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- Author interview - |
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| Interview with Laura Lippman, feature writer for the Baltimore Sun, author of the popular Tess Monoghan mysteries, winner of the Edgar, the Shamus, the Agatha and the Anthony Awards. The Sugar House, the fifth book in the series, is due out in August 2000. Feature by PJ Nunn. PJ NUNN - Tess Monoghan is gaining in popularity with each episode and I know you've got a new one coming in August. Tell us a little about it without spoiling, of course. LAURA LIPPMAN - My fifth book is called The Sugar House, which is local speak for the Domino Sugars plant in Baltimore. Domino has little to do with the story, but The Sugar House is a moving target of a metaphor, a name that could be used to describe a hospital, a bar, a billionaire's home and even the Maryland General Assembly. It's a funny thing about the Domino sign, a huge red neon sign in Baltimore: It seems to follow you wherever you go in Baltimore. I can see it from my window in North Baltimore, a red squiggle on the horizon, yet it's also there when I'm in Fells Point, or Federal Hill, or returning to the city on Intersate 95. After 5 books, are you feeling the urge to do something different? I love Tess, and feel that I could write about her for a long time. I think I may be doing "something different" without making a conscious effort. For example, I don't think The Sugar House is a whodunit per se. But who did what - that's a different matter. Right now, I'm working on a book that's very bookish. I think the seventh book will be more of a thriller, but who knows? All I know is I'm having fun. You've been a journalist for a while now. What do you do for the Baltimore Sun? Since 1994, I've been a feature writer - one of the best jobs on the planet. I write about writers, I write profiles, and cover political campaigns from time to time. How does your journalism influence your fiction? I find a lot of ideas in the newspaper. The Sugar House was inspired by an article in The Sun, about a so-called John Doe killing. I am obsessive about factual accuracy in my books too, which I think is a byproduct of my day job. Except when I'm not. I saw Donald Westlake in Monterey at Bouchercon 1997, and heard him remark: I became a fiction writer so I could make it up. Sometimes I make it up, just because I can. How has your writing changed since you wrote that first book? My voice is a quirky thing. I'm not a pretty-pretty writer. And while I write swiftly, I have to redraft and redraft to avoid what I'll call an innate rhetorical dyslexia - I'm always putting the cart before the horse when I write. I hope my writing is getting tighter, cleaner, brighter. I think each book has been a little better than the one before it. Has your writing won any awards? Me and awards. This is a very embarrassing topic, because I was reared by a sweet, self-effacing Southern woman who does not believe in blowing one's own horn. But the fact is, every book in the series has been nominated for at least one award, and I've won four - the Edgar, the Shamus, the Agatha and the Anthony. Wow! That’s great! Who are you when you're not writing? What are your hobbies? When I'm not writing, I am a mildly hoydenish 41-year-old with wonderful friends and relatives, who loves to eat and drink and read. I exercise a lot - although not as much as Tess. Who or what has most influenced your writing? I'd have to start with those who influenced my reading - my sister Susan, who taught me to read; my mother, a children's librarian, who introduced me to the most influential books of my reading life; and my father, an editorial writer and columnist. My husband John Roll was a huge influence, because he believed in me, wholly and totally. As a writer, where do you see yourself in 10 years? Writing. The question is - will it be the Tess series? Will it be in the conventional publishing world as we know it today? Will I still be in journalism? Those questions I can't answer. But I'll always write. I always have. My mother saved my first book - a typewritten tome about cavemen, written on my father's portable typewriter when I was 4. I made up the words, because I didn't know how to spell any. Hence, the cavemen. What do you enjoy most about writing? Doing it. What do you find most difficult? Everything. Except maybe dialogue. Because of my childhood habit of talking to myself, and conducting long discussions with my stuffed animals, I'm comfortable when writing dialogue. What’s your best advice for new writers? Finish. Avoid the desire for premature affirmation - that moment when you so long to show your work to someone, just so you'll be assured it's fabulous, wonderful, terrific, etc. If you want an honest critique, seek it out by all means. But don't show your work to someone if all you want is to hear you're wonderful. Finish. Figure out when to be a perfectionist, and figure out when perfectionism is just another obstacle. Finish. |
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