by
Lucy Burdnette
Tell
us a bit about the new book, Murder with Ganache.
Murder
with Ganache is a cozy mystery starring Hayley Snow,
a food critic who lives on a houseboat in Key West (the fourth
in the Key West food critic series.) Her extended family is
descending on the island like a category 3 hurricane for her
best friend's wedding. When her teenage stepbrother disappears
into the Duval Street spring break party scene, she must put
the baking of cupcakes and other wedding chores on hold in
order to search for her brother. The book features Hemingway
cats, and cupcakes, and wedding drama, but in the end it's
about finding and embracing family in whatever form they come.
Are you
a food critic in real life? Why write about food in your mysteries?
This
is the launch of my third mystery series, but the first one
focused on food. (Although any readers of the advice column
mysteries written as Roberta Isleib might remember that the
main character, Dr. Rebecca Butterman, was an excellent cook.)
It's such a pleasure to write about things I love--and food
is certainly one of them. I love to eat, to read about new
recipes, to cook, to eat out in restaurants, to read about
food in both memoirs and fiction. This series has given me
license to do all that with a vengeance! My husband likes
to tease that "Isleib" means "is stomach"
in German. His other fictionalized translation for my family
name is "large lunch followed by a restful nap."
No telling what he'll make up for Burdette...
That
said, I don't think I'd like to be a food critic in real life--when
I go out to eat, I like to choose what I feel like eating,
not what I think other folks want to hear about. And there
are places where I'd draw lines that my character Hayley Snow,
cannot. For instance, tentacles. Raw fish and meat. Slimy
things. Like that:). All the restaurants in my books really
exist in Key West--except for the ones where the characters
have bad meals.
Were
you a foodie before you began to write the Key West mysteries?
The food
critic series has really tweaked my interest in food and cooking
because I have to think the way that my character, Hayley
Snow, thinks. She uses food as a way to connect with people,
and to calm herself down, and to seduce the folks she’s
trying to get information from that may solve the mysteries.
I've become a better cook--and eater too!--as a result.
I like
what Hayley wrote for Key Zest at the end of Death of
Four Courses: “I’d summed up by saying how
important it was to remember that while food did mean life
and death in its most elemental form, most often we in the
food writing industry were talking about food as the pleasure
of connections. When we wrote about simmering a stew or a
sauce for hours or days, we were really talking about how
much we owed to the folks who came before us and the importance
of cherishing their memory. And how much we yearned to give
to the people in our present who’d be gathered around
our table. We were writing about food as family history, and
love, and hope, and sometimes a little splash of guilt.”
I think
the message in Topped Chef might be that food doesn’t
have to be fancy to be good. And a grandmother’s recipe
for chocolate cake scratched out on a notecard can hold its
own with a fancy chef’s menu. As for Murder with
Ganache, I'll leave you with a bit of conversation from
Hayley and her mother:
"Why
is it that cooking always makes things feel a little less
hopeless?” my mother mused as the vegetables softened.
“At
least we’re doing something,” I said, as she whipped
the eggs with a splash of water and stirred them into the
pan.
“We
feel like we’re taking care of people when there’s
really nothing to be done.” I grinned. “That’s
what you taught me anyway.”
What’s
your favorite comfort food? Least favorite food?
Oh food,
food, food--I find it one of life’s great pleasures!
I can’t possibly pick one dish, so I’ll give the
general idea. I love homestyle food--nothing too fancy--things
like macaroni and cheese, roast chicken, Bolognese sauce on
spaghetti, fried okra, fresh tomatoes with basil and a drizzle
of olive oil, chocolate cake, peanut butter cookies, caramel
cake...
Luckily,
in the Key West mysteries, the more I write about food, the
happier is my editor. And to write about it, I have to cook
and eat and try new restaurants. And that makes my husband
happy. It’s a hard life, but Hayley and I are willing
to do it!
Why did
you decide to set this series in Key West?
My husband
and I drove up and down both sides of Florida about seven
years ago, looking for a place to escape winter. I already
liked the state, having spent four years in Gainesville for
graduate school, and lots of time visiting relatives in Tallahassee
and Fort Myers. Key West was our last stop--a sort of vacation
from the trip, a respite from our search. We drove down the
string of islands and bridges that leads to Key West, agreeing
that we'd never live in a place so fragile, so isolated, so
exposed.
But instead
of listening to our practical voices, we fell in love. Of
course, the island is totally gorgeous, dotted with tropical
foliage and surrounded by turquoise water. But underneath
its fashion-model looks, magical, whimsical, bizarro Key West
has many layers, reaching from the richest of the rich at
one end to a significant homeless population on the other.
There are folks who were born and raised on the island and
lots of others who come to party or who come because they
don't quite fit into a traditional lifestyle but find they
feel comfortable here. There's a thriving artistic scene,
great food, and a fabulous literary history.
So when
I was thinking about pitching a new series, Key West chose
me. Naturally my other books were set someplace--golf courses
for Cassie Burdette's series and Southern Connecticut for
the advice column mysteries. But Key West doesn't lay back
as scenery--the island insists on becoming a major character.
Were
you “born to write” or did you discover your passion
for writing later in life?
For me,
writing is definitely a midlife crisis! It’s hard to
believe that my twelfth book, Murder with Ganache,
will be published this month. I have a Ph.D in clinical psychology
and worked for fifteen years in that field, never dreaming
that I’d become a mystery writer. On the other hand,
I’ve always been a big reader, especially of mysteries.
And the psychology background is so useful when I’m
developing characters and motivation. So it all falls into
place...
Any tips
for aspiring writers? How do you get your books written?
This
tip is no real revelation: Plant butt in chair and write.
Remain there until I hit my predetermined word count. Lately
I've been trying for around a thousand words a day. If it
takes two hours to write those words, then YAY!, I have time
to do other things that all sounded more appealing as I fended
them off while writing. On the more painful days, especially
when I don't know where I'm headed with the story, it might
take seven or eight hours because I've checked my gmail inbox
every five minutes. And then remembered there must be some
urgent laundry to do or the dog needs walking or I can't go
one more minute without organizing that messy kitchen drawer.
But I try to stick with it and to ignore the voices in my
head telling me this is the worst dreck I've ever written.
Because I know I can always (almost) fix it later.
What’s
the strangest thing you have ever done in the name of research?
I don’t
know if this qualifies as strange, but last winter I attended
the Key West Citizens’ Police Academy. This involved
eight weeks of listening to all kinds of police experts, like
police dog handlers, search and rescue teams, SWAT teams,
traffic cops...and to top it off, a ride-along with a real
cop, which ended up including a visit to the local jail. Mystery
writer’s heaven! Readers will see some of these great
details in Murder with Ganache.
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