Page 65 - Reader's House Magazine Issue 48

Elaine Orr’s “Jolie Gentil Translates to Trouble” boxed set masterfully blends mystery and humor, as Jolie navigates Ocean Alley’s secrets, uncovering crimes with wit and charm in these engaging cozy mysteries.
Empathy plays a significant role in your characters’ deve- lopment and interactions. How do your personal experiences and observations of human be- havior influence the empathy you portray in your stories?
Elaine L. Orr masterfully combines mystery with empathy, creating compelling narratives that resonate with readers and illuminate real-world issues.
while keeping them fresh and engaging for your readers?
Always a challenge! I choose settings I know, so I have a sense of local customs, history, and vocabulary. The perspective of someone in a beach town is likely
It may sound corny, but my parents believed that helping each other is crucial. Neighbors helped my family when my mom had a stroke when we kids were young. I would add that it’s more important when someone is hard to assist. Sometimes
I have Jolie Gentil (the
Jersey Shore sleuth) get
talked into running a food pantry, but she and others
hold amusing (to me) fundraisers that involve much of their Ocean Alley community. I also think readers gain satisfac- tion when a tough situation is made better.
you have to realize there’s only so much you can do, and that matters, too.
In addition to writing novels, you also create plays and novellas. How does your approach to storytelling differ between these formats, and what unique challenges and rewards do you find in each?
With plays, your audience only knows what goes on in a very limited setting. Effective dialogue is essential, and I love to have characters talk -- keep- ing in mind that few of us talk in paragraphs, and we interrupts each other a lot. I did plays first, but wanted the ability to expand the lens, so to speak, and now mostly do books. I like first person because the reader only knows what the sleuth knows and there’s no narrator stepping in to lecture readers.
I read a lot about places I write about, and I feel as if I can insert the setting into a novel almost as a character. That’s hard to do in a play.
Given your background in electronic publishing and writing-related presentations, how do you see the evolution of the publishing industry affecting new and established authors, particularly in the mystery genre?
I should be so prescient! It’s always about writing a good sto- ry, no matter how the words get to readers. Electronic publishing made reading more democratic because ebooks are generally less expensive -- though some
publishers often price them high. Economies of scale led to the “big five” publishing houses in the U.S. Well edited self pub- lished books can offer readers a lot of variety, and self publish- ing lets traditionally published authors continue to reach their readers if publisher interests shift.
What I find most challenging is readers’ lessening attention spans. They want “something big to happen” in the first few pages. Sometimes stories build at a slower pace, and I fear that such writing will be pushed aside.
Your novella In the Shadow of Light tackles the tragedies at the U.S.-Mexico border. What motivated you to write this story, and what do you hope readers take away from it re- garding the broader social and political issues it addresses?
I seethed with anger while watching children be pulled from their parents. I felt helpless, and the only thing I could think to
do was write something from
the view of terrified children. Leaders have to make tough decisions, but there is no excuse for cruelty.
You write across multiple mystery series, each with its unique setting and charac- ters. How do you balance maintaining distinct voices and atmospheres for each series
difficulties (or anything else) get in the way of
the story. Plus, people
read mysteries to escape the real world, so I try to insert some fun (or positive actions) into tough times.
to be different from someone who lives in the mountains. I constantly ask myself what a specific character would think about a situation -- and it can’t be similar to most other people who populate a book. As a tech- nical assist, I vary whether I use first or third person for my main character. A dash of understated humor is always good.
Your work addresses real-life issues such as PTSD, food insecurity, and emotional pain through the lens of mystery fiction. What inspired you to incorporate these serious the- mes into your narratives, and how do you approach writing about them sensitively and authentically?
I like to create situations that could happen anywhere, but it’s important not to let someone’s
Reader’s House II 65