A Visit with J. D. Webb

J. D. Webb was thrilled to be included in Susan Whitfield's Killer Recipee anthology, written by fellow mystery authors. He also writes mystery dinner plays as well as his mystery novels.

Dave, tell us about your Killer Recipes and why you enjoy cooking mysterious dishes?

Anytime I can contribute to a cure cancer cause, I try and this was a great way to do it. It's also a great way to try some sumptuous recipes. I'm now learning to cook low-sodium for my wife. We want to avoid another stroke. Hard to give up some of my own concoctions. Seems everything that tastes good has high sodium.

How did your dinner mystery writing come about?

We have a favorite Bed & Breakfast The Fleur de Lys Mansion in St. Louis. The owners have become pseudo family members. When discussing my novels one night they began talking about a dinner mystery they went to. They asked if I had ever done anything like that and finally wondered if I would consider doing one for them. We worked it out and I wrote an exclusive for them, Murder at the Fleur de Lys. Our first performance, I'm narrator and the murder victim, took place in January 2010 and it was a blast. We are doing two more follow-ups and I plan to write one for other B&Bs as well.

How did your novel Smudge come about? And why a female protagonist?

I sometimes get an idea for a character or one in a short story who then demands to be put in a novel. Tish Morgan is one of those I could not resist. Her story captured my attention and I wanted to tell it. A female? Why not? Many authors write cross-gender protagonists so I didn't hesitate. I admit the challenge was daunting to try to get inside the female mind. Fortunately my writing group is populated with 5 strong-minded and competent women. I should share the authorship with them.

Who comprises the Write Stuff? And how have they helped you?

As in the previous answer they are my co-writers, my critique group. A creative writing teacher with ten published novels to her credit, a computer programmer who corrects my plot errors, a former librarian, a former editor at the newspaper, and a media communicator for a major corporation - all instructing me. Having learned the rules of English some fifty years ago, I need them to bring me into this century. I'm so comma-challenged it's pathetic, and they are excellent. My last novel was grammatically clean, I was informed. Of course, I took credit. LOL

Tell us about your writing background?

I've always written. Short stories, essays, contracts and procedures for corporate America, letters of outrage to the newspapers or other media, but never had the chance to put together a novel until "retirement" in 2002. That's when I became whole.

As a resuIt of some high school mischief in 1959 my punishment was being thrown into a creative writing class. It was the best outcome of any mischief I'd ever done and propelled me to continue mischief, seeking further rewards.

What's the best advice you can offer aspiring mystery writers?

Never stop learning your craft, seek out experts and teachers, and most of all get your butt in the chair. I maintain there is no such thing as writer's block. Only the refusal to tackle a tough situation or endure the hardship of concentration. Writing is not easy. If it were everyone would have a book out. One last thing - do not neglect to read. Find out how the great ones do it through examining their work. The lessons are all there. Plotting, character development, settings, suspense tricks, conflicts, dialog. Study them carefully.

How important is writing in your life?

Well, ask me how many times I've missed a meal due to writing - I know my belly may look like never, but trust me I have. I cannot fathom being unable to write. It frustrates me when I have to leave one of my characters in the middle of a situation. Often the dog yowls loudly to go out and I tell her, just a minute. She hates that.

How did the plot lines for your novels, Moon Over Chicago and Her Name is Mommy come about?

Moon Over Chicago was actually the first novel I wrote even though it was the second published. When Shepherd's Pie was accepted I sent my publisher Moon. They accepted it also. Lucky me!! The book is a throw-back and a kind of tribute to all the hard-boiled detective writers of the 30s to the 50s - the golden age of the noir. I put a wise-cracking, not too proficient, amateur detective in Chicago whose day job is cobbler. Fulton Moon (Full Moon for short) has his repair shop, Moonshines, in a bad area of town. And all he wants to do is help a damsel get rid of her abusive husband.

For Her Name Is Mommy, I was thinking about my next novel while sitting on a bench in a busy mall at Christmastime and saw a child on another bench across from me. What idiot would leave a child alone in a busy mall? Fortunately her mother finally appeared from the innards of a store and gathered up the youngster. I got furious and wanted to see that woman punished, so I put her in a book and had her kidnapped. It was great therapy to see her suffer in my book. So Her Name Is Mommy takes place in a Chicago mall at Christmastime. My PI spots a tiny tot sitting alone on a bench across from him, silently crying. No one is around for over 15 minutes. He finds out her mother has been kidnapped and the kidnapper did not spot the little girl. Mike's quest is to find the tot's mommy.

What's the most difficult aspect of writing for you, and the most pleasurable?

Most difficult - editing. And editing. Did I mention editing?

Most pleasurable - Hard to define the most. Absolutely when a publisher says yes I'll make your story a book is one. Or when a reader says she missed getting enough sleep because she couldn't put it down and had to finish it. Or when my fingers can't keep up with the thoughts I'm trying to capture. Or finding a twist at the end of my novel that I had not anticipated. Okay, I'll stop here and not complete the list.

Thank you, Dave.

You can learn more about Dave at his website: http://www.jdwebb.com/ where sample chapters of his novels are available. You can also visit his blog site: http://makeminemystery.blogspot.com/ (the second and fourth Monday of the month).

He's also on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/jdavewebb

and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jdavewebb