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| MapYourMystery (left) had the chance to meet Colleen Gleason recently |
My upcoming release, Murder in the Oval Library: A Lincoln’s White House Mystery, will be released in early September.
The paperback version of the first Lincoln mystery, Murder in the Lincoln White House, will be out on July 31.
I also write the Stoker & Holmes Books series for teens, and the latest release in that series is book 4: The Carnelian Crow. Book 5, the final book in the series, is due to be released in 2019.
(Editor's note: the Stoker & Holmes books are fun for every reader, not just teens.)
How did you develop your character and choose your location?
When I began to formulate the idea of the Stoker & Holmes books, I knew I wanted to have a female Sherlock Holmes type of character. When the first book in the series came out in 2012, there weren’t any (or many) female Holmesian characters (that I knew of)—but since then, and even around the time my first book was released, there have been several other ones. But for me, when I was first thinking about this idea back in 2010, I knew I wanted a female detective with the abilities of Sherlock Holmes, as well as some of his presumed social clumsiness. And so I created Mina Holmes, who is Sherlock’s niece.
Since the Stoker & Holmes series is about two young women who work together, I also wanted a good foil for this female Holmesian character and I set about creating someone who, though seemingly different on the surface, actually has a lot in common with Mina. In real life, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was good friends with Bram Stoker, and so I thought it would be fun to have the other half of my crime-fighting duo be related to Bram—his sister, actually—and to have her fight vampires. Since, of course, Bram Stoker would have been writing Dracula at the time these books are set.
With those two characters in mind, the London setting seemed obvious, and so I was off to the races, so to speak.
What is steam punk and how did you become interested in it?
Steampunk is a sort of historical science fiction genre—a mash-up of history, science fiction, sometimes fantasy, and very often a conglomeration of both real historical characters as well as literary characters. The “inventor” of steampunk was Alan Moore, who wrote the graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. That is what most people consider the root of what we think of as steampunk today.
Steampunk is usually set in a historical time period, and often boasts the same look and feel of that time period in relation to fashion and machinery—but there is a lot of technology that didn’t exist at that time; in most cases that technology (ostensibly) is run on steam. Hence the term steampunk.
My world is set in what I consider to be traditional steampunk—Victorian London. There are many other examples of steampunk in other time periods, including the Will Smith movie Wild, Wild West and the Cherie Priest books.
I became interested in steampunk when the editor of my first published series (the Gardella Vampire Hunters) mentioned it to me and said, “You might consider writing steampunk some day, because you do a great job of mashing up historical settings with fantasy and supernatural elements.” I had to go home and look up steampunk because, back in 2007, I had no idea what it was!
(For a review of The Chess Queen Enigma, click here.)
What is a day in the life of an author like? Do you write a certain number of words, do you write in the morning or evening?
My days are usually somewhat flexible, though I prefer it when they follow a certain schedule: get up, do a morning journal that I try to write every day, maybe a few yoga stretches, make breakfast and/or a cup of tea…check my email…post on social media…attend to administrative work…then I read over what I’d written the day before, tweak it a little, then think about what I want to write next. (Because I don’t usually know what comes next till it happens!)
Then I’ll often break for lunch and maybe do some research if necessary. I usually do most of my “heavy” writing in the afternoon and evening—particularly the evening. That’s because before my first book was published, I worked full time and had young children, so the only time I could write was in the evening after they were in bed and my husband was settled in front of the television. :-) So I sort of trained my brain to work that way, which is kind of a bummer because now that my children are pretty much gone (I have a high school senior left at home), I have the whole day to be as productive as I like.
I generally like to write a certain number of words a day; when I do that, it keeps me on track to get the project done on time. That only happens (that I write my word quota) about on average 3-4 days a week—unless I’m near deadline. Then I write more and faster. :-)
Do you belong to a writers group or are you in touch with other writers? How does that help your writing?
I have a lot of friends who are writers, and while I don’t belong to a group that meets in person, I have a lot of contacts in the business and see them at conferences and other events. I have a small group of three friends with whom I do a writers get-away every spring. But most of my writer friends I speak to and interact with online.
If your books were made into a movie, who would you want to play the lead character?
I’ve had many thoughts about this, and I haven’t actually come up with great characters for Mina and Evaline! I don’t know enough of the younger up and coming actresses to be able to create a wishlist of who I’d like to have play them.
Who is your favorite author?
Elizabeth Peters, who also wrote as Barbara Michaels, JK Rowling, and Nora Roberts/JD Robb. I also love JK Rowling for her incredible world building.
How do you keep track of character details from book to book so they are consistent?
It’s not too much of a challenge, to be honest. They are who they are, and the characters don’t change in my mind. They’re already formed. I mean, it’s like I’ve met them and they are my friends—so I know who they are and what they’re like. Sure, in each book, I reveal (or discover!) something new about each character—as one does as we get to know friends better—but it’s all part of the same, whole person.
If you could not be an author, what would like to do as a career?
I’d probably be a travel writer or food critic. Or a sommelier. :-)
How did you develop your character and choose your location?
When I began to formulate the idea of the Stoker & Holmes books, I knew I wanted to have a female Sherlock Holmes type of character. When the first book in the series came out in 2012, there weren’t any (or many) female Holmesian characters (that I knew of)—but since then, and even around the time my first book was released, there have been several other ones. But for me, when I was first thinking about this idea back in 2010, I knew I wanted a female detective with the abilities of Sherlock Holmes, as well as some of his presumed social clumsiness. And so I created Mina Holmes, who is Sherlock’s niece.
Since the Stoker & Holmes series is about two young women who work together, I also wanted a good foil for this female Holmesian character and I set about creating someone who, though seemingly different on the surface, actually has a lot in common with Mina. In real life, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was good friends with Bram Stoker, and so I thought it would be fun to have the other half of my crime-fighting duo be related to Bram—his sister, actually—and to have her fight vampires. Since, of course, Bram Stoker would have been writing Dracula at the time these books are set.
With those two characters in mind, the London setting seemed obvious, and so I was off to the races, so to speak.
What is steam punk and how did you become interested in it?
Steampunk is a sort of historical science fiction genre—a mash-up of history, science fiction, sometimes fantasy, and very often a conglomeration of both real historical characters as well as literary characters. The “inventor” of steampunk was Alan Moore, who wrote the graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. That is what most people consider the root of what we think of as steampunk today.
Steampunk is usually set in a historical time period, and often boasts the same look and feel of that time period in relation to fashion and machinery—but there is a lot of technology that didn’t exist at that time; in most cases that technology (ostensibly) is run on steam. Hence the term steampunk.
My world is set in what I consider to be traditional steampunk—Victorian London. There are many other examples of steampunk in other time periods, including the Will Smith movie Wild, Wild West and the Cherie Priest books.
I became interested in steampunk when the editor of my first published series (the Gardella Vampire Hunters) mentioned it to me and said, “You might consider writing steampunk some day, because you do a great job of mashing up historical settings with fantasy and supernatural elements.” I had to go home and look up steampunk because, back in 2007, I had no idea what it was!
(For a review of The Chess Queen Enigma, click here.)
What is a day in the life of an author like? Do you write a certain number of words, do you write in the morning or evening?
My days are usually somewhat flexible, though I prefer it when they follow a certain schedule: get up, do a morning journal that I try to write every day, maybe a few yoga stretches, make breakfast and/or a cup of tea…check my email…post on social media…attend to administrative work…then I read over what I’d written the day before, tweak it a little, then think about what I want to write next. (Because I don’t usually know what comes next till it happens!)
Then I’ll often break for lunch and maybe do some research if necessary. I usually do most of my “heavy” writing in the afternoon and evening—particularly the evening. That’s because before my first book was published, I worked full time and had young children, so the only time I could write was in the evening after they were in bed and my husband was settled in front of the television. :-) So I sort of trained my brain to work that way, which is kind of a bummer because now that my children are pretty much gone (I have a high school senior left at home), I have the whole day to be as productive as I like.
I generally like to write a certain number of words a day; when I do that, it keeps me on track to get the project done on time. That only happens (that I write my word quota) about on average 3-4 days a week—unless I’m near deadline. Then I write more and faster. :-)
Do you belong to a writers group or are you in touch with other writers? How does that help your writing?
I have a lot of friends who are writers, and while I don’t belong to a group that meets in person, I have a lot of contacts in the business and see them at conferences and other events. I have a small group of three friends with whom I do a writers get-away every spring. But most of my writer friends I speak to and interact with online.
If your books were made into a movie, who would you want to play the lead character?
I’ve had many thoughts about this, and I haven’t actually come up with great characters for Mina and Evaline! I don’t know enough of the younger up and coming actresses to be able to create a wishlist of who I’d like to have play them.
Who is your favorite author?
Elizabeth Peters, who also wrote as Barbara Michaels, JK Rowling, and Nora Roberts/JD Robb. I also love JK Rowling for her incredible world building.
How do you keep track of character details from book to book so they are consistent?
It’s not too much of a challenge, to be honest. They are who they are, and the characters don’t change in my mind. They’re already formed. I mean, it’s like I’ve met them and they are my friends—so I know who they are and what they’re like. Sure, in each book, I reveal (or discover!) something new about each character—as one does as we get to know friends better—but it’s all part of the same, whole person.
If you could not be an author, what would like to do as a career?
I’d probably be a travel writer or food critic. Or a sommelier. :-)
1 comment:
Great interview! It was so fun getting to meet Colleen earlier this summer. It was so interesting learning about what steam punk is as well!
Denise
www.deniseadelek.com
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