Laura Lippman, the award-winning author of the Tess Monaghan series, interviewed Karin about crime fiction, sex and the state of the world.
LL: Early in my stint as the reporter-who-interviewed-traveling-writers at The Sun, I met Fran Lebowitz, who was promoting a children's book she had written. I was very intimidated by her because I knew her wit was sharp and savage, so I made a groveling apology early in the interview, something like: "I'm sorry I have to ask you the same questions everyone asks you." And she said something along the lines of: "Don't be. There is a finite set of reasonable questions to ask me and every reporter needs to ask them." She was right.
So, with that in mind, I'll ask the question that seems to make writers groan, but I know it interests readers: How do you structure your days? And how does the structure of your days affect the structure of your work? Bear in mind, this question comes from someone who currently has almost 30 index cards on the floor of her office, with word counts and such notations as "The Dogs of Pompeii" "Cynthia Makes a Phone Call" and "Einstein's Bagels/'Nobody cuts me except me.'"
KS: I try to structure my days very carefully when I'm writing. As I am self-employed, it's very hard to make myself stick to a schedule. Compounding the problem, I have trouble with authority figures and I can spend several minutes bickering with myself before the computer is even turned on. Like almost every writer I know, the internet is my biggest obstacle to work, so the first thing I do is tell everyone I know that I'm not going to be online between certain hours, that I will be writing during this time, and to please not disturb me. Fortunately, I have very supportive and understanding friends, and they ridicule and denigrate me if I send them an email during my work hours.
I spend a lot of time thinking about stories (some might call this "staring aimlessly into space"), so by the time I make it to the computer, I have a very strong idea about how the story will start, and in which direction it will flow. My average writing day can last around ten hours in the heat of it, or as little as two or three when I'm still trying to work something out in my head. A lot of time I will write fifty or so pages, then have to go back and read what I've written to understand where I am going in the story.
Writing a book is like a short but passionate love affair. There's the initial foreplay where you sort of tease around the idea and get to know it, then you're hooked, and you fiendishly screw around with the plot and the characters until you are so exhausted you are no longer in your right mind. When it's finally over, you spend the next few months worrying over every little detail, wondering what you could have done differently, until you hate it so much that you have to move on to the next story.
I'm not sure where your index cards enter into it, but I'm sure it only heightens the experience.
LL: I don't know about you, but sometimes, I feel that writing a novel is not unlike trying to concoct one of those tall-food dishes that became so fashionable in the '90s. The ingredients aren't that amazing, but stacking them up in a way so they don't fall down is a real a magic act.
And how is it that you title your books so easily? They practically had to put me into hypnosis to get the title for THE LAST PLACE and, despite all those index cards on my office floor, I haven't a clue what this book will be called.
KS: I cannot write anything until I get a title for the project. The title is what makes the book or the story real to me. With BLINDSIGHTED, I knew that Lena would have a blind sister, and I knew that the rapist would hide in plain site. "KISSCUT" is a printing term for scoring something without cutting all the way through, and I heard the word almost every day when I was in the sign business. I really like that word, there's something sexy and dangerous about it, especially the way it fleshes out in the book. So, again, the story worked its way back from the title.
FAINT COLD FEAR comes from a scene in Romeo & Juliet. Juliet is about to take the potion that will make her seem dead, and she says, "I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins that almost freezes out the heat of life..." This works well on several levels as far as FEAR is concerned. Lena is a person who for various reasons survives rather than lives her life--you could say she is dead and she doesn't know it. Jeffrey and Sara are the star-crossed lovers. In KISSCUT, they start to find out that their relationship the second time around is harder to navigate. In FEAR, they see that their moral compasses are not always pointing in the same direction.
LL: How are your characters changing as the series moves forward? Do your characters ever surprise you?
KS: When I first started thinking about Jeffrey and Sara and Lena, I had specific plans about where they would be at the end of the third book. I'm working on FAINT COLD FEAR now, and they are all at different points from what I originally imagined. I think when you're working on a character it's very much like meeting someone new. Early on, you make assumptions about them and their personalities, but then you get to know them better and realize there's more than meets the eye.
The one character who has constantly surprised me is Lena. All along, I wanted her to be a certain way, and she's defied that vision at every point. I suppose that feeds into her personality, because she's a very contrary person. There is a very important scene she has with Hank toward the end of KISSCUT that took place without any planning on my part. I remember sitting at the keyboard when it was finished and just thinking, "Whoa, where did that come from?"
As I've been outlining the plot for INDELIBLE, the fourth Grant County novel, I've realized a lot of things about Sara that I never knew before--and this is kind of funny, because INDELIBLE takes place in the past, around the time Jeffrey and Sara first get together. Sara has always been the moral center of the series. Jeffrey and Lena work outside the lines a bit, but Sara sees right and wrong very clearly. There's something in INDELIBLE that lets you know she's bound by rules for a reason.
We also get a lot of history on Jeffrey, and why he moved to Grant County in the first place. As for Lena, we get to see her with Sibyl and I think seeing Lena so unguarded with Sibyl will tell us a lot about her character. I say "us" because it will be a learning process for me, too.
LL: You're plotting your fourth book while you're writing your third?
KS: It's a curse -- I'm always more interested in the next book.
LL: This begs some question about process -- writing and thinking. How big a canvas are you working on?
KS: The earlier books are sketching out the lines of the characters. The later books will add more detail and color.
I have always loved mysteries and thrillers. I remember reading my first Encyclopedia Brown when I was a kid. I drove my parents nuts wanting to go to the library and check out the rest of the series. When I first wrote about Grant County, I wanted to write the type of books that I would enjoy as a reader. First and foremost, I wanted the characters to grow and change like people do in real life.
Throughout the series, we see the evolution of Sara and Jeffrey's relationship as well as Lena dealing with the loss she experienced in the first novel. I feel a responsibility toward my characters, and I did not want them to go from book to book without learning something from their experiences. They're also going to age, which rarely happens in series books.
I think of BLINDSIGHTED as an introduction to all the characters and to the town. KISSCUT is more about Lena, while FAINT COLD FEAR focuses on Sara and her family. INDELIBLE, the fourth, is about Jeffrey. I've also got a solid idea for a fifth book, but I'm waiting to get through three and four before I let myself pick the meat off those bones.