Author’s Choice with Marlie Parker Wasserman

Please welcome Marlie 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? As part of my bucket list, I have visited 30 of the 63 national parks in the United States.

Truth or Lie? I am afraid of dogs and cats.

Truth or Lie? I love to bake.

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? Definitely keyboard, because my drafts are rough and I revise constantly. And I do mean constantly. Write a sentence, revise a sentence, on repeat. But while I type, I also handwrite notes—threads I need to pick up later—in a spiral notebook nearby. My laptop is too small to open multiple documents simultaneously, so having an old-fashioned notebook beside me solves my problem.

2.          Plotter, pantser, or plantser (that chaotic middle ground)? I write as a pantser and don’t understand how anyone can come up with a full plot in advance. It may be a cliché to say my characters speak to me, but that’s what happens. When I get stuck in a plot muddle or a motivation muddle, I sit with a cup of strong coffee and try to put myself in the mind of that character. What would I do? What would I think?

3.          Writing snack: sweet, salty, or "I forget to eat"? I have never forgotten to eat in my life. Chocolate, popcorn, and blue corn chips are the building blocks of life. But at the same time, I count. Twenty grams of chocolate, one hundred calories of popcorn, six chips. I know—crazy!

4.    Character names: meticulously researched, stolen from real life, or whatever sounds right? I fuss with these for months and am never happy with my choices. In my first novel, I changed a character’s name at the last minute and of course didn’t catch every mention of that name. Find and replace works well, but not perfectly!

5.          Writing space: coffee shop chaos, library quiet, or home sweet home? Only at a desk in the guest bedroom. I need a big surface for my laptop, a spiral notebook, reference books, printouts of inspirational articles about the craft of writing, jars of pens and pencils, and Kleenex. Oh—and space for chocolate, popcorn, and chips.

6.          Writer's block: push through, step away, or "it's not real"? When I’m at a loss about what comes next, I read historical crime fiction by others. Then I either get inspiration from extraordinary authors, or I think I’m not so bad after all. I don’t read those novels the way I used to. Now, I look at the undercarriage. How did the author structure the book? Multiple points of view? Chapter titles or time stamps? Page breaks? Dialog alternates constantly or occasionally with exposition? And on and on.

7.          Reading your own work aloud: love it, tolerate it, or would rather eat glass? I use the “read aloud” button in Word constantly. My husband, writing his own book in a nearby room, has heard every word of all my novels.

8.          Happy ending, bittersweet, or gut-punch finale? I’ve experimented with a variety of endings in my novels. In two of them, my endings do not wrap up everything. Life is filled with uncertainties, and the same can apply to fiction. In my first novel, we think the protagonist committed murder, but we’re not positive about that. In my third novel, we think we know who started the conflagration, but we could be wrong. I do have a happy ending in my second novel, but along the way a beloved character meets a tragic demise. I tried another approach in my newest novel, First Daughter. We have a clear answer in the last page, and it is in the gut-punch category.

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. Why are you sitting here, eating popcorn and reading novels, when you should be out searching for my kidnapped daughter?

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

A. My book is about an imagined kidnapping, but it is also about a marriage. When terror strikes a family, does everyone react in the same way? How do people need to change to work together in a crisis? If a family member faces enormous professional responsibilities in the midst of a family crisis, what happens to those responsibilities?

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

A. Why did you set your novel, which is about President Grover’s family, at his summer house in Cape Cod instead of in the White House? I started out thinking the White House was the obvious setting. But then I realized it was guarded by Washington police and in the middle of a relatively urban area. A kidnapper would not be able to grab a child from that location and get away, unseen. Cleveland had purchased a large residence in Cape Cod as a summer home, so that seemed a more likely place for mischief.

The Big Reveal

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

The lie is that I’ve been to 30 national parks out of 63. I’ve visited 50!  The national park in American Samoa is among the ones still on my list to visit. When my husband and I came up with this bucket list project, it was a novelty. Now, we keep hearing of more and more people who have clearly copied our thinking.

Truths: I am indeed afraid of dogs and cats. As a matter of fact, I’m afraid of all animals. I don’t want them to bite me or to drool on me. Or to lie on my white couch. As far as fiction goes, my fear means that I’ll never write a cozy mystery, at least not one centering on pets.

My other truth is that I love to bake. I am known for my desserts. Maybe I could write a cozy mystery about who stole my fantastic chocolate cake in my pet-free home.

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

Book Blurb

In the summer of 1895, President Grover Cleveland and his pregnant wife, Frances, retreat to their secluded Cape Cod home, eager to avoid Washington’s heat and hassles. The very day that Frances gives birth, their three-year-old daughter vanishes. A ransom note surfaces, demanding a mysterious and peculiar sum.

Is the kidnapper a political enemy or someone closer to home? Secret service agents chase multiple leads but reach dead ends. Desperate, Frances Cleveland searches for answers on her own. As the hunt continues, the kidnapper carefully plots each move and determines to settle a score.

The historical record documents threats against the Clevelands, but no actual kidnapping. Yet, what if the president and his wife, known for keeping secrets, concealed a terrifying chapter of their lives? In this gripping blend of fact and fiction, the line between public duty and private anguish blurs in a mother’s fight to save her child

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

Want to know more?

For more information about Marlie Parker Wasserman https://marliewasserman.com