The Question Writers Hate by Clare O'Donohue

JENN McKINLAY: A million years ago when dinosaurs roamed -- okay, more like seven years (in 2011) it just feels like a million -- I was fortunate enough to be paired up to sign books with this sharp cookie, Clare O'Donohue. I remember because my best friend Annette flew all the way in from Connecticut to go to the signing and afterwards she said, "I am buying all of that woman's books. She's amazing." I totally agreed and we did. So, here is Clare, breaking down the inner working's of the writer's mind for us while we celebrate the release of her new book Beyond the Pale, which is out TODAY!!!

I FINALLY HAVE AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION WRITERS HATE:

Clare O'Donohue

Every writer has been asked this. At every conference, on every panel, at every book signing. “Where do you get your ideas?” It’s probably the most asked question novelists hear.

The most hated question? “Where do you get your ideas?”

It’s not that writers are curmudgeons (okay, yeah, maybe) it’s just an impossible question to answer. Mostly ideas are not there, and then they are. Like the name of the person who sat next to you in sophomore English. One minute your brain can’t come up with a thing, then BOOM. There it is.

            At the risk of annoying all my fellow writers, the next time this question gets asked though, I’m going to raise my hand high, yelling, “Call on me!! Call on me!!” like the perfect student I never was. Because I know exactly where I got my idea for Beyond the Pale.

            Since I was a little one I’ve dreamed of traveling the world and having a passport filled to the brim with stamps from far-off places. But, you know, work, family, life, excuses. I have traveled a lot, seeing all but three states in the US (Alaska, N. Dakota and Idaho, just hang in there I’m coming). And when my idea was forming, I’d already been to what others might see as an impressive amount of foreign shores – twenty countries. But, ever greedy, I wanted to see more.

So, before you could say book research, I came up with a plan – create a mystery series with each novel set in a different country. Travel, writing – two birds, one tax-deductible stone.

The original plan was to have my main character be a single woman in her early 30s who inherited (Won? Found?) a large amount of money and decided to travel. At her first country she’d happen across a murder, meet quirky, possibly dangerous people, see the sites, and solve the crime. Book #2 would be similar, except different country. Genius!

I thought about my main character potentially meeting a love interest in book one. Would he follow her to country #2? Would there be a new beau in #2? If I wrote twenty books in the series would she end up with an admirer in every port? Plus, who would she talk to, who would she trust? Yeah scratch that. I’d already done the beginning of a relationship in my Someday Quilts series, and the end of a relationship in my Kate Conway series. I decided instead on featuring a couple, long married, and focus on the middle bit of a relationship, where you love, understand, and slightly annoy each other. That bit. Genius!

But would they just trip over bodies in every country? I’d already done that too – and nothing wrong with it, I’m here to say. Agatha Christie built a nice career out of body-tripping mysteries and I’m not fit to shine her shoes, so nothing against it. But maybe, I thought, I could mix it up. Give them a professional reason for all the bodies that will inevitably pile up across a long series. Spies. I felt particularly good about myself with that one. Genius wasn’t big enough. I’d write a Thin Man meets James Bond spy novel. That way there’d be a reason for all the travel and all the danger. It opened up a world of possibilities of bad guys, and crimes, and international intrigue.

But who would my husband and wife be? That took some time. I wanted smart people, capable of taking care of themselves but not so capable that they wouldn’t really be in danger. Accidental spies. College professors (he’s a World Literature professor with a reputation for sniffing out forgeries, she’s an International Politics professor who once trained to be in the CIA). They would know a lot about each country so the location would become a kind of character in the novel, they would bring special skills, and they would – of course – have each other to rely on even when they couldn’t rely on anyone else. And, I’d get to sneak in stuff I know from having an International Politics degree (Double genius because I’m finally using my college degree!)

My idea, in spits and spurts, was formed. A long-married pair of college professors sucked into helping Interpol but finding that instead of a straight-forward assist, they’ve gotten themselves caught between an international crime ring and a dangerously off-the-book subgroup of the famous international police organization.

I patted myself on the back coming up with all that. I did sort of feel genius-y. But then that’s what ideas are like. They’re promises mixed with ego and dash of optimism. That’s why writers are so loath to hear people talk about how special their ideas are. We want the real thing – the thousands of words on paper – thing. And now I have it. It may not be genius, but it feels good to see my idea become an actual book. And it doesn’t hurt that it took several stamps in my passport to do it.

Clare O’Donohue is the author of Beyond the Pale, the first in the World of Spies Mysteries. It’s set in Ireland. She visited Argentina, her thirty-third country, earlier this year, which will be the setting for book #2.

Okay, Reds, what about you? Answer the hated question -- where do you get your ideas?

What Do You Think About...

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I remember running. Before I blew out my knees. I started with once up and once down Charles Street--do you know it? On Beacon Hill in Boston, a tiny slice of London-looking shops and beautiful brownstones. And, I'd say, three blocks long.

At first, I could barely make it up and back. I was winded, panting, a wreck. But I kept at it. After all, I'd gotten the shoes and the little shorts.

And soon, I was going up and back, then up and back again, and before I knew it...well, it was wonderful. I had accomplished something physical, very unusual for me, and I was so surprised about it! And then my knees started to hurt and so much for that.

But I know running was a marvelous way to clear my head.

Now. Part 2. You know how you sometimes meet a person who's completely a kindred spirit? That's how I feel about Clare O'Donohue.Yes, we're both in TV, different parts of TV, but we know the biz and care about it. And we both write mysteries, and we both love...well, lots of similar stuff. Clare is on her second mystery series, (just as I am). Her first one, very very succesful, is about quilting! (mine isn't, but I love quilts.)

Her new one is about TV. Isn't this irresistible? Listen to this about MISSING PERSONS:

Crime TV producer Kate Conway’s job is simple. Create episodes of "true crime" television where the truth doesn't matter as much as a good story. ...There's a lot more. But who needs more. That's a fantastic hook. I mean--we all know reality shows are made up, right? Or...are they?

Anyway, now part one, running, and part 2, Clare, cleverly merge together. Meet Clare. Who, today, says:

I've got nothing on my mind.
by Clare O'Donohue

I just got back from my morning run. Believe me, no one is more shocked than I am that I actually get out of bed every morning, pull on some gym shoes and, with the little sticky crusts still in the corners of my sleepy eyes, head to the local park.

I’d been walking every day for a long time but never bothered to run. That looked like too much work. But one day for no reason at all, I just went for it.

I think I ran about 300 feet before my lungs gave out. The next day, I did it again. This time I slowed to about the same as if I was walking, and that helped a lot. Sure, I looked like I was running in slo-mo, and maybe the occasional duck would waddle past, going faster than I was, laughing at my pathetic attempt to keep pace with him. (Don’t let the feathers fool you, ducks can be bitchy.)

I persevered, and every day since I’ve increased my distance little by little until I actually run more than I walk these days. And I run faster, while still keeping my lungs inside my body.

(Who’s laughing now, duck?)

I thought I was doing it to lose some weight, build endurance… all that good stuff. But, it turns out there was a benefit I hadn’t considered. When I’m running, I stop thinking. There are no plots for my next book, no list of errands to go over, no wondering what will happen on next week’s Justified. Nothing. I’m just breathing and moving.

I think a lot. Like every other writer, I’m living multiple lives at once – mine, of course, as well as a lot of fictional ones. There are a dozen lives in the two series I currently write and there all the characters waiting for their turns in the books I hope to write someday. It gets crowded in my brain with all the murders, and romances, and mayhem.

And sometimes it gets a little exhausting. Making it worse, my imagination has a tendency to wander into my own life and create little dramas to stew over. “The mechanic is going to tell me that my car needs some expensive repair,” I used to tell myself on what was supposed to be a peaceful morning walk. “There’s no way I’m putting more money into that old clunker and if he’s trying to rip me off…” The poor mechanic was getting silently slandered while I fought a fight that hadn’t even happened, and in all likelihood wouldn’t happen.

But when I run, I’m focused on only two things, getting around the track without stopping, and not falling down. Everything else just goes away. When I finish, my body is tired, but my brain is refreshed. It’s easier for me to let go of the imaginary arguments and useless information, and focus on important stuff – like the plot of my next book, or where I put my glasses.

I mentioned this amazing experience to a friend of mine over deep dish pizza one day. (Okay, so I’m not a health fanatic.) “You should write a book about a killer who uses his morning jog to look for his next victim,” she suggested.

It’s a great idea, and I’ll probably think about. A lot. Except tomorrow morning when I take my run.

HANK: Told you. So, Reds--how do you clear your brain?

And we'll give away a signed copy of Clare's brand new book--coming soon!--Life Without Parole to one lucky commenter.

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Clare O'Donohue is the author of Missing Persons, the first in the Kate Conway Mysteries, as well as four novels in the Someday Quilts series. She also works as a television producer on documentaries for A&E, the History Channel, truTV and others. Her next book, Life Without Parole, will be released April 24th.

More about Missing Persons :Crime TV producer Kate Conway’s job is simple. Create episodes of "true crime" television where the truth doesn't matter as much as a good story. But Kate's life is complicated. Her soon to be ex-husband has turned up dead with Kate the main suspect. And to make matters worse - and weirder - his new girlfriend suddenly wants to be friends. Kate wants to focus on her new assignment, a TV show about a seemingly angelic young woman who disappeared a year earlier. All Kate wants is to bury her feelings for her late husband, and get another typical story. But for once in her life - she's going to have to find the truth. Even if it kills her.