Marcia Muller Talks McCone, Flying Lessons and Happy Endings

Book Help Web Exclusive Interview

Marcia Muller has found the secret to keeping fans loyal for almost three decades.

She lets her protagonist change and brings new people into her life. As one fan said, "Muller is still able to keep her fans loyal by letting her heroine grow over time."

Muller's start in writing hit a few early roadblocks. She had an instructor who told her she had nothing worthwhile to say, and her early editors were uncomfortable with her embellishing facts on non-fiction articles.

But then she began writing mystery novels and persevered through all the initial rejections and the cancellation of the mystery list of her first publisher. Since then she has written more than 32 novels, short story collections, and non-fiction articles. She's edited anthologies and has collaborated with her husband, Bill Pronzini, the creator of the Nameless Detective.

Muller is releasing two books this July: Cape Perdido came out on July 1, 2006. It's the third installment of an environmental mystery series set on the northern coast of California in a remote town.

And on July 10, 2006, Muller released the 24th Sharon McCone mystery, a series that has followed the private investigator through a busy career that now has her married to Hy Ripinsky.

Muller took some time out to answer some Book Help Web questions about her latest books, her characters, and herself.

Book Help Web: Vanishing Point picks up right as Sharon McCone gets married. What about this book do you think will have the greatest appeal to your readers?

Marcia Muller: I hope they¹ll enjoy the juxtaposition of Sharon¹s happiness in her new marriage with two other marriages that were described by everyone as being happy, but upon investigation turn out to be just the opposite. And, of course, the wedding party her friends throw Hy and her, as well as the "little reception" her mother gives them. Some comic relief from an intense investigation there.

BHW: You have two books coming out in July: Cape Perdido and The Vanishing Point. Will you be promoting both books at the same time? Or will you have separate tours for each one?

Muller: Actually, this year I'm doing very little promoting of either book, except on the Internet and via telephone interviews. Family obligations are filling a great deal of my time, writing the rest.

BHW: How ornery is Sharon McCone? Does she ever do things in the novel that surprise you or take the story in a different direction than where you wanted it to go? Or is she fairly disciplined about sticking to the game plan?

Muller: Sharon McCone is probably the most ornery character I¹ve ever dealt with. She's continually taking the story in different directions, as well as revealing things about herself that I haven¹t previously suspected. Of course, this is the fun of writing her. She does a lot of my work for me.

BHW: How do you keep your novels accessible to readers who are new to the series?

Muller: I try to explain within every given book the things about the ongoing characters' backstory that the reader needs to know for the story to make sense. While the series is the ongoing story of Sharon McCone's life, each book can really stand on its own.

BHW: Over the life of the series, your fans have had lots of suggestions for you. What has been some of the most helpful advice or suggestions they've offered you? What has been the most off-the-wall?

Muller: Suggestions are always welcome. I was urged by a flight instructor to take flying lessons to make the flying scenes more realistic--and I did! My great adventure.

The most off-the-wall was the coy question, "When will we be hearing the patter of little Ripinsky feet?" Not likely to happen--I can just see Sharon taking her brood on a stakeout.

BHW: What similarities do you share with your famous private investigator? How are you different?

Muller: We're very alike in our opinions, feelings, and politics. But she¹s talller, thinner, braver, younger, and a MUCH better pilot. She¹s my best friend, alter ego, the person I would most like to be.

BHW: Do you find yourself writing for different readers when you work on the Soledad County novels than you do with the Sharon McCone? How does the writing and/or research process differ?

Muller: I don't know that I'm writing for different readers, but the Soledad books are more difficult to write, since my main characters have to be created from scratch. The research for them is easier, because it's a fictional place--a composite of several real coastal counties, although more Mendocino than any other. Since we have a vacation house on the Mendocino coast, I've come to know the area intimately.

BHW: While you are best known for your Sharon McCone and Soledad County series, you've also experimented in other genres, most notably westerns. Do you see yourself experimenting with other genres in the future? If yes, which ones?

Muller: I'll be doing a western short story collection with Bill Pronzini, scheduled for 2008. Otherwise, I'll be sticking with McCone for a while. But I never know when a good idea may strike me....

BHW: You had an instructor at the University of Michigan who put a damper on your literary dreams. How did you overcome that? Have you ever sent that instructor copies of your books?

Muller: I overcame it by going into journalism and finding I was fictionalizing a lot of the detail in my feature stories. Not good. Over a five-year period I gradually came back to fiction writing, and to mysteries by reading them. The instructor died before I published anything--not by my hand.

BHW: What sort of unusual experiences have you had while researching your novels?

Muller: Flying was certainly unusual. Almost being arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol was another odd experience. I'd strayed into a dangerous area near the border, but once I told the officer I was researching for a novel, he was most helpful.

BHW: What is the most memorable response you've had from a reader to your books?

Muller: The most memorable responses come from people who are at a bad place in their lives and say the books have helped them escape and given them pleasure. One that stands out is the woman who was reading a funny scene in The Broken Promise Land while her daughter was having brain surgery for cancer. She said she laughed aloud for the first time since the daughter¹s diagnosis. (Happy ending--the daughter survived, and is fine.)

--B. Redman