By
Dora Machado
Hi Ellis and welcome to MB4. It’s a
pleasure to have you here. You are the author of six suspense crime novels. How
did you become a writer and why did you decide to write in the crime/suspense
genre?
I co-wrote
The Peeper with Jim Christopher, a
retired law enforcement officer. He was great to work with and I learned a
lot—a terrific experience. Then I wrote Tea
in the Afternoon, which is three Southern short stories, not crime fiction.
They grew out of people I knew and stories I heard growing up. I have more. J Nancy Drew probably influenced my
interest. I read (past tense) and read (present tense) many genres, but crime
fiction of all sorts is my favorite. It’s what comes to me, so I write it.
In your opinion, what are the
cornerstones of a successful crime/suspense novel?
Pacing and
heart. I like page-turners with characters who can make my heart pound. If I
bite my nails for fear of what will happen to them, if it’s 2 a.m. and my eyes
are crossing over the words, I’m a happy reader. Two of my favorite characters
are Robert Crais’s Joe Pike and Boyd Crowder from the TV series Justified. Both kept me on the edge of
my seat, waiting for the ax to fall—or not.
Many of your novels have a romance
component. How do the romance and the crime/suspense genre fit together in your
novels? What kind of opportunities does romance bring to the crime story? What
kind of challenges?
To me,
love adds a human dimension to a story that might otherwise be only a problem
to resolve. It seems unrealistic for my characters to live in isolation. I want
the human contact for them. Romance also heightens the tension if one of the
partners is in danger—our hearts race with theirs.
Since I’m primarily
a suspense writer, proportion is important. I don’t want the romance to
overwhelm the suspense, but it needs to fit the characters and circumstances.
How has living in the South shaped
and/or influenced your stories?
Relationships—the
second cousin/great uncle sort—and family are very important in the South. The
right connections will help in any situation. Even in college, we’d get grilled
by classmates’ parents until they found a connection (“your grandmother lived
next door to my mother’s father’s brother”—that sort of thing). My characters
have families or close ties that influence them, for good or ill. The
characters in my books are all connected, either by blood (the McGuires) or by
experience such as the strong bonds formed in war (the Maleantes & More
books: Cold Comfort and Prime Target).
Your McGuire women novels feature
members of a family with a psychic streak. How do you incorporate the
paranormal into your crime plot lines? How many novels are there in the series?
Are there other novels to come?
I use the
McGuires’ psychic abilities to involve the character in the crime and to give
hints and direction, but I don’t want that ability to solve the crime. That’s a
bit like waving a magic wand. They have to use their wits and skills to find
the bad guys and bring them to justice.
So far
there are two books in the series, Haunting
Refrain and Time of Death. I
started Shallow Grave and completed
the cover (I often design the cover very early in the process for
inspiration—and it’s fun), but I kept getting caught up in backstory, so I gave
in and am working on an earlier McGuire novel, a sort of prequel, tentatively
titled Red Mountain Blues, that takes
place in 1981. It’s the setup for Shallow
Grave, so I have to keep thinking ahead to where this is all going.
I’d like
to write one about Isobel, the glamorous aunt in Time of Death, but I’m not there yet. As long as the ideas come and
I’m able to type, I’ll keep writing.
Which of your novels is your
favorite and why?
It’s
always the one I’m working on because I fall in love with the characters. Maybe
that’s one reason I’m so slow—it’s hard to let one bunch go (Charlie Dance,
from Prime Target, lingers still) and
transfer to the next ones. Right now, Aurelia McGuire and Finn from Red Mountain Blues have my attention.
It’s often difficult to come back to reality and stop thinking about them.
What kind of reader do you think
will enjoy reading your novels?
It’s
easier to say who won’t. Genre purists won’t like them: my novels don’t quite
fit into suspense because of the love stories, and they don’t fit today’s
definition of romantic suspense. More women read them than men, but men enjoy
them too, mostly, I think, because of the action. They aren’t hard-boiled, but
they’re far from cozy.
What’s next for Ellis Vidler?
I really
want to do Will Porter’s story. He’s the owner of Maleantes & More, a
former Marine who works with his own “band of brothers.” His character has been
with me ever since I saw a beautiful, angry boy, Hispanic-looking but with
vivid green eyes, maybe 12 years old, with a school group touring the United
Nations building in New York. All the boys wore uniforms with a blazer and tie,
and all the others were about 10 and had a similar preppie look. This boy, a
head taller and definitely a misfit, was fuming. He seemed embarrassed, as if
he wanted to be anywhere but with the group. I imagined him grown and knew I
wanted to write about him.
Thank you so much for visiting with
us, Ellis. Come back and see us soon.
****
About Ellis Vidler
Ellis Vidler
writes the stories she likes to read--action, adventure, and heart. She falls
in love with the characters, flawed but striving to do the right thing, and
hates leaving them when the book is finished.
From early
childhood she's loved reading and telling stories. She imagined herself as everyone
from d’Artagnan to Anne of Green Gables and shared their adventures through
long hours of reading by flashlight beneath the covers. Her career began with
illustrating, moved into editing, and then writing. She also taught fiction
writing.
Ellis’s
novels are suspense stories with varying degrees of romance. All contain adult
language and situations.
Website: www.ellisvidler.com
amazon.com/dp/B00N34SOV2
*****
About Dora
Machado
Dora Machado is the award-winning author of the epic
fantasy Stonewiser series and her newest novel, The Curse Giver, available from Twilight Times Books. She is one
only a few Hispanic women writing fantasy in the United States today. She grew
up in the Dominican Republic, where she developed a fascination for writing and
a taste for Merengue. After a lifetime of straddling such compelling but
different worlds, fantasy is a natural fit to her stories.
When
she is not writing fiction, Dora also writes features for the award-winning
blog Murder By Four and Savvy Authors, where writers help writers. She lives in
Florida with her indulgent husband and two very opinionated cats.
