Author’s Choice with Pat Arneson

Please welcome Pat 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 shot a muzzle-loading shotgun in the Montana mountains, because of a challenge from a man who said his name was Buckskin and he wanted to marry me.

Truth or Lie? I spent four days searching for evidence of Bigfoot, with a Sasquatch Documentarian who made Wild Huckleberry Pie.

Truth or Lie? I walked among wild mountain gorillas in Rwanda’s volcanic forest and learned to communicate with them.

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? Keyboard, all the way. I need to be able to move huge blocks of words around, as well as add and delete. I have repositioned entire scenes from one section of the book to another, to make the rhythm and pacing of the action work better.

2.         Plotter, pantser, or plantser (that chaotic middle ground)? Plotter. I make detailed outlines, and graphs of rising and falling tension. While I write, I enhance the timeline with the introduction of characters, theories, and red herrings, so I can keep it all straight. That said, I keep all of these flexible, so the story can flex, breathe, and morph in-process.

3.         Character names: meticulously researched, stolen from real life, or whatever sounds right? A combination of all three. I have characters named after my great-grandmother and a mule team driver I had a fascinating conversation with for a few hours, while getting sleeted on in the mountains. Others I’ve invented, but I search on-line to make sure there’s not a celebrity I’ve never heard of, with the same name.

4.         Writing space: coffee shop chaos, library quiet, or home sweet home? I write in a home office, with graphs, timelines and character-connection maps all over the wall. It’s blissfully quiet. I have a treadmill and exercise bike close by, to insert movement breaks, and I have to go up and down stairs for coffee.

5.         Writer's block: push through, step away, or "it's not real"? I won’t say that no one really has writer’s block, but I simply move around in my outline and write whatever flows on a given day. I have completed scenes separated by notes-to-self—insert a segue, include these characters—as reminders for when I weave the scenes together.

6.         Reading your own work aloud: love it, tolerate it, or would rather eat glass? I would rather eat glass. I feel stupid and have a hard time imagining people really want to hear it. I suspect it’s a matter of convention—we’re expected to do readings, even though a lot of us aren’t that good at dramatizing what we write. Having rousing conversations with readers is so much more interesting, and a better use of time.

7.         Deadline approaching: calm and prepared, thriving on adrenaline, or full panic mode? Calm and over-prepared. I impose structure and organization on every aspect of life I can—it’s a personality issue, I know.

Book launch day: celebrate big, feel quiet relief, or hide under the covers? Celebrate big! I have a book birthday party and invite everyone, far and wide, to come and join in! I only have two books published, but I hope the excitement never wears thin, even after twenty.

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. Like myself, she is a clinical therapist. As I am not a client, she would gleefully use her skills to get me off balance, and try to manipulate me into explaining myself. She would lead with, “We need to talk,” initiating a verbal sparring match that I’m not sure I would win.

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

A. A sense of hope. It’s a great story, a fun ride. The characters come to feel like friends with whom you really want to spend more time. While solving murders, imperiling themselves and each other, they also walk through healing and restoration from their own struggles and inner demons, laying out a road map of how it can be done.

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

A. Do you have consistent sub-plots? Yes. Like most of us, my characters struggle with life, and carry burdens from their pasts. Each book focuses on a different sub-theme of healing. Simply Dead, the first book in the Maguire Mystery Series, walked through PTSD and anger. The Empty Dark, book two, focused on a different presentation of PTSD, and grief. While these are traditional mysteries, they have blueprints for healing woven throughout, in real-to-life, no-nonsense, rubber-meets-the road ways.

The Big Reveal

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

The lie is that I have searched for evidence of Bigfoot—although I really did meet the documentarian and eat his pie, I did not share his whole-hearted belief in the subject matter.

I did travel to Rwanda and into the mountains, accompanied by guides and trackers. They taught us how to make a noise meaning “friendly,” and we used it liberally when the gorillas roamed about in our midst (including a very large silverback).

I also did shoot the muzzle-loader. The catch is that while this man did challenge me to a shooting match, and did say he wanted to marry me, he was lying, and I knew it. He was a terrible actor. I was a terrible shot. We moved on pretty quickly.

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

Book Blurb

 She made it out alive. But is she out of the woods? (second in series)

Desperate for a change of pace, therapist Abby Maguire took a short assignment at an equine-assisted therapy ranch. After decades spent in the trenches of other people’s trauma, she wanted to find some calm. When dead bodies started turning up, foul play evident, it seemed she couldn’t catch a break - but, she did catch a killer. 

Investigation complete and assignment extended, Abby wants nothing more than to immerse herself in doing what she does best: helping people heal. Summer turns to autumn, and the days grow short in the woods of central Minnesota. But darkness grows as the seasons change, and death is once again close at hand. Abby’s surroundings may be beautiful, serene - but not everything that is quiet is safe.

[Bookshop.org (indie bookstores)]       [Barnes & Noble]       [Amazon]

Want to know more?

For more information about Pat Arneson  www.patarnesonauthor.com