We are delighted to welcome author Gretchen Archer to Omnimystery News today.
Gretchen's fourth mystery to feature casino security expert Davis Way is Double Mint (Henery Press; July 2015 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the chance to catch up with her briefly to talk more about her work.
— ♦ —
Omnimystery News: Tell us something about your books that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopses.
Photo provided courtesy of
Gretchen Archer
Gretchen Archer: At the blank screen I tape two notes to my computer monitor: One to keep my goal in mind, that of writing 1,000 words each day, and the other to keep the message of my work in progress in my sights. With every installment of the Davis Way series there's a central theme I'm working, a bigger, behind the scenes picture. Nothing in the publisher synopsis hints at the missive within. My goal is to weave it in subtly, every page. In Double Whammy it was pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going. In Double Dip it's don't prey on the weak, and in Double Strike, don't discriminate. My new release, Double Mint, was written with the overall theme of keeping the faith.
OMN: How would you summarize Double Mint in a tweet?
GA: DOUBLE MINT by Gretchen Archer, in which Davis Way breaks the bank. New money, old sins, back to jail, and a cat. (A cat?)
OMN: Tell us a little more about your writing process.
GA: I take a blank sheet of paper and equally space four sentences on it, then tape it to the wall. The first thing I write down is how the book will open. Next, how the story will develop, and third, how the story will climax. Last, of course, is how the book will end. When I'm writing, I'm filling in the blanks between the four points. My goal is 20,000 words per section of my rudimentary outline, and the story develops as I write. New characters sneak in all the time, usually in the form of casino guests. My cast of regulars, and there are so many five books in, are sometimes sent on assignment to lessen the people on the page load. That being said, Davis's ex-ex-husband Eddie won't go away. He's forever popping in and wreaking havoc.
OMN: Where do you most often find yourself writing?
GA: I live on the tiptop of a Tennessee mountain in a stone and stucco home built in the early 1930s. My office is two tiny rooms that were, when the house was built, the live-in help's quarters. I have a corner desk between two huge windows and it's like working in a tree house. All that's the good news. The bad news is my neighbors are all leaf-blower addicted. Honestly, there are leaf blowers going non-stop on this mountain at all hours of the day and night (?) when otherwise it's so quiet. No traffic, no noise of any kind, except the leaf blowers. Year round. Someone's blowing something on this mountain every minute of every day. The walls of my office are decorated with Kindergarten treasures, compliments of my three children, and all sorts of seemingly-unrelated memorabilia — Davis Way posters, street signs, diplomas, family pictures, framed Las Vegas and John Legend art (I have no idea how the John Legend concert print happened), and for some reason, a Kate Spade catalog pull-out splashed across one section of wall. I don't remember hanging it, but my daughters like to dot the walls with (their Christmas lists) inspiration, so it was probably one of them. I have bookshelves, stuffed with doodads and keepsakes, a rocking chair, two slot machines, Davis Way souvenirs, and two antique typewriters. I work in a Gretchen museum hidden in the back of my house.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.
GA: Top Five Research Casinos:
1. Beau Rivage, Biloxi, Mississippi;
2. Bellagio, Las Vegas;
3. Hard Rock, Immokalee, Florida;
4. Harrah's, Cherokee, North Carolina; and
5. Island View, Gulfport, Mississippi.
— ♦ —
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.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at GretchenArcher.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
— ♦ —
Double Mint by Gretchen Archer
A Davis Way Crime Caper
Publisher: Henery Press
It's convention season at the Bellissimo Resort and Casino and Davis Way Cole barely notices. It's hard to pay attention when you live in a Jambalaya Junkyard. But when Special Events Coordinator Holder Darby walks off the job just as five hundred Alabama bankers pour in the front door, Davis steps up.
Or would that be in? Definitely in. Davis steps in.
It.
Not only has the convention director vanished, but a certain Bellissimo guest is missing. One who forgot to pack the million dollars he left in the bathtub. It looks like our redhead newlywed Super Secret Spy's lazy summer is over when the Bellissimo vault is robbed. Can Davis connect the dots before it's too late? Can she get her Taser gun back from Bianca Sanders? Will she be stuck with Eddie Crawford's 1962 Cadillac forever? What Davis needs is a little faith. And a lot of luck.
— Double Mint by Gretchen Archer
0 comments:
Post a Comment