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| CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE MURDER by JOANNE FLUKE |
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| Joanne answers forum member, Liz's, questions and comments: |
| Q. First, I would like to congratulate you as being the first culinary mysery writer to make me want to go into the kitchen and bake! A major feat for a non-domestic person like me. These are the only recipes I have ever read! You have written several books before, was there a reason you turned to the cozy genre? A. Yes, Liz. My editor at Kensington, John Scognamiglio, suggested I come up with an idea for a series. Since I'd always wanted to write a cookbook with little stories of small town life included, the Hannah series was right up my alley. Q. Are your characters, although fictional, based on people you knew? A. My characters are completely fictional, but some of them are composites of people I knew. I'll occasionally take one trait from one person, part of a physical description from another, a manner of speaking from another and combine them into a character. Actually, my characters seem very real to me and I think that's because I know them so well. Q. When you write your books do you have the murder plotted out in advance and know who committed the crime? A. Absolutely! I write from a detailed outline that runs at least fifty single-spaced pages, sometimes more. It has everything all mapped out. I couldn't just sit down and write, and then decide who the murderer was later. I need to know from the very beginning so that I can sprinkle in clues along the way. Q. Does the plot around the murder become more involved as you write, or do you have most of the ideas for the twists already outlined? A. Most of the ideas for the twists are in the outline, but occasionally a new twist or a new plot point will occur to me. I analyze these new ideas carefully and if they're right, I'll include them. For instance, Andrea's pregnancy was not in the outline for Blueberry. It just seemed so right for her that I had to write it in. (That was a BIG shock to my editor when he got the completed manuscript---I'm really glad he loved it!) Q. In the Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, Hannah seems both comfortable and uncomfortable in her life back home in the small town. She seems to love her cookie shop and the fact it is her company, but to protect her way of life in "her" house. A. That's a very perceptive observation. Hannah's just a bit more worldly than some of her friends and family in Lake Eden. She spent quiet a few years on a college campus and was exposed to different cultures and different ideas. Hannah loved the "bigger world," but she also loves her small hometown. And don't forget that Hannah lived with Delores when she came back to Lake Eden to help her mother deal with her father's death. Deloers is a very demanding person and it must have been a strain for Hannah to live with her mother. I think that's one of the reasons Hannah's condo and Hannah's cookie shop mean so much to her. They're tangible symbols of her independence. |
| Continuing with Q&A... |