PATRICIA STOLTEY
Interview by Shirley Wetzel
June 15, 2007
Patricia Stoltey started out life as a farm girl in central Illinois, and went on to live in Oklahoma, Indiana, Florida and the south of France. She recently retired from a career in accounts payable, and she and her husband now live in Colorado. She is a founding member of the Raintree Writers group in Fort Collins. Her first novel, THE PRAIRIE GRASS MURDERS, was released by Five Star in February 2007.
http://www.patriciastoltey.com/
In the bio on your website you mentioned living, among other places, in the south of France. Details, please, and did that experience have any impact on your writing?
My husband and I were married in the town hall of Vence, France, which is north and west of Nice, while he was there on assignment from the company that employed him. I spent an incredible two years relearning my high school/college French, hanging out in the old town market, drinking espresso and sampling the goodies from the bakeries and pastry shops and squeezing in lots of side trips, and even doing some writing. Although the experience didn’t influence the writing of THE PRAIRIE GRASS MURDERS, I do have a draft of a romantic suspense novel set mostly on the French Riviera. Calls for a trip back to do some serious research, don’t you think?
How has belonging to writers critiques groups helped you in your writing? What are the most positive things you’ve learned from them? Negatives?
I’m not sure I’d be published yet if not for critique groups. Certainly my current group, Raintree Writers, keeps me motivated and on track. Through our sharing of ideas and suggestions, some line-by-line editing when needed, and incessant nagging to meet deadlines, we do our best to see that each of us stays focused on our long-term goal: finish the darned books and get the stupid things published before we give up and burn the manuscripts and toast marshmallows in the flames. The positive: By critiquing the manuscripts of others, we learn better how to revise and edit our own work, even when it means deleting our very most favorite sentences. Are there negatives? Not too many. I’d say the biggest thing we need to guard against is the creeping tendency to write to please the group. It’s important for each member to remain open to all of the critiques and consider all suggestions, but still retain his or her voice, style and purpose and protect the integrity of the story the member wants to tell.
What is your writing schedule? What is your writing style -- do you outline, for example, or just start typing and see what happens?
A writing schedule? You mean like getting up every morning and writing three pages before I have my coffee? I wish! I tend to write in my head for a long time, weeks maybe, jotting notes from time to time as I have really brilliant ideas (which wastes a lot of paper because I can never find the notes when I need them). Then when I see that I have a few clear days with no chores, appointments, meetings, e-mail (now that’s silly -- I always have e-mail), I hunch over the computer keyboard and type like crazy, get stiff and sore from so much sitting, and then go back to writing in my head until I have another batch of words ready for typing. When I wrote THE PRAIRIE GRASS MURDERS, I did most of the plotting on a wing and a prayer, but have decided that’s not the best way to write a mystery. I have what I call a "scene outline" for the book I’m writing now, but the best part about having the outline is knowing I don’t really have to follow it if I change my mind.
Your first novel, THE PRAIRIE GRASS MURDERS, was published after you retired from your day job. When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer, and what steps did you take toward that goal before you retired?
It was in high school that I developed the secret wish to write. Secret, because my dad expected me to be a lawyer, or at least something practical so I could support myself if I didn’t follow his advice and marry a rich man. So all those years I worked in the ever exciting world of accounts payable accounting, my secret wish was kept alive by a writing class here, a writers conference there, and the occasional short story submitted (and rejected). While I was in France, however, my brother and I collaborated on an action/adventure novel fictionalized from my brother’s experiences in the transportation industry. After ten years of rejections and rewrites, we were able to interest a company in putting our story on audiotape. By then, my husband and I had retired and moved to Colorado, and I was ready to give writing my best shot.
Do you have any advice for other writers who are getting a late start?
Oh, sure: Instead of thinking you’re getting a late start on your writing life, remind yourself you’ve been gathering life experience so you have interesting things to write about. If you’re not sure what type of writing you want to focus on, write a bunch of stuff and decide what gives you the greatest pleasure. Then read about writing in general, and about writing in your particular area of interest. Attend a really good writers’ conference that offers lots of workshops on the basics. The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold conference held in Denver in September is a good example. Write some more. Try to find or start a local writer’s group but do this through a writing class or a writers’ organization if possible. Otherwise, hook up with one of the many online critique groups available through organizations such as Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. Most of all, develop a tough hide that can take rejection because most writers experience a lot of it before they finally get published.
THE PRAIRIE GRASS MURDERS is set in central Illinois, close to where you grew up. Why did you choose that setting, and how much of the book is autobiographical?
Which came first: the setting, the plot, or the characters? I’m not sure I always answer this question the same way, but I think I just wanted to write about land use issues, especially when the land is premium farmland. The rural setting is the most true to life and the closest thing to autobiographical in the book. I gave the nearby city a fictitious name so I could change its size and layout. And there’s little association between my characters and real people except: I made my protagonists brother and sister just to make sure my brother read the whole book, I burdened protagonist Sylvia with my addiction to chocolate and my achy shoulder, and Sylvia’s memories of life on the farm, even to the soft dust in the crawlspace under the house, are my memories.
When will the next Sylvia Thorn book be published? Tell us a little about that book.
I haven’t pitched the second Sylvia and Willie mystery to the publisher yet but plan to do so when it’s finished which should be early August. This one begins with Sylvia accompanying her mother’s travel club, The Florida Flippers, to Laughlin, Nevada. Sylvia quickly realizes that trying to lead the group is akin to herding geese, but her aggravation is short-lived when the Flippers check into their hotel and a body is found in the tub in one of their rooms. Then one of the Flippers disappears. Willie’s still in Florida, happily attending a baseball game with his dad. How will the Flippers deal with their deadly dilemma, and what will Willie and his dad do once they realize Sylvia and her mother are in danger?
Do you have any other works in progress?
In addition to the suspense novel waiting for a major revision, and the Sylvia/Willie mystery in the works, I have a completed manuscript called WISHING CASWELL DEAD which is set in frontier Illinois (early 1800s). This is the story of a pregnant thirteen-year-old, Jo Mae Proud, who’s able to rise above the unfortunate circumstances of her childhood with the help of the adults, including an elderly Kickapoo Indian man, who befriend her. Jo Mae’s tale was first a short story told completely in first person, but there were too many unanswered questions about the other characters, questions to which Jo Mae wouldn’t know the answers, so I expanded the story in length and use multiple points of view to show just how many folks are "wishing Caswell dead." I’d love to find a publisher for this novel because there’s so much more of Jo Mae’s life waiting to be told in a sequel.
Which authors do you like to read? Have any of them been especially important in finding your own writing voice?
My tastes are so varied, both in fiction and non-fiction, that I can’t imagine who hasn’t influenced my style and voice. Right now I’m enjoying DESERT NOIR by Betty Webb. Recently finished THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy. Next up: SECRET OF THE SCROLL by Chester D. Campbell and DEATH ROLL by Marilyn Victor and Michael Allan Mallory. A recently purchased book of classic short stories sits in my bookcase, begging me to renew old acquaintances. So many books...
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