at all times, sleep-deprived, and lose bits of my (already scanty) social skills daily, because I spend most of my time in La La Land."

OMN: Do you use a pen name?

GA: My legal name might as well be Jane Doe. I write under my maiden name. The advantage of a pen name is privacy; the disadvantage is identity crisis.

OMN: Tell us a little more about the covers for your series books.

GA: The genius that is Kendel Flaum at Henery Press is behind all Hen House covers. They pop. They're fun to work with. They set us apart. The titles are another story. It's not easy to title a series, because you have to think way down the road. Double Whammy was the fourth, and hard to come by, not to mention already out there (Carl Hiaasen), title for the first in my series.

OMN: Suppose your books were optioned for television or film. Who do you see playing the key roles?

GA: I do have mental images of the characters, but they don't look like anyone I know or I've seen on Entertainment Tonight. However, if we're going to cast the series, let's get George Clooney in there, even if I have to write him a role.

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

GA: My love of the mystery series goes back to Nancy Drew, making it a natural fit for me.

OMN: And what do you read now for pleasure?

GA: I try to stay out of my own genre when I read for pleasure, and the only non-fiction I ever read is in the kitchen — recipes.

OMN: Who are some of your favorite literary characters?

GA: Ronald Weasley, Jo March, Archy McNally, Sidallee Walker, Eloise, Mrs. deWinter, and every Carl Hiaasen protagonist.

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Gretchen Archer is a Tennessee housewife who began writing when her daughters, seeking higher educations, left her. She lives on Lookout Mountain with her husband, son, and a Yorkie named Bently.

To learn more about the author and her books, visit her website at GretcherArcher.com, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.

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Double Dip
Gretchen Archer
A Davis Way Crime Caper

It’s Davis Way’s first slot-tournament season. And it may be her last.

Things are dicey at work. A personal assistant goes missing, a little old lady goes on a suspicious winning streak, and a Bellissimo executive goes gaga for Davis. She follows a disappearing slot-tournament player trail to the So Help Me God Pentecostal Church in Beehive, Alabama, then jumps headlong into a high stakes holy scandal.

She’s on a losing streak at home, too. Her days, nights, and dinners run together, as Davis juggles a revolving door of uninvited guests, namely her rotten ex-ex-husband, Eddie Crawford. And Bradley Cole thinks three’s a crowd.

The worst? Davis doesn’t feel so hot. Maybe it’s the banana pudding, or maybe it’s a little bundle of something else.