A Conversation with Mystery Author Debra H. Goldstein

We are delighted to welcome author Debra H. Goldstein to Omnimystery News today.

Yesterday we featured an excerpt from Debra's new mystery Should Have Played Poker (Five Star; April 2016 hardcover and ebook formats) and later had the opportunity to spend some time with her talking about it.

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Omnimystery News: Tell us a little more about the lead character in Should Have Played Poker.

Photo provided courtesy of
Debra H. Goldstein

Debra H. Goldstein: Until the day Carrie Martin's mother returns after a twenty-six-year absence, Carrie successfully balances the demands of being a fairly new corporate attorney and visiting her father at the retirement home where he lives. When her mother dies a few hours after coming back into her life, Carrie feels compelled to discover who murdered her and why her mother gave her a sealed envelope after telling Carrie she once thought of killing Carrie's father. Carrie's innocence, ingenuity, loyalty, humor and sense of irony make getting to know her and writing about her fun.

OMN: This is your second novel. Is it a stand-alone like your first?

DHG: Should Have Played Poker and my first mystery, Maze in Blue set on the University of Michigan's campus, are stand-alones featuring series characters. Whether I am writing a short story or a novel, my goal is to create characters readers want to be with again and again.

The supporting characters in Poker are four pink-haired mah-jongg ladies who first appeared in the short story "Legal Magic". Readers enjoyed them, and so did I. Consequently, when I began Poker, prompted by a sentence recurring in my mind versus a plot outline, I realized the mah jongg group was the perfect foil for my protagonist. They provide comic relief and a safety net for Carrie to bounce ideas off of while still instilling grounded reality into the story.

OMN: Suppose Carrie were to interview you. What would her first question be?

DHG: You were one of the youngest people and first women appointed as a federal Administrative Law Judge, but two years ago you gave up your lifetime appointment to write traditional mysteries with cozy elements — fun, airplane type reads. Are you crazy? Who walks away from a job like that for the ambiguities of the publishing world?

And my answer would be, Some of my colleagues used stronger words than crazy to describe my leaving the bench for the uncertain world of writing, but I'm having a blast. I've given myself permission to follow my passion and I haven't looked back. It was a privilege to serve the public as a judge for twenty-three years and still now only be reaching the average age for the job, but I realized if I am able to stay healthy, I can provide people with entertainment and escape for at least another twenty-three years. If that's crazy, I'm certifiable.

OMN: When starting a new book, which comes first, the character or the storyline?

DHG: When I start a new book or a new story, I hear a sentence in my head. Sometimes it is the first sentence, sometimes the last, but even if it isn't the major theme or tie-up for the story, it establishes what I am writing. I may write and throw away pages before or after that "prompt" sentence, but the key sentence always stays in the story or the book. It usually helps define the characters who then influence how the story flows. Although I may develop a short outline for the book or story, it is the directions that the characters give me as I write that either permit me to stay with the outline or lead me in a plotline direction that is more natural and enjoyable for the book.

Should Have Played Poker began with two sentences that set the tone for the book and everything fell into place into an outline format behind those sentences. In my work in progress, a sentence keyed the behavior of my protagonist, but when the characters rebelled, I threw out eighty drafted pages and rewrote the book to reach a different ending- the one the book and the characters should have. I'm still wondering why I didn't find the right path earlier.

OMN: How true are you to the setting of the book?

DHG: Should Have Played Poker is set in mythical Wahoo, Alabama. Because the story is set in a rural Alabama town, the Southern voice creeps into my work as does the slightly old-fashioned charm of the original buildings and squares often found in southern towns. Red bricks, dusty soil, foliage, moving water, and the white marble of Alabama are all incorporated into depicting the setting of the book.

OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these found their way into your books?

DHG: I'm a Mah jongg player, so it was a natural to incorporate the game into Should Have Played Poker. My other main interests are my family and community volunteer activities. My books and stories don't always reflect perfect family dynamics, but they explore relationships and the behavior that family members can provoke. Similarly, I give my time, money, and energy to many organizations whose issues are close to my heart. These organizations include the YWCA of Central Alabama (domestic violence), Collat Jewish Family Services (CARES — dementia), and the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center (fine arts) — their social issues all can be found somewhere in my books. Cozy type mysteries don't bang the readers over the head with social issues, but the problems, goals and accomplishments related to each of these issues is worked in in a natural way that doesn't detract from the fun of the story but serves as a teaching or thinking moment.

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

DHG: I am a mystery author and thus I am also an entertainer. It is my job to create a fun world of escape for readers in a way that challenges them to use their brains without being frustrated.

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

DHG: As a child, I read anything I could get my hands on, but my favorite books were mysteries and biographies. I enjoyed the Bobbsey Twins and Hardy Boys, but never got into Nancy Drew. Instead, I skipped right on to Agatha Christie, Mary Stewart, Phyllis Whitney, and Madeline L'Engle. Once I was introduced to Erle Stanley Gardner, I not only found an author I enjoyed, but my future career as a litigator. Perhaps the biggest influence on me from my extensive reading was that all of these writers produced strong characters but even stronger plots and I think I have adopted this mode of writing.

OMN: What's next for you?

DHG: For the next few months, I'm excited to be attending a number of conferences (Malice Domestic, Killer Nashville, etc.), writing personal and guest blogs, and participating in speaking engagements in different states. The interaction with people while promoting Poker is something I really enjoy. The other thing coming up in my writing is that I've finished the draft of a new book, One Taste Too Many, that I hope will find a home soon, and I have another short story being published in March.

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Judge, author, litigator, wife, step-mom, mother of twins, civic volunteer, Yankee, and Southern woman writer are all words used to describe Debra H. Goldstein. She is a loyal University of Michigan alumna who lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, a die-hard University of Alabama fan.

For more information about the author, please visit her website at DebraHGoldstein.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.

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Should Have Played Poker by Debra H. Goldstein

A Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery

Publisher: Five Star

Carrie Martin's precarious balancing of her corporate law job and visiting her father at the Sunshine Village retirement home is upset when her mother appears, out of the blue, in Carrie's office twenty-six years after abandoning her family. Her mother leaves her with a sealed envelope and the confession she once considered killing Carrie's father. Carrie seeks answers about her past from her father prior to facing what is in the envelope. Before she can reach his room, she finds her mother murdered and the woman who helped raise her seriously injured.

Instructed to leave the sleuthing to the police, Carrie's continued efforts to discover why someone would target the two most important women in her life quickly put her at odds with her former lover — the detective assigned to her mother's case. As Carrie and her co-sleuths, the Sunshine Village Mah jongg players, attempt to unravel Wahoo, Alabama's past secrets, their efforts put Carrie in danger and show her that truth and integrity aren't always what she was taught to believe.

— Should Have Played Poker by Debra H. Goldstein