Interview Dorothy Bodoin

by

Pam Labud

1) Tell us a little about yourself, where you were born and when did you decide to become a writer?

I was born in Michigan and grew up in Royal Oak, where I still live. I went to school in Michigan--at Shrine of the Little Flower Grade and High School and later at the University of Detroit and Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. I also taught high school English like the heroine of my Foxglove Corners mysteries, Jennet Greenway.

I’ve owned four collies in my life. My collie, Holly, served as the model for Jennet’s Halley, a fact that has never impressed Holly. Every one of my books has a canine character. Blackberry in The Witches Of Foxglove Corners is my first cat.

Except for two years in southern Italy where I worked as a secretary for Chrysler Missile Corporation and a few months in Huntsville, Alabama, I’ve always lived in Michigan. All of my books with the exception of Treasure At Trail’s End are set in this state. One of these days I’m going to write my way out of Michigan.

I suppose that I wanted to be a writer even before I started grade school. As a child, I had a whole bookcase full of books and used to write sequels to the stories I read and create my own story people. In my English classes and at home, I loved reading and writing. Looking back on those years, that was mostly what I did, although I also loved to see movies. Now I rarely watch a movie unless it really intrigues me and it’s on DVD, but I write all the time.

2) Who was it that inspired you the most to become a writer?

No one in particular inspired me to become a writer. It was always part of me, a real passion in the blood. My parents and some English teachers, through the years, gave me valuable support and encouragement. My mother and grandmother and a family friend were the ones who provided me with the books for birthday and Christmas presents. I still have most of them. Some have blank pages ripped out or covered with my own childish scribbling dating from a time when paper wasn’t readily available to me.

3) I see by your website that you have written historicals, mysteries, and gothics. Is there a genre that you haven't attempted that you'd like try? A time period?

I’d love to write a time travel book some day. I’ll read any book if it sounds like a Gothic or if the heroine travels back in time. My favorite time period is the nineteenth century--from the onset of the Civil War to the 1890’s. Some day…

4) Like most authors, you are widely read, what author or authors inspire you the most?

Ray Bradbury; the science-fiction writer, Connie Willis; Victoria Holt and Velda Johnston, two perennial favorites, now deceased; poets Stephen Vincent Benet and Emily Dickinson; and so many others. Any author whose work I read again--and again--and again. That would include Charlotte and Emily Bronte.

5) Who are your favorite character or characters that you've created?

My favorite characters appear in my Foxglove Corners series. I visit them again and again; they’re like old friends. They are Jennet Greenway and Deputy Sheriff Crane Ferguson, of course; Lucy Hazen, the town’s resident horror story writer and psychic; and the outrageous fox hunter-womanizer, Brent Fowler. I know them so well that their lines seem to write themselves.

My least favorite characters are those in my WIP--until I finish the book and can view them from a different perspective.

6) What advice do you have for beginning writers?

I’d advise beginning writers to take advantage of the writing courses and conferences available to them and to read extensively, not only in their chosen genres but whatever catches their interest. Definitely buy a good grammar book and thesaurus. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations has always helped me.

What really set me on the right path was seeking professional critiques for my first books. Later I met my two critique partners through Sisters in Crime. Also, I still post chapters of my WIP in the Sisters in Crime Workshop where I get valuable feedback from the members.

7) What is your typical writing day like?

Although I write full-time and work at home, I don’t have a schedule. I try to write at least three or four pages every day and finish a chapter a week, but this doesn’t always happen. I do most of my writing early in the morning and work on the day’s pages whenever I have a quiet block of time. Quiet is essential. Even music will break my concentration. Usually before I go to bed, I look over what I’ve written and make changes. Then I print a corrected copy to read the first thing in the morning. It’s slow, but it takes me where I want to go--page by page and chapter by chapter. I make sure that every chapter is as perfect as I can make it before I go on to the next one. When I finish the book, I don’t have much revision to do. Mostly, I add scenes, tie up loose ends, and correct errors.

8) Do you have any plans for future books or series you can tell us about?

Wings will publish #6 in the Foxglove Corners series, The Snow Dogs of Lost Lake, in February of 2007; and in June of 2007, they’re going to reprint #1, Darkness at Foxglove Corners.

As of April 19, 2006, I’m on page 269 of my WIP. It’s a stand alone novel of romantic suspense with a supernatural element. The title is Secret For A Satyr. I’d like to finish it before this wonderful spring weather tempts me to work outside in my garden. After this, I plan to write my seventh Foxglove Corners book and a sequel to Treasure At Trail’s End (November, 2005) or another western Gothic. That’ll keep me busy through 2007.

9) Do you outline your work extensively or are you a seat of the pants writer?

I spend about two months developing characters and an outline for each new book. At the end of this time, I have a fifty or sixty page synopsis and a chapter outline. I always find myself straying from the outline, though. With Secret For A Satyr, this happened in the middle of the book. What I write is usually much better than what I planned to write, so this is a good thing. I have to know where I’m going and how I’m going to get there.

10) If you could make changes in the publishing industry, what would they be? What would you like to stay the same?

Changes? I’d love to trim the distributors’ outrageous profits so that the publishers could have more money to promote their books. It would be ideal if chains like Borders and Barnes and Noble would be able to order the print editions of my Wings books. Since this isn’t likely to happen, we’ll all have to do our best with the situation we have.

Change is inevitable and not also welcome, but I hope the e book industry keeps growing. I think it will. POD technology always made more sense to me than the printing of hundreds of books that end up on a remainder table. So I hope that stays the same.