Mary Deal and her latest release The
Howling Cliffs: A Sara Mason Mystery
This is the 2nd book in the series. The first one is River Bones: A Mystery Novel
Tell us about
your newest release:
My latest is
The Howling Cliffs – A Sara Mason Mystery. It’s the 1st sequel to River Bones,
which garnered two major awards.
What is the
story about?
If I may,
since the lives of the characters will follow through each sequel (though each
story is a stand-alone story):
Follow Sara Mason as she becomes
involved in another cold case in this first sequel to River Bones.
From the River Bones story, Sara is stalked by a psychopathic killer in California’s
Sacramento River Delta. She meets Huxley Keane, the love of her life, and then
loses him. But Sara and Huxley have built a history together, she having
learned that he searches for the remains of his brother and the daughter of
their mutual friend, Esmerelda, among other MIAs in Vietnam. Later, Sara agrees
to become a decoy for the Sheriff’s Department and falls into the clutches of
the elusive madman who leaves no live witnesses as human skeletons keep turning
up.
In this story, The Howling Cliffs, Sara and Huxley are deep in the jungle in
Vietnam where they find one MIA’s meager remains. As Huxley flies back to the
United States to get them identified, Sara becomes involved in a cold case on
the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Knowing someone wants to put an end to her
investigations to keep a cold case cold, and tries to kill her to do it, leads
to a half-crazed homicidal maniac who is just sane enough to keep suspicion off
himself.
Who is the
main character?
Sara Mason,
approaching mid-life with new-found curiosity, zest for her renewed life and
determined to help others have a metamorphosis they deserved.
What
inspired this tale?
Unsolved
cold cases of missing persons. The only reason some cases do not get solved is
due to shortage of personnel, with officers and others rushing through cases
and unable to investigate even the skimpiest of
clues
How did the story come to
you?
After
River Bones, I wanted to give Sara Mason another cold case to solve. I wanted
to set it on Kauai where I lived at the time. Since River Bones dealt with cold
cases of adults, I decided to make Sara’s new case that of a missing child.
After having written River Bones, I realized that the subplot for Huxley Keane,
her love interest, could not have been wrapped up in one book. He searches for
his MIA brother in Vietnam. Serendipitously, I met a former Marine who had been
stationed at Marble Mountain near Da Nang in Vietnam. He supplied me with so
much information it was mind-boggling. Then I knew I could carry Huxley’s subplot
forward.
Did you have to research
for this novel and if so, why?
Oh yes. Most of my
research was for the Vietnam portions of the story. Then I ran the information
by the former Marine who either agreed or told me what to correct. I didn’t
have to research anything about Kauai since I lived there, but I did also research
on the condition of the child (without giving away any of the story surprises
here).
If you did research, what
do you think surprised you most to learn and why?
Many of the MIAs may never
be found. The soil in Vietnam is extremely acidic, after decades it will have
absorbed even the tiniest bone fragment or hardened tooth. All that may be
found are the metal dog tags and maybe a wedding ring or other metal.
Do
you relate to your character? Is your protagonist
anything like you personally?
I’m sure in most of the
stories I write, I put some of my personality into my protagonists, except the
real loony characters, like in some of my short stories. But then, maybe that’s
still part of me coming out.
If yes, then how?
Morally, ethically and
when right decisions need be made, I believe my own judgment goes into that.
However, if I need to conjure characters doing something crazy or anything I’ve
never done, then I play out the gestalt in front of my PC, sometimes in front
of a mirror, just to hear the dialogue or see the gestures that I need to give
that character.
What made you write this
character; what made them important to you or made you want to tell their
story?
The original River Bones
story was a combination of two plots that never went anywhere. When I went back
to my childhood hometown area for a class reunion, a friend suggested I set a
story there and... BOOM! The two plots came together. The story included a
woman who returns to her childhood hometown area to fulfill a dream of buying
and restoring an old Victorian along the river – something I wished I could do.
I had great fun living that plot with my protagonist carrying out my dream.
However, the story had to be more than just remodeling a spooky old Victorian
that was said to be haunted. The other plot was a mystery so I turned the
combined plots into a thriller. From there, I loved Sara Mason so much I
decided to give her further life in sequels. That brought me to The HowlingCliffs.
Is
there anything you specifically want readers to know about this piece of work?
These
Sara Mason mysteries carry dual plots, that of Sara Mason solving cold cases
(which makes each book a stand-alone story) and that of her love interest,
Huxley Keane, searching for his MIA brother. And yes, in The Howling Cliffs,
the story opens with Sara and Esmerelda, another prominent character, deep in
the Vietnam jungle along with Huxley and the Veteran search team.
When
will the novel be available for purchase? Has the book already been
published?
The Howling Cliffs was
first published in 2012 though I did not promote it. I was in a hurry because I
was preparing to move from one island to another and then suffered an illness.
By the time I got back to work, I realized The Howling Cliffs could have been a
better story, so I set about rewriting it. The Howling Cliffs was just re-released
in eBook and will go to paperback soon.
If yes, do you have a link
available for buying it?
You can
connect with Mary Deal at:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mdeal
Google
Plus: https://plus.google.com/105175192934570097998/posts
Thank you for interviewing me, Sahara Foley. Your blog is magnificent, neat and uncluttered. You have spread the word about this interview far and wide. I woke this morning to pages of emails showing me who on Twitter and other sites had picked up your post about this blog and passed it on. This is amazing promotion for anyone you interview. You've done a magnificent job. I don't image that is the end of the promotion because soon as I cleared by Inbox, more Tweets kept popping up and all have reference to this blog and my name. I am so grateful.
ReplyDeleteI'm just so glad you like it. Just my small part to hep us indie authors. :)
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