by Lorie Ham

Today at the Café we have mystery/fantasy author Yvonne Eve Walus. Her latest book, Interview With The Dragon, was released in July 2007 by Echelon Press. Yvonne is a huge tea fan, so today we are having tea in her honor. Grab a cup of your favorite black tea and enjoy the interview. For those of you living in New Zealand, Yvonne highly recommends her favorite café and bookstore, Chapter — a book café and tea shop at 442 Mt. Eden Rd in the Mt. Eden Village, Auckland.

Café:
Please tell us a little about Interview With The Dragon.

Yvonne:
Humans have feared dragons from the beginning of time. When a journalist visits a female dragon who’s in prison for theft, however, she’s in for a surprise. This dragon is well spoken and has a slightly different aspect of human behaviour. She also feels dragons have been persecuted long enough. While exercising with the other inmates, she listens to their problems and gains yet another insight into the human psyche — one that doesn’t make us look to good.

Café:
Wow, definitely not your typical mystery. How long have you been writing?

Yvonne:
I wrote my first short story in 1990, to impress a man.

Café:
When did your first novel come out?

Yvonne:
That date I will always remember: 5 November 2004

Café:
What was it called? Can you tell us a little about it?

Yvonne:
Murder @ Work. This is an office who-dunnit, set in South Africa during the crucial period of transition from an apartheid government to a democratically-elected one. Although not a political thriller, it captures the flavour of the socio-political atmosphere. Apartheid in South Africa was not only about race, it was about gender, too. The book shows how people of the "old school of thinking" adapted to deal with the new reality of a woman being allowed to walk into a bar or own a house without her husband's permission.

Café:
Have you always written mysteries?

Yvonne:
I've always wanted to write mysteries of the Agatha Christie kind: no gore, no violence, lovely characters and a devilishly clever plot. However, the very first short story competition I found out about was for an SF story. I didn't — still don't — read a lot of SF, but I thought I'd give it a try and I was short-listed. So the next year I tried again, and again. I always made the top 10 and I won the competition three times — the last time, securing 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. I quit after that, figuring I'd best concentrate on what I actually want to write.

Café:
What brought you to choose the setting and characters in Murder @ Work?

Yvonne:
The setting is an IT office in South Africa, not unlike the one in which I'd worked in the past, and I chose it to give the idea of "writing what you know" a try. When you write SF, you definitely write what you don't know, because it doesn't exist, LOL, so writing what you know was a new and exciting thing from my perspective. Oh, that and the fact that I really, really, really wanted to kill my ex boss.

Café:
Tell us a little about the setting and main character.

Yvonne:
Christine Chamberlain doesn't want much from life: a steady job, a baby, and a Fields Medal. Her boss, however, wants money and he's willing to do anything to get his way, even if it means getting Christine involved in a project that not only jeopardises her dreams, but also her life. When Christine complains to her colleagues, they joke about killing the boss to solve the problem. Almost everybody has an obvious motive to get rid of the boss from hell... and a few hidden ones they don't share. The next day, Christine brings fennel oil to work. It’s not the world's deadliest poison, and Christine would of course never dream to use it as such. Or would she?

Café:
What is the main reason that you write?

Yvonne:
This will sound flippant, but it isn't: I write because I'm a writer and can't stop. I have periods of burnout, and periods of self-doubt, and periods of wanting a "normal" life, but they all pass....

Café:
Do you write to entertain or is there something more you want the readers to take away from your work?

Yvonne:
When I started out, I wanted to entertain, but by now, I would like my readers to feel enriched for having read my words.

Café:
Do you have a schedule for your writing or just write whenever you can?

Yvonne:
I am a mother of two pre-schoolers and I have a part time day job, so writing happens when everyone has gone to bed... unless I'm doing overtime. So typically 9pm till midnight is when I write.

Café:
If you had your ideal, what time of day would you prefer to write?

Yvonne:
Mornings, while the children are at preschool, then spend the afternoons with them and the evenings with my husband.

Café:
Do you outline? If not, do you have some other interesting way that you keep track of what’s going on, or what needs to happen in your book when you are writing it?

Yvonne:
Oh, boy, you name it, I've tried it. With my first murder mystery, I didn't want to spoil the ending for myself, so I did no outline or planning whatsoever. It was fun to write the book, and I was as pleased as my amateur detective had been to have discovered the culprit, but the problem was that it took too long: whenever I didn't know what happened next, I couldn't write anything at all. Consequently, I did a detailed outline for my second book, together with character sheets, time lines, the lot. Unfortunately, once I had it all mapped out, the book wasn't fun to write anymore, so I left it for a few years before I went back to it having forgotten most of the plot twists. My third novel came to me in scenes. The first scene came first, thank goodness, together with the main protagonist, but after that, the scenes would come in any order they pleased, and I typed them into the word processor wondering how I would ever sort them into a book that made sense. I found myself talking to my characters: "Why are you opening that locker?" or "How did you get HIV?" Nevertheless, it was tremendously satisfying when it all came together. For my current book, I'm trying the snowflake method, starting with the central idea or the blurb and working outwards — it's too early to tell whether it'll bear fruit for me.

Café:
Day job?

Yvonne:
Project manager, working flexi-time.

Café:
Did you find it difficult to get published in the beginning?

Yvonne:
I started with short stories, and yes, I have a hefty file of rejection letters.

Café:
I bet most of us could paper a wall with our rejection letters. Do you have a great rejection/critique or acceptance story you’d like to share?

Yvonne:
The funniest critique I ever got came from a group of amateur writers I joined for a few months. Having discovered that I'm Polish by birth, they kindly took it upon themselves to correct all my free-form poetry which I write a la e.e. cummings without capitalisation or punctuation.

Café:
What kind of promotion do you find most affective?

Yvonne:
I wish I knew.... I blog, do press releases, radio shows, interviews, free pens and magnets with my name and website. I do library talks, tables at craft markets, flyers with chocolate bars attached. I do get sales out of it all, I'm just not sure whether it's one golden promotion that's at work or the combination.

Café:
Most interesting book signing story-in a bookstore or other venue?

Yvonne:
Picture this: my first ever book launch. I'm a ball of nerves and can barely stand on my own, even though in my professional capacity as a public speaker I can address an audience of 300 without a hassle. I arrive early with two supporting writer friends (and they are supporting me almost literally). One of them says: "OMG, there is a woman inside the bookshop and she's holding your advertising flyer! Go on, introduce yourself!" And I would have run away if they hadn't held me in place.

Café:
Lol. Bet if felt good though. Future writing goals?

Yvonne:
I'd like to win the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and be on the NY Times Bestseller list. Regularly.

Café:
Heroes?

Yvonne:
Anybody who lives for others more than he/she lives for him/herself.

Café:
Person you would most like to meet dead or alive?

Yvonne:
Richard Feynman. Although he's best known for his achievement in physics, I love the casual style and the humour with which he wrote his semi-autobiographical books.

Café:
What do you read?

Yvonne:
I've just finished The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver, and will begin on the latest Harlan Coben as soon as I make my deadline in the Fish Knife Award competition. I try to read the latest books that made a splash or a stir, but I will also read anything by Terry Pratchett, Minette Walters, Madeleine Wickham (Sophie Kinsella), Elizabeth Berg and Nick Hornby.

Café:
What are your hobbies?

Yvonne:
Playing board games. And if you think that's Monopoly and Snakes & Ladders, I have news for you. The world of board games has grown up, and you can find hundreds if not thousands of games aimed at adults.

Café:
Favorite TV or movies?

Yvonne:
TV: Lost and Prison Break. I think my favourite movie of all time is Jesus Of Montreal — it's simple, it's beautiful, it's foreign... what more can one possibly want? Oh yes, a powerful message about creative freedom.

Café:
Pets?

Yvonne:
I love both dogs and cats, but currently we have only one 18-year-old Siamese-cross.

Café:
Family?

Yvonne:
One husband (last time I checked), and two pre-schoolers.

Café:
Any advice for aspiring or beginning writers?

Yvonne:
Trust your instincts. If you hear or read a piece of advice that doesn't feel right for you, ignore it. Don't make any changes in your work based on only one person's opinion — make it three to convince you. Remember, if you're driving in a one-way street and you see a car heading in the opposite direction, they are in the wrong. If you see two cars facing the wrong way, you begin to worry. But you only turn around when you see three cars facing the way you came from.

Café:
Anything you would like to add?

Yvonne:
To me, a book's setting is an integral part of the work, almost like a character in its own right. The place where the characters live shapes the characters, in my opinion. That's why Murder @ Work is inherently a South African book, and its plot couldn't be uprooted to play out in Canada, for example, even though it's chiefly a character-driven book. The book I've just finished is inherently a New Zealand book that couldn't have happened anywhere else in the world, and the new book I'm planning will be inherently Polish.

Café:
Website?

Yvonne:
http://yewalus.kiwiwebhost.net.nz/

Café:
Where can people purchase your books?

Yvonne:
www.amazon.com,  http://www.supamasu.demon.co.uk/,  www.fictionwise.com

Café:
Thanks so much for joining us at the Café.

©2008 Lorie Ham. All rights reserved.