Author and former CBC broadcaster, Hilary MacLeod, talks to Open Book about her newest mystery Mind Over Mussels (Acorn Press), what she loves about Sea View and her fascination with abandoned homes.
Hilary will be part of a panel discussion at the Bloody Words conference in Toronto at 11 a.m. on June 2, 2012.
Open Book:
Tell us about your newest mystery, Mind Over Mussels.
Hilary MacLeod:
Mind over Mussels is the second book in The Shores mystery series that began with Revenge of the Lobster Lover. The Shores is an isolated area of Red Island (Prince Edward Island), a bit like a Maritime Brigadoon. Mind Over Mussels opens with website writer Hy McAllister tripping over a body on the beach. The corpse is dressed like Jimi Hendrix and gulls and crows peck at a wound in his head. Jane Jamieson, the by-the-book Mountie, arrives at the crime scene in a bridesmaid?s dress as a hurricane whips up the coast. The corpse disappears. Another victim shows. And on it goes. There are a number of possible suspects, including the newly-arrived ?Big Ed,? who recovered from a devastating brain injury in Vietnam using the power of his mind. He?s built a physical fitness empire on his story. Mussels is about the power of the mind ? and love -- for good and evil.
OB:
Every June you leave your fall/winter home in Ontario?s Prince Edward County and head to your spring/summer home on Prince Edward Island. What makes Sea View worth writing about?
HM:
I love Sea View, and, after 20 years of close observation, the tiny community became ?what I know? ? the thing that writers are supposed to write about it. It?s one of the most beautiful settings on an incredibly picturesque island ? just down the road from Lucy Maud Montgomery?s Lake of Shining Waters and the house where she was married. I love the meadows rolling down to the sea, the spruce lining the roads and the fields ? a patchwork of green and red and blue. I have a deep sense of the character of the people, their way of living and speaking, and their sense of humour. People who live in places like Sea View are unique ? one foot in the old world, one in the new. A friend believes that village mysteries document a way of life that?s disappearing. I like being part of that preservation of a time and place.
OB:
Which writers have had the greatest influence on your work?
HM:
On this particular work, the most direct influence was M.C. Beaton, author of the Hamish MacBeth series, about an unambitious police officer in a Scottish highland village. I read the entire series whilst on PEI and was immediately inspired to write a murder mystery set there. Robertson Davies and John Irving have fueled my love of eccentric characters. Another influence on a historical romance I am writing is Phillipa Gregory, specifically her Wideacre trilogy.
OB:
You have a passion for old, abandoned homes. What do you love about them?
HM:
They draw me to them. Their emptiness and abandonment has an appeal. I wonder about the people who were there, what their story was, the story of the house. Driving down the road, I notice them immediately. I often stop and even go inside. I remember as a child crawling around a bombed-out house in post-war Britain. It may have started there. Later, on the walk to high school in Montreal we went along ?Embassy Row? and there was an abandoned mansion we used to explore before school. It had 67 rooms and a ballroom with a domed ceiling, painted with the night sky, which I use in my next book. I have recurring dreams about houses ? real ones, altered in that way dreams do, and houses created entirely in my dream world that also visit me again and again. The one thing they have in common ? they are all empty, which leaves a lot of space for the mind to wander in. So houses are a rich source for my imagination and creativity. And a drain on my income. I have three, two of which were ?rescue? houses.
OB:
Acorn Press, an east coast publisher, produces your books. What have you enjoyed about working with an independent press?
HM:
The personal touch. My publisher, Terrilee Bulger, is accommodating, generous and helpful. Very supportive. The Acorn Press may not be able to do as much marketing and publicity as the big houses, but it pulls more than its weight. My books are published in beautiful trade paperback editions, with great care given to covers and design. Warmth and co-operation guide the work we do ? publisher Terrilee Bulger, editors Sherie Hodds and Laurie Brinklow and artist and designer Matt Reid -- in a real collaboration.
OB:
Before becoming a professor of media studies at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario, you were the first woman to be a morning radio news anchor in Montreal. How has your broadcasting background informed your writing?
HM:
Very much. In broadcasting, you have only one pass at the listener, so clarity is important. That?s a great discipline. The style is simple, with emphasis on short sentences and simple words and structure. As a result I think my books are very easy to read, because writing for radio is writing for speaking. It?s conversational. And fiction writing is story telling, therefore it should be conversational. Or at least that?s my approach.
OB:
What are you working on now?
HM:
All is Clam is the third book in The Shores series. It takes place at Christmas and the village is so lit up, it can be seen from space ? and is, in a satellite photo the villagers have made up into placemats. The murder is far from black and white, and Mountie Jane Jamieson struggles with whether she should rule it an accident or murder. The decision is tied up in Jamieson?s own tragic past. All is Clam is going through the editorial process right now and we?re working on a book trailer for it. In the meantime, I?ve begun the first draft of the fourth book, Something Fishy. Clam got a bit heavy in the plot, so Something Fishy is lighter. I?m about to retire from teaching, which will give me more time for writing. Maybe, in between Shores stories, I?ll get to that historical.
Hilary MacLeod is author of The Shores mysteries, set on Prince Edward Island. The first, Revenge of the Lobster Lover, was a CBC Bookie winner 2011. Mind Over Mussels was published in 2011, and All is Clam, a Christmas mystery, comes out this year. Hilary is a Media Studies professor at Loyalist College and a former CBC radio host.
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