Q&A with mystery author JM Maison!

Q&A with mystery author JM Maison!

A few weeks ago, I did a guest post post called, “How is a debut novel like pregnancy?” In the comment section, one of my dear friends JM Maison (I consider her my friend, though we’ve only met through social media) and I started comparing different methods of getting published (self-published or traditional) to the different ways a baby can be born.

JM Maison: What a great post! I’ve experienced the human baby…and the self pub baby…now hoping to experience the traditional published book baby. So funny, Jolina, loved it!

JM Maison: Hmmm…I did have 2 C-sections…wonder if I just do things a little “less traditionally” all the way around 😉 Thanks, Jolina!

Now, with that little introduction, I will begin our Q&A. Enjoy!

Hello, JM Maison! Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and visit today. I know you’ve been very busy this summer, taking a road trip with your daughter and working on the next book in your The Empty Nest Can Be Murder series.

THANK YOU for the opportunity to be on your blog, Jolina! I appreciate it so much!

Can you tell us how the idea for this series began?

I had the idea for this series after my son left for college, specifically: a woman who is feeling like she isn’t quite sure about where her life is heading, she is unmoored, and she wants to do something new and exciting. She gets pulled into a mystery, as something to do but also as a sort of obligation. I thought it would also be a cool angle if she and her husband worked together to solve mysteries. I’ve always been a big fan of Agatha Christie, and I loved her Tommy and Tuppence characters. I’m also a fan of The Thin Man and Nick and Nora Charles. If I may be so bold, I kind of envision Joe and Maggie True as the modern day Tommy and Tuppence or Nick and Nora!

How did your own sleuthing skills play into your research?

Well . . . I’m not really a sleuth but I like to pretend I am (sometimes). The truth is I have always kind of wanted to be a spy or a private investigator; actually it’s one of my dream jobs if I were brave enough to sneak into peoples’ houses and fight bad guys, that is. Seriously, though, I do have a tendency toward extreme curiosity. I have been known to eavesdrop (writer’s prerogative), I have even been known to follow cars (especially if I suspect foul play or I’m developing a character), and I’ve once, okay twice, searched trash cans (not my proudest or cleanest moment). I think I’m a natural sleuth . . . if that makes any sense. Let’s just say I’m very, very curious and observant.

Are MEH (for those not familiar with JM Maison’s blogging acronym, MEH means “My Engineer Husband”) or your sweet lab featured at all in Desired to Death? (I thought I glimpsed some of MEH’s sweetness in Maggie True’s supportive husband, Joe!)

That’s so nice! I’ll pass your sweet compliment on to MEH! Yes, it’s true that My Engineer Husband (MEH) and Abby, too, were the seeds of Joe and Smythe. That’s not to say MEH is Joe and Abby is Smythe—there are many differences. For instance, Smythe is a chocolate lab and Abby is a black lab. And Joe is an airline pilot, and MEH is clearly an engineer. But seriously, it’s more than that. Smythe and Joe are truly figments of my imagination. If there is one thing that I probably did draw on, in how I portrayed Joe, it’s the relationship between he and Maggie—how they talk about everything, how they are very connected despite (or perhaps because of) many years of marriage, how they do almost everything together. I’ve read so many books where marriages grow more distant over time, and I wanted the antithesis of that with these characters. I wanted to portray the depth and closeness a marriage can develop over many years. Yes, Joe and Maggie have difficulties and disagreements, but they also respect and love one another. I wanted the marriage and characters to ring true in this way.

How did the idea for A.J. Traverso AKA “tattoo boy” come about? Did you see him in “real life”?

Did I see him? In a word: no. However, let’s just say one degree of separation—that’s all I can really say about that. But that small distant glimpse combined with online research about men who take pride in “conquests” and how they present themselves online and in person allowed me to create A.J. Traverso in all his glory.

I loved how Maggie is trying to solve the crime to exonerate her estranged friend. It rang so true. How did you come up with this thread?

Living in a small town can make friendship—and estranged friendship—very challenging at times. You really never know when you might run across someone again in life. So it’s never truly possible to “burn a bridge,” so to speak. When I started thinking about how Maggie might get pulled into a mystery, I wanted some connection, but I also didn’t want it to be too close. I wondered what it might take me to get involved in a mystery as Maggie does, and that lingering tug of “what might have been” in a friendship combined with regret seemed to ring true. Maggie is already feeling loss in other areas, so I thought that a past relationship—just when she most needs an anchor—would be something that might convincingly draw her in.First, thank you for that huge compliment, Jolina! It was such a challenge and stressor as a self-published author to figure out the whole cover art thing on my own, so I’m very glad you found the image arresting. From the beginning I had it in my mind that A.J. had to be featured on the cover of the book—he’s such an arresting image in himself—but I also wanted that dichotomy with Maggie’s changing life. I had always thought it would be A.J. on the top of the cover and a the skyline of the village on the bottom of the cover (kind of like what’s on the back of the book), but then when preliminary ideas came back from the cover designer, he had come up with the concept of an upside down house—and it really spoke to me of the empty nest and Maggie’s world being turned upside down.