Photo of Sunset on the Beach: © Depositphotos.com/silvestrova
Join me in welcoming mystery author Gail M Baugniet to my blog today. Prior to writing full-time, Gail worked for insurance companies and with law enforcement as a police officer and security dispatcher. After living through many snowy winters in northern states, she now lives in Hawaii where she is working on her next mystery novel. Gail is a member of Sisters in Crime, Inc., and current president of the Sisters in Crime/Hawaii chapter in Honolulu.
Here’s my first question, Gail. What do you consider your biggest struggle as a writer?
My plot and subplots become a bit convoluted at times. Over the course of writing and editing drafts, I sometimes get timelines or events mixed up. For instance, in WITH FIERY VENGEANCE, I had Pepper attending a court hearing at a time that preceded a previous scene, but it wasn’t meant to be a flashback. It was a minor error that required some fancy rewriting to fit everything into a sequential timeline. That is why beta readers are so helpful; they catch my plot missteps.
What book or books have influenced your writing style the most?
Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises comes to mind. Although I write mysteries, this story sticks with me because of the Paris setting. I often choose books by the story’s venue and choose the location before I begin to plot a story. With mysteries, even a locked room can become the setting, but something about that room must appeal to the reader, either its decor, the warmth of a fireplace, or possibly an enticing but troubled spirit.
Give us an interesting fun fact about a character in your Pepper Bibeau Mystery series.
Other than my protagonist, Pepper Bibeau, each story has a new cast of major characters. The one exception is Maluhia Frederick Kane, Pepper’s Hawaiian uncle who is a recurring figure, the person she has always depended on to give her sound advice and support her decisions. At age forty-three, Uncle Fred has never been married, and has often rebuffed the advances of available women. This raised some interesting possibilities. Though I’ve been mildly curious over the years about how that might play out, I learned along with Pepper about Uncle Fred’s ‘secret’ while writing my latest novel.
You’ve recently published the third novel in the Pepper Bibeau Mystery series, WITH FIERY VENGEANCE Anger Burns Deep. Tell us a bit about it.
The novel deals with decisions about Pepper’s fourteen-year-old son, the decisions influenced by murder past and present; and Pepper’s knack for getting into trouble without really trying, this time on two islands: O’ahu and the Big Island of Hawaii. The story, set in late 1972 and early 1973, offers an interesting contrast in lifestyles of small town Hawi on the Big Island and Honolulu’s Chinatown on O’ahu.
In addition to writing your third novel, you also participated in the creation of an anthology, MYSTERY IN PARADISE 13 Tales of Suspense. Describe this project for us.
Compiling and formatting the anthology was a new and satisfying experience for me. Thirteen authors living in Hawaii or having close ties to the state participated, submitting mystery short stories set in Hawaii. The short story I submitted, Chinatown Conundrum, is a spinoff of my mystery series. Author Laurie Hanan used personal photographs to design the cover for the anthology. After the stories were written and edited, I copyrighted the full manuscript, arranged the layout, and submitted the completed documents to CreateSpace for publication on Amazon.com in trade book and ebook formats. Proceeds from the sale of the anthology are to be donated to the non-profit organization Sisters-In-Crime/Hawaii to support mystery writers in Hawaii.
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions, Gail. Wishing you continued success with the Pepper Bibeau Mystery series and best of luck with the Mystery in Paradise anthology!
How to connect with Gail:
Twitter @GailMBaugniet
Where to find Gail’s books: