Award-winning author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro joins us to discuss her latest book, the first in her Chesterton Holte mystery series, HAUNTING INVESTIGATION.

Show Notes

Quinn shares the story of HAUNTING INVESTIGATION which features two primary characters, one of whom, Chesterton Holte, is a bit unusual for a mystery series.

We discuss Quinn’s writing career which has spanned 48 years and 94 novels. Quinn writes in multiple genres which include mystery, horror, western, young adult and science fiction. She shares her reasons for writing in these different genres.

Quinn spent time as a tarot card reader at the Magic Celler in San Francisco. She explains what tarot cards are and shares a very funny story that winds up an Irish Coffee poured over her head.

Links for Quinn’s website, Facebook page and her Publisher’s website can be found at the bottom of the post.

For those who prefer to read rather than listen the full text of the interview is below:

Interview with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, author of Haunting Investigation

Stephen: Welcome back to CrimeFiction.FM, where we bring the authors of today’s best books directly to you. I’m your host, Stephen Campbell and I’m here with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, the author of “Haunting Investigation,” which was released very late last month. Quinn, welcome.

Quinn: Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be with you, especially considering I just finished, literally this morning, the second book in the series.

Stephen: Ah. Well, how exciting. Well, first we want to talk about the first book in the series. What’s with this very unusual release date of December 31?

Quinn: You’d have to talk to Paul, who’s the publisher. I just figure publishers know what they’re doing. I’m assuming there is some good marketing reason for it because he’s a very clever fellow.

Stephen: Well, it does sort of make sense as a New Year’s Eve book. But first, we’ll talk in general about the book, then get into the two primary characters in the book, one of whom is a little bit unusual for a mystery.

Quinn: Yes. Yes, he is. Isn’t he? Not your average, everyday sidekick.

Stephen: No, he’s not. But the book takes place in the early 1920s, so it’s a…

Quinn: 1924, yep.

Stephen: …historical mystery. There’s a lot of rich, evocative setting information in there. It’s fun to read. But give us a little sense of the story line if you would, Quinn.

Quinn: Okay. I have a young woman who is a reporter, which was very hard for women to be back in 1924. She comes from the Philadelphia upper crust, and is working for a second-rank Philadelphia paper. She gets called in on a crime case, which is what she really wants to do, even though she’s been confined to the Book Club and Garden Party pages.

But it turns out that this is an upper-crust guy, who apparently committed suicide. Because she actually knew him she gets assigned to it, because she can get through doors nobody else in the paper can. So, she’s trying to actually establish herself as a crime writer on the newspaper, rather than a garden club writer. In this, she is aided and abetted by someone who knew her father.

He’s an ex-spy. In the First World War, he was a spy for Canada, working of course as part of the British Empire, and he’s a ghost.

Stephen: Okay. So…

Quinn: And that’s it.

Stephen: …we have the two lead characters. One is a young woman. The other is a gentleman haunt. A gentleman haunt, is that what we call him?

Quinn: Yes. AS he introduces himself. He’s Chesterton Holte, Gentleman Haunt.

Stephen: We get into this right away. So there’s no sense of surprise or anything. It’s just, this is what it is. Then, there’s this sense of the young woman who goes by the name, Poppy. She’s not really buying into the whole thing. She thinks that she’s just sort of imagining it. It’s fun the way you’ve laid the story out, interesting characters, and of course you’ve got a good mystery in there as well. Why did you decide to go this way with the book?

Quinn: Well, it sort of went that way on its own. I’ve learned to respect… When a book knows what it wants to be, it’s my job to make it happen as best I can. These guys knew who they were, including the fact that one of them was dead. So it was sort of like, “Okay, well you guys tell me what you want to talk about and I’ll write it down.”

Stephen: All right. Now, you mentioned that you’ve just finished the second book. So we know this is a series. The first book in the series is “Haunting Investigations” and as is so often the case for traditionally published authors, you’re promoting the first book while you finish the second book, and then we wait…

Quinn: Oh, yeah.

Stephen: …probably a year or so for that to come out. But you’re not a one book a year author. You’re, let’s use the word “prolific.” How many books have you published?

Quinn: Well, if you count the ones that will be published that I’ve actually sold, I’ve sold 94.

Stephen: Okay. Let’s count those, because that’s a pretty big number.

Quinn: Well, I’ve been doing this for 48 years. Come on. It’s not quite so staggering if you think about how long I’ve been doing this.

Stephen: What do you think about the idea… What would you do if you could only write one book a year, and you could only sell one book a year?

Quinn: Selling one book a year is often a problem. So yes, I understand that one really well.

Stephen: I guess so. Yeah. But I mean the idea of… I read on your website that your production schedule, your writing schedule is roughly four books a year.

Quinn: Four books or three books and a couple of short stories.

Stephen: Okay.

Quinn: Short stories for me are a lot harder to write than books.

Stephen: I’m glad to hear you say that. Because I’m in the middle of editing a group of short stories right now, and it’s…

Quinn: It’s a bitch, isn’t it?

Stephen: It is. I’m feeling a lot better about myself. Thank you so much for that. You not only have written 94 books, I think you’ve probably written in… I don’t know. How many different genres as well? Every genre that’s out there?

Quinn: Well, not quite. I don’t write male adventure. When the fad was for bodice-rippers, I wouldn’t go near them. I was just sort of like, “You’ve got to be kidding. This is fantasy land in a level that I can’t go to.”

Stephen: All right. This is a mystery. You write Western, young adult, science fiction…

Quinn: Yep.

Stephen: …and you’re best known for your work as a horror author.

Quinn: Yep. I was also the first woman to be president of Horror Writers Association.

Stephen: And you won some sort of amazing award from some group in Transylvania?

Quinn: Yeah. I’ve got a Literary Knighthood in Romania. I’m not kidding. I do. It’s one of those things, occasionally I look at it… Fred Saberhagen and I share that honor, and unfortunately, Fred’s no longer with us. But it’s one of those things where you look at it and you say, “Well, at least in uniqueness it has real conversational value.”

Stephen: It sticks right out. When I read that it was very, very memorable. So when you write… Well, let me rephrase the question. If you were a beginning author today, experts would tell you to pick a genre, write a series and stick with it. That’s obviously not what you do. You have done that. You have a series with, what, 27?

Quinn: I have several series.

Stephen: Right. But one of them is really…

Quinn: But that’s the advantage of having written for 48 years. The trouble with doing series in one genre only is that when that genre collapses, which they all do periodically from time to time, you are stranded. But if you spend a little time… You don’t have to make yourself schizophrenic. But divide off your energies a bit, because it means that when one market collapses you’ve still got someplace to go.

Stephen: Do your readers follow you from genre to genre?

Quinn: Yeah.

Stephen: It was interesting. I always read a few Amazon reviews for people before I do interviews. I was bouncing around your different books, and I read over and over again, “I read all of Quinn’s books.” I’m like, “Wow. That’s amazing because they’re so different.”

Quinn: Well, I think that’s probably one of the reasons they do. Because I don’t know about you, but as much as I may like any given genre when I get into it, if I’m in it for too long I begin to get sort of worn on it. So I will look for things and I go, “Oh, I know what this is about and it doesn’t hold my interest.”

Stephen: That’s a good point. I just love the mysteries, thrillers, this whole crime genre. But I like to bounce back and forth between sub-genres.

Quinn: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. If you don’t, your pallet will get jaded and you won’t know when you’ve actually got something that tastes good.

Stephen: Yeah. That’s a really good point, and it’s not something that I realized about myself. But now that you say it, that’s what’s happening when I decide, “Oh, I’m going to go look for something like this now.” Then I’ll spend a few weeks in whatever sub-genre that might happen to be, and you can slice and dice these genres down pretty fine.

Quinn: Oh, yeah. But actually the truth is, whether people like to admit it or not, every writer, every single one who publishes, is a genre of one, which is books by that person.

Stephen: Right.

Quinn: So if you like books by that person, you probably like whatever genre they write in. Just as, if you have a real predilection for really, really top of the line anything, whether it’s mysteries or Westerns, or science fiction or fantasy. It doesn’t matter. You’ll get a sense of what’s the good stuff and what isn’t and you’ll have to be very careful after a while not to read the stuff that is going to sort of dull your pallet.

Stephen: While you’re writing these four books a year, how do you make a decision what the next project is?

Quinn: It usually has to do with talking not only to my editors who sometimes have things they would like me to concentrate on and sometimes don’t but it’s sort of like which way as it were the cultural wind seems to be blowing. I don’t mean just pop culture. I mean culture in general.

For example, one of the things I find interesting especially about science fiction, and I’ve written that too, is that I look at… They suddenly get a photograph from one of the orbiting observatories. You see something really, really strange out there, and the universe is full of strange stuff, and go, “What might be there?” Then, it’s easy to find a story, because that “what might”, if it doesn’t set your brain working you’re not a writer.

Stephen: Well, for someone like you who has sold 94 books, obviously coming up with the next story is not the issue. But I could see, from a priority standpoint, “Do I do the next book in this series, or the next book in that series? Or what do I do?”

Quinn: Well, again, a lot of it has to do with, to be very blunt, who wants to pay me money to do it.

Stephen: Right.

Quinn: Because occasionally people say, “Well, we have these two in the pipeline. Now, we want to wait.” Or, “We have three,” or, “We have four.” It doesn’t matter. “We have them in the pipeline, so we don’t know yet what our return is going to be. So why don’t you do something else for a little while?”

Stephen: All right. You’ve lived a fairly interesting life, 48 years as an author. You’ve done some interesting things. But on your website, which is ChelseaQuinnYarbro.net, and I will link to that in the show notes so you don’t have to try and remember it. It’ll be in the show notes at CrimeFiction.FM. You mention that you did tarot card reading for a period of time at a magic club in San Francisco.

First, I’m intrigued by the idea of magic clubs. I just think that’s so fascinating. But I’ve always been interested in tarot card reading. I see it in movies. I see it on television. I read about it in books. But I never really… I don’t know what it is.

Quinn: Well, basically these are sort of archetypal symbols that are put on cards. The person you’re reading for selects them in whatever method that you as a reader prefer to do. You look at them and you tell them what they say. Now, occasionally you’ll have the experience, and I’ve had several… I mean, when I was working at the Magic Cellar, I would occasionally have really odd experiences. There was one, I do a three-by-five reading for a basic short reading.

Stephen: Right. Now, what’s that mean, a three-by-five? Is that like five rows, three cards?

Quinn: That means out of a deck of 78 cards, the person shuffles and then cuts into three stacks. I take the first five cards off of each three stacks. The one that’s closest to the person is the past. The one that’s in the middle is the present. The one that’s closest to me is the future. The card that’s in the middle, the third card of the middle level is what the reading is all about, whatever that card may be.

All the cards have specific meanings, and the trick is to be able to tell the people what the cards say. Not what you think they say or what you think this person will have the cards saying. Because, quite often, they’re very, very different. There was one occasion many years ago because I haven’t done this at the Cellar for a long time. The Cellar doesn’t exist anymore. That would make it very difficult to do readings there.

A woman who was probably in her 40s, and at that point I was in my 30s, came over to the tarot table for a reading. She was very well-dressed, but you could tell she didn’t often dress that way. That was sort of my basic impression of her. She followed my instructions. She did the shuffling. She did the cutting, and she put out… I took the first five cards off the three stacks. The pivot card, the one in the middle, was the lovers reversed.

Now, that means there are some very real problems in partnerships, and there are some things that need to be resolved that are not being addressed. That’s just basic off the top of your head, type meaning. Anyway, so I told her that and I look at it, and I just began about things in the past and information that had been given to her that she found not appropriate, even though in fact it has a bearing on what was going on.

When I got to the third card she said, “What about the young man?” I said, “Well, I don’t think there’s a young man here.” I mean, I was still looking at the cards, so I wasn’t looking at her. I went on to the next two cards and she said, “But what about the young man I’m going to meet on the trip?” Again, still looking at the cards I said, “Well, if I were you, I wouldn’t be going on any trip because it looks like you might be getting into some real professional problems here.”

She said, “They always told me about the young man I’m going to meet on the trip.” I went to myself, “Ah-ha. Okay. This is a fantasy game.” I said, “Well, I don’t care what they tell you about what this says. There is no man, and in this reading there is no trip.” So she took her Irish coffee and emptied it over my head.

Stephen: Oh, that’s a great story.

Quinn: Unfortunately, it’s true.

Stephen: When you were talking about the card with the two lovers in it, I was flashing onto a James Bond movie. I don’t remember which one it was. I don’t know if you’ve seen it. But it takes place in New Orleans, and very early on in the movie there’s a scene with a tarot card reader, and that’s the key card that comes up. So that’s what I pictured. So I’ve seen that 100 times, and I’m really glad that you referenced that here. This has been a blast. Where can listeners find “Haunting Investigation?”

Quinn: Well, they can go on Amazon if they want to do the obvious thing.

Stephen: That is the obvious thing.

Quinn: Or to Cleveland Writers website, Cleveland Writers are the publishers, and you can get it from them directly, whichever makes you happier.

Stephen: Okay. What’s the best way for listeners to keep up with you online?

Quinn: Well, there are two ways. I have a Chelsea Quinn Yarbro author page on Facebook, and I have my website as you’ve mentioned. Those are the two things. I mean, those are the areas where you can probably find what the hell I’m up to now.

Stephen: I do know that there is a mailing list on your website. So that’s probably the single best way to keep up-to-date with what you’re doing because I’m assuming that you send out email messages and say, “Hey, you loved my mystery. You’re going to really like this Western that just came out.”

Quinn: Yes, In fact I have a reprint of my first Western that’s just out now too, from Oakledge Press. It’s eBook and print-on-demand trade paper, for those who might be interested.

Stephen: Isn’t it wonderful that books have this new life now?

Quinn: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I said 20 years ago that for those of us who are midlist writers like me, that the only salvation we were going to have as the length of time your books spent on the shelves kept getting shorter and shorter and shorter, was going to be the electronic backlist and we’re there now, thank goodness.

Stephen: Yes. We are finally there. Quinn, thank you so much for being with us today. This has been an absolute delight.

Quinn: Well, I enjoyed it very much too. If you ever want me back, let me know and I’ll talk to you soon.

Stephen: I will do that. Thanks so much.

From the Publisher:

Spring 1924. The world has clawed its way back from the ravages of WWI and the Spanish Flu pandemic. The 20’s are beginning to roar.

Poppy Thornton lives with her Aunt Jo and her excitable cat Maestro in upper-crust Philadelphia. Poppy is determined to make a name for herself as a serious crime reporter, but is stuck reporting on garden parties and ladies’ fashion. Then one day her editor assigns her to collect background information on the suicide of a prominent businessman. She soon discovers it was actually a murder… but her surprising source for this information is the ghost of a man killed alongside her father during the Great War. Even if she dared tell anyone, who would believe it?

Together Poppy and her “gentleman haunt” follow the trail of a string of murders. But as their investigation narrows in on an all-too-familiar suspect, Poppy becomes a target herself— and wonders if her ghost of a partner will appear in time to keep her from joining him in the after-life.

Links

Purchase HAUNTING INVESTIGATION at Amazon

Author’s Website www.chelseaquinnyarbro.net

Cleveland Writer’s Press website

Quinn’s Facebook page

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