Interview with Leslie Nagel, Author of The Book Club Murderers

by grant

in Author Interviews, Mystery, News

28 Sep 2016

What can you tell us about your new release, The Book Club Murders?

It’s a cozy mystery set in the city of Oakwood, an actual suburb of Dayton, Ohio. As the first in the new Oakwood Mystery Series, readers will become well acquainted with the means streets of my hometown.

Our heroine is Charley Carpenter, owner of a vintage shop. She belongs to the Agathas, a murder mystery book club—female authors only, please. When two women are murdered and their bodies are arranged to copy crime scenes from books Charley’s club has read recently, she’s the first to connect the dots. She has some history—none of it good—with hot Detective Marcus Trenault. She persuades him to let her help investigate from her unique position within the Agathas. Together they race to solve the case before Charley becomes the killer’s next plot twist. Readers may look forward to desperate housewives, a little romance, and an unexpected ending that has surprised everyone who has read the book so far.

Name a book that you feel has impacted your life significantly. Why was it so impactful?

My favorite books are the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I’ve read and reread all three many, many times, beginning at about age fourteen. However, their impact on me isn’t what you might think. After many years of enjoying and pondering the genius of Tolkien’s vision, I happened to replace my tattered copy of The Two Towers with a new edition. This one contained an Author’s Note from the man himself that I’d never seen (or noticed) before.

Tolkien described how he’d fought and struggled his way to the end of Book 3, only to find himself faced with all sorts of story problems. After nearly throwing the entire thing on the fire and calling it quits, he forced himself to completely rewrite the entire trilogy backwards. It took him several years, and all while his friends and family, including C.S. Lewis, repeatedly told him to give up. After I recovered from my shock, this admission impressed me deeply. How could I have ever imagined that it would be possible to lay out such a complex literary work in one go? Not possible. Revision is most commonly considered the most hated step of the traditional writing process, but it is also, in my humble estimation, the most important.

We can apply this concept to the way we live our lives. If something isn’t working or isn’t making you happy, we must find the courage to make a change, even if it means a lot of hard work. Luckily for us all, Tolkien stayed the course.

What’s on your writing desk?

So very glad you asked. My most recent blog post from earlier this month, 5 Steps to a Power Desk, deals with precisely this subject. We’ve got to keep it lean and mean to get the work done with minimal distractions. For a modern writer, the list is actually quite short. Here is what I have on my desk right this moment:

Laptop
Mouse pad and mouse
Lined legal pad
Coffee
Pad of sticky notes and stack of lined note cards
Three “on deck” stickies: one with a brief plot fix, two with dialog ideas
Cup with pens/pencils
Desk lamp
Cell phone (muted and upside down so I don’t see those flashing push notifications)
ONE framed family photo

What scene in The Book Club Murders was your favorite to write?

No contest there. The final confrontation with the murderer was a blast to write. Every mystery lover looks forward to the “big reveal,” the scene when all those loose ends are snipped and all the red herrings are explained. Writing mine allowed me to pull the entire story together. In fact, as I wrote it, I found myself tripping over small problems with the plot, little inconsistencies of wording or attitude that didn’t quite fit. I went back and forth between that expository scene and various other scenes, revising and clarifying. This process enabled me to confirm that the mystery was watertight, and also that my readers had just enough clues in just the right places.

Say you now host a literary-themed talk show (congrats). Who would be your first guest? What would you ask that person?

Stephen King. I think we’d all like to know how he can write so much creepy content and not be absolutely nuts. He’s also one of the most prolific writers of our generation, and yet everything he does crackles with originality. Does he have any secrets for keeping his writing fresh?

What’s rocking your world this month?

It goes without saying that my debut release is just about the event of my entire year. After all the writing, revising, and steps to publication, I am thrilled to finally interact with actual readers.

In my non-writing life? (I do have one.) Autumn is my favorite season, and Ohio’s is especially gorgeous. I lived in New England briefly; I will put our fall color display up against the famed northeast every time. This time of year I am outdoors a lot, walking, raking leaves and storing up fresh air for the winter months.

Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?

When I was in college, the poster above my bed showed a picture of a super intense woman hefting a hammer—kind of a punk rock version of Rosie the Riveter. The caption read: PRESSURE MAKES DIAMONDS. That’s me. I function at my best when I am challenged and engaged to the fullest. I thrive on deadlines, lists, and a jam-packed schedule. When it starts to feel like more than I can handle, I tell myself that I will survive the pressure and stress and come out on the other side better and stronger. So far, so good!