I am delighted to announce that author Leah Devlin features next in the series. As you may be aware I asked authors on my facebook page if they would like to appear in a series of *interviews*. I wanted to connect with other writers, find out what they write about, why they write, their thoughts about the writing process, their drives, and learn a little more about them.
Please find the full interview below (also linked to my twitter, tumblr, facebook, Goodreads, and google + account).
Please do share with your circle of book friends and leave me a like/comment - thank you very much.
Leah, what compels you to write novels?
Some people feel that one lifetime is not enough. I’m certainly one who wonders about lives unlived and ‘what-ifs.’ Combine that with my interests in history and science and a love of writing and what results are my mystery-thrillers that are a mosaic of these elements. Story writing spurs me to travel abroad to research a historical period or event that intrigues me, like the Norse voyages to North America, and then weave that history into a modern day thriller.
My novels are by no means historical novels, but past events are accelerants for the actions of my modern day characters. In Ægir’s Curse of the Woods Hole Mysteries trilogy, a medieval plague carried by a Viking longboat to the New World arises from the waters of Cape Cod and a stolen Vinland map disrupt the tranquillity of a seaside village. In preparation for this modern day Viking saga, I read everything reasonably possible about the Norse in the North Atlantic and the alleged Vinland settlement in the Americas, travelled to museums in the Viking centres of Oslo, Dublin, and York, as well as interviewed microbiologists about the microbes that underlie plagues (then I promptly made up my own microbe and its bizarre symptoms).
For the upcoming Chesapeake Tugboat Murder series, which occurs in a small fictional village and site of a 1680s pirate massacre, I’ve been researching the colonial history of America, especially in the Delmarva area. When most people think about piracy in the Americas, their thoughts leap immediately to the Caribbean and the Spanish Main. But the Chesapeake Bay region had an astonishingly rich history of piracy when the Virginia and Maryland colonies jostled to control the Chesapeake and the nascent colonial powers (Britain, Holland, Spain and France) vied to dominate the eastern seaboard. In the Chesapeake Tugboat Murders, the settling of a small band of Scottish pirates in the upper Chesapeake, led by the murderous Giles Blood-hand in possession of a reputed treasure hoard, causes the eruption of a blood feud three and half centuries later.
Are you self-published or traditional?
Penmore Press, an independent press in Tucson, Arizona, publishes my books. I love working with them, my publisher, web-mistress, editors, and cover designer. All of them are wonderful.
How many books have you written?
Seven in total. The Bottom Dwellers and Ægir’s Curse were published recently by Penmore Press. These are the first two stories in a trilogy called the Woods Hole Mysteries and are set in the real-life seaside village of Woods Hole on Cape Cod in the US. Woods Hole’s a magical place with an oceanographic institute and marine lab where I worked as a marine biologist for many summers. The characters that populate this actual setting are fictional. The trilogy focuses on a brilliant yet flawed inventor-Nobel Laureate, Dr. Lindsey Nolan, and her misadventures. Nolan’s a chaos magnet and prone to making horrible decisions about almost everything.
The third novel in the trilogy, The Bends, will be released sometime in the spring of 2016. I’m really excited about this one because it introduces one of my favorite characters, Bill Bleach, a gawkish, young detective brought to investigate a gruesome murder in a hidden labyrinth in the walls of an art college. Despite himself, Bill falls hard for the prime suspect, Lindsey Nolan’s adopted daughter, Maggie, and as he attempts to exonerate her, uncovers her dark past. It’s a big mess for Bill.
Vital Spark and Spider are the first two novels in my upcoming Chesapeake Tugboat Murder series. Vital Spark has been completed and is under contract with Penmore and should be released sometime in 2016. Spider is about 95% complete. River Glen, the fictional setting for these thrillers, is a village of fishermen and oddballs who are descended from 1600s pirates and are hiding, centuries later, a massive treasure from a Spanish treasure galleon. It’s a post-modern pirate yarn with lusty pirates and wenches, carousing, murder, mayhem ... and all that good stuff. Argh.
Two of the seven novels that I’ve written – let’s call them “practice novels destined for the e-dumpster” – will never see the light of day. They were the first two novels I wrote over a decade ago; they were utterly horrible. Hopefully, I got all of the bad writing and ludicrous, implausible plotlines out of my system with those.
I think we can relate to *first novels* and everyone's early drafts are usually horrible. So what are you working on now?
I’m in the process of writing the climax to Spider, the sequel to Vital Spark. It has two interwoven plots: a scientist conducting diabolical experiments with poisonous spiders (literally spiders on steroids) at a fictional Chesapeake Bay college, and a ruthless treasure-hunter seeking the elusive 17th century treasure of the notorious Giles Blood-hand. A ditzy marine biologist, Alex Allaway, finds herself in the middle of the craziness.
Any future projects in the works?
I ride motorcycles with a bunch of like-minded women motorcycle enthusiasts, and this Fourth of July weekend, we’re traveling to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I’ve been cajoling them to take a ghost walk because Gettysburg’s supposedly one of the most haunted places in America. My thought is to write a mystery-thriller cantered around a Gettysburg ghost walk with biker chicks, re-enactors and of course, a murdering ‘ghost,’ but I haven’t figured out the details yet. My brain is muddling about in the conclusion of Spider. The umbilicus hasn’t been cut from that story yet.
I would love to visit Gettysburg, but for entirely different reasons. So who is your favourite character of your books and why?
I’m ridiculously attached to many of my characters. In the Woods Hole trilogy, I have a soft spot for Maggie as she’s overcome tremendous odds (abandonment/child prostitution/drug addiction) to become the artist and young woman she is in The Bends. She’s the age of my children so there’s probably some Freudian maternal thing going on here. Lindsey Nolan’s business partner, the tattooed Polynesian engineer, Sara Kauni, is so cool that I’d stammer through a conversation with her if she were to stop me on the street. I try to warm up to Lindsey Nolan but I can’t. She’s too intelligent, creative, arrogant, and sexy for her own good. I have a bit of an author crush on the dashing biker, Derick Briggs, Lindsey’s love interest in the later Woods Hole stories. After all of the heartache I put her through with a paedophile English teacher, parasitic ex-husband, and cheating boyfriend, I finally cut her a break and gave her a good man in Derick.
Lucky for Lindsey, eh? If you could be one of your characters, who would it be and why?
Hands down, I’d be Julia Hale, the Scottish grandmother in the Chesapeake Tugboat Murders series. She’s a former actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company, drop-dead-gorgeous, charismatic, a wonderful dancer, and has interesting men falling at her feet. Ahh … I could only wish …
Where can readers find your books?
Amazon and all online book vendors.
What writer or book has had the biggest influence on your work?
I went to an all girls’ high school so I actually learned something as a teenager. I had extraordinary English teachers who taught me an appreciation of many types of literature. This had a cumulative effect. I love Latin American literature (Cristina Garcia, Gabriel Garcia Marquez), American Literature (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O’Connor) and British Literature (Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle). I adore reading and watching drama, the Greek tragedies, Shakespeare, and Eugene O’Neill.
What writer or book has had the biggest influence on your work?
I love P. D. James. Her stories are gripping, complex – absolute genius – and she’s a brilliant writer. I find mystery-thrillers especially fun to write as I see them as problem-solving exercises, a challenge to develop, then successfully resolve. They’re puzzles I create to amuse myself.
P.D. James was in a class of her own. Fab books. Now, what book are you currently reading?
Except for the historical research, I rarely read when I’m writing a novel, which (I hope) prevents other writers’ phrases and ideas sneaking subconsciously into my stories and corrupting them. I hope that my stories are pure and unique, and develop freely without interference from others’ works lingering in my subconscious. I try to write with an unfettered mind, but the negative events in the world and ever-pervasive, ever-demanding technologies are hugely distracting. When I’m not writing a novel, I read incessantly and read everything, both fiction and non-fiction.
How many books do you read a month, would you say?
Zero when I’m writing a novel. Four or five when not working on a book.
Where do you do your writing?
The split second my son left to join the Navy, I transformed his bedroom into my office. I write in bed on a laptop with the ever-essential extra large mug of coffee within reach. Coffee is my jet fuel.
How many hours a day do you write?
I’m pretty compulsive about my writing schedule. I start writing between 3 and 4 am while the world sleeps. I write for a few hours, then go to dance class. I’m pretty fanatical about dance, an absolute klutz, but I love it regardless. Dancing enlivens my brain and fires me up to write for a few more hours. By early afternoon, I’m pretty much brain-dead so I take rambling walks and think about my writing the next day. I walk through my town park or the town graveyard where there’s tons of wildlife like deer, birds and foxes. Reading gravestones often gives me ideas for characters. (One gravestone is of the Reckless Sisters. They must have been the life of the party! I’d like to write a story about them). If I had to do the math, I write for about five hours a day. The dance and walk breaks are essential to recharge my brain.
Do you agree with the statement: write about what you know?
Definitely! ‘Writing what you know’ lends credibility and authenticity to one’s stories. That’s why many of my characters are scientists. Both Jessie McCabe in the Woods Hole Mysteries and Alex Allaway in the Chesapeake Tugboat Murders are marine biologists. The two bioengineers and Nobel Laureates, Lindsey Nolan and Sara Kauni, work in a lab that develops experimental electrodes, much like a lab that I worked in earlier in my career. For part of the year I live on my small tugboat on the Chesapeake, which is why much of the action in my stories occurs on boats or on/in the water.
As an author are you self-employed or do you have another job?
I’m a biology professor who teaches physiology, neuroscience, and endocrinology to pre-medical and nursing students. (Ok...WOW...)
I occasionally teach a course in marine biology. It’s a job that I’ve been doing for a very long time so it’s easy and allows me a lot of mental space and time to develop novels. Since I’ve worked in academia for my entire career, my stories often occur in labs (The Bottom Dwellers and Ægir’s Curse) and colleges like the Newbury College of Art (The Bends) and Tolchester College (Spider). Working with academics is way stranger than fiction … over-the-top weird.
What has surprised you most about writing?
The addictive nature of writing, which is why I write trilogies and series. Characters also occupy inordinate amounts of time in the author’s head, even when not writing.
What are the best and worst things about being a writer?
I took up novel writing late(r) in life and it’s enlivened my brain and enriched my life in countless intangible ways. I’ve met some wonderful people and found new friends and colleagues through my writing. The writing allows me to research subjects and travel to places I want to learn about. Writing is a continuous education and process that (I hope) keeps my mind interesting and agile, if to no one else, me.
The worst thing is when acquaintances think that stories are either about the author or them. The Lindsey Nolan character in the Woods Hole Mysteries trilogy has a pretty interesting sex life. An acquaintance, eyebrow raised in titillation, commented to me that “You’ve had an interesting life.” Hmm. Lindsey Nolan and all of my characters are fictional. They’re creations of my imagination, but they’re not me. Acquaintances have also seen themselves in my characters, which causes a bit of tension. Again, I stress that the characters are not real, nor based on real people in my life. I’m sorry that some people may see facets of themselves in my villains and shitheads. It’s their problem, not mine.
What is the most exciting experience you've had as a result of writing?
Every time my publisher, Michael, sends me a box of a newly published book and I hold it in my hand for a first time, I’m filled with an overwhelming sense of joy. I love doing blog interviews like this one. It’s a rare and lovely opportunity to reflect on one’s writing experiences. It’s been wonderful to meet other writers, especially after being surrounding by professors for my entire career. Writers are a very generous and warm group of individuals.
What do you like doing when you aren't writing?
I have a lot of restless energy. I mentioned my passion for dancing, but I also love to motorcycle ride, snorkel/swim, ski/snowboard and do yoga with my daughter, eat Indian food and discuss literature with my son, backpack and boat with my sweetheart, and spend time with my parents and siblings. I have wonderful people in my life. I’m blessed.
Have you attended any writing courses?
Never. I taught myself to write novels with no guidance. I just slog away at it. It’s a process like everything. I hope that I’m getting better with each book.
Could you give me a sentence/short paragraph on each of your books?
The Woods Hole Mysteries trilogy, The Bottom Dwellers: A redemption story about two troubled loners, an alcoholic inventor (Lindsey Nolan) and a teenaged prostitute/heroin addict (Maggie May), with a subplot about obsessive professional jealousy and theft. Published September 2015.
Ægir’s Curse: A Viking plague rising from the waters off of Cape Cod and stolen Vinland map ignite a chain of catastrophic events for Lindsey Nolan, Maggie May and the other inhabitants of a small seaside village. Published November 2015.
The Bends: Maggie May has weeks until graduation and the promise of a dream job making underwater documentaries, when a serial killer strikes at her art college and she becomes the prime suspect in the murder investigation. Coming spring 2016.
The Chesapeake Tugboat Murder series, Vital Spark: Marine biologist, Alex Allaway, returns to her childhood home of River Glen to find her grandfather murdered, and a piece of eight and cryptic map clinched in his hand. Alex’s search for the elusive River Glen treasure reignites a blood feud between the descendants of two rival pirate families. Under contract with Penmore Press and coming 2016.
Spider: A deranged professor at Tolchester College on the Chesapeake conducts very bad science with Atrax robustus, the Australian funnel spider. 95% complete.
How do you structure when writing a book - do you start with an outline, plot each chapter or just write and see where it goes from there?
Last summer I was driving my boat under some cliffs in the Chesapeake when I noticed an abandoned cottage that had slipped over the edge. This gave me the idea for the inciting incident in Spider, where a large wake created by a speeding yacht hits the cliff and causes the dirt wall to collapse. When a rickety cottage topples off the edge of the cliff, a mass grave is exposed underneath it. So I get some initial idea like this and formulate a loose plot, then start writing. I let the details emerge spontaneously. That spontaneity is the most enjoyable part of the process for me. It’s fascinating the way characters evolve and take on a life of their own. I believe that the subconscious mind is more intelligent than the conscious mind, which allows a character to percolate in the writer’s subconscious waiting to express her/himself.
What social media platforms do you use?
I work with an amazing web designer, Midori Snyder from Penmore Press, who created a highly visual website for me (www.leahdevlin.com). Check it out to see my photos of Woods Hole, the Chesapeake, and my travels to Ireland, England and Norway. The website also has some essays on what inspired me to write. Very soon I’m going to incorporate audio readings from some of my novels so I hope you’ll stop by and listen. I use also Facebook (Leah Devlin Author), and Instagram (devlinleah) so join me there. Blog interviews, like yours, David, are tremendously fun!
How much do you feel you've improved in the last few years?
I’ve been working hard to simplify and increase the pacing and tension. My goal is to get the reader’s heart thumping in their chest.
What is your favourite thing you've written?
Like children, you love your stories in different ways. I love the redemption aspect and hopefulness at the end of The Bottom Dwellers. It’s a story of human resiliency and unlikely friendships. I love the Vikings history in Ægir’s Curse and the introduction of the marine biologist, Jessie McCabe, who discovers the Viking longship. In The Bends, I love the pure goodness of the detective, Bill Bleach, and Maggie emerging as a painter of extraordinary promise.
My favourite novel is the upcoming Vital Spark. The quirky town of River Glen, with its rich pirate history, the annual pirate festival-bacchanal, and oddball inhabitants were a delight to create. I love its characters, the scatter-brained marine biologist, dazzling Scottish actress, world-weary detective, philandering grandfather, the kooky palm-reader, and the 17th century pirates, especially the avenging Giles Blood-hand and the sadistic Captain Bartholomew Dodd, all of them!
What's your favourite character archetype of literature?
I’m fascinated with detectives, and the three I’ve created so far are very distinct from one another. The Norwegian detective, Sven Halverson, in Ægir’s Curse is suave, cosmopolitan, repulsed by everything American, obsessed with restoring the stolen Vinland map to Viking hands and equally obsessed with bedding the irresistible man magnet, Lindsey Nolan.
Bill Bleach of The Bends is the antithesis to Sven Halverson. He’s young, awkward, earnest, a starry-eyed romantic, and easily flustered by attractive women. He’s a bumbling mess in the presence of Lindsey Nolan, and Maggie, the art student and prime suspect in The Bends. There’s not malicious or devious bone in Bill’s body.
I adore Jay Braden in the Chesapeake Tugboat Murders (Vital Spark and Spider). He’s a hard-boiled Baltimore cop who relocates to the quiet village of River Glen in the hopes of healing his wife who’s spiralling into madness. He’s so human. He drinks too much, ignores his gym membership, lusts after the lovely medical examiner, struggles to mentor two millennial cops who are addicted to their cell phones, all while chasing murderers.
What scene in your writing has made you laugh the hardest or cry the most?
Alcoholism, drug addiction and prostitution were obviously difficult topics to delve into when writing The Bottom Dwellers. Two deaths that occur in the rehab are tragic. Yet in the same story, I was howling outright when writing the near-surreal scene when the engineering professor, Karen Battersby, is amidst the Ewoks and Stormtroopers at ComicCon. There’s a jarring juxtaposition between the two women engineers: Dr. Lindsey Nolan, who’s struggling to get sober in rehab, and Dr. Karen Battersby, who resides in the fantasy world of online gaming.
There’s a lot of humour in the Chesapeake Tugboat Murder series. The elders of River Glen (who did their share of LSD in the 60s) have a vast crop of marijuana so the village is full of happy stoners.
Do you believe in writers block? If so, have you ever had to overcome it?
I’m not convinced that it really exists.
One’s energy and levels of creativity oscillate so I’m patient with myself. If I’m mentally tired, I write anyway, knowing that if it’s less than good, I’ll go back and fix it when my mind’s fresh. The delete button is a great ally. If I hit an obstinate roadblock, I back off on the story for a few days and let my subconscious figure it out. Roadblocks mostly appear as I’m starting to write the climax of the story where the plot lines converge and the loose ends need tying up with a satisfying and credible resolution.
Lastly, what advice can you give to other writers?
Believe in yourself. Re-write. Simplify. Write because you love it, not to make money. Write what you want to write, not what others want you to write. (My sentiment exactly!)
Thank you, Leah, it has been an absolute pleasure to talk to you and to delve into your writing process and thoughts.
To connect with Leah please click on the links below:
www.leahdevlin.comPlease do share with your circle of book friends and leave me a like/comment - thank you very much.
Leah, what compels you to write novels?
Some people feel that one lifetime is not enough. I’m certainly one who wonders about lives unlived and ‘what-ifs.’ Combine that with my interests in history and science and a love of writing and what results are my mystery-thrillers that are a mosaic of these elements. Story writing spurs me to travel abroad to research a historical period or event that intrigues me, like the Norse voyages to North America, and then weave that history into a modern day thriller.
My novels are by no means historical novels, but past events are accelerants for the actions of my modern day characters. In Ægir’s Curse of the Woods Hole Mysteries trilogy, a medieval plague carried by a Viking longboat to the New World arises from the waters of Cape Cod and a stolen Vinland map disrupt the tranquillity of a seaside village. In preparation for this modern day Viking saga, I read everything reasonably possible about the Norse in the North Atlantic and the alleged Vinland settlement in the Americas, travelled to museums in the Viking centres of Oslo, Dublin, and York, as well as interviewed microbiologists about the microbes that underlie plagues (then I promptly made up my own microbe and its bizarre symptoms).
For the upcoming Chesapeake Tugboat Murder series, which occurs in a small fictional village and site of a 1680s pirate massacre, I’ve been researching the colonial history of America, especially in the Delmarva area. When most people think about piracy in the Americas, their thoughts leap immediately to the Caribbean and the Spanish Main. But the Chesapeake Bay region had an astonishingly rich history of piracy when the Virginia and Maryland colonies jostled to control the Chesapeake and the nascent colonial powers (Britain, Holland, Spain and France) vied to dominate the eastern seaboard. In the Chesapeake Tugboat Murders, the settling of a small band of Scottish pirates in the upper Chesapeake, led by the murderous Giles Blood-hand in possession of a reputed treasure hoard, causes the eruption of a blood feud three and half centuries later.
Are you self-published or traditional?
Penmore Press, an independent press in Tucson, Arizona, publishes my books. I love working with them, my publisher, web-mistress, editors, and cover designer. All of them are wonderful.
How many books have you written?
Seven in total. The Bottom Dwellers and Ægir’s Curse were published recently by Penmore Press. These are the first two stories in a trilogy called the Woods Hole Mysteries and are set in the real-life seaside village of Woods Hole on Cape Cod in the US. Woods Hole’s a magical place with an oceanographic institute and marine lab where I worked as a marine biologist for many summers. The characters that populate this actual setting are fictional. The trilogy focuses on a brilliant yet flawed inventor-Nobel Laureate, Dr. Lindsey Nolan, and her misadventures. Nolan’s a chaos magnet and prone to making horrible decisions about almost everything.
The third novel in the trilogy, The Bends, will be released sometime in the spring of 2016. I’m really excited about this one because it introduces one of my favorite characters, Bill Bleach, a gawkish, young detective brought to investigate a gruesome murder in a hidden labyrinth in the walls of an art college. Despite himself, Bill falls hard for the prime suspect, Lindsey Nolan’s adopted daughter, Maggie, and as he attempts to exonerate her, uncovers her dark past. It’s a big mess for Bill.
Vital Spark and Spider are the first two novels in my upcoming Chesapeake Tugboat Murder series. Vital Spark has been completed and is under contract with Penmore and should be released sometime in 2016. Spider is about 95% complete. River Glen, the fictional setting for these thrillers, is a village of fishermen and oddballs who are descended from 1600s pirates and are hiding, centuries later, a massive treasure from a Spanish treasure galleon. It’s a post-modern pirate yarn with lusty pirates and wenches, carousing, murder, mayhem ... and all that good stuff. Argh.
Two of the seven novels that I’ve written – let’s call them “practice novels destined for the e-dumpster” – will never see the light of day. They were the first two novels I wrote over a decade ago; they were utterly horrible. Hopefully, I got all of the bad writing and ludicrous, implausible plotlines out of my system with those.
I think we can relate to *first novels* and everyone's early drafts are usually horrible. So what are you working on now?
I’m in the process of writing the climax to Spider, the sequel to Vital Spark. It has two interwoven plots: a scientist conducting diabolical experiments with poisonous spiders (literally spiders on steroids) at a fictional Chesapeake Bay college, and a ruthless treasure-hunter seeking the elusive 17th century treasure of the notorious Giles Blood-hand. A ditzy marine biologist, Alex Allaway, finds herself in the middle of the craziness.
Any future projects in the works?
I ride motorcycles with a bunch of like-minded women motorcycle enthusiasts, and this Fourth of July weekend, we’re traveling to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I’ve been cajoling them to take a ghost walk because Gettysburg’s supposedly one of the most haunted places in America. My thought is to write a mystery-thriller cantered around a Gettysburg ghost walk with biker chicks, re-enactors and of course, a murdering ‘ghost,’ but I haven’t figured out the details yet. My brain is muddling about in the conclusion of Spider. The umbilicus hasn’t been cut from that story yet.
I would love to visit Gettysburg, but for entirely different reasons. So who is your favourite character of your books and why?
I’m ridiculously attached to many of my characters. In the Woods Hole trilogy, I have a soft spot for Maggie as she’s overcome tremendous odds (abandonment/child prostitution/drug addiction) to become the artist and young woman she is in The Bends. She’s the age of my children so there’s probably some Freudian maternal thing going on here. Lindsey Nolan’s business partner, the tattooed Polynesian engineer, Sara Kauni, is so cool that I’d stammer through a conversation with her if she were to stop me on the street. I try to warm up to Lindsey Nolan but I can’t. She’s too intelligent, creative, arrogant, and sexy for her own good. I have a bit of an author crush on the dashing biker, Derick Briggs, Lindsey’s love interest in the later Woods Hole stories. After all of the heartache I put her through with a paedophile English teacher, parasitic ex-husband, and cheating boyfriend, I finally cut her a break and gave her a good man in Derick.
Lucky for Lindsey, eh? If you could be one of your characters, who would it be and why?
Hands down, I’d be Julia Hale, the Scottish grandmother in the Chesapeake Tugboat Murders series. She’s a former actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company, drop-dead-gorgeous, charismatic, a wonderful dancer, and has interesting men falling at her feet. Ahh … I could only wish …
Where can readers find your books?
Amazon and all online book vendors.
What writer or book has had the biggest influence on your work?
I went to an all girls’ high school so I actually learned something as a teenager. I had extraordinary English teachers who taught me an appreciation of many types of literature. This had a cumulative effect. I love Latin American literature (Cristina Garcia, Gabriel Garcia Marquez), American Literature (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O’Connor) and British Literature (Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle). I adore reading and watching drama, the Greek tragedies, Shakespeare, and Eugene O’Neill.
What writer or book has had the biggest influence on your work?
I love P. D. James. Her stories are gripping, complex – absolute genius – and she’s a brilliant writer. I find mystery-thrillers especially fun to write as I see them as problem-solving exercises, a challenge to develop, then successfully resolve. They’re puzzles I create to amuse myself.
P.D. James was in a class of her own. Fab books. Now, what book are you currently reading?
Except for the historical research, I rarely read when I’m writing a novel, which (I hope) prevents other writers’ phrases and ideas sneaking subconsciously into my stories and corrupting them. I hope that my stories are pure and unique, and develop freely without interference from others’ works lingering in my subconscious. I try to write with an unfettered mind, but the negative events in the world and ever-pervasive, ever-demanding technologies are hugely distracting. When I’m not writing a novel, I read incessantly and read everything, both fiction and non-fiction.
How many books do you read a month, would you say?
Zero when I’m writing a novel. Four or five when not working on a book.
Where do you do your writing?
The split second my son left to join the Navy, I transformed his bedroom into my office. I write in bed on a laptop with the ever-essential extra large mug of coffee within reach. Coffee is my jet fuel.
How many hours a day do you write?
I’m pretty compulsive about my writing schedule. I start writing between 3 and 4 am while the world sleeps. I write for a few hours, then go to dance class. I’m pretty fanatical about dance, an absolute klutz, but I love it regardless. Dancing enlivens my brain and fires me up to write for a few more hours. By early afternoon, I’m pretty much brain-dead so I take rambling walks and think about my writing the next day. I walk through my town park or the town graveyard where there’s tons of wildlife like deer, birds and foxes. Reading gravestones often gives me ideas for characters. (One gravestone is of the Reckless Sisters. They must have been the life of the party! I’d like to write a story about them). If I had to do the math, I write for about five hours a day. The dance and walk breaks are essential to recharge my brain.
Do you agree with the statement: write about what you know?
Definitely! ‘Writing what you know’ lends credibility and authenticity to one’s stories. That’s why many of my characters are scientists. Both Jessie McCabe in the Woods Hole Mysteries and Alex Allaway in the Chesapeake Tugboat Murders are marine biologists. The two bioengineers and Nobel Laureates, Lindsey Nolan and Sara Kauni, work in a lab that develops experimental electrodes, much like a lab that I worked in earlier in my career. For part of the year I live on my small tugboat on the Chesapeake, which is why much of the action in my stories occurs on boats or on/in the water.
As an author are you self-employed or do you have another job?
I’m a biology professor who teaches physiology, neuroscience, and endocrinology to pre-medical and nursing students. (Ok...WOW...)
I occasionally teach a course in marine biology. It’s a job that I’ve been doing for a very long time so it’s easy and allows me a lot of mental space and time to develop novels. Since I’ve worked in academia for my entire career, my stories often occur in labs (The Bottom Dwellers and Ægir’s Curse) and colleges like the Newbury College of Art (The Bends) and Tolchester College (Spider). Working with academics is way stranger than fiction … over-the-top weird.
What has surprised you most about writing?
The addictive nature of writing, which is why I write trilogies and series. Characters also occupy inordinate amounts of time in the author’s head, even when not writing.
What are the best and worst things about being a writer?
I took up novel writing late(r) in life and it’s enlivened my brain and enriched my life in countless intangible ways. I’ve met some wonderful people and found new friends and colleagues through my writing. The writing allows me to research subjects and travel to places I want to learn about. Writing is a continuous education and process that (I hope) keeps my mind interesting and agile, if to no one else, me.
The worst thing is when acquaintances think that stories are either about the author or them. The Lindsey Nolan character in the Woods Hole Mysteries trilogy has a pretty interesting sex life. An acquaintance, eyebrow raised in titillation, commented to me that “You’ve had an interesting life.” Hmm. Lindsey Nolan and all of my characters are fictional. They’re creations of my imagination, but they’re not me. Acquaintances have also seen themselves in my characters, which causes a bit of tension. Again, I stress that the characters are not real, nor based on real people in my life. I’m sorry that some people may see facets of themselves in my villains and shitheads. It’s their problem, not mine.
What is the most exciting experience you've had as a result of writing?
Every time my publisher, Michael, sends me a box of a newly published book and I hold it in my hand for a first time, I’m filled with an overwhelming sense of joy. I love doing blog interviews like this one. It’s a rare and lovely opportunity to reflect on one’s writing experiences. It’s been wonderful to meet other writers, especially after being surrounding by professors for my entire career. Writers are a very generous and warm group of individuals.
What do you like doing when you aren't writing?
I have a lot of restless energy. I mentioned my passion for dancing, but I also love to motorcycle ride, snorkel/swim, ski/snowboard and do yoga with my daughter, eat Indian food and discuss literature with my son, backpack and boat with my sweetheart, and spend time with my parents and siblings. I have wonderful people in my life. I’m blessed.
Have you attended any writing courses?
Never. I taught myself to write novels with no guidance. I just slog away at it. It’s a process like everything. I hope that I’m getting better with each book.
Could you give me a sentence/short paragraph on each of your books?
The Woods Hole Mysteries trilogy, The Bottom Dwellers: A redemption story about two troubled loners, an alcoholic inventor (Lindsey Nolan) and a teenaged prostitute/heroin addict (Maggie May), with a subplot about obsessive professional jealousy and theft. Published September 2015.
Ægir’s Curse: A Viking plague rising from the waters off of Cape Cod and stolen Vinland map ignite a chain of catastrophic events for Lindsey Nolan, Maggie May and the other inhabitants of a small seaside village. Published November 2015.
The Bends: Maggie May has weeks until graduation and the promise of a dream job making underwater documentaries, when a serial killer strikes at her art college and she becomes the prime suspect in the murder investigation. Coming spring 2016.
The Chesapeake Tugboat Murder series, Vital Spark: Marine biologist, Alex Allaway, returns to her childhood home of River Glen to find her grandfather murdered, and a piece of eight and cryptic map clinched in his hand. Alex’s search for the elusive River Glen treasure reignites a blood feud between the descendants of two rival pirate families. Under contract with Penmore Press and coming 2016.
Spider: A deranged professor at Tolchester College on the Chesapeake conducts very bad science with Atrax robustus, the Australian funnel spider. 95% complete.
How do you structure when writing a book - do you start with an outline, plot each chapter or just write and see where it goes from there?
Last summer I was driving my boat under some cliffs in the Chesapeake when I noticed an abandoned cottage that had slipped over the edge. This gave me the idea for the inciting incident in Spider, where a large wake created by a speeding yacht hits the cliff and causes the dirt wall to collapse. When a rickety cottage topples off the edge of the cliff, a mass grave is exposed underneath it. So I get some initial idea like this and formulate a loose plot, then start writing. I let the details emerge spontaneously. That spontaneity is the most enjoyable part of the process for me. It’s fascinating the way characters evolve and take on a life of their own. I believe that the subconscious mind is more intelligent than the conscious mind, which allows a character to percolate in the writer’s subconscious waiting to express her/himself.
What social media platforms do you use?
I work with an amazing web designer, Midori Snyder from Penmore Press, who created a highly visual website for me (www.leahdevlin.com). Check it out to see my photos of Woods Hole, the Chesapeake, and my travels to Ireland, England and Norway. The website also has some essays on what inspired me to write. Very soon I’m going to incorporate audio readings from some of my novels so I hope you’ll stop by and listen. I use also Facebook (Leah Devlin Author), and Instagram (devlinleah) so join me there. Blog interviews, like yours, David, are tremendously fun!
How much do you feel you've improved in the last few years?
I’ve been working hard to simplify and increase the pacing and tension. My goal is to get the reader’s heart thumping in their chest.
What is your favourite thing you've written?
Like children, you love your stories in different ways. I love the redemption aspect and hopefulness at the end of The Bottom Dwellers. It’s a story of human resiliency and unlikely friendships. I love the Vikings history in Ægir’s Curse and the introduction of the marine biologist, Jessie McCabe, who discovers the Viking longship. In The Bends, I love the pure goodness of the detective, Bill Bleach, and Maggie emerging as a painter of extraordinary promise.
My favourite novel is the upcoming Vital Spark. The quirky town of River Glen, with its rich pirate history, the annual pirate festival-bacchanal, and oddball inhabitants were a delight to create. I love its characters, the scatter-brained marine biologist, dazzling Scottish actress, world-weary detective, philandering grandfather, the kooky palm-reader, and the 17th century pirates, especially the avenging Giles Blood-hand and the sadistic Captain Bartholomew Dodd, all of them!
What's your favourite character archetype of literature?
I’m fascinated with detectives, and the three I’ve created so far are very distinct from one another. The Norwegian detective, Sven Halverson, in Ægir’s Curse is suave, cosmopolitan, repulsed by everything American, obsessed with restoring the stolen Vinland map to Viking hands and equally obsessed with bedding the irresistible man magnet, Lindsey Nolan.
Bill Bleach of The Bends is the antithesis to Sven Halverson. He’s young, awkward, earnest, a starry-eyed romantic, and easily flustered by attractive women. He’s a bumbling mess in the presence of Lindsey Nolan, and Maggie, the art student and prime suspect in The Bends. There’s not malicious or devious bone in Bill’s body.
I adore Jay Braden in the Chesapeake Tugboat Murders (Vital Spark and Spider). He’s a hard-boiled Baltimore cop who relocates to the quiet village of River Glen in the hopes of healing his wife who’s spiralling into madness. He’s so human. He drinks too much, ignores his gym membership, lusts after the lovely medical examiner, struggles to mentor two millennial cops who are addicted to their cell phones, all while chasing murderers.
What scene in your writing has made you laugh the hardest or cry the most?
Alcoholism, drug addiction and prostitution were obviously difficult topics to delve into when writing The Bottom Dwellers. Two deaths that occur in the rehab are tragic. Yet in the same story, I was howling outright when writing the near-surreal scene when the engineering professor, Karen Battersby, is amidst the Ewoks and Stormtroopers at ComicCon. There’s a jarring juxtaposition between the two women engineers: Dr. Lindsey Nolan, who’s struggling to get sober in rehab, and Dr. Karen Battersby, who resides in the fantasy world of online gaming.
There’s a lot of humour in the Chesapeake Tugboat Murder series. The elders of River Glen (who did their share of LSD in the 60s) have a vast crop of marijuana so the village is full of happy stoners.
Do you believe in writers block? If so, have you ever had to overcome it?
I’m not convinced that it really exists.
One’s energy and levels of creativity oscillate so I’m patient with myself. If I’m mentally tired, I write anyway, knowing that if it’s less than good, I’ll go back and fix it when my mind’s fresh. The delete button is a great ally. If I hit an obstinate roadblock, I back off on the story for a few days and let my subconscious figure it out. Roadblocks mostly appear as I’m starting to write the climax of the story where the plot lines converge and the loose ends need tying up with a satisfying and credible resolution.
Lastly, what advice can you give to other writers?
Believe in yourself. Re-write. Simplify. Write because you love it, not to make money. Write what you want to write, not what others want you to write. (My sentiment exactly!)
Thank you, Leah, it has been an absolute pleasure to talk to you and to delve into your writing process and thoughts.
To connect with Leah please click on the links below:
http://www.penmorepress.com/penmore_authors_/leah-devlin.html
http://www.amazon.com/Leah-Devlin/e/B0195IOS8M/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Thanks for this fun and really interesting interview, David.
ReplyDeleteSuch a thorough and "meaty" interview.
ReplyDelete