Karen E. Olson

"Olson brings a journalist's eye for detail and immediacy to this series. You'll want to give yourself an early deadline to read her latest story."
- Richmond Times-Dispatch

JAN: Karen and I met via Internet, just shortly after my first book came out. Since both of us were working at New England newspapers, we immediately had a lot in common. We had even more in common when she sold her first book and we wound up at the same publisher and editor.

Her first book was Sacred Cows, which won the Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award. Now, the fourth in the Annie Seymour series, SHOT GIRL, is in bookstores, and the first in her brand new tattoo shop mystery, THE MISSING INK, will be out in July.

It seems to me that there are a lot of former reporters who become mystery writers. The first thing I wanted to know was about Karen was her particular transition from newspapers to murder: what it was that prompted her to write her first mystery.

KAREN: I only spent six years as a reporter, and then 16 as an editor. I was a nighttime copy editor for 10 of those years, and I would get home from work at 2 a.m. all wired up with nothing to do. So I started seriously writing fiction (I’d been writing for years but never finished anything). I loved mysteries and figured I’d try my hand at one.

JAN: Personally, I think a lot of the lessons you learn in news reporting come in handy when you write a mystery. Are there any special skills you found that translated well or were especially helpful?

KAREN: Meeting deadlines and being able to write on command. I don’t have to wait for a muse to come and tap me on the shoulder. I grab an hour to write and I just sit down and write. I know that comes from the discipline of working for a newspaper. I’m also a pretty good self-editor, although I prefer the creating rather than the editing when it comes to my own work.

JAN: In Shot Girl, Annie’s ex husband, turns up dead at a bachelorette party. How did you come up with the idea for this scenario – and the question everyone wants to ask --any former boyfriends or exes who inspired you?

KAREN: I do have an ex-husband, but he’s nothing like Annie’s ex. I like to put Annie in uncomfortable situations, and what could be more uncomfortable than having your ex-husband dead on the sidewalk and a gun that matches the bullets in your car?

JAN: Tell us about New Haven and why it makes a great setting for a mystery series?

KAREN: New Haven is more than Yale, but I don’t know that many people realize that. It’s got a very rich history, interesting neighborhoods, great restaurants. It’s also got crime, which is key for a mystery series! I’ve shown a different neighborhood in each book, to show the city’s diversity and history. It truly is another main character in the books.

JAN: Is there anything you learned about Annie Seymour that you didn’t know before?

KAREN: I didn’t know why she’d left her ex-husband until I started writing SHOT GIRL. And once I did, it explained so much!

JAN: Tell us what you are working on now?

KAREN: I’ve got a new series starting next summer. The first book, THE MISSING INK, will be out in July. The protagonist is Brett Kavanaugh, a tattoo shop owner in Las Vegas. It’s been great fun, and while at first it was out of my comfort zone, it was incredibly liberating and my first readers think it’s the best thing I’ve done! The second book will be PRETTY IN INK.

JAN: Besides her mystery series, Karen also edits a medical journal for Yale part time. She lives outside New Haven with her husband, daughter and two cats.

And now finally, the Jungle Red Quiz!

Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot?

Neither. I’m not an Agatha Christie fan (yes, everyone can gasp now…and no, I don’t like The Maltese Falcon, either)

Sex or violence?
Yes.

Pizza or chocolate?
Oh, yes, certainly.

Daniel Craig or Pierce Brosnan? (We won't even include Sean Connery because we know the answer. Don't we?)
Daniel Craig, hands down. Although I loved Pierce Brosnan best in “Matador.”

Katherine Hepburn or Audrey Hepburn?
Katherine, of course.

First person or Third Person?
I don’t discriminate.

Prologue or no prologue?
Absolutely no prologue.

Your favorite non-mystery book?
Non-fiction: Divorced, Beheaded, Survived (about Henry VIII’s wives)
Fiction: Wuthering Heights

Making dinner or making reservations?
Definitely reservations.

And now, tell us four things about you that no one knows. Only three can be true. We'll guess.

I partied with bikers at a Hell’s Angels pig roast.

I danced with George Michael at a club in London.

I dated a UPS delivery guy and we had sex in the UPS truck.

My cat was held hostage for ransom.

Make your guesses on the comments page and come back tomorrow when we reveal just what's true about Karen Olson, and what's complete fiction!

On Perfectionism

Both the artist and the lover know that perfection is not loveable. It is the clumsiness of a fault that makes a person loveable.


Joseph Campbell



JAN: All I can say, is THANK GOD, because perfection is so far from my personality type, it's never, ever been an objective.I used to worry about that because achievement is about exceeding expections. Without only the highest expectations, how can you achieve excellence? Then I worked with an editor who was a sweetheart, but a perfectionist. He actually wrecked pretty much every article he got his hands on because he wanted it to be perfect. In the news biz, that meant answering every question. When I moved to a larger newspaper and I worked with a new editor for the first time, he said to me: "Jeez, I've never actually said this to a reporter before, but you have too many facts in here. Too much information."

You see, when an article tries to answer every question it becomes dense and unreadable. In fact, it loses its focus.

This provided three lessons that I found valuable in fiction writing. The first was: readers can only absorb so much information at once. Throw too much into a paragraph and no one gets anything from it. The second was that if you strive for perfection, you may not see the forest from the trees. And the third was that if you try to please every reader, you will please no one.

Personally, I haven't so much as struggled with perfection, as discovered my justification in not being a perfectionist. But I'm wondering, have any of you struggled with perfectionism? And what have you learned from the battle? Or do you have a completely different take on its value?

RO: I certainly don't strive for perfection in my writing. I'm hoping to be entertaining, pure and simple. In other, smaller areas, I sometimes try. I'm frequently disappointed but I keep trying. Examples? The perfect flower arrangement..I can happily try 8 or 9 vases before settling on the right one. I have been known to move cooked cranberries or blueberries with a toothpick to make the perfect arrangement in a tart. I've just about stopped making tart tatin because I can never get the apple slices to fan out perfectly.Roberta, have I just revealed a deep neurosis to the entire blogosphere?

ROBERTA: Ro, yes. But they probably already had that figured out:). I would so not move fruit with a toothpick in a tart. But I would worry about choosing the perfect words, all while knowing that isn't possible either! I think I've learned a lot from being in a writers' group. On the nights when I've sent chapters to be read ahead of time, I remind myself that I'm just going to listen to all the comments, take notes, ask questions, and otherwise keep my yap shut.

I think there's such a continuum of perfectionism--my family thinks I'm a nut about the house. Whereas I can practically see my neighbor's eyes bulge out when she stops over--dog hair everywhere, piles of shoes, stacks of mail...

Did anyone read the Science Times article on perfectionism this week? Interesting stuff: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/health/04mind.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

JAN: Yes, it says perfectionism is at the root of many mental illnesses, including depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. So I'm feeling much better about being a slacker

HALLIE: I am so NOT a perfectionist, but I do know how to cut corners. Back in the day when I crocheted, I started an afghan and it ended up being a perfectly adorable pocketbook. I once watched Martha Stewart, the Princess of Perfection, ice a wedding cake and got inspired to try a recipe for a 12-layer dobos torte (12 thin cake layers, each baked on the BACK of a cake pan; mocha butter cream filling; a glaze of cramelized sugar on top.) Mine ended up with only 5, albeit delicious layers. It doesn't have to be perfect--adorable and delicious is good enough.

HANK: Yes, I'm the last to add. And it's just about deadline moment. And I was asking myself why I had waited til the last minute to post. Well, I wanted to think of the perfect thing to say, I replied.

And this internal dialogue happened with no sense of the irony involved.

Perfectionism is a truly complicated need. I'm a TV reporter of course. So I have worked for the past 30 years knowing I can NEVER make a mistake. Never be one minute late. Actually, not one SECOND late. Never choose the wrong word, never call someone by the wrong name, never make a math error, never have a bad hair day. You try that, and see if it doesn't make you a little crazy. And of course, to have chosen a profession where perfection is required, also may put me in some DSM-4 category that we will leave un-named.

But it does certainly carry over into my regular life. My holiday presents are wrapped beautifully. Moving a cranberry in a tart, as Rosemary described? Of course. I have discarded out-going mail envelopes because I put the stamps on crooked, or if I decided someone might think I was making some sort of a statement by my choice of stamps.

I could go on here, but I see you all shaking your heads. And hey,I can let go. It does not carry over into all realms. Don't even look in my dresser drawers. Or kitchen drawers. (I, too, have stacks. Of magazines. What's the 'perfect' thing to do with the ones you haven't read but might?)

But as I get happier, my need for perfection diminishes. (What can we learn from this?)

And when it comes to writing. You know, the sense of "perfection" is kind of--different. I's a sense of "right"-ness. For me, not for others. When it feels right, you know it. And that's a fun journey, not a struggle for perfection.

How do you know if you're pushing too hard?

JAN: I think we've nailed this topic, PERFECTLY, so to speak. And now that you all know I don't struggle with perfectionism, check in on Friday, when I reveal that I struggle with caramelism. Yes that's making home-made caramels for the holidays --at the last minute of course. A mental illness all its own.