Interview with Larry D. Sweazy, author of the Marjorie Trumaine murder mystery series
I met with
Larry on the eve of the ASI/ISC 2016 Indexing Conference in Chicago, just
before the conference’s official reception. Just like in his novels, my walk to
our meeting place was blustery and foreboding, but the welcome I received from
him and his lovely wife, Rose (whom I recognized instantly from one of her
accessories as a fellow cat-lover), could not have been more reassuring. After
warning him that I was not attempting to stalk him (since I was also writing a
review of his second book for EAC’s Toronto Branch blog, BoldFace,
and summarizing his keynote speech the next day for the ISC’s upcoming edition
of The
Bulletin newsletter), we sat down to talk business: that of writing and
indexing and how the two connect.
In the first
book of the series, See Also Murder[1],
there had been mention of a magpie, so I started by asking him if that had been
a total coincidence: indeed, it was only by fluke that he had used a species
that is the mascot of the Indexing
Society of Canada, since he lives in Indiana and didn’t know our connection
to the aviary collector.
I also was
interested in his attention to detail about the prairies. My mum was a
Saskatchewan emigrant, and many of his references seemed straight out of her
life: hating the wind, a Mountie hat (my grandfather was in the RCMP), and
people who keep their problems to themselves (I’m definitely stiff upper lip as
a result of her influence). He did live in North Dakota (the series setting)
for a time, so the environs had permeated him. A strong sense of place is pervasive
in his writing and features in his other historical, western and thriller
novels and short stories.
One of the most
interesting aspects of Larry’s writing is his ability to create a credible
female protagonist voice. I mentioned having heard a radio interview of Clive
Greave (author of Everyone Brave is
Forgiven) in which he was praised for his successful treatment of the same
choice. It is remarkable to do this so convincingly and in an ongoing way (i.e.
a series, not just a one-off book). The details Larry captures were striking:
for example, in See Also Deception,
he mentions the wind coming up and the women all grabbing at their skirts
automatically. So real! The purse contents, menthol cigarettes,
McCall’s-pattern dresses—it all works. While Larry did have strong women in his
life as a youngster, he also credits good communication with his wife as another source of empathy for things he couldn’t initially know as much about, and he
says it has made him a better person for that development: but, he adds, you
have to have empathy for humans, not
just women, and then you have to carry that empathy out into the world via the
writing. Well, he’s got that down.
Another thing
he has down is humour. As I said in my BoldFace review, I have no experience
with the murder mystery genre, so I was surprised to trip across some laughs in
a dark storyline. But what appealed to me was the subtlety as opposed to being
hit over the head with guffaws. Larry was pleased that this was evident and
said he felt it was important to respect the reader’s intelligence. Sometimes
these were comments that just sounded like a conversation with your friend,
others were funny because I heard myself in them. Apparently a laugh’s
okay—perhaps necessary—when you’re talking murder, and while I don’t
particularly enjoy reading humorous books per se, it was another thing that
made my introduction to this genre easier.
I and others at
the conclusion of his keynote talk asked about the writing and indexing
process, their connection and how they affected Larry’s stories. There are
clearly commonalities: you can’t very well expect to get repeat contracts if
you procrastinate on getting (good) writing or indexing done. Both require
discipline, which is helped by an organized approach. I could relate to his
separating tasks into parts of the day, suitable to his psychic energy and his
abilities, and to his being very literal in dividing up the time available by
the pages required to achieve personal and work deadlines. A curious mind is
facilitated by an orderly approach to life, and the ability to break things
down into discrete elements and re-group them by their connections works for
both key entries and key clues. He acknowledged the unravelling of the mystery
with the process of indexing for Marjorie, too. Upon reflection, I’m sure my
experience in private investigation was good training for my inquisitive mind
and honed the skills I need for effective and systematic editing and indexing.
We may love order and classification, but as indexers we need to be
detail-oriented and able to see the big picture simultaneously.
Speaking of
parts of the whole, I asked Larry what he envisioned the scope of this series
to be—a trilogy? More? He couldn’t say for sure, but there’s at least one more
coming: See Also Deadline, available May
2017. That’s good news. But the problem with discovering and glomming on to a
new-to-me author is finding the time to go back and read the other stories
they’ve produced. Social media and the advantages of the Information Age expose
us to new pleasures more quickly and easily. The fallout means less time for
other stuff; in my case, that usually leads to letting cooking go. Based on my
Wine and Cheese award system (see blog sidebar), Marjorie Trumaine has caused a
fair bit of order-in. Although not for too many days, since her stories are
hard to put down.
[1]
For those readers who are not familiar with indexing, “See also” is a
conventional indicator to cross-references in back-of-the-book indexes; it
tells readers that other closely related and additional information is
available under another key word. “See” plus a key word indicates that the
reader should look up a synonymous term that is actually used in the text, in
case they have not chosen the indexed word to start their search with. Larry’s
titles are little homages to the indexer’s work.
Comments