Steve: I have the honor and privilege of interviewing author Laura Elvebak today. She writes mystery, thrillers, suspense, and noir. Among her published books, the reader of this blog will find: Less Dead, Lost Witness, A Matter of Revenge, The Flawed Dance, and The Past Never Dies. She has just submitted to Black Opal Books She Said No. This talented writer is also a screenwriter and has optioned two screenplays. Without further ado, let’s hear from Laura.

Some personal background about Laura…

Steve: You are certainly a prolific writer. What about some personal stats?

Laura: I presently reside in Houston, Texas, with my adult son, one dog name Sherlock, and twelve rescued cats. I am happily unmarried. My grown daughters live close by, as do my grandchildren. [More information can be obtained at http://lauraelvebak.wordpress.com or https://blackopalbooks.com/laura-elvebak/.]

Laura on Reading and Writing:

Steve: Why, how, and when did you start writing?

Laura: When I was five and living with my paternal grandparents in Los Angeles, my mother died of cancer in the back bedroom. My father left to deal with his sorrow and returned three years later with a stepmom. That’s when I escaped into a pretend world. I had a girlfriend who lived across the street. She also had lost her mother and lived with her grandmother. We were always acting out stories. When I started school, I wrote stories all the time. I was an avid reader, thanks to my grandparents who always provided me with books.

Steve: Did you publish the first book you wrote?

Laura: No, but the first story I sent out was to the Ladies Home Journal. I think I was ten years old. They rejected my handwritten effort.

Steve: What is your biggest problem with the writing process? How do you tackle it? 

Laura: My biggest problem is overwriting. I’m learning to take out all extra words to make the prose spare and hit the hardest. My critique group helps with this. They’re always crossing out words or making them more concise.

Steve: Do you feel writing is something you need to do or want to do?

Laura: Absolutely need to do. When I’m writing and into another world, I am most energized.

Steve: Have your personal experiences or situations influenced you creatively? If so, how?

Laura: I can’t help but draw on personal experience. I lived my life believing I needed to experience everything so I can write about it. I believe that’s why I chose my six husbands. The first was a motorcycle racer and ten years older. I was nineteen. The second husband was thirty years my senior, a former hard hat diver who’d lived all over the world. When I met him, he was in a wheelchair with two fractured feet he got from jumping from a third story building to get away from a mob hit man. We traveled to several states and changed our name in each new location. I finally ran away and made a living as a go-go dancer. This was in the late sixties in Philadelphia. My fourth book, The Flawed Dance, is the fictionalized version of my life running from him and becoming a go-go dancer.

Steve: How much of your creative ability do you think is innate and how much is learned?

Laura: I would say my creative self is innate but setting it down in writing is definitely learned. I took a class taught by Richard Walter at UCLA on fiction, also classes at USC, and screenwriting classes at Beyond Baroque in Venice, California. I took mystery writing and screenwriting classes at Rice University. But I credit most of my progress with my critique groups (two) that meet weekly.

Steve: What is the last book you read? What are you reading now?

Laura: The last book I read was Jeffery Deaver’s The Cutting Edge. I am presently listening to Karen Slaughter’s Pieces of Her and reading Peter James’ Not Dead Yet.

Steve: Who are your favorite authors?  Whose writing inspires you the most and why?

Laura: There are so many, but the authors who top the list are: Karen Slaughter, James Lee Burke, Megan Abbott, Reed Farrel Coleman, and Jo Nesbo. I learn from all of them—their use of language and how they reach into their characters and make the reader know them intimately.

Steve: What’s the last book to make you laugh?  Cry?

Laura: Dean “Miranda” James always makes me laugh with his A Cat in the Stacks Mystery. The last one I read was Classified as Murder. I don’t read many cozy mysteries. The exceptions are the books by Dean “Miranda” James, Leann Sweeney, and Kay Finch.

Steve: Should writers read in their genre?  Should they be avid readers?

Laura: Definitely. In fiction, I read mysteries, thrillers, and noir almost exclusively. Each book teaches me about writing—what to do and what not to do.

Steve: How do you find (discover) your plots?

Laura: It has to be something I am passionate about that will keep me writing all the way to the end. In writing the Niki Alexander series, my children let me see the world of homeless teens— the runaways and throwaways. I wanted to write about their world and what they were going through. Less Dead dealt with child abandonment; Lost Witness dealt with the drug world; A Matter of Revenge death with pedophiles. The Past Never Dies came about because my boss at an oil and gas company told me about a man he once did business with who had murdered his wife and gotten away with it. He kept urging me to write it. I finally figured out a way of doing it so it wasn’t evident who I was writing about. The book I just submitted, She Said No, originated from something that happened to me many years ago and resonates today with today’s #MeToo movement, about which I am passionate.

Steve: Are your characters based on real people?

Laura: I had one character in the Niki Alexander books, Tara, who gave me permission to use her. She introduced me to several homeless boys and girls. Tara was once homeless and knew that world very well. Otherwise, most of them are fictional. A few times my second husband appears in different forms.

Steve: How do you name your characters?

Laura: I have a real hard time with names. I sometimes change them several times. It’s whatever pops into my head at the time.

Steve: Which comes first for you, plot or characters?

Laura: Characters, usually. Unless there is something that really bothers me. I don’t write message books, but I don’t shy away from controversial subjects that I’m passionate about.

Steve: Any comments about writing dialog?

Laura: I just transcribe what I hear the characters say. Their voices are in my head when I’m writing.

Steve: How do you handle POV?

Laura: I usually write a close third person. In the Niki Alexander books, the POV from the teenager in trouble and switches to Niki. The Past Never Dies has two narrators in separate chapters. The Flawed Dance is told in first person.

Steve: Do you do fact-finding for (AKA research) your books?  If so, how? What sources do you use?

Laura: In writing mystery or crime novels, I want to be as accurate as possible concerning the police and forensics. I have attended the Citizens Police Academy as well the Writers Police Academy in Wisconsin, started by Lee Lofland, a former detective, who also answers questions in the crimewriters Yahoo group. I’ve also arranged for police, FBI, and forensic experts to speak at the Southwest Chapter of Mystery Writers of America luncheons in Houston, TX. Three bookcase shelves are packed with research and reference material, including Book of Poisons, Lee Lofland’s Police Procedure and Investigation, D.P. Lyle’s Murder and Mayhem, Forensics for Dummies, and Forensics and Fiction, and so many more.

Steve: What reference works do you use most?

Laura: I love King’s On Writing. I once had three months to write a book after I was laid off from a job but paid severance that covered that time. Because King said he wrote ten pages a day, I decided I could do the same and finished the first draft in two and a half months. I have to add that it took two years of rewrites to get it in publishable form. I also use The Writers Journey by Chris Vogler, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, and Don’t Murder Your Mystery by Chris Roerden.

Laura on the Writing Business:

Steve: Do you use a formatter?  Editor?  Agent?

Laura: I use my critique groups. They let me know if something does not make sense or the characters are doing or saying something they wouldn’t do or say.

Steve: Do you self-publish or traditionally publish?

Laura: I am traditionally published by small presses. The first publisher was L&L Dreamspell owned and run by two wonderful women. Unfortunately, one passed away from cancer. I subsequently found Black Opal Books.

Steve: What are your most effective marketing techniques?  Where would you like to improve?  Do you go it alone or seek professional help (outside what your publisher provides, if appropriate).

Laura: I used a publicity person with the early books. She garnered blog interviews, a cable news channel appearance, and several radio interviews. I have sold the most with personal appearances and talks at independent bookstores, libraries, and the Texas Book Festival. I have spent a small fortune on marketing in the past, which didn’t show a big return in sales. I no longer have the budget to spend on high cost publicity.

Steve: Do you release trade paperbacks or ebooks or both?

Laura: Both. When I got the rights back from my first publisher, I reissued them as paperbacks, e-books, and audio. Black Opal Books releases their books in paperback and ebook formats.

Steve: What do you think of publishing services like Amazon, Smashwords, etc?  What about small presses v. large, traditional publishers?

Laura: I’m published by small presses, although I wouldn’t mind having a large publisher pay me and publicize my work. I reissued the first two Niki Alexander books when the publisher folded and used Amazon’s Createspace, though I hired someone to do the formatting and covers. I was pleased with the result.

Personal questions for Laura:

Steve: What is your favorite place to eat out?  Favorite food?  Drink?

Laura: Pappy’s Café is my favorite place to eat out because of the atmosphere. They also have the best chicken tenders. I also like Mexican food, seafood, and steaks. I like dark beer, red wine, and single malt scotch.

Steve: What are your favorite other places, either here or abroad? What places would you like to visit?

Laura: Texas is where I live, but Northern California will always be home. I would love to visit Norway, where my ancestors are from. I’d also love to visit Italy, France and Austria. Back in the sixties I visited Baja California and stayed there six months with my second husband while I helped him walk again through massage and walking in the sand along the Pacific coast.

Steve: What other interests and activities do you have besides writing?

Laura: I go to writing conferences in order to network, be with other writers, and visit new cities. I enjoy movies and reading. I would like to travel more. I work part-time as a cashier at PetSmart and enjoy the interaction with customers.

Steve: What was the last movie you went to see?  If your book(s) were to be made into a movie, who would you want to play your main characters?

Laura: I can’t remember the last movie I saw. I was too busy writing and finishing my last book.

Steve: What would I find in your refrigerator right now?

Laura: Strawberries and blueberries. Bottled water. Eggs, bacon, and sausage for Sunday breakfast. Ice cream always. Iced tea for my son.

Steve: If you could trade places with someone for a week, famous or not, living or dead, real or fictional, with whom would it be?

Laura: Lillian Hellman, writer, activist, lover to Dashiell Hammett. Such an interesting life.

Steve: What is your favorite (song) and why?  Piece of music?  Theater work? Movie?  Piece of art?

Laura: For theater work it’s Angels in America. Very powerful and unforgettable. I enjoy all forms of music, especially jazz and classical. My favorite piece of art is “Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper. I could look at that painting and imagine who these diners are and what they are thinking, and what brought them there.

Steve: I want to thank you, Laura, for your interesting and candid answers. I’m sure readers will want to check out your books. I certainly find their brief descriptions given here interesting; I’m sure others will too. [Please visit Laura’s website, http://lauraelvebak.wordpress.com, for more information about this singular author.]

***

Comments are welcome!

Rembrandt’s Angel. Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone’s obsession with recovering a missing Rembrandt stolen by the Nazis in the war has to be controlled by paramour and Interpol Agent Bastiann van Coevorden. But their search for the painting blows up into an international conspiracy that threatens Europe. The ebook has a reduced price now on Amazon, and it’s also available at Smashwords and its affiliates. The print version is available at Amazon and at your favorite bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask for it).

In libris libertas!

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2018 at 3:30 am and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.