Interviews with the Author

Paying the Price

How did Paying the Price evolve?

I was actually working on a Civil War historical novel, and the research got the best of me. The more I read the less I wrote. So I put all the Civil War books away and decided to write a novel about something that I knew about. At about the same time I picked up a mystery novel in which a main character was a Realtor – overdressed, overly made up, brassy, obnoxious and of course the murderer. I decided I'd write a novel about a Realtor who was a hard working, good person, as were so many of my best friends in the business. Between us, we'd certainly had enough zany experiences from which to draw inspiration.

You have previously published several non-fiction books. Did you find the writing process different for writing fiction? How so?

Non-fiction involves research and verification of facts, which makes it interesting but sometimes tedious. With fiction, you make it up as you go along, which makes it fun. Of course you have to make sure that any real life facts involved in the story are correct, but basically you create your own world within the bounds of what a reader will accept. I've represented the real estate business as I knew it, with characters and their interactions inspired by the business. Writing fiction is great fun. It's like having a mai tai for breakfast every day.

Paying the Price is set on Maui. How did your life in Hawaii influence your work? What are your most vivid memories from those years?

I lived in Hawaii from the age of two until I moved to Colorado in 2001, minus my college years and a few years afterwards in Canada. Hawaii was a wonderful place to grow up--casual, lots of outdoor fun. The racial situation was different from any other place in the country--enriching but at times intimidating. In Paying the Price I tried to show what it was like for a haole (Caucasian) girl to grow up there. Vivid memories? Riding my horse in Kapiolani Park and at Diamond Head Beach, surfing, snorkeling, fishing. And racing my classmates to the elementary school library every week to get the best books! 

What is the significance of the book's title?

I wanted a title that spoke to the real estate business and Laura's personal life. In both, she certainly paid the price.

The heroine Laura McDaniel could have been almost any type of professional woman trying to hold it together after a divorce. Why did you choose to make her a Realtor?

The real estate business is what I know, and I found it fascinating. Realtors get involved with their clients just as doctors and lawyers do, and sometimes the circumstances are hair-raising. We have doctor and lawyer novels--why not Realtor novels? 

You have three sons. How did you capture the mother-daughter relationship and its complexities between Laura and Annie?

I've observed my friends as they dealt with their difficult daughters. And often I've been grateful that I have sons. Life seems a bit more straight-forward with boys. My plot called for Laura to have a difficult child. I couldn't make it a boy, because my sons would have wondered which one of them I based him on. With a daughter, I could give my imagination free rein. And don't forget, I'm on the other end of a mother-daughter relationship myself.

Dr. Randy Entwistle is one of the more complex characters in the book. How do you think readers will view her?

Hopefully they'll see Randy as a quirky bundle of contradictions, as are many people in this world. She's a very respected professional who just can't manage her personal life. I expect I'd have enjoyed knowing her under different circumstances.

What is the central theme of Paying the Price?

The main theme, in my mind, is coping with loss. Laura's husband simply took off, leaving her with more questions than answers. Then Annie left, and left again. Even Laura's parents were rarely there for her. She makes the best of it, honoring her obligations to her children and pressing Frank for the truth no matter how unpleasant it is. She continues to love her daughter and parents no matter what. Her final decision regarding Feather, is also a loss, but after giving it fair, honest and painful thought, she does what she believes is best for the child.

Do you think readers will agree with the choices Laura makes?

Maybe, maybe not. A satisfying novel leaves the reader with questions and things to think about well after the end. Would I have made the choices Laura did? Fortunately I have not been faced with such heart-wrenching situations in my own life. I think we never know how we will react to a difficult situation until it falls upon us. What I didn't want to present was a predictable outcome. Not everybody goes to the beach and lives happily every after.

Who are your writing influences? Who inspires you?

I read fiction and non-fiction for pleasure, particularly biography and history. My all-time hero is James Michener. I love Anne Perry, who writes Victorian mysteries, and Sue Grafton with her Alphabet mysteries. I've been on a historical jag recently, and also loved every word of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Give me vivid characters and a rich plot, and I'm a happy reader. People ask me how I could have left the wonderful Hawaiian weather. Well, Oregon winters by the fireplace are great for reading!

Will we see Laura in future books?

You bet. In Buyers Are Liars (published in 2013), one of Laura's listing clients has Alzheimer's disease. As Laura begins to realize the extent of Bessie's condition, she also learns that nobody in the woman's family is available on Maui to help. Laura will also fall in love, but I'm afraid it won't end well. I recently saw the perfect man on whom to pattern her love interest. He's a croupier at the roulette table in the Casino at Monte Carlo. Gorgeous, but not a nice person, I decided. Of course he has no idea he has a starring role in Laura's next adventure.

Did your mother like Paying the Price?

Yes, and she particularly liked Laura's mother, Margaret, a woman with “starch in her backbone.” Interestingly, Margaret is my favorite character in the story, too. I had a lot of fun with her. My mother told me she was amazed that I could have created a fictional mother so unlike herself. I had a hard time replying to that.

Buyers Are Liars

Where did the idea for Buyers Are Liars come from? 

My father passed away in 2005 from the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. On the evening of his funeral my brothers and I were sitting with our mother, reminiscing about our childhoods in Honolulu. As we hadn't been together for many years, we did the usual “whatever happened to so and so” among the neighbors. 

My brother Val asked, “Remember when Mrs. Garcia painted her house bright turquoise?” Nobody else remembered that, but surely a bright turquoise house would have caused a ruckus in our conservative neighborhood. “Why did she do that?” we asked. He replied, “She thought the mailman wasn't delivering all her mail, and she wanted to make sure he knew which house was hers.” Bingo, I though. Dementia. Right there in my mother’s living room, with the conversation buzzing around me, the story flew into my head. Of course there were many details to work out over the next four years, but basically that’s how it all began.

And Maurice? 
 
Ah, I was in Monte Carlo at the casino, mesmerized by the very handsome, very French croupier at the roulette table. He was ultra serious, super professional, and never so much as glanced at me, not even once. As I stood there I thought, now there’s the perfect fellow for Laura to fall in love with. By the looks of him, it can only end badly, which was necessary for the plot.

I have always been fascinated by how the lives of the very beautiful, both men and women, can be so different from the lives of ordinary mortals. Sort of in the way F. Scott Fitzgerald spoke of the rich in his short story, “Rich Boy.” “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”

In both novels there are no cell phones or email. Also, Laura uses a computer in her office to research property and prepare contracts, but nothing more. What’s with that? 

This story takes place in 1995 and is a reflection of real estate practice on Maui as I knew it then. Once I left the business I didn't feel competent to write about it in a later time. Portable phones were available during my era, but awkward and too expensive for my budget. Many of my Realtor friends had them,  and there were occasions when I would have killed for one—when I was involved in a red hot negotiation, for example, or when a deal was falling apart. But with my precarious income and financial responsibilities, it just wasn't possible.

In addition, I resented the way real estate consumed my life, every day, all day. There was no getting away from the demands of my clients. Even in my shower I could hear the phone when it rang. My car, when driving alone, became my only sanctuary. I resisted a cell phone until I moved to Colorado in 2001, probably the last Realtor on Maui not to have one. From a writer’s point of view, tension builds much more gratifyingly when people don’t have instant communication. As for email, I've embraced that eagerly, but it wasn't a factor on Maui in 1995.

Laura had two sons, Damien and David. Why are they mostly off-stage in both books? 

 I didn't want Annie to be an only child, because that would have changed her character. So I gave her two older brothers, but I didn't want to bring Laura’s sons into her trials and tribulations. They are always in her heart and thoughts, as are mine, but when kids grew up and move away to the mainland, you just didn't have frequent contact with them back when overseas phone calls cost a lot of money. I've just never been much of a phone person, and neither is Laura. The boys are not part of the story I wanted to tell, except at the end of Buyers Are Liars, when Damien calls Laura to tell her he has had contact with Annie. Annie is the real drama queen here.

How was  your writing process different in Buyers Are Liars than in Paying the Price? 

 Paying the Price was based on a real transaction in which I represented the buyers in a For Sale By Owner purchase, just as Laura does with Diana and Jerry. I changed the names, locations, professions, everything possible to protect the innocent while keeping to the actual life drama. Of course I exaggerated to make things more interesting—that’s artistic license—but basically I lived that story. The next challenge, then, was to create a novel purely out of my imagination. Most writers make shameless use of their own lives and the lives of their friends when filling in the details, but as to the main arc of the story, I made Buyers Are Liars up entirely. And was quite pleased that I managed it.

You obviously love writing about Hawaii, and you do it from the heart. Have you considered going farther afield in a future novel? 

The old saw, “Write what you know,” applies! My mission has been to write about the Hawaii I knew from my childhood in Honolulu through my twenty years as a mother and Realtor on Maui. I tried to portray it as I lived it—a haole girl and woman in a place where Caucasians make up only one-third of the population. My recent years in Colorado and now Oregon have shown me how very different it is there, and what a unique experience it was. I wouldn't have traded it for anything, but I am certainly enjoying a mainland adventure now.

My next novel, The Visiting Girl (coming in 2021), is a historical set on the mainland. This is a huge leap for me, both because of the historical time period and because it takes place in two cities where I have never lived. I would set it in Hawaii if I thought the story would work there, but it doesn't.

I spent six years working on a Civil War novel before I wrote Paying the Price, and it lives, although on life support, in a box in my garage.  It was much more fun doing the research (the hard way, pre-Internet) than doing the actual writing. I consider it my obligatory “first novel that never got published but was a very good exercise.” Why don’t I finish that one? I guess I just lost interest. I’m more interested in exploring my new ideas. To me, that’s what writing fiction is all about—getting up every morning and finding out what happens next. And I’m the one who gets to guide the action, any which way I want!