Winter of Secrets
The week of Christmas, I can think of no better interview to feature than this one with Vicki Delany on her new book, Winter of Secrets. As described at Delany’s website: “Siblings Wendy and Jason Wyatt-Yarmouth and their friends are in the peaceful mountain town of Trafalgar, B.C. enjoying a two-week vacation of skiing, drinking, drugs, and sex. Tragedy strikes the group of privileged students when two of the group crash through the ice into the frozen river.It’s Christmas Eve and the snowstorm of the decade has settled over the peaceful mountain town of Trafalgar, B.C. Constables Smith and Evans have a busy shift, attending fender-benders, tumbling pedestrians, and Christmas tree fires. At the stroke of midnight, they arrive at the scene of a car accident: a vehicle has gone off the snowy road into the icy river. An accident, agree police, coroner, medics. But when the autopsy reveals a shocking secret, Constable Molly Smith and Sergeant John Winters are plunged into the world of sexual predators, recreational drugs, privilege, and high-living.”
Winter of Secrets is the third installment ” featuring Constable Smith, Sergeant Winters, and the town in the shadow of the glacier, Trafalgar, British Columbia.”
A first chapter PDF of the book can be found here.
Tim O’Shea: Your website includes the phrase: “Canadian Author of Mystery Novels and Suspense Novels”. Do try to set all your novels in Canada? And in terms of writing, do you think your Canadian background/experience allows your novels to have a perspective and nuances that readers cannot get from non-Canadian writers?
Vicki Delany: I do set all my books in Canada. About all I can say I bring to my books is a Canadian perspective on Canada. And that’s a good thing. We in Canada are overshadowed so much by our so-much-larger neighbours that it can be difficult to get our stories told. Even Canadian publishers sometimes prefer books set in the U.S. because they think that has greater market appeal. Toronto is often a stand-in in movies and TV shows for places such as New York, but it is not often allowed to be itself. Canada and the U.S. are alike in many ways, but there are significant differences also and I think everyone benefits from knowing how the rest of the world works. For example, my police officers in the Constable Molly Smith series are not allowed to carry their guns when out of uniform so they will not walk out of a restaurant into a gun battle or some such. Gold Digger is set in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, which was about as far from a Wild West town as you can get; the North-West Mounted Police being firmly in charge. That sort of thing, and other nuances, are why I think it’s valuable for Canadian people to set their books in Canada.
O’Shea: Winter of Secrets is the third book you released in 2009. As you recently wrote at your blog: “…and that’s been too much.” (in terms of the demand of promoting). How did it end up that you were so fortunate (and in a sense, unfortunate) to have three books released in one year?
Delany: I know how fortunate I am, although I sometimes grumble. I am quite a fast writer, I don’t really know why, and I can write a book in about six months, start to finish. In 2009 I had Valley of the Lost, the second in the Constable Molly Smith series from Poisoned Pen Press out in February and then the first in a new series from Rendezvous Crime, Gold Digger in May. My third Molly Smith book, Winter of Secrets, was first intended to be in the spring 2010 line up, but Poisoned Pen pushed it ahead to take advantage of the Christmas season and skiing theme. It’s also a nice-tie in with the Winter Olympics as they are in British Columbia where the books are set. I did find it too much in terms of promotion, I felt like I was always on the road. And how can you ask people to come to your THIRD launch party in one year?
O’Shea: For a number of years until you retired from your job, you only wrote on Sundays. How exhilarating and/or intimidating was it when you gained a great deal more time to write?
Delany: Fabulous. It took me four years to write my first book. I worked full time, I’m a single parent of three daughters. So over those years writing was pretty much what I dabbled in. It was only when the kids were grown-up, not needing dinner on the table every night, that even though I still had a day job, I felt that I’d become a professional writer. I now write full time, and that’s even better. I’ve moved to a hundred year old farmhouse in the country and I say that I am living the dream.
O’Shea: How long was the idea of Constable Molly Smith rolling around in your mind before you were able or wanting to put her first novel together?
Delany: Even before I envisioned Molly Smith herself, I knew where I wanted to set a series. I had written two standalone novels (Scare the Light Away and Burden of Memory, both from Poisoned Pen) set in Ontario, where I live, and had the thought in the back of my mind that perhaps it was time for a series. My editor agreed, and I cast about, mentally speaking, for people to put in a small mountain town in the Kootenay area of British Columbia. One of my daughters lives in Nelson, which is the inspiration for the fictional Trafalgar of the books, and I’ve always known that would be a fabulous setting for a series. I love it, and even if I’m not there, I can be there metaphysically speaking when I’m writing about it. It’s a perfect setting for a mystery novel. Like its inspiration, Trafalgar is surrounded by mountains, and very isolated. It is eight hours drive to Vancouver or to Calgary, and the nearest city is in another country – Spokane, Washington. You need a passport to go to the mall. The population is an eclectic mix of long-time residents, people born and raised in the valleys and mountainsides; transients, neo-hippies, aimless youth, spiritual-seekers; and newcomers such as the comfortably retired, attracted by the beauty, the isolation, the artistic community, and the area’s reputation for independence. Such a mix of people brings the potential for conflict, which is the key to any crime novel.
I made the series a police procedural mainly because that is the sort of book I enjoy reading and I felt that being police officers they’d have reason to be investigating everyone’s business.
O’Shea: Do you see a finite end to Constable Smith’s tales–or would you like to be telling her tales for the next several years indefinitely?
Delany: I certainly don’t see an end to her story yet. She is only 26 years old in the first book, In the Shadow of the Glacier, and a probationary constable, so she has a lot of growth ahead of her and a lot of things to learn. I deliberately have her pretty green and making mistakes so that she can learn on the job. She has life-lessons to learn as well and I am looking forward to taking her through those.
The Klondike Gold Rush books are another story altogether. Because the height of the gold rush lasted only one year, spring 1898 to summer 1899 I can’t move Fiona and her son Angus through time. Angus will always be 12 years old; he will always be embarrassed when women talk to him. I am going to try to draw out details of Fiona’s character by examining her past, rather than having her grow. I’m only two books into that series, it will be interesting to see how far I can take it.
O’Shea: I recently read an interview with an author who was close to finishing his 11th novel, and yet he had not settled on a name. When in the creative process do you typically settle upon a title?
Delany: It completely varies. For only one of my books have I had the title before I wrote a single word. Scare the Light Away is taken from a line in the book and as soon as I wrote it I knew it would be the title. But generally, it’s only after the book is finished that I settle on a title. I wanted to call the first Molly Smith book Test Case, but my editor thought that sounded like a medical mystery so we batted back and forth with glaciers and shadows and words like that and eventually came up with In the Shadow of the Glacier. Which probably not coincidently is the one title of mine I don’t much care for.
O’Shea: The Molly Smith books are about more than Constable Molly Smith. Can you tell us a bit about the other characters?
Delany: The actual subtitle of the series should be a Constable Molly Smith and Sergeant John Winters Novel. We shortened that because it is a bit of a mouthful. Both John Winters, Molly’s superior on the police force, and her mother, Lucky, are very important characters in the books. Winters because, well because he is the detective after all, she is just a beat cop, but also because he helps her to mature, to become a good officer and a caring person. I liked very much what one reviewer said about their relationship: he teaches; she learns. Lucky Smith is important for grounding the story in family, so it’s not just about a couple of police officers solving crimes but also about families and relationships. Lucky is an old-time hippy, still fighting the good fight, and sometimes that brings her into conflict with her cop daughter.
O’Shea: Do you outline?
Delany: Roughly, in terms of knowing where I’m going, i.e. who did what and why, although perhaps not quite how I am going to get there. Winter of Secrets was an exception. I was in Nelson one Christmas and it was snowing, quite heavily, but as is the norm in those mountains, there wasn’t any wind and the snow was falling straight down and not drifting. This, I thought, would be a mess if they had winds like we get in Ontario. And the opening scene popped into my head.
I started writing the first chapter the next day and carried on typing frantically away from there. I knew who died, but I didn’t know who killed him, or why, or even if anyone did! It was quite a strange feeling; a pure leap of hope, that I would find some inspiration down the line.
I felt sort of like a real Constable Molly Smith, judging the suspects and juggling clues until, with a burst of inspiration, I solved the crime!
O’Shea: It seems like you frequently get invited to contribute guest posts to other blogs–do you find this benefits you in terms of getting to introduce your work to readers that may not read your regular blog homes?
Delany: Oh, yes. I love guest blogging. I love blogs. I love writing about books and about the writing life and I love reading about those things too. There are so many wonderful creative writing blogs out there now. I have heard from readers who say, “I read about your book on XX blog and it sounds great.” In general I have found that the mystery writing community, in Canada and elsewhere, is full of great people. We’re all happy to promote each other as much as we can because we know that leads to the success of mystery novels everywhere. At the group blog I belong to, Type M for Murder, we have a guest blogger on Sunday. Not always a writer, sometimes a fan or an editor or a bookstore owner.
O’Shea: Would you say you have do a great deal less research for a Molly Smith tale versus something like one of the Klondike Gold Rush Series books–or do all your series demand the same amount of research?
Delany: The Klondike books definitely require a lot more research than anything contemporary. I don’t have to go to a book to find out what John Winters is likely to have for breakfast. I’ll just give him what I had! Whereas with anything historical you have to dig to find out. In the Yukon in 1898 Fiona would definitely not be eating yoghurt or granola. I know what Molly is likely to wear when out of uniform just by looking at young women as I drive down the street, but I had to get a book on 19th century fashion out of the library in order to write about Fiona’s clothes. Pretty much every book requires some research, unless you’re writing about yourself and your life. I have no law enforcement experience whatsoever, so I had to find out all about how Canadian police operate. I have had a lot of help from various police departments. I’ve been on walk-alongs with the beat cops in Nelson, and on ride-alongs with the O.P.P. and city forces here in Ontario.
O’Shea: When you come up with a plot idea, is it always distinctly for one of your series–or have you had an idea you initially envisioned for one series that you realized would work better with another or as a standalone novel?
Delany: Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever moved an idea from one type of book to another. Perhaps because my three categories of book are all very different from each other. The standalones are psychological suspense and have to do with something from World War II affecting events of today, the Molly Smith are middle-boiled, and the Klondike are meant to be light-hearted. There are reasons why someone might kill in 1898 that don’t really apply today – fear of being exposed as gay for example, or distinct situations – fight over a mine claim. Whereas in the Klondike no one was likely to object if someone wanted to cut down the forest to build a luxury resort.
O’Shea: What’s next?
Delany: The second in the Klondike Gold Rush series, Gold Fever, will be released by Rendezvous Crime in the Spring, and the fourth Molly Smith, Negative Image, will be out in November 2010. The publishing industry works long ahead, so both those books are finished. I’m taking a break from the Klondike and Trafalgar and am working on something quite different, much darker and grittier than anything I’ve done before. But I will be back to Molly and Fiona soon enough.
O’Shea: Anything you’d like to discuss that I neglected to ask?
Delany: I’d just like to say thank you, Tim, for having me. It’s been a great pleasure.
O’Shea: Thank you for your time and thoughts.