We are delighted to welcome author Susan C. Shea to Omnimystery News today.
Susan's third mystery in her popular Danielle O'Rourke series is Mixed Up With Murder (Reputation Books; February 2016 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the opportunity to catch up with her to talk more about it.
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Omnimystery News: Tell us a little more about your series character, Danielle O'Rourke.
Photo provided courtesy of
Susan C. Shea; Photo credit
Cheshire Isaacs
Susan C. Shea: The series featuring Dani O'Rourke has been fun to write and a great way into the mystery genre for me. I wanted to build a character who was believable not just to readers but to me. What better way than to have Dani echo some of my own outlook on life among artists, leaders in the non-profit world, and the super rich? I hasten to say I am not, nor have ever been super rich — heck, not even mildly rich — but I worked with them in my fundraising role, as does Dani. Dani is a touch impressionable, vulnerable to the charms of alpha males, but smart enough to realize money is no guarantee of happiness. And she has a wicked sense of humor, most of which she can only indulge privately. Fortunately, we, as readers, get to hear it since we're inside her head!
OMN: Suppose Dani were to interview you. What would her first question be?
SCS: "What types of art do you particularly like?" Dani's a fundraiser for a museum. She wouldn't come right out and say, "What important art do you own that we can persuade you to give to the Devor Museum?" or, "Would you like to endow a gallery for a cool million dollars?" But, believe me, if I were a woman of a certain age, known to Dani as a wealthy widow, wearing expensive diamonds, those are the questions that would be floating around in Dani's head. But as me, the writer who makes what small cash contributions she can to various annual funds, I'd answer that while I love the Impressionists and Balinese classical painting and old Korean ceramics, my heart is firmly in today's world. Richard Serra and Richard Diebenkorn rise to the top of my catalog of revered artists every time I'm forced to make a list, with Joan Brown right on their heels!
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the series?
SCS: The Dani O'Rourke series has a foundation in my previous professional life as a non-profit executive, for sure. I worked at colleges and universities, was the director of a world-famous science institute, put on black-tie galas, made videos and wrote speeches (for other people to give) honoring extraordinary donors and projects. When Dani goes to a polo match in Mixed Up with Murder, flies to Manhattan to oversee a special event at a famous private club (renamed in The King's Jar) or spends time in Santa Fe trying to figure out who benefits when a brilliant young painter is killed in Murder in the Abstract, these are all places I've been. The villains and heroes contain elements of real people I've at least met, mixed liberally with my imagination. The murderous bits are all fiction, I promise!
OMN: Have any particular authors influenced how and what you write today?
SCS: Both Dani O'Rourke and the protagonist in the newest series set in France have, I hope, a certain lightness of spirit — not outright comedy, although one reviewer did call one of the books "wickedly funny" and professional reviewers have noted the humor in them. But I can't name a particular author — it's a good question, and I'm going to think about it! If I'm channeling someone, it would be good to know, wouldn't it?
OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author?
SCS: The two harshest criticisms and the best advice were the same:
"Finish the book!" Great advice from Judith Greber (Gillian Roberts to her legion of fans). You may otherwise spend years on the first five chapters and never have the immense satisfaction of typing "THE END" on your first novel.
And, "Your book probably starts much farther into the manuscript than you think." Sage advice that proved to be precisely correct (page 19 turned out to be page 1 in Murder in the Abstract) from the delightful, insightful Rhys Bowen, author of several series including the Royal Spyness mysteries. And those two pieces of advice are linked because while you're polishing and polishing what you think is the start of your book, half of it may get deleted the minute a professional looks at it.
OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world to research the setting for a book, where would it be?
SCS: That's too easy! My new series is set in Burgundy, France, and I need to go back to the Yonne (part of Burgundy) to gather more intelligence on the cheeses and chocolate, the wines and the market days, the vide-greniers and the ancient chateaus that help define this lovely territory. I don't want my stories to read like travelogues, but we all love armchair travel, and enjoy sharing the joys of French cuisine, the medieval castles and art, and the proud Burgundian history I've learned about. A writer's life is tough, but someone has to do it!
OMN: What's next for you?
SCS: I'm over the moon because St. Martin's Minotaur has bought my French village mysteries, the first of which, Love and Death in Burgundy, comes out in May 2017. I loved writing the story of a charming if slightly scattered American artist plunked down in a crossroads in rural France with nothing but her talent, her desire to be accepted, and her handsome musician husband to help her cope. When the elderly aristocrat who owns the local chateau dies in mysterious circumstances, Katherine gets more involved in more ways than she might choose.
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Susan C. Shea spent more than two decades as a non-profit executive before beginning her mystery series featuring a professional fundraiser for a fictional museum. She's a regular on 7 Criminal Minds blog, is secretary of the national Sisters in Crime board, on the board of the Northern California chapter of Sisters in Crime and is a member of Mystery Writers of America. She lives in Marin County, California.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at SusanCShea.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Mixed Up With Murder by Susan C. Shea
A Danielle O'Rourke Mystery
Publisher: Reputation Books
Dani is flying east for what should be an easy and interesting diversion, a short consulting assignment to help a small New England college with a plentiful gift of money and art from an alum. But the donation comes with some strange terms, and she soon learns the donor is a powerful man hiding some alarming secrets.
When the college's vice president drowns on a golf course, Dani finds herself in the center of a dangerous plot and, is once again, mixed up with murder.
— Mixed Up With Murder by Susan C. Shea
