Interview Dorothy Bodoin

by

Billie A. Williams

1) Foxglove is a beautiful flower, does it play a part in your book? If not how did you come up with such an intriguing book title?

Foxgloves play a part in my first book, Darkness At Foxglove Corners, by contributing to the atmosphere. One of my characters has a garden of giant perennials. As she tells my heroine, Jennet, foxgloves are poisonous; and poison is important in the plot.

I wanted to give my real life setting a fictitious name. The town I had in mind was very small, and I began to think of what would sound good with Corners. When I was plotting the first book in my series, I saw rows of wonderful tall foxgloves at the local Farmers Market and bought some to plant in my own garden. The two words seemed to go together--and Foxglove Corners was born.

The title CRY FOR THE FOX was inspired by a poem, “For Every Fallen Thing”, although the poet didn’t include a fox in her list of the fallen. When I decided on that title, I realized that “fox” and Foxglove Corners would go nicely together too.

2) Do your other books have a fox theme? Do foxes somehow play a part in your life? Or are they an interest you acquired? Tell us more about their connection to your work.

At present, Cry For The Fox is the only one of my books to have a fox theme. Foxes and wolves remind me of dogs. I’m always collecting pictures and figurines of them.

3) Have you ever been part of, or have you ever seen a real fox hunt--I guess I have to ask first, do they still do fox hunts? Where?

I was surprised to learn that they hunt foxes in Michigan--in the real life setting of my series. Apparently they have been doing so for decades. I have never been part of a fox hunt, nor have I seen one. The closest I came was visiting the headquarters of the Metamora Hunt and viewing a pack of foxhounds. Aside from the fact that I don’t ride (horses), this isn’t the kind of activity I would ever participate in. I’m not a hunter, and I love animals.

4) How much research into fox hunts did you need to do for this book?

I didn’t do much research, except to make sure that my facts were accurate. I learned enough to create the background of Cry For The Fox from the very gracious Huntsman, Patricia Pearce, who invited me into her home and spent an entire morning giving me a wealth of information about the Hunt. I learned some fascinating facts. Apparently they go hunting even in the wintertime, which, in Michigan, is quite an achievement. Also the point of the Hunt is to chase the fox. Foxes aren’t killed. At least in Metamora.

5) Did you join, are you a part of, or did you have to research animal activists for your book ?

For this book, and also for Winter’s Tale, I researched animal activists, mostly on the Internet. I didn’t learn much that I hadn’t previously known.

I’ve been a member of P.E.T.A. and I always try to help animals in any way I can, but I’ve never worked as an activist.

6) I know every author gets asked the question of where your story ideas come from--but it's such a fascinating thing to get the inside scoop on how an author plots--How did you get the idea for Foxglove Corners?

Even before I finished that first book, I’d heard about the Metamora hunt and knew that my second one would deal with fox hunting and animal activists. I slipped in a comment about fox hunting in one of the early chapters of Darkness At Foxglove Corners as a preview.

7) Is this a series? Whether it is,or not how far ahead have you thought out the books that will follow this one? Is this your debut book with Wings?

Cry For The Fox is the second in a series. The third and fourth--Winter’s Tale and A Shortcut Through The Shadows--are already published by Wings. At the time Lorraine accepted Winter’s Tale, Cry For The Fox was stalled at another publisher. After a year, I withdrew it and submitted to Wings. One reviewer has referred to Cry For The Fox as a prequel. When all of the books are published, I hope the order won’t matter. I know that I don’t always read series books in order.

My fifth and sixth books in the series are already accepted by Wings. They are The Witches Of Foxglose Corners and The Snow Dogs Of Lost Lake. I have some ideas for the seventh book but plan to take a vacation from the series and write a novel of romantic suspense next.

8) Do you base any of your characters on people you know or have known? How about famous people or other authors?

None of my characters are based on people I know or have known. I’ve borrowed faces to help me see a character, though, and given my fictitious people my own characteristics, faults and virtues, and likes and dislikes. For example, Jennet was wearing a lot of empire style dresses until my young niece told me that hardly anyone wore them anymore. J

9) Who is (are) your favorite author or authors? Who would you choose to play your lead characters in the movie version of Foxglove Corners?

Unfortunately, not all of my favorite authors are still alive. Among them are Ray Bradbury, Connie Willis, Marlys Millhiser, Victoria Holt, Velda Johnston, and the poet, Stephen Vincent Benet.

I don’t go to the movies very often. If there’s a movie I really want to see, I’ll wait until the DVD comes out. But I’ll try to answer your question. For Jennet, I could see Holly Hunter maybe. For Crane, the actor would have to be a man who’s tall, blond, husky, handsome, quiet, and sexy with a trace of a Southern accent. Who could that be?

10) Do you have an ideal reader in mind, an audience, when you write your books?

I try to write the kind of books that anyone, from their teens to their sixties and beyond, would enjoy. When I first started writing, I didn’t think that men would read my books, but several men have told me they liked them. I write the kind of book I’d like to read myself.

11) What is the best advice--either relating to your writing or your life--that you have ever received?

Many people told me that perseverance is a writer’s most important quality. Darkness At Foxglove Corners received twenty-eight rejections before I found a publisher for it. I’ve been luckier with my other books. I had faith in my story and just kept sending it out. In writing later books, when sometimes I felt that the story was stalled and that it wouldn’t be good if I ever finished it, I just kept going. So--never give up. To me, that’s the most important advice for a writer.

12) Is there something that I may not have asked that you would like to tell us about? And please do hint at what works you have in progress--what will follow Foxglove Corners? I can't wait to read it.

I’m very grateful to Wings for giving my Foxglove Corners series a home and for planning to reprint Darkness At Foxglove Corners, which is now out of print. Artists Pam Ripling (Winter’s Tale) and Chrissie Poe (the others) have designed beautiful covers for my books. Lorraine is a wonderful editor to work with, and I feel a kinship with the other Wings writers that is very important to me. Also, Wings is publishing one of my favorite books, a western gothic titled Treasure At Trail’s End, in November of this year. The cover art is fantastic, and I’m very excited about it.

A hint? Well, okay. In my seventh Foxglove Corners book, I’m going to weave a wedding planning story into a mystery. As for my WIP, I’m going through my usual will-this-idea-work? stage. I have eight chapters outlined--a piano teacher with a fondness for Stephen Foster songs, a sinister statue, and old disappearance, and a time capsule or scrapbook. I can’t decide which.