Denise’s Comments (group member since Sep 10, 2011)

Denise’s comments from the Q&A with Denise Hamilton group.

Hi Darlene,
Oh gosh, so many. Anything by James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler. Hollywood Confidential by James Ellroy, and the darn good movie that was made of it. But my favorite futuristic noir movie is definitely Blade Runner. It's got all the tropes of classic detective fiction: World-weary Harrison Ford the 'blade runner,' femme fatale Sean Young who has an extra secret surprise up her sleeve, and the Replicants themselves, so oddly compelling and sympathetic as they flee the law.
What about other readers?

You know, it's actually quite challenging to write about perfume, because it doesn't have a rich vocabulary, so you have to use the vocabulary of food (vanillic, marzipan) or colors (it's citrusy green) flowers (rose and jasmine). Perfume inspires emotions in us and dredges up memories. Perfumes can be decadent, prim, girly, Baroque. They can be dark, brooding, happy, spring-like, autumnal. But often the only way to describe them is by referencing other things. But I find I rise to this challenge, and enjoyed doing it in Damage Control!

Hi Darlene,

I'm afraid that lipstick remains my one other concession to girlie glamour. My mom wore Revlon Coral Red, and I actually wore that myself for a long time. I like bright dark intense lipsticks. Well ok, here's another confession - I do like vintage cocktail frocks and have a closet full. There was something magical about the clothes from the 1930s-50s that I do adore, but it's more a Lauren Bacall glamour than today's girly girls.

Stephanie -

I also had to really put myself back in that emotionally raw, intense, moody state of early adolescence, where humiliation is always a whisker away, where the right clothes are so important, where everything is freighted with great significance. I'd get up from writing those scenes and need to go on a long run, they were so psychologically intense to write. At the same time, I think you hit on something, because the relationship (and ultimately the uneasy complicated love) that they share for each other provides the emotional center of the book.

Stephanie, thanks for asking about Maggie and Annabelle. They were not based on anyone in my life, but rather on my very vivid and visceral recollection of being a teenager - 15 and 16 - and feeling life so intensely. At that age, my girl friendships were my lifeline. I had one friend so close were were almost twins. We'd eat the same food, wear each others' clothes, pine over boys, obsess over song lyrics, drive around town dreaming together. When our friendship began to dissolve, it was worse than any break-up I'd had over a boy, because there was so much emotion and intensity vested in it.

Hi Linda, continued...

I also think that in LA we live in an olfactory paradise - the fragrant orange blossoms, night blooming jasmine, sage and thyme an drosemary of the hills...the salt tang of the sea. So that was all natural scents, and then with my interest in perfume, I added in more complex blended scents. I think that smell is the least appreciated and utilized of our five senses, and it was time to bring it back to the fore, especially in solving a mystery!

Hi Linda,

I'm so glad you enjoyed my book. Regarding sensory overload, well, I guess that's how I experience the world on a daily basis - on the verge of sensory overload. I've always used a lot of sensory images in my books. In Sugar Skull Eve Diamond is crawling through the dirt basement of an abandoned building damaged by an earthquake and I tried to imagine what it smelled like, that damp, dank smell of earth, of rotting wood, the chalky dust in the back of your throat from the plaster falling off and decaying.

Ah, Je Reviens is another one my mother wore. Worth! It brings back my mother immediately when I put it on.

White Linen is by Estee Lauder. While it's a bit too bright white/green floral for me, I do like some of her others, especially Alliage and Private Collection.

I don't have a signature scent, but I adore the vintage Carons and Guerlains. Unstoppering one of these beauties is like letting an Art Deco beautiful genie out of a bottle. It hurtles me back in time to memories of my mother, grandmother, great aunt.

What about you folks? Are there perfumes or even just odors out there that unlock scent memories?

My mother was Russian and French, and she had a shelf of Diors, Chanels, Rochas and more in the bathroom. I was allowed to bring them down (carefully!) and sniff. I always had a strong sense of smell, and also a strong aversion to certain bad smells, especially chemical and synthetic ones. So I've worn perfume all my life.

But it wasn't until I found a bottle of Donna Karan Chaos perfume at the Goodwill that I plunged down the rabbit hole of perfume obsession. It was spicy, sweet, incensey, exotic. Too strong for me. But when I went home and googled it, I found it was discontinued and highly sought after and selling for $300 on ebay so I rushed back to get it.

Then I spent days spritzing it on and sniffing and trying to figure out what was so special about it. Then I had the Eureka moment. Meanwhile I'd discovered all these great perfume blogs and started reading and teaching myself and buying Way Too Many Bottles.

Hey Maureen, good to hear from you! Each April the LAT Mag will do a mystery/crime fiction edition. Also, did you know I write a perfume column for the magazine now?

The September column is all about perfume in mystery novels, inspired by the fact that perfume is a clue in Damage Control. Here's the link:

http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2011/0...

And just in case anyone's curious, I did NOT take Adderall to experience its effects so I could write abouto them. But I know many adults to take Ritalin, Adderall and other 'smart' drugs to hone their focus.

Hi Stephanie,

Yes by all means post reviews. And thanks again for your great one!

And Maureen, is that you in Ashland?

I am so thrilled to have this new book out. I'm touring a bit and will be in Seattle at the end of the month.

The new book, Damage Control, has a dual meaning. It's how PR people deal with scandals and attempt - not always very successfully - to 'control' the damge.

But it's also about two teenaged girls whose lives are damaged and friendship is destroyed by something awful that happened on a beach one night. While I want to keep you all up way past your bedtime turning pages, I think that the relationship between the girls, as adolescents and then when they meet once more in the present, is at the heart of the book.

Hi everyone! I hope you will join a Q&A about my new novel "Damage Control" starting tomorrow.