Gillian Roberts is the author of the Anthony-award winning Amanda Pepper mystery series that features a Philadelphia high school English teacher and her significant other, C. K. Mackenzie.
She has also started a second series, featuring two private detectives, Emma Howe and Billie August. Emma's a 'woman of a certain age' who has been running an agency for quite a while, and Billie is the inexperienced young trainee Emma reluctantly has hired. That series is set in Marin County, California and the first book is called Time and Trouble.
The geography of the two series is no accident — the author's a native Philadelphian who now lives in California. She was also once a high school English teacher.
BOOKS by GILLIAN ROBERTS
Caught Dead in Philadelphia (1987)
Philly Stakes (1989)
I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia (1991)
With Friends Like These (1993)
How I Spent My Summer Vacation (1994)
In the Dead of Summer (1995)
The Mummers' Curse (1996)
The Bluest Blood (1998)
Adam and Evil (1999)
Helen Hath No Fury (2000)
1. Where do you get your ideas?
Even though the Amanda Pepper mysteries aren't dark (I hope), most of the
ideas spring out of serious social issues or news stories that have troubled
me. Whenever I hear or read something that gives me a real visceral punch, I
realize it has the makings of a story. Next step is to think about who could
be badly hurt by this, and who would benefit by this and so on and so forth.
However, most books are made up of more than one idea. They're combinations
of several ideas as filtered through the characters and settings and the
process of time. No book I've written was, ultimately, the product of "an"
idea. Lots of times, whatever initially prompted it changed so much along
the way, it's no longer recognizable.
2. Who are your favorite characters from other writers?
I read (and probably write) for character rather than plot, so there are
lots of contemporary writers whose characters I love--too many to mention.
But when I think of capital-C Characters the reader (at least this reader)
never forgets, I think of Charles Dickens and wish I could write that way!
3. Which of your characters is most like you?
Amanda Pepper and I certainly share values, a work history (Philadelphia
high school English teacher) but with every passing year, she's increasingly
younger, thinner, and smarter than I am.
But I've written two books about a pair of badly-matched female PI's
(Time and Trouble and Whatever Doesn't Kill You) and I think I'm also
nervous, unsure-of-herself novice Billie and, I have to admit, I couldn't
have this much writing her grumpy, grouchy employer, Emma, if she wasn't just
a little bit me as well.
4. If you could write another genre, what would it be?
I'm lucky enough to have written in a few genres. In addition to a dozen
mysteries, I've written four mainstream novels under my actual name, Judith
Greber, and I'm now completing another. Of those four, in which, by the way,
I also felt like all of the characters, one was an historical novel about
Northern California, and the other three, contemporary stories. I also write
short stories from time to time, and have a collection of those. And
finally, I've written one nonfiction work, "You Can Write a Mystery," which
was fun because I didn't have to make anything up.
The one genre I'd still like to explore would be biography, which is,
after all, all about character.
5. What was the effect of September 11th on you or your work?
Like a lot of other writers, I was unable to focus, or create imaginary
worlds when the real world had gone beyond my wildest imaginings. In my
case, a large part of the backstory of the book I was writing dealt with the
Inquisition, so I was already consumed with the horrors of religious
fanaticism and the dreadful deeds supposedly done in God's name, so 9-11 felt
like a hideous convergence, of history, fiction and real life.
After a long pause, I did finish the draft of the book which, happily,
was set before September 11th's events, so I didn't have to deal with them
per se, but they certainly colored what I wrote and intensified a lot of my
emotions, and I think it will continue to do so forever.
6. What's your current or next book?
Having taken off a year to write the non-mystery book I've mentioned, I'm
now about to begin another Amanda Pepper. I left her in a nice
place--engaged and finally knowing C.K.'s name, so I thought she wouldn't
mind a little time from murder. Right now, I'm in the stage of reading the
news, reacting, and waiting for that visceral reaction that says there's her
next story idea... |
