Interview with Sandi Wallace
It’s mid-afternoon on a Friday. The temperature outside has hit a scorching 40 degrees, and the wood-panelled walls, beery aroma and chink of wine glasses from behind the bar of the Farmers Arms Hotel couldn’t be more welcoming. From a shadowed corner comes the flirtatious laughter of a dark-haired woman who looks ready to devour her companion. The kitchen beyond the gold-timbered bar boasts shouted orders and the delicious scent of garlic and sizzling meats; no wonder the dining room is packed with tourists and locals. I’m here to meet crime writer Sandi Wallace. Join us as we chat about her five star debut novel Tell Me Why.
RH: Sandi Wallace, welcome to Writers’ Block. In this heat I thought you might appreciate meeting in the Farmers Arms where Georgie Harvey and Senior Constable John Franklin first spy each other. Of course, there’s also the attraction of a decent pint! To be honest the smell from the kitchen and the thought of a cold one drew me across the road. Care for anything?
SW: Thanks for meeting me here, Rowena. It’s a great place, isn’t it? Yes, this heat definitely calls for a cold one. Hey, that’s Georgie in the corner. But who’s she with? I can’t see from here…
RH: Best we leave them to it from the looks of it. *Sandi and I share a knowing laugh* Congratulations on the release of Tell Me Why! It is your debut novel and the first in your Rural Crime Files series. Tell Me Why is a great read, tense and riveting with a great sense of place. Early reviews are all incredibly positive. You’ve won and placed in several writing competitions and now you’ve been shortlisted for the Scarlet Stiletto Award, Australia’s premier award for crime fiction featuring a strong female protagonist! Share with us how it feels to have been shortlisted?
SW: It’s a thrill to be shortlisted alongside talented female crime writers who I hold in high esteem. Some of those on the shortlist have swags of books and awards under their belts, and others are aspiring or emerging, but all are amazing crime writers. To be shortlisted feels like a win in itself, to achieve more – like receiving the ‘Best Investigative’ prize back in the 2013 Scarlet Stiletto Awards – is the stuff of dreams!
RH: I’ll say—the closest I’ll get to a Scarlet Stiletto is if I buy a pair and lose one! *laughs, somewhat self-consciously*
About Tell Me Why
Picturesque Daylesford has a darker side.
Melbourne writer Georgie Harvey heads to the mineral springs region of central Victoria to look for a missing farmer.
There she uncovers links between the woman’s disappearance and her dangerous preoccupation with the unsolved mystery surrounding her husband.
Maverick cop and solo dad John Franklin is working a case that’s a step up from Daylesford’s usual soft crime; a poison-pen writer whose targets are single mothers.
Georgie’s investigation stirs up long buried secrets and she attracts enemies. When she reports the missing person to the local cops, sparks fly between her and Franklin. Has he dismissed the writer too quickly?
A country cop, city writer, retired farmer and poison-pen stalker all want answers.
What will they risk to get them? What will be the ultimate cost?
RH: I’m dying to discuss Tell Me Why but first I’d like to ask you about your road to publication; I understand you found your publisher (or she found you) in an interesting way. Share with us a little about Tell Me Why and how its publication came about.
SW: Tell Me Why certainly has had an interesting road to publication. It’s the first novel I’ve written. It took several years, drafts and working titles for me to develop my style and hone my skills, while I practiced with shorter works and developed confidence. I say ‘several years’ because I stopped counting. It didn’t matter how long it took from penning the first words to the release of Tell Me Why; I wasn’t giving up on it. Equally, I had to get it ‘right’. Particularly as it’s the first book in a series, my style and characters needed to be well developed before the first book went to press. So I chose to look at the time spent as my writer’s apprenticeship, ditto for the variety of jobs I’ve worked in since leaving school. An accumulation of experience and life skills can only benefit a writer.
Admittedly, I’ve also written the next two books in my series during the process!
When it came time to send the Tell Me Why manuscript out into the marketplace, I first contacted an Australian literary agent. After about six months, a contract with the agent seemed imminent. It was thrilling. We were talking about royalties and advances for a debut author…then in the next breath, I was told ‘crime isn’t doing too well at the moment’ and asked if I could write more romance into my novel. After much painful soul searching, I realised it was a no-brainer: I am a crime writer and had to walk away from the table.
Next, I approached Clan Destine Press, a small genre publisher that I was aware of through my membership with Sisters in Crime Australia. After a couple of revised submissions, to my great delight Clan Destine Press offered me a publishing deal last November and the first book in my Rural Crime Files series Tell Me Why has now been released!
RH: And we are all very glad of that *grin* I particularly like your female protagonist, Georgie Harvey. She is a wonderful mix of strength and vulnerability. We first meet her in a pub bemoaning the near loss of her license for speeding in her beloved Spider and hinting at trouble with long-term partner AJ. She comes across as a touch brittle, very headstrong and clearly her own worst enemy when it comes to relationships. Where did the character of Georgie come from and how did you go about developing her character?
SW: You have a terrific understanding of Georgie, Rowena. I started with the idea that my female protagonist needed to be complex and strong, yet fallible. Perfect is boring and un-relatable. Conversely, if readers disliked or distrusted too much about Georgie, they wouldn’t care about her or the story. So the balance in her personality was important. Many of her flaws would also serve as strengths. And although she had to be a bit of an outsider and impetuous, she’d be loyal and motivated by the right reasons.
From there, I built a three-dimensional image of her as a woman. It was easy to see the type of car she’d drive – a black Alfa Spider convertible (rare but not overly expensive) – and her tastes in friends, clothes, drinks and more. I’m a visual person and part of the process of planning and writing stories for me involves clipping photographs from coloured magazines, allocating names, ages and occupations. For major characters such as Georgie, their profiles will include backstories, friends, family and a multitude of other layers. Some of this only becomes apparent as I write the story or go further into the series.
Georgie being a smoker intrigues readers and that surprised me. I never gave a second thought to whether she’d smoke, drink, speed, swear, be sexual and passionate – of course she would. The challenge and fun is that this slick twenty-eight year old city girl has to continue to develop through the series – maturing somewhat, learning from and being affected by her experiences – while staying true to Georgie’s inherent nature.
RH: The counterpart to Georgie’s headstrong passion is the measured and experienced Senior Constable John Franklin. He is a single father with a teenage daughter who could give Georgie a run for her money in attitude. He’s not infallible though, and his reaction to Georgie’s arrival in his police station doesn’t improve matters for either of them. How did knowing this would be a series influence your development of Franklin?
SW: Franklin didn’t exist in my first draft of this book! Originally, it was to be the first in a Georgie Harvey series, with book one centred on Georgie’s search for Susan. But after writing a full draft, I realised that something crucial was missing and I soon worked out that she needed a male counterpart – even better, a local to clash with. And he wouldn’t simply prop up her character and story. He had to be a fully developed person with his own cases, life and challenges to juggle. As time went by, I realised I wasn’t even writing a Harvey and Franklin series. I was writing a series about rural crimes, connected with the Daylesford area in some way – whether it’s where the story is set or the Daylesford characters are elsewhere – and so the Rural Crime Files series fleshed out.
Anyway, once I knew that I needed a strong male character for Tell Me Why and that he’d be integral to the series, I replicated the process of visualisation, clipping photos of a headshot that would be my John Franklin, along with his SS Commodore, Kawasaki Ninja motorbike, teenage daughter Kat, friends and colleagues. His profile and backstory evolved.
But that initial profiling is just the beginning for characters, particularly those in a series. The cast become ‘real people’. They make decisions, do things and develop as and when they choose. Georgie and Franklin have both done things in my books that I didn’t see coming, or not at that time. I have to adapt to the roll-on effect of those events.
RH: I love it when the character takes over and the novel deepens. The result of giving John Franklin his own stuff to deal with is that Tell Me Why contains two mysteries: young single mothers are receiving poison-pen letters containing scripture and signed Solomon, which Franklin is looking into, while Georgie is looking for a woman who seems to have disappeared from her Hepburn home. It is over the absent Susan Pentecoste that Georgie and Franklin clash because for a good half of the book it is unclear if Susan is missing or has gone away voluntarily. Share with us why you decided to keep Susan’s absence unclear and how this may have shaped the storytelling.
SW: In true crime cases, unless there is a body, or a profound amount of physical evidence, it is often not initially apparent if a person is missing voluntarily, or if they were abducted, even killed. Speculation, conflict, doubt, red herrings and increasing concern are just some of the dilemmas faced by real investigators. I wanted to explore this in Tell Me Why, adding the extra pressure of an outsider and amateur (Georgie) stepping on the toes of the local professional investigator (Franklin). I combined that with delving into what people would risk for love, answers, justice or closure; specifically, how tortured Susan was over the unsolved case involving her husband, Roly, and how that drove her current-day actions. But with her being missing – voluntarily or not – so was an important part of the story absent. So I included the Prelude and Interludes to give access to the third parallel story and a rising sense of urgency.
RH: One of the most remarkable things in Tell Me Why—besides the mystery—is your attention to details that pull the reader into the location. I loved the small addition of things like the sheep staring then bolting as Georgie slams the farm gate, the way she describes the smell of the police station and the descriptions of day-to-day country policing. How did you go about researching the culture and daily activities for John Franklin and his colleagues? What were some of the more surprising things you learned about policing during your research?
SW: Although I was born and bred in suburban Melbourne, I’ve always felt more at home in the country. My hubby and I live in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges, which is a rural, village lifestyle yet only fifteen minutes from the ’burbs, and we regularly escape to other parts of country Victoria. We discovered Daylesford about twenty years ago and it has become our second home. So, much of what’s in my writing about rural culture comes from what I’ve soaked up over a lifetime, along with specific research.
During the early development of Tell Me Why, I was fortunate to spend several hours chatting with Chris McGeachan, an officer then stationed at Daylesford. This gave me a first-hand impression of the police station and some insights into everyday policing in that area, along with some nuggets like Chris calling the police uniform a ‘blue monkey suit’, an expression that Franklin had to adopt. I was able to run some specific scenarios via Chris to test my understanding and plotlines. In addition to my visit to Daylesford station, I interviewed a Homicide inspector at the St Kilda Road complex and the officer-in-charge of Olinda (although there was no cop shop in Olinda at that time – he had to work out of Belgrave!). Phone calls to Daylesford station, various CIU and specialty units, Police Media and random questions to my cop friends fill gaps along the way. A lot of understanding about the work and lifestyle of police officers also comes from my reading – including a subscription to Police Life magazine – following real cases and a hefty dose of imagination!
RH: Wow, that’s a real commitment to crime. Lucky you’re on the right side of that thin blue line or we might be in trouble *wink* As you’ve mentioned, you’ve set Tell Me Why in Daylesford, a premier holiday destination for middle-class city folk, and you do a great job showing the uneasy acceptance the locals have of those who invade their town. Why was Daylesford the best place to set Tell Me Why—what is it about the landscape and/or culture of this rural setting that appeals to you—and will this remain the setting for your Rural Crime Files series?
SW: I knew I wanted to write a contemporary crime series and one that was authentic in Australian landscape, characters and flavour. Daylesford seemed the perfect setting. Aside from being one of my favourite places, it’s a pretty country town, popular with tourists, arty types and same-sex couples. I liked the way that romantic perception juxtaposed with a moody crime story. The inbuilt conflict of a town balancing permanent residents with regular influxes of tourists also appealed. The crimes in Tell Me Why could really happen in the spa region, although I hope they don’t.
My vision for the Rural Crime Files series is a revolving cast of characters and locations, although Daylesford and the characters from there will continue to be integral. This rotating platform allows each book to be unique, giving me artistic licence with sub-genres, and to showcase other parts of rural Victoria, along with a dash of Melbourne.
RH: I’m interested in how you determined the structure of your novel. You’ve broken the novel into four parts, each chapter covers a day in the life of both John Franklin’s investigation and Georgie’s search for the whereabouts of Susan and the point of view is shared by Georgie and Franklin. Share with us a little about how you decided upon this structure. Did your story fall into this structure as you wrote or did you need to do some tweaking once the first draft was done?
SW: Once I decided on two protagonists with parallel stories, I wanted them both to have a good voice and presence in Tell Me Why. When I added the third narrator, I knew these Interludes must be short, yet important, insights. Anything more would have detracted rather than added to the overall structure and style of the book.
Perhaps because this was my first book – or maybe it’ll prove to be the case with every novel I write – even during the copy edit stage (the process of working with a professional editor after which the book is then laid out for printing) I still had to do a little tweaking. But I’m very pleased with the result.
That structure isn’t a recipe for the rest of my Rural Crimes Files series though. Because of the revolving cast of characters and locations, each of the books will progress the series but have a structure to suit the individual plotlines, rather than follow a pattern set by Tell Me Why.
RH: I can’t wait to see what comes next. Thanks for sharing your insights with us today, Sandi. Take a deep breath because it’s now time for your …
RH: What is your all-time favourite book/movie?
SW: The Famous Five adventures, because that series had a lot to do with my life-long addiction to crime fiction.
RH: What are you reading now?
SW: Already Dead by Jaye Ford. I’m a huge fan of Jaye’s work.
RH: What is your favourite word?
SW: Home; it just instantly conjures up a warm, inviting, safe place with people (and furry ones) you love, doesn’t it?
RH: What is your worst writing habit?
SW: I occasionally fall asleep while editing.
RH: What is the best bit of advice you ever got (about writing or life in general)?
SW: If it means that much to you, do it.
RH: So we know that Tell Me Why is the first in your Rural Crime Files series. When will we see book two in the series, and can you tell us what you are working on now?
SW: Black Saturday (Rural Crime Files: 02) is already in-house with my publisher and due for release in 2015. I’m currently polishing up the third book, Into the Fog, and planning to start the fourth in January. I love cracking open a new book while on my summer break. *grin*
RH: Well, if Tell Me Why is any indication—and I know it is—we certainly hope you keep cracking them open for many summers to come. Thanks for joining us today, Sandi.
SW: Thank you so much for having me, Rowena. It has been a real pleasure.
RH: For me too, Sandi. (And I’m glad you didn’t fall asleep! *wink*) Where can we find Tell Me Why?
SW: Tell Me Why is available in paperback in Australia and New Zealand via bookshops and online. Readers can drop into their favourite store and ask for it. More stockists and the eBook are coming soon too. Details about my book and much more is at my website www.sandiwallace.com. I’d love to hear from readers, who can connect with me on Facebook and Goodreads
[button link=”http://clandestinepress.com.au/node/386″ color=”purple” newwindow=”yes”] Buy the Book[/button]
About the Author
Sandi is a crime writing personal trainer. Her debut novel Tell Me Why was released in September 2014 and is the first book in her new Rural Crime Files series. Tell Me Why is set mainly in Victoria’s spa district and combines thriller and police procedural with a touch of romance. The sequel is already in-house with her publisher.
Sandi has been shortlisted in the 2014 Scarlet Stiletto Awards with results to be announced at the gala dinner on Friday 21 November. She won the ‘Best Investigative Prize’ in the 2013 Scarlet Stiletto Awards and has been a finalist in other short story competitions. She also regularly contributes articles on health and other topics.
Sandi has devoured crime fiction in film and print since an early age. For equally as long, she’s wanted to be a crime writer – although she still wonders if she could’ve been a police detective and writer. She is currently polishing the third book in her series, and plans to start the fourth in the new year.
Sandi lives in the beautiful Melbourne hills with her hubby and furry family.