We are delighted to welcome author M.L. Malcolm to Omnimystery News today.
M.L. begins a new historical series with The Cuban Connection (A Good Read Publishing; February 2015 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the chance to catch up with her to talk more about it. You can also Enter To Win a copy of the book by following this link!
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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to your lead character in The Cuban Connection, Katherine O'Connor. She appeared in as a minor character in a previous book. Why did you decide to make her the main character in this novel?
Photo provided courtesy of
M.L. Malcolm
M.L. Malcolm: Born and raised in New York, Katherine works as a foreign correspondent for a major wire service. Of all the characters I've created, Katherine comes closest to being my alter ego. Like me, she's a wise-cracking, high-spirited woman of Irish decent, who doesn't like taking "no" for an answer. As a child, I dreamed of being a foreign correspondent. In fact, my first paying job was as a sports stringer for the St. Petersburg Times. Ultimately I was tempted away from journalism by the more lucrative possibilities of a legal career, so creating Katherine allowed me to live vicariously through her adventures. In addition, many readers of my first two novels commented on how much they liked her, which was another reason I decided to give Katherine her own book.
OMN: Can you share what drew you to writing about Cuba?
MLM: In order to figure out where I wanted to set Katherine's story, I began doing background research on major news events from around the world in the early 1960s. Cuba, being the hottest spot in the Cold War at that time, immediately caught my attention. There's a lot of information out there about the political history of Cuba — Castro's victory over the dictator, Batista, the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, for example. But I like to write about lesser-known corners of history, so I was about to ditch Cuba as the setting when I came across "Operation Pedro Pan." This was the nickname given to a program through which Cuban parents sent over 14,000 of their children, unaccompanied, to the United States. Operating from late 1960 until November of 1962, it became the largest peacetime migration of unaccompanied children in history. Some children landed in good situations; others did not. Some were reunited with their families fairly quickly; others never saw their families again. I had to find out what was going on in Cuba that would cause thousands of parents to thrust their children into the arms of strangers, at a time when many still viewed Castro as a hero. So that's how I began Katherine's story. She goes undercover to Cuba try and discover what was really happening, at a personal level, to ordinary Cubans. The timing of The Cuban Connection and the US government's decision to reopen diplomatic ties with Cuba was just a happy coincidence.
OMN: How would you categorize your books? Do you find there are advantages/disadvantages to labeling them as such?
MLM: I call them historical thrillers: historical because they are set in the past, in an intriguing time and place. My characters become caught up in the riptide of historical events, where they interact with real historical figures. I say "thriller" because the main character always gets him or herself into a dangerous situation, and (hopefully) my readers find the story so gripping that they lose a little sleep in order to see how things turn out. Books are divided into genres to help readers select something that will meet their expectations. To the extent that a category steers some people away, a label is always a limitation. For example, I thought of my first book, Heart of Lies, as a family saga, where the father just happens to be a spy, but HarperCollins marketed it as an historical thriller. That convinced me that I write thrillers.
OMN: Tell us a little more about your writing process.
MLM: My outlines always begin by charting the actual historical events from a specific time. Then I do a lot of research regarding who was involved. For The Cuban Connection, I spent a lot of time at the National Archives reading recently declassified documents, and at the Cuban Heritage Library at the University of Miami. I choose the players I want to include. All that sets the stage. To create my fictional characters, I play a lot of "what if" games in my imagination. What sort of person would be affected by these events? That entails more research. During that process, characters take shape in my head and flesh themselves out fairly quickly. I don't write down the biographies of my fictional characters, but they are also frequently based on actual historical figures, and always have a very detailed back story playing in my head.
I strive for historical accuracy, so as I'm writing I occasionally discover some fact that forces me to change direction, which can create a sort of domino effect on the rest of the story.
OMN: If you could travel anywhere in the world to do research for your next book, all expenses paid, where would that be ... and why?
MLM: I've been reading some very scandalous things about Prince George, the youngest brother of Edward VIII (the one who abdicated the throne to marry the American divorcé Wallis Simpson). Seems George was bisexual, addicted to cocaine, and had at least three children outside marriage. Sounds like the makings of a very spicy novel, and he died under mysterious circumstances during WWII, so there's a thriller element, for sure. I'd have to do research in England and Scotland, both places I've been to and loved, but never stayed for long. Sign me up!
OMN: What are your hobbies, interests outside of writing? Do any of these activities find their way into your books?
MLM: I love movies. It's astounding how often a line from a movie pops into my head. I must have said, "I was misinformed," dozens of times, with no one realizing that I was quoting Rick from Casablanca. History and travel are my other great loves, and of course both of them have served as the inspiration for my writing. I often think of taking up a hobby, such as making jewelry, but I can't imagine when I'd have the time.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?
MLM: I devoured books as a child. I grew up in a very small, rural town on the west coast of Florida, and the library there saved my life. I read series after series as a kid; Trixie Belden, The Hardy Boys, Cherry Aims: Student Nurse, and The Dragon Riders of Pern, are a few that come to mind. I moved onto gothic novels in my early teens, then plowed into science fiction and family sagas. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is the book that made me want to be a writer. I love Richard Ford's sense of humor, Isabele Allende's storytelling, F. Scott Fitzgerald's style … it's a never ending list.
OMN: What's next for you?
MLM: What is next for you? (Could be book-related or something personal … or both!)
I'm finishing up my next novel, Jane Avril: Muse of the Moulin Rouge. She was a dancer at the famous Belle Époque nightclub in Paris, and was also a close friend of the painter, Toulouse Lautrec. It's not a thriller, although Jane did lead a very exciting life, and it's the first book I've written completely in first person.
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Although born in New York, M.L. Malcolm spent most of her childhood in Florida, both in a small town on the Gulf Coast, and in the state capital of Tallahassee. Her education gradually brought her back north, as she earned a B.A. and an M.A. in political science from Emory University in Atlanta, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in Boston. Between college and law school she spent a year in Aix-en-Provence, France as a Rotary Foundation Fellow.
M.L. Malcolm began her professional career as an attorney in Atlanta. However, after practicing law for three years, she determined that "she and the law were not meant for each other," and is now a self-described "recovering attorney."
For more information about the author, please visit her website at MLMalcolm.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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The Cuban Connection by M.L. Malcolm
A Katherine O'Connor Mystery
Publisher: A Good Read Publishing
Ace reporter Katherine O'Connor has a nose for news and an inclination to use it in very dangerous places. Working undercover in Castro's Cuba, she gets a little too up-close-and-personal with Castro's thugs, a priest who may be working for the CIA, and a little boy whose survival is mysteriously linked to the welfare of Katherine's own mother — not to mention falling for a man who may be a Soviet spy.
— The Cuban Connection by M.L. Malcolm
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