We are delighted to welcome author Barbara Nickless to Omnimystery News today.
Barbara's debut novel, the first in a series and a Daphne du Maurier Award winner, is Blood on the Tracks (Thomas & Mercer; October 2016 trade paperback, ebook and audiobook formats) and we recently had the chance to catch up with her to talk more about the book.
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Omnimystery News: Tell us a little more about your new series character.
Photo provided courtesy of
Barbara Nickless;
Photo credit Jonathan Betz
Barbara Nickless: Blood on the Tracks features former Marine turned railroad cop Sydney Parnell and her K9 partner, Clyde. Sydney, like any self-respecting hardboiled detective, has issues. She suffered childhood trauma. And as a Marine in Iraq, she worked in Mortuary Affairs, processing the dead. I find it fascinating to view the world through her filters, which are so different from my own. She is stronger and more capable than she realizes, which means she has a lot of internal tension that I get to explore. Her partner — a former military working dog — shares her post-traumatic stress. They understand each other in ways many human partners can't. It's an angle that's a lot of fun for me to play with.
OMN: How do you expect her to develop over the course of the series?
BN: Since I'm working on the second book in the series right now, this is very pertinent! As a reader, I've enjoyed both approaches, keeping the character constant or allowing them to change. But I've decided that my main character, Sydney Parnell, will change and grow over the course of the series as she faces and overcomes her demons. Sydney is a pretty dark character, and she has a lot of trauma to work through. Leaving her the same from book to book would make the series darker than what I want. I have developed a series-long character arc (to go with a series-long story arc) that will let her wrestle with her past and come to terms with it. I greatly admire Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch, and Dennis Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro. Life happens, they react according to where they are in their own journey, and they usually come out stronger for it.
OMN: Suppose Sydney were to interview you. What would be her opening question? And what would be your response?
BN: Q: Single malt or blended?
A: Whatever you've got.
OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author?
BN: Best advice? I return time and again to Hemingway: "All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." It's the best way I've found to overcome writer's block and to remind myself what kind of story I'm trying to tell. This advice is true no matter where you are in your career or what genre you write in.
As for the harshest criticism, I was once in a critique group with a published novelist who never hesitated to point out if she felt someone was being self-indulgent in their writing. I don't know if she and I would have agreed on what defines self-indulgence. But for me, it means I'm spending too much time in the wrong part of the story. Waxing poetic on a particular setting, for example, or going too deep with a minor character. Sometimes I create subplots that, while fun for me, don't add anything to the main story. When I see myself being self-indulgent in these ways, it's time to pull out the red pen and — as Faulkner said — kill my darlings.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a crime novelist and thus I am also …".
BN: "I am a crime novelist and thus I am also willing and able to help you bury the bodies where they'll never be found. Just as long as you tell me your story."
OMN: Was Blood on the Tracks your working title while you were writing?
BN: The working title for my book was White Line Fever. But a) it didn't really apply, and b) people thought it was a novel about cocaine. So my critique group helped me brainstorm a new title. We tossed around a lot of ideas, but Blood on the Tracks (all of us are Bob Dylan fans) fit my story in so many ways. One of our members was a new dad, so he threw in the suggestion "Choo Choo Cop," which still makes me laugh. I was happy that my publisher liked the title.
OMN: What kind of feedback have you received from readers?
BN: The feedback that has most honored and humbled me are the emails and messages I've received from veterans or their families, thanking me for sharing with my readers what post traumatic stress looks like, and how it feels to live with it every day.
OMN: When choosing a book to read for pleasure, what do you look for?
BN: The first thing I look for in fiction (and in non-fiction as well) is a great voice. I read mainstream and genre fiction of almost every stripe — all I ask is that the voice and the language draw me in. If I trust the author, I am happy to let the story slowly unspool while I get to know the characters. I'm equally happy reading a crime novel by Dennis Lehane or a beautiful, sprawling book like All the Light We Cannot See. I especially love novels set in foreign places, like Tatjana Soli's The Lotus Eaters, Olen Steinhauer's espionage novels and Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible.
OMN: And what do you look for on television?
BN: Sadly, I don't watch a lot of television. I say sadly, because there are some great shows out there. But when I have to choose between books and movies, books win almost every time. That said, I love gritty crime dramas, whether it's an espionage show like Homeland or classic cops-against-evil, as with True Detective (Season 1).
OMN: What's next for you?
BN: I'm working hard on the next book in the series, Dead Stop. It's a novel about families, their secrets and what happens when you drop a serial-killer into the mix. For me personally, I'm working to get into shape to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro — a journey that is high on my bucket list!
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From the author: I was made in Japan, born in Guam, and made my way, while still young, through various ports of call to Colorado. There, my mother — an English literature teacher — gave me her love of reading by starting me on comic books. Which might explain why I grew up to adore Shakespeare, Homer, H. Rider Haggard and E.E. "Doc" Smith in equal measure. When I'm not writing or traveling, I'm often in the Colorado Rockies hiking, caving, snowshoeing and drinking single malt Scotch — although usually not at the same time.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at BarbaraNickless.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Blood on the Tracks by Barbara Nickless
A Sydney Rose Parnell Crime Novel
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
A young woman is found brutally murdered, and the main suspect is the victim's fiancé, a hideously scarred Iraq War vet known as the Burned Man. But railroad police Special Agent Sydney Rose Parnell, brought in by the Denver Major Crimes unit to help investigate, can't shake the feeling that larger forces are behind this apparent crime of passion.
In the depths of an icy winter, Parnell and her K9 partner, Clyde―both haunted by their time in Iraq―descend into the underground world of a savage gang of rail riders. There, they uncover a wide-reaching conspiracy and a series of shocking crimes. Crimes that threaten everything Parnell holds dear.
As the search for the truth puts her directly in the path of the killer, Parnell must struggle with a deadly question: Can she fight monsters without becoming one herself?
— Blood on the Tracks by Barbara Nickless
