I’m thrilled to welcome Susanna Calkins as today’s featured author. Susanna’s historical mysteries include the Lucy Campion Mysteries, of which book seven, Death Among the Ruins, just hit shelves last week.
In our interview, Susanna and I talk all things history, research, and mystery plotting. Read on to learn more.
Connect with Susanna on Facebook, Twitter, and her website. Grab a copy of Death Among the Ruins from your favorite retailer here.
Hi Susanna, thanks so much for joining! Death Among the Ruins is book 7 in your Lucy Campion series, in which a chambermaid-turned-printer’s apprentice solves crimes in seventeenth-century London. What do you love about Lucy’s character? When you started this series in 2013, did you envision her character developing in the way it did?
Thank you so much for having me! While my first book featuring Lucy—A Murder at Rosamund’s Gate—was published in 2013, I had actually started envisioning her character about 15 years earlier. I had started writing that novel when I was still in graduate school, working on my dissertation in early modern English history. Lucy was originally a chambermaid, serving in the household of the local magistrate, which gave her a lot of ways to eavesdrop, find clues, and travel under the radar. (As a servant, she might be sent to the market and did not need anyone to chaperone her, as a woman of a higher social status would have required. So she had a lot of access and ability to search for important information).
However, when I had thought I was only writing one novel, but then I was offered a two-book contract, so I had to start thinking about how to develop her character. Circumstances changed after the plague and Great Fire of London, and Lucy no longer had a mistress to serve in the house. So she ended up becoming a printer’s apprentice, because they were short-handed following all the upheaval. Even though women could not truly enter the guild at this time, I wanted her to be someone who could continue to develop herself. She had taught herself to read and write, and I wanted her to be someone who could continue to move about the world as a bookseller, getting and sharing news with others.
Your other historical mystery series, the Speakeasy Murders, is set in 1920s Chicago. How does writing this historical series compare with your Lucy Campion books? What do you love about each time period, and/or what about each do you find most difficult to write?
Both periods represented different types of challenges, as well as rewarding moments, when I did my research. Having completed my PhD in early modern English history, I felt very comfortable writing about 17th century London (even though I still had to look up so many details about daily life). And yet, I found that period to be less “lived” than 1920s Chicago. When I first moved to Chicago, I was really surprised by how Prohibition was still such a thing in the region . . . Every local I met seemed to have a story. (“My grandfather used to cut Al Capone’s hair,” or “My grandparents were rumrunners out of Lake Michigan.”) I can walk the neighborhoods that I write about in my books, and there is still so much from the era that is intact. It is easy to shut my eyes and imagine what it all was like, which made the research very fun for me. At the same time, I didn’t have the deep knowledge, and still don’t, of US history and Chicago specifically (even though I’ve taught American history for many years), so I’ve had to spend a lot of time reading and learning. But I can watch movies from the period, listen to music from the era, even do cocktail research—which makes everything sparkle!
You have a PhD in history, and work at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. How do your job and academic background influence your fiction writing? Other than the obvious historical connections, are there any interesting or surprising overlaps between the two?
Even though I have a PhD in history, and still taught some history classes over the last two decades, I moved more fully into areas of social science, education, and educational research. My fiction is very much driven by questions—Why did that happen? How did it happen?—and if I don’t know the answer, then I seek to create a plausible explanation through my novels. I love being surrounded by smart, motivated people! When I worked at Northwestern University and now at RFUMS, I was able to ask colleagues about weird medical questions, about corpses, murder, poison, and anything else. They never batted an eye, and would help me figure out plot points and clues, which was incredibly helpful. And in general, it’s super helpful to me to have other things besides my writing to focus on. During the weekends, I might switch between novel writing, to writing an academic journal article, and I think the creative and critical thinking blend very well.
What’s your approach to writing a mystery? Are you a planner, or do you let the mystery develop as you write? Are there any aspects of mystery that are particularly exciting or challenging for you?
I’ve published nine novels now, and I can honestly say that I did not approach any of them the exact same way. My first novel took me about ten years to write, and I just jumped all over the place, just writing scenes I felt like writing, without any sense of chronological development (which is wild to me now). But when I had written about 200 pages, I started thinking I needed to stop describing the impact of the main murder on the community and figure out who the murderer was. When you write a whodunnit, the author should probably know whodunnit!
After that, I usually worked out the answers to three questions: (1) Who is murdered? (2) Who murdered them and why? (3) Why should my sleuth care? After I have the answers to that question, I start thinking about interesting objects or events I’ve come across in my research, and I think about whether that would be an interesting plot point. and then after I do a combination of concept mapping and drawing out my scenes as I go, so I can sort of figure out how things happen and what might need to happen next. This process usually, but not always, keeps me from writing myself into a corner. I call it “plopantsing” or throwing words in the air and catching them on paper.
Lastly, what are you currently working on? When can we expect more mysteries with Lucy, and/or do you have anything else in the works?
Although I love writing about Lucy, I’m taking a break for a while to work on some new projects. I have a historical mystery set in 1930s Chicago that will be a standalone, which I’m about to send to my agent to pitch. After that I’m developing another series, also set in 1930s Chicago, which I’m super excited about. It will be different from other things I’ve written, so stay tuned! Thank you so much for having me!
Thanks so much to Susanna for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.