Author’s Choice with Molly MacRae

Please welcome Molly to Author’s Choice.

Dear readers, here’s where you get to play along. The author will tell us two truths and one lie (ed comment –I randomized the order). At the end of the questions, we’ll reveal what really happened. Remember, we write crime fiction, so lying is in our nature . . .

Two Truths, One Lie

Truth or Lie? I saved a cow’s life.

Truth or Lie? I weathered a hurricane on Ocracoke Island.

Truth or Lie? I wrote a flash fiction mystery story in Scottish Gaelic.

Eight Quick Questions

Now for some fun insight into today’s author. Here are eight forced choice questions.

1.          First draft: longhand, keyboard, or dictation? A combination of longhand and keyboard. The longhand happens on scraps of paper and in notebooks large and small when my laptop isn’t an option.

2.          Plotter, pantser, or plantser (that chaotic middle ground)? A plotter and a plantser who’s really a pantser – as we all are. Plots and outlines don’t arrive out of thin air. They’re pantsed. They might be shorter than some first drafts but a plot or outline is a first draft all the same. A really, really, really rough draft, maybe, but a draft that’s been pantsed right along with the best of them.

3.          Editing as you go, or vomit draft first and fix it later? Editing as I go. It can’t be helped, because I love to edit and it works for me.

4.          Character names: meticulously researched, stolen from real life, or whatever sounds right? A combination of theft and research. Some characters are named after people I know who don’t mind if I play around with their lives in a story. For other characters, I look at the Social Security lists of popular names in the decade or two surrounding the year the characters were born. I also check phone books and newspapers in the area where I’ve set a story to find local names.

5.          Writing space: coffee shop chaos, library quiet, or home sweet home? Mostly at home but, in a pinch, wherever I am—sitting on a rock, at a picnic table, in the library, on a train, on a plane, etc.

6.          Writer's block: push through, step away, or "it's not real"? Push through or change tactics. Sometimes when I’ve hit a wall I’ll ask one of the characters to write me a letter and tell me what’s going on. Some of them are surprisingly chatty and candid.

7.          Happy ending, bittersweet, or gut-punch finale? A satisfying ending that might be a mix of happy and bittersweet.

8.       Book launch day: celebrate big, feel quiet relief, or hide under the covers? I try to promote ahead of launch day, which leads to quiet anticipation leading up to launch day, and finishes with muted celebration on the day because by then I’m writing the next book and probably already feeling behind.

About the Book

Enough about you, let’s turn to three questions about your book.

Q: If your main character in this novel showed up at your door right now, what would be the first thing they'd say to you (and would it be a complaint)?

A. Maureen Nash, now living fulltime on Ocracoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, will say “Why are you living here on this flat, flat, pancake-flat prairie when you could join me in Ocracoke? Come with me. You know you want to, and Glady, Burt, and Emrys will be glad to finally meet your in person

Q: What's one thing you hope readers take away from this book?

A. The idea that by working together friends, whether new, old, living, or ghostly, can solve problems and mysteries in their own lives—even with hiccups and haunted swords along the way.

Q: What question did you want me to ask, and what is your answer? 

A.  Do you believe in ghosts? I believe in the ghosts in my books. 

The Big Reveal

Now let’s see how good a sleuth (or guesser) our readers are. Please reveal all.

The lie is I weathered a hurricane on Ocracoke Island.  I did write a flash fiction mystery story in Scottish Gaelic. I’d signed up for a Gaelic immersion course and was asked to write something to show my proficiency level. My level was definitely basic, but good enough for a simple, satisfying murder. 

And when I was 13 I saved a cow’s life. The cow was across a field, lying below a small bluff, bloated almost beyond recognition as a cow. Having recently seen the movie “Far From the Madding Crowd,” and being impressed by the scene where Ezra Oakes saves a herd of sheep by piercing their terribly bloated bellies, I knew what might need to be done. I was with neighbors, going home from somewhere, and they weren’t keen on piercing anything when I described the movie scene. They also didn’t know whose cow it might be but I guessed this was the Koyen’s land.

We back tracked a mile or so to the Koyen’s farmhouse where I told Mrs. Koyen about the cow. She assured me they’d do what they could. A few days later Mr. Koyen, also called Captain Jack because he was a fisherman as well as a farmer, called me. They’d gotten to the cow in time, he said. They thought she’d fallen off the bluff, stunned herself, and couldn’t get up after she started bloating. In thanks, he took my brothers, our neighbor’s kids, and me out on Lake Michigan for a day of fishing. He made sure I caught a fish

Here’s a blurb for and some links where you can find Molly's latest:

Book Blurb

On North Carolina’s Ocracoke Island, Maureen Nash sells exquisite seashells to locals and tourists—with Bonny the shop cat and the ghost of a Welsh pirate for company. And when needed, she steps in to help the police solve a murder . . .

Dr. Irving Allred is boasting around town that he’s about to get his hands on an authentic haunted sword. But minutes after Maureen hears the story, a woman walks into the Moon Shell, sword in hand. She found it while walking her bulldog on the beach—and its blade is stained with what looks like blood. Looks like it’s time to call the sheriff’s department.

Allred is furious that his prize is now in police custody—and even more agitated that an unknown buyer was trying to outbid him. He’s convinced the sword will lead him straight to the ghosts he’s been hunting. He’s not the only one on the Outer Banks who’s been searching for spirits, though. An odd visitor also showed up at Maureen’s shop claiming the ability to sense them . . . though somehow she didn’t seem to notice Maureen’s spectral friend hanging about.

When a man who’d been camping nearby is found cut down along the shore, Maureen starts providing some unofficial assistance to Captain Rob Tate by digging into the island’s maritime history. But it’s not the only mystery she’s facing—because the shop’s resident ghost is seeing ghosts himself . . .

[Bookshop.org (Indy Bookstores)]       [Barnes & Noble]      [Amazon] 

Want to know more?

For more information about Molly MacRae www.mollymacrae.com/