Heather’s Bookshelf: Author Interview with Frederick James

What inspired you to write “A Consequence of Sin”?

James: I have liked detective fiction since my Mom introduced me to Hercule Poirot forty years ago. I enjoy the basic premise – that the most inexplicable events can be explained through a rational interrogation of the clues and facts by someone with the patience and attentiveness to solve the puzzle. Not being a very athletic child, I also enjoyed the genre’s focus on a cerebral hero. Mysteries don’t require you to be an athlete to fight crime.

It is also a comforting genre – despite the centrality of a terrible act of violence – the story is really about people, collectively or individually, becoming advocates for the victim and seeing that justice is done. My greatest inspiration is my muse – my wife, who inspires and motivates me to write and carves out the time in our lives for her husband to feed his strange compulsion to string sentences into stories.

How did you come up with the names of your main characters?

James: I always knew that my detective’s last name would be Cavendish. My mother introduced me to mysteries when she gave me “Death on the Nile” at age 12, Co-incidentally, we were in the Caribbean at the time, so you can see that the Caribbean and mystery novels intersected for me right from the beginning.

My mother started writing a mystery novel herself, and her detective was a Scotland yard Chief Superintendent named Philip Cavendish. She never finished her novel. In my imaginary universe, Archie Cavendish is the grandson of the detective we never got to meet outside of my mother’s composition notebooks.

His first name was more difficult. I ran through perhaps one-hundred first names. My wife suggested many including “Archer,” the name I settled upon. When my wife proposed this name, I instantly visualized a mother bestowing her son with a name that sounded dashing and heroic. I also immediately knew Archie would call himself Archie – he feels neither dashing nor heroic. He sees himself as a professional -  a skilled professional-  to be sure, but a modest fellow. I felt the name, and his choice to modify it, would say more about his character than a boat load of descriptive adjectives.

Is there anything that you want readers to know about you, your writing process or your book?

James: When I am writing, I am careful to make absolutely certain that they have access to all the knowledge that Archie has, and that they have it at the same time. I want them to know what Archie knows, when Archie knows it, so they can put together the clues the same way he does. I do not like mysteries that hide important information from the reader until the murderer is revealed – I think that is unfair. I hope my readers will call me on it if I ever slip up.

As far as process, I am not someone who writes outlines. I scribble and scribble notes in a notebook before I start the manuscript. I might have a scenario - or a murder method – that I want to use, and then I think about the people. They introduce themselves slowly and reveal themselves to me as I write. It’s like meeting people in the real world and gradually getting to know them better. Learning who they are and what they want. I find the details of the plot emerge from the characters. Would they trust Archie? Would they not? Would they act like they did but hold something back? They can also be very annoying because sometimes I had an idea about a turn the story would take, and when I get to that junction I am thwarted because I realize a character would not act the way I hoped they would.

When you encounter writer’s block, what do you do to break yourself out of it?

James: If I am currently working on a project and I don’t know what should happen next, I try to “write myself out” of writer’s block. I might start writing that Archie gets a coffee at Starbucks and starts pondering the case, or I might start rambling about a walk he is taking and what he is seeing. The words that come out may be irrelevant to the finished manuscript – and I probably won’t keep them, but I find that the exercise keeps my creative energy turning over until I find out what happens next. Other times, I will write an improvisational scene where off-screen characters are talking about the murder. In these conversations that Archie doesn’t witness, I find that kernels of ideas can pop up. I am also a big pacer. I will walk thousands and thousands of steps just turning the “story so far” over and over in my mind to see what should happen next. If I am blocked before writing or choosing a specific project, I do similar things – just randomly write scenes or episodes to keep exercising the creativity until something takes hold and I think “I could go the distance with this idea.” Mostly the idea isn’t the problem for me, it’s converting an idea into a story with legs.

Are there any tips that you would like to share with other aspiring authors?

James: You should buy my book and read it because reading is the best teacher. Just kidding. Although I do think that a writer must be a reader. You should read constantly. Read books in genres you like and hope to write – not to learn a technique to copy – but just to see how writers use words and sentences. Why do you prefer one narrative style over another? How do you like the structure? Why does one author speak to you when another doesn’t.  If you read several books by the same author, how does one author keep you enthusiastic after several books when another author bores you? A writer should always consider themselves an apprentice in a lifelong workshop.

I also think you should take the advice “write what you know” with a grain of salt. You can do research for factual truth. (How do guns work?  How hard would it be to hide one? How do you do a post-mortem?). For emotional truth, you can draw upon your experiences in one situation and apply them to your fiction. We all know what it’s like to be scared. It’s a universal experience, whether it’s a childhood fear of the boogeyman in your closet or an adult fear of mortality. Same with anger – we can channel those memories into the type of anger that leads to murder. And I think we can all imagine characters that are braver than we are in real life.

What is your favorite book, genre, and/or author?

James: This question will evoke a different answer depending on the day of the week, time of day, number of clouds in the sky... My favourite types of fiction are mysteries – and I prefer classic detective stories or cozies over procedurals. Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendell and Martha Grimes share top spot.

 I am also a huge fan of historical maritime fiction – Alexander Kent, Douglas Reeman and Alexander Fullerton. But I will read almost anything – one of my favourite books is “Homestead Grays” by James Wylie, a fictionalized retelling of the Tuskegee Airmen. And don’t get me started on non-fiction…

What are you working on next?

James: The first draft of the second Archie Cavendish Mystery is complete. I am struggling to find the time to do my revisions because like any first draft, it needs a lot of work – that would be a supplemental piece of advice for aspiring writers. Write a story you really enjoy reading because you will have to read it repeatedly while you are taking that first lumpy draft and molding it into the final sculpture… but “The Man Who Had it Coming” should be out in 2022.

I also hope to merge my writing with my enthusiasm for history and write some historical detective fiction in the future.

Learn More About the Author and A Consequence of Sin:

https://www.facebook.com/FrederickJamesMysteries

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7971214.Frederick_James

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