Your previous books have all been YA novels. What led you to writing for adults? What was the process like to switch from one age group to another?
I consider myself an “accidental” author for adults. An author friend who knew I’d been a dancer challenged me to write a short story for Malice Domestic’s anthology, Murder Most Theatrical, which I did. But I felt frustrated that I hadn’t been able to develop the detective’s personal life within the limitations of a short story, so I decided to expand “Missed Cue” into a novel. By the time I was done, the identity of the killer had changed, and it became a much more layered tale.
I was actually a little surprised that it didn’t feel like a huge leap to switch to writing a book for adults. For both young adult and adult fiction, it’s vital to immerse yourself in the heads and emotions of your characters. While teenagers have developmental challenges and struggles, so do adults. We are never fully done with growing up. In Missed Cue, Caitlin has finally gone into therapy to try to figure out why she keeps getting involved with married men. Meantime, her partner at work is trying to drown his troubles in alcohol after his wife leaves him.
Your stories are always more than just a murder mystery to solve. What was your motivation to include Caitlin’s questionable romantic situation?
Well, perfect people not only don’t exist, but they’re pretty boring! Caitlin is basically a hard-working and caring but flawed character. Rationally, she knows that getting involved with a married man is unhealthy and wrong, yet she keeps repeating this pattern. As adults, I think we’re often dogged by echoes from our childhood and adolescence, and Caitlin struggles with parental messages she received that have affected her personal life as an adult.
Caitlin’s extra-marital affair is also an issue in the life of the ballerina whose suspicious death Caitlin is investigating. Like Caitlin, the ballerina has many fine qualities as a person but she, too, is flawed, and was deeply affected by her childhood experiences. I also wanted to show that it’s possible to grow and change and mature as an adult. By the end of the novel, Caitlin is in a much healthier and more self-aware place.
The story also features Caitlin’s partner, who struggles with alcoholism. What dynamic did you intend to bring with this aspect of the story?
Alcoholism is a disease that has affected several family members and dear friends of mine. Inadvertently, caring bystanders often enable the behavior. Caitlin doesn’t want to rat out her partner whose drinking is out of control, and he nearly dies. I also wanted to portray that while recovery is difficult and often uneven, it’s possible.
You went back to school to earn your MFA later in life. What was that experience like and do you recommend that writers pursue MFA programs?
I had a very positive experience in grad school, and I think our shared interest in growing as writers transcended our age differences. I certainly know tons of wonderful writers who did not earn their MFAs. But for me, I found a wonderful learning community. Our teachers were all multi-published professional writers committed to mentoring aspiring writers. I do think it’s important to find a good match. Not all MFA programs are alike. Seton Hill is geared toward novel writing and popular fiction, which was a great fit for me and my interests.
After writing so many books, what have you learned about your writing?
I am above all fascinated by people and their conflicts and struggles—and how their challenges interact and collide with the issues of others in their lives. All of my books involve people involved in the arts, because that’s the world I know and feel passionate about. And a theme running throughout is discovering who you are and who you want to become, as well as the importance of finding your tribe and intentional community of support.
I’m also very interested in exploring larger issues through fiction, such as:
- alcoholism in MISSED CUE
- dysfunctional families in DEADLY SETUP
- racism and childhood abandonment in LEISHA’S SONG
- the impact of the death of a favored sibling in IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU
- the destructiveness of family secrets and parental abandonment in WHILE I DANCED
Finally, I like to leave readers with a sense of hope at the end of my novels that things can get better, and at any age, we can change, grow, and mature.
What’s next for you writing-wise?
I’m currently working on another YA coming-of-age romantic mystery, in which the mother of seventeen-year-old Noelle suddenly disappears. The circumstantial evidence points to suicide, but Noelle is convinced her mother was not suicidal and is determined to find out what really happened. Threaded throughout Noelle’s story is the narrative of a young woman two decades earlier whose escape from an abusive marriage turns out to be related to what happened to Noelle’s mom.
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