Inverview with author Judy Clemens

Today's interview is with author Judy Clemens. Hope you enjoy getting to know her better.


PDD: Tell us a bit about your books. And how you managed to sign with Poisoned Pen Press.

JC: My books, hmmm. They don’t really fit into any “mystery” category. They’re amateur sleuth, yes, but not really cozy or traditional. Stella Crown, my protagonist is an independent, prickly, tattooed dairy farmer and Harley-Davidson enthusiast. How’s that for weird and un-cozy? And as for traditional, one of the books doesn’t even have a fresh corpse in it, but I’m told the mystery element is strong. The books are a lot about tolerance and looking farther than skin deep to find the good in people.

As far as Poisoned Pen, I had spent almost two years looking for an agent, finding a bad one, losing that one (which was good), and beginning to look again. I knew of Poisoned Pen, and when I found out they accepted unagented submissions, I wrote to them. Their submissions guy, who has the fabulous name of Monty Montee, thought Stella sounded feisty. He loved her, and it went from there. I love being with PPP. They’re wonderful folks.

PDD: Do you write other things besides this mystery series?

JC: I’ve published a couple of plays, some non-fiction articles, some children’s stories, and have just had a mainstream novel called Lost Sons accepted for publication. It’s so recent that I’m not even sure when the expected pub date is.

PDD: What is a typical writing day like for you, assuming you ever have one?

JC: Up to this point, my “writing day” has been whenever I’ve had time. I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for the past almost eight years, and this fall my daughter will be going to kindergarten. I had a couple of hours a couple of times a week the past two years while she was at pre-school, but once school starts this year it will be my first taste of having full days to write. I hope I don’t blow it.

PDD: I teach researching in my writing workshop and I often use you as an example of "hand's on" (milking cows?) so please tell us how you research your books.

JC: Ha! Definitely hands on. For the cows, I got to go to a friend’s dairy farm and do all the milking and mucking out I could, plus was able to drive the bobcat and climb to the top of a silo. Then I traveled with a vet for a day and got to participate in all sorts of things, including the C-section of a cow. (which became the first chapter of Till the Cows Come Home) For other books I’ve visited tattoo parlors, talked to outlaw bikers, had tons of conversations with police detectives, researched in archives, and done my own bit of motorcycle riding.

PDD: What do you see for your future in writing?

JC: Well, I have Lost Sons coming out, which is a combination of a real historical event and a fictional contemporary story, plus I sold a new series to Poisoned Pen, which will begin in 2009. The Stella Crown series will be finished next year with book #5. And, as most writers, I have a whole list of books I want to write! All kinds – women’s fiction, Y/A mysteries, and possibly a series of real historical/fictional contemporary novels to follow up Lost Sons.

PDD: Are you still a biker? Tell us a bit about that.

JC: I still have my license endorsement for riding, but my husband and I made the choice seven years ago (almost eight) to have children instead of bikes. Once our son was born and our Harley was just sitting in the garage, we realized that was too much money to not be used very often. My husband is getting the itch again, though…

PDD: What inspires you, sends you running to the keyboard?

JC: I never know what’s going to hit me. It could be a conference I attend, a character that comes to mind, or just an impending deadline! I often get ideas while out on walks or driving by myself, so I take a Dictaphone with me. I’ve also been known to get out of bed and write in the middle of the night when something strikes me.

PDD: Do you work with an agent or on your own in the publishing business?

JC: I got an agent for books 3, 4, and 5 of Stella, but she has retired, so I’m looking for a new one. I’m not desperate about it, though, as I’ve already sold the new series to PPP, and also the mainstream, on my own.

PDD: What of all your dreams would you like to see come true?

JC: At the risk of sounding like a goof, my main dream is that my children grow into joyful, compassionate adults. But as far as writing? It would be nice to be able to make a stable living at it.

PDD: Anything else you'd like our readers to know about you or your books?

JC: Well, I’ve been told the books are a lot of fun. I hope new readers will think so, too!



PDD: Thanks, Judy! Hope all of you will check out Judy's books and her website at: http://www.judyclemens.com/jchome.html

My Love Affair with Mysteries

Judy Clemens (Guest Blogger)

Growing up, I was not a kid who sat down and read through every Nancy Drew book. In fact, I don’t think I read even one. I had a couple of Trixie Belden books, although I can’t find them anymore. And I do remember reading some Agatha Christie. Some Encyclopedia Brown. But my reading consisted of a wide variety of things: The Chronicles of Narnia, The Black Stallion books (I have them displayed today in my office), Little House on the Prairie, All Creatures Great and Small, and Katie John. My love affair with mysteries didn’t happen until I was in college.

As a member of a college touring choir, I had the opportunity to travel all over the United States, as well as in Europe. During one of those trips, driving across our country’s western states, I was in desperate need of something to read. At our next stop I found a bookstore, browsed the fiction section, and picked up Have His Carcase, by Dorothy L. Sayers. I had never heard of her before, let alone read any of her books, but something about it attracted me.

I adored it.

From then on during the choir trip, whenever we stopped at the next city I ran to the closest bookstore and picked up one or two more of Sayers’s books. I took the time to write the date on each one, and the entire series of purchases ranges from May of 1989 through 1990. (No, the trip didn’t last that long – I just couldn’t finish the entire series in less than two weeks.) I now have the series displayed in my office, right alongside those Black Stallion books.

I entered the mystery genre as a fan by finding new series and reading everything in them: P.D. James’s Adam Dalgliesh books, Dorothy Gilman’s Mrs. Pollifax, Ellis Peters’s Brother Cadfael…the list goes on. Since I hadn’t spent much of my life reading mysteries up to that point, I had everything out there to enjoy and inhale. It was exhilarating.

As a writer, it wasn’t until that point that I realized what exactly I wanted to write. In college I took every writing course I could, and learned about writing non-fiction, short stories, and plays. My first published piece was actually a one-act. But finally, in the year after I graduated, I sat down to write my first mystery novel. And I did it. I finished it, re-wrote it, and started that journey of sending it out to agents. It wasn’t until years later, after writing a partial sequel and the first of my Stella Crown books, that I realized how bad that first book really was!

But I refuse to be ashamed of it. That’s how we learn, right? I’m not saying I’d every show it to anybody (other than those people tortured with it when I first wrote it), but I treasure that book as my first glimpse of the “real” writing life. I put my heart into it, and I learned an immense amount.

My hope as a writer is that I continue to learn. That each book I write takes me further along the road to perfecting my craft (knowing full well that journey will never end). That each book helps me to learn something about myself and the world around me. I just finished the first draft of a book that is not a Stella book. It was completely different, from the viewpoint, to the format of the book, to the gender of the protagonist. It was a challenge. It was a learning experience. It was a joy.

That’s a lot of what I hope to gain as a reader, as well. That each book I read brings me closer to my fellow humans, teaches me something about myself, and brings me a taste of something previously unknown. It happens. Often.

So here’s to reading. Here’s to writing.

Here’s to great books, whatever genre they may be.

Note: Judy Clemens is the author of the Agatha-nominated Till the Cows Come Home and two more mysteries in the series about dairy farmer and biker Stella Crown.