with JoAnna Senger
We are delighted to welcome mystery author JoAnna Senger to Omnimystery News today.
JoAnna's second crime novel is Reservation Ravaged (Night to Dawn Magazine & Books; June 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats), a dark mystery set on the Central California Coast.
We recently had the opportunity to talk with her a little more about the book.
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Omnimystery News: Reservation Ravaged is your second mystery. Is it a stand-alone or one of a series?
Photo provided courtesy of
JoAnna Senger
JoAnna Senger: I have come up with a blended approach to the recurring character vs. stand-alone books. My first two novels, Betrothal, Betrayal, and Blood and Reservation Ravaged, revolve around the some of the same characters but not to the same degree. The next novel will focus on set of characters not introduced in the first two novels with the other characters playing minor roles.
As I reflect on this approach I realize that the real central character in my novels — past, present, and possibly future — is the City of San Tobino on the Central California Coast. San Tobino has the attributes and demographics of a typical Central California Coast city, and its contradictions and anomalies are woven throughout each plot.
If San Tobino is the main character, then its citizens become important in their relationship to the city as a whole. Peyton Place comes to mind. I want to write novels that are standalone in the sense that the reader need not have read any of my other novels to enjoy the work, but books in the series are clearly related.
OMN: Describe your writing process for us? And where might we typically find you writing?
JS: I believe in the outlining process but am impatient with it. That tells me that I need to do more of it. Once I outline a plot, I need to make its intricacies explicit to the reader without giving it away. Not easy! Simplicity works better in this regard. The reader should realize at the end that s/he "knew it all along" but couldn't quite see it clearly. In the past I would outline and then blithely ignore the outline when it suited me. I may still depart from my initial outline, but then I will have to re-outline. Dreading it already. Some authors outline to an extreme degree, down to the paragraph level, and I won't do that. Outlining to the chapter level will push me to the limit.
Creating biographies for each character, major or minor, is critical and fun to do. These are people with whole lives, whatever their respective life spans. Their appearances in my novel is just a slice of their lives.
As for an ideal writing environment, I like places where other people are milling about but not interacting with me. I usually have the TV on while I write if I'm at home. Outlining requires complete quiet, but putting the rest of the book together is different, at least for me. As it happens,
In the background I like to hear television, muted conversations, music that isn't too stimulating, all versions of white noise. Sometimes I write in restaurants if I'm eating alone. I also like to write out on my patio when the heat of the summer has abated.
OMN: Tell us a little more about the setting for your mysteries.
JS: Because I have driven through California from north to south and east to west, I know a secret about this most populous state: in general, California is empty. Yes, there are major metropolitan areas along the coast: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Long Beach, and Fresno. The legendary freeways and suburban sprawl are quite true. Nonetheless, the state is mostly empty.
In 1995 I accepted a position at a small graduate institute on the Central California Coast. At the time, I didn't even know that the region had a name. Just as bicoastal politicians, entertainers, journalists, and investment bankers refer to the American Midwest as "flyover country," I thought of the coast between Ventura and Santa Cruz as "drive through" country.
I became fascinated with the Central California Coast: low salaries but a high cost of living, a genuine pride in the beauty of their small municipalities, a frequent fear of the livability of other areas of California, housing costs and gasoline prices as high or higher than those in the largest California cities, and a desire to "not get too big." Most of all, I frequently encountered a belief that the region is special. If you live there, then you are special, too.
OMN: Does the title have any particular meaning? And were you involved with the cover design?
JS: Ah, the title. So important, but not subject to copyright. The first two or three titles I tried turned out to have been used previously. Not necessarily a deterrent, prior usage can be ignored if the title was used several years ago or in a different genre altogether. Unfortunately, my first choices were used either too recently or in a similar genre. I ended up with the title Reservation Ravaged hoping people would not think that I was writing about a bad dinner date.
The cover was a painful saga until I hired my own cover artist, and that money was well spent. I wanted someone local, and Wendy Fallon walked me up and down a local bookstore examining other covers, pointing out design elements that I would have missed altogether. We arrived at a cover design that I really like.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?
JS: When I was seven, my uncle gave me The Tin Woodman of Oz for Christmas, the first book I can remember reading on my own. The characters, the visual images, the whole of the Land of Oz, I saw enchantment everywhere, and I still have that book. Over time, I acquired all of the L. Frank Baum Oz books which I keep in a special étagère in my great room.
Baum and William Faulkner influenced my writing because they created imaginary but plausible settings for their characters as well as plots that captivate me still today. Stephen King, Ann Rice, Joyce Carol Oates, and many other authors live in my head but in the end, I am left alone to confront my own demons and put words into play.
I wouldn't exchange the writing process for fame, wealth, or power.
OMN: What's next for you?
JS: This next year may exhaust me, but in a good way.
I am strongly considering two of three options: a non-fiction book (working title Silver Threads, Golden Fraud,) another San Tobino novel (working title Boomerang Justice), and a horror novel.
Silver Threads, Golden Fraud will involve research in multiple states with several types of professionals and will be painful to relive. Boomerang Justice will be set in San Tobino and give a nod to certain characters from the two previous novels but center around two new characters.
I didn't work this hard when I was working!!!
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For more information about the author, please visit her website at JoAnnaSenger.com or find her on Facebook.
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Reservation Ravaged
JoAnna Senger
A Mystery Set on the Central California Coast
Professionalism is one thing … confidence another …
