Kelly
asked
Susan Moore Jordan:
I've read two of your historical novels, Memories of Jake and Man With No Yesterdays, and one of your cozy mysteries, The Case of the Slain Soprano, which is again set sometime in the past. What inspires you to write books set in the 20th century, rather than today?
Susan Moore Jordan
Hi Kelly,
Thanks so much for reading my books! Yes, all of them are set in the twentieth century, with Man with No Yesterdays ending in the early 1990s, which is as close to the twenty-first century as I've come over the course of nine novels.
One big reason for using that time period I'm sure is because my first book, How I Grew Up, was the result of a challenge by a friend to write a book. It was 2013, and I faced the first summer in over twenty years with no musical theater production to direct, and I was looking for some way to fill my time. I've always loved to read and had done a little creative writing in the past, mostly short stories, for my own amusement, but the idea of writing an entire book was pretty daunting. But she reminded me of an event from my teenage years and further challenged me to write the book in the first person. That convinced me to try, even though at first I likened the project to climbing Mt. Everest.
I figured it would be a "one and done" thing ... but to my delight, another book idea grew from the first, and another, and another, until I had written three novels that became an unplanned trilogy. Then I wrote a sequel to the third book in the trilogy, and after that recalled a couple of little boys from How I Grew Up who would have been in their late teens just as the Vietnam War was heating up. The Cameron books that you read came from that inspiration.
I think reading some Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie mysteries inspired me to try my hand at cozy mystery. I knew I wanted a female protagonist, so I gave her some attributes I was comfortable with (singer, voice teacher, stage director) and placed her in a city I love, Cincinnati, at a time when I lived in that city, the 1960s. To date Augusta McKee and her homicide detective beau, Malcolm Mitchell, have taken me on three adventures with a fourth well under way.
It's a time period I feel comfortable in and I've learned a lot from setting my books in the last century because of the different genres, and stories that have often required quite a bit of research.
Thanks so much for reading my books! Yes, all of them are set in the twentieth century, with Man with No Yesterdays ending in the early 1990s, which is as close to the twenty-first century as I've come over the course of nine novels.
One big reason for using that time period I'm sure is because my first book, How I Grew Up, was the result of a challenge by a friend to write a book. It was 2013, and I faced the first summer in over twenty years with no musical theater production to direct, and I was looking for some way to fill my time. I've always loved to read and had done a little creative writing in the past, mostly short stories, for my own amusement, but the idea of writing an entire book was pretty daunting. But she reminded me of an event from my teenage years and further challenged me to write the book in the first person. That convinced me to try, even though at first I likened the project to climbing Mt. Everest.
I figured it would be a "one and done" thing ... but to my delight, another book idea grew from the first, and another, and another, until I had written three novels that became an unplanned trilogy. Then I wrote a sequel to the third book in the trilogy, and after that recalled a couple of little boys from How I Grew Up who would have been in their late teens just as the Vietnam War was heating up. The Cameron books that you read came from that inspiration.
I think reading some Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie mysteries inspired me to try my hand at cozy mystery. I knew I wanted a female protagonist, so I gave her some attributes I was comfortable with (singer, voice teacher, stage director) and placed her in a city I love, Cincinnati, at a time when I lived in that city, the 1960s. To date Augusta McKee and her homicide detective beau, Malcolm Mitchell, have taken me on three adventures with a fourth well under way.
It's a time period I feel comfortable in and I've learned a lot from setting my books in the last century because of the different genres, and stories that have often required quite a bit of research.
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