with D.J. Donaldson
We are delighted to welcome mystery author D.J. Donaldson to Omnimystery News today.
Don is the author of the New Orleans forensic mysteries featuring Andy Broussard and Kit Franklyn, first published in the 1980s/1990s, three of which were recently reissued by Astor + Blue Editions. We're featuring the fifth in the series, Louisiana Fever (January 2013 trade paperback and ebook formats) below.
We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Don to talk about the series.
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Omnimystery News: Louisiana Fever was first published in 1996, long before Twitter. How would you tweet a synopsis of the book today?
Photo provided courtesy of
D.J. Donaldson
D.J. Donaldson: Tiny assassins invade New Orleans. As the death toll mounts, portly Medical Examiner, Andy Broussard, and his gorgeous assistant, Kit Franklyn, try to save the city.
OMN: How do you go about researching your books?
DJD: All my books are extensively researched, including the locales. I lived in New Orleans for four years during graduate school and then moved to Memphis for my first faculty job. So, when I began writing my New Orleans mysteries I had been gone for many years. Coming from a science background, I have an intense need to be as accurate as possible with every fact in my books. That need regularly sends me back to New Orleans to actually walk and drive the routes my characters take through the city. I'm so consumed by the need for accuracy that as we prepared the digital editions of my mysteries, I sat with maps of the city and the French Quarter and the notes I made when I was doing the research for the first editions. While I reread each book, I would try to follow the streets mentioned and verify that they weren't one-way streets running in the opposite direction from what I wrote. (I said I was consumed with accuracy, but maybe a little nuts about it would be a more to the point, especially since I already did all this when the books were originally published.)
Here's an example of how much time I can spend on this stuff. As I reread a section of Louisiana Fever, where Kit Franklyn's boyfriend was trying to figure out why no one could find her, I saw a passage where I mentioned that a vehicle turned onto Ursulines Avenue from Decatur and headed for the French Market. But my French Quarter maps indicated that Ursulines was one way in the opposite direction. That car could not have done what I wrote. This sent me furiously paging through the notes taken when I was originally researching this scene. Finally, I discovered that when I had walked the route long ago, there was some construction going on in that area (which I mention in the book) and Ursulines was temporarily reconfigured to be as I described it.
I have the same … okay let's call it what it is … anal compulsion about the criminal, medical and scientific parts of my novels. So everything is verified through books, the Internet, and whenever possible, interviews with homicide detectives, medical examiners, infectious disease specialists, etc. I really like talking to the experts because not only do I get to hear the facts first hand, but I get to see where these folks work, how they dress, what's on their desks … And while I'm out and about, interesting things always happen to me. A lot of these end up in my novels. I didn't put this one in a book, but I was once outside the entrance to Angola prison in Louisiana, taking pictures of the fence around it and some buildings on the inside, when a menacing state trooper walked up to me and asked if I had the warden's permission to take those pictures. When I admitted I didn't, he threatened to confiscate my camera. I've often imagined what would have happened if I'd run to my car and taken off. Yeah, that would have led to a real funny story. You shouldn't believe from all this that there are never any mistakes in my books. I'm sure there are, but it certainly isn't from any lack of effort.
OMN: Describe your writing process.
DJD: For my New Orleans mystery series I have a large cast of continuing characters. So when I start a new book in the series, I can draw on their existing history. That doesn't mean they all stay the same. For the two main characters, Andy Broussard, and Kit Franklyn, I try in each book to include events that will expand the reader's understanding of who they are and I give them each some new challenge that shows them changing in a significant way. I figure out exactly how I'm going to do that after I determine some other things.
Before I ever write a word on a new book, I always know who the murderer is, how he/she did it, and why. If you don't know those things, how can you leave clues through the story that will lead to a satisfactory conclusion? "Who" leads me to many of the non-continuing characters that will populate the story. I'll need the real killer and then a bunch of red herrings. "Why" helps me develop the killer and the red herrings by defining the universe within which these characters function. Because one of my main characters is a medical examiner, the "How" is where I get to explore some fascinating aspect of forensics. At about this point, I start my research in earnest.
After I'm comfortable with what I've learned during my research, I write out a loose plot outline with some of the major scenes I want to include. At this point, I can begin to see how to create growth and change in Andy and Kit.
Even with all this preparation that doesn't mean the book always develops as planned. I'm a big fan of surprises in books. Nothing is more powerful than a genuine surprise. I remember in one book, I was about three-quarters finished with the first draft and I stopped work and asked myself what I could do at that point to create a major surprise in the story. The idea that came to me not only shook up the story, it created some great opportunities for expansion of Broussard's character. Later, I was amused when a reader reviewing the book said it was "too predictable." I wanted that reviewer to show me a piece of paper where, half way through his reading, he had written down his "predictions" about the various plot threads. Even I didn't know some of what was going to happen. So how could it have been predictable? (Okay, I know … calm down, it was only one person who said that.) Advice to aspiring writers: develop a thick skin … like mine. Well … maybe not exactly like mine …
OMN: How did the book get its title?
DJD: To make each book fit into the series it was decided that every title should contain some geographical or key word to indicate where it was set. Even without that kind of restriction, coming up with good titles are among the most challenging tasks a writer faces. But the easiest was Louisiana Fever. The story is about people in New Orleans being infected with an Ebola-like disease. What better title could there be for such a book?
OMN: If this series were to be optioned for film or television, do you have any thoughts on who you'd like to see in the key roles?
DJD: Over the years, three producers have expressed interest in making a TV series from my mysteries. One, a former head of programming for CBS held an option on it for 5 years. From the moment I wrote the first words describing Broussard, I've imagined Wilford Brimley playing the part. He's the guy with the big drooping moustache that played the head of security in The Firm. He can go from a folksy grandfatherly type to a cold, ominous enforcer faster than you can think about it. After the producer holding the long option let it lapse, I got a call from a former student, who had put together a production company with a fellow in Los Angeles who had extensive Hollywood connections. They too, wanted to make my series into a TV show. When I told the caller I had always pictured Brimley as Broussard, the caller said that his partner, Bill (not his real name) "had lunch with Wilford last week. We'll get him on board and call you back." People in Hollywood say this kind of thing all the time, even when there's very little chance of anything happening. But to my great surprise, in just a few days I got a return call saying, "Wilford is in." Anyway, I wrote a series "Bible" for them and some other supporting material and they pitched the series to the SyFy network. Then my phone suddenly stopped ringing. Even though none of the film/TV interest has led to anything, it's still been a lot of fun thinking about it.
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In addition to the Andy Brousard/Kit Franklyn mystery series, Don is also the author of several medical suspense thriller stand-alones. For more information about the author and his work, visit his website at DonDonaldson.com.
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Louisiana Fever
D.J. Donaldson
An Andy Brousard/Kit Franklyn Mystery
Andy Broussard, the plump and proud New Orleans medical examiner, obviously loves food. Less apparent to the casual observer is his hatred of murderers. Together with his gorgeous sidekick, psychologist Kit Franklyn, the two make a powerful, although improbable, mystery solving duo.
When the beautiful Kit goes to meet an anonymous stranger — who's been sending her roses — the man drops dead at her feet before she even could even get his name. Game on.
Andy Broussard soon learns that the man carried a lethal pathogen similar to the deadly Ebola virus. Soon, another body turns up with the same bug. Panic is imminent as the threat of pandemic is more real than ever before. The danger is even more acute, because the carrier is mobile, his identity is an absolute shocker, he knows he's a walking weapon and … he's on a quest to find Broussard. And Kit isn't safe either. When she investigates her mystery suitor further, she runs afoul of a cold blooded killer, every bit as deadly as the man searching for Broussard.
Click on the Amazon button to see also the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.
