Interviews
On Thursday, May 28th, barnesandnoble.com welcomed Edna Buchanan to discuss PULSE.
Moderator: Welcome, Edna Buchanan! Thank you for taking the time to join us online this evening. How are you doing tonight?
Edna Buchanan: I am good. I got my new little dog and am happy as can be... FYI: I am having a garage sale this weekend. You should swing by.
Mike from MMuntz@yahoo.com: Does this book mean that you are straying away from Britt Montero?
Edna Buchanan: Yep, I have strayed, but the next book will be number six in the Britt Montero series; the working title is GARDEN OF EVIL. It is good to be back with old friends again.
Margaret from Hollywood, FL: Do you find any difficulty in switching from a female lead character for so many years to a new male character? Do you like writing in the male voice? Or do you not even think about it?
Edna Buchanan: I thought it might be difficult, but it was fun, and I think he came through loud and clear. My first novel,
Elke from Bryn Mawr, PA: Did you do any research in the field of heart transplants? How realistic is the story involving Frank? Have you ever heard of real things happening like you describe in PULSE?Edna Buchanan: Yes, yes, yes. A friend of mine had a heart transplant on July 5th of 1988, and he is doing well -- I saw him last week. He was my technical adviser. That is, when I found out that most transplant surgery takes place around the holidays. People go to family reunions and rekindle old feuds; they run out of fireworks and shoot their guns into the air. They fight, they brawl, they drink, they drive, and their organs often become available for transplant. There are many anecdotes of cellular memory, where recipients often feel that they remember things that never happened to them but happened to the donors. What if a donated organ might bring with it the memories, the desires -- and maybe the nightmares -- of the original owner? And, of course, that is the fun of fiction. What if many transplant patients claim to have experienced such things? It all sounds very cosmic, but I believe that doctors don't know everything, and anything is possible, especially when it comes to the heart. Fifty years ago, if someone said that your genetic fingerprints would someday be found in your saliva, your hair, a drop of your blood, who would have believed it? If they said an individual could be ID'd from the residue left on the back of a stamp that they licked or a tissue that they blew their nose in, people would have scoffed. But what if? When a person dies, parts of their bodies, still functioning, are placed in other bodies. Would the soul accompany them? What if the soul, like DNA, permeates the entire body? What if your DNA is your soul?
Louise from Dade County: Any plans on coming back to the newspaper beat? Get it -- beat, like a heart....Edna Buchanan: I miss being out there and feeling the pulse beat of the city. But fiction is what I always wanted to do and write. In fact, I was often accused of it while I still worked for the paper. It is hard to do both. And I am so lucky that I have the chance to do what I dreamed about doing since I was a little kid. I always wanted to write books.
Monroe from New York City: As a former crime reporter, I would love to get your opinion of what has been happening with Phil Hartman. Or do you not feel comfortable commenting on it before all the facts are out?Edna Buchanan: From what little I know and heard, it just proves again what I said before, that you are more likely to be killed by the person who sits across the breakfast table and shares your pillow than by some sinister stranger lurking in the shadows. Love kills. If anybody wants to know the address of my garage sale, it is in the Miami Herald classifieds on Saturday and Sunday "Astonishing garage sale, seven family."
Nicolas from Bakerfield, CA: How has your experience as a former crime reporter influenced you as a novelist? Do you think it has significantly helped? Or could you be doing what you are doing even if you never had those years working at The Miami Herald?Edna Buchanan: I probably would still be writing books whether or not I had ever worked the police beat at the Herald, but they might not be the same books, and who knows if anyone would have bought them or read them. But I would have been writing. It probably did influence the genre, but I think a greater influence in the genre that I chose or fell into was reading newspapers as a child in the New York metropolitan area. From when I first learned to read, I was fascinated by those dark princes of my childhood Mad Bomber, a.k.a. George Metesky, Lucky Luciano, Willie Sutton -- the Babe Ruth of bank robbers. They were a major influence on my life.
Mary from Los Angeles: How do you react to people and reviewers calling you the "Queen of Crime?"Edna Buchanan: I hadn't really thought about it. Actually, I would make a lousy criminal. The first time anyone lifted an eyebrow at me, I would confess.
Myra from New York City: What words of wisdom would you give to an aspiring young reporter and aspiring author who works at the New York Post but would love to get into writing novels? How did you make your transition?Edna Buchanan: The main words of advice would be to never trust an editor. Never trust an editor. And never trust an editor. The transition was not easy. After I wrote Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine.
Stan from Minneapolis: I am a huge mystery, crime fiction, and true-crime fan, and I think you have a true talent for writing compelling, interesting works. Do you have any plans to write any true-crime nonfiction? I think it would be great.Edna Buchanan: I haven't or don't plan to write any more true-crime books. Dealing with characters that I create is a lot easier than dealing with real-life people -- and their attorneys. But I may be doing a TV show which I would write and produce on some true-crime cases, "Stories from the Street," about the heroes and villains and the forgotten victims.
John from JWC901@aol.com: What is it about South Florida that draws you to write about it so much? Do you think you would ever write anything outside of southern Florida? Also, what makes southern Florida so conducive to mystery and suspense?Edna Buchanan: I think South Florida has became to mystery what L.A. was back in the '50s, in the days of Chandler and Hammett. In my new book, PULSE, the hero does track the killer from Miami to Seattle, but I think all of my books will always be set in Miami. I love this city. I would be happy to be sentenced to life in Miami. I hate to travel. I feel so in tune with the city, and I guess I am afraid that I will miss something. In my wildest nightmares, I dream about leaving Miami and then somehow not being able to get back here. The city is always a major character in my books.
Krista from Knordgren@aol.com: Was there anything in particular that inspired the story line of PULSE? Any article you read or story you heard of a transplant?Edna Buchanan: Aside from my friend who underwent a heart transplant, one of my closest friends, Ann Hughes, to whom the book is dedicated, works in the transplant program at the University of Miami and Jackson Memorial Hospital. If you are ever in the hospital and see her lurking outside your room, you know you are in big trouble. She is the person who wants your vital organs; she wants your kidney, your liver, your heart, your skin, your bones. She wants it all. She is the person who asks the next of kin for permission to harvest your organs. Only, of course when you no longer need them.
Jeremy from Astoria: What does the word "suspense" mean to you? Do you have any sort of theories on how to create or maintain suspense when you are writing? It must be hard, because you know what's going to happen, right?Edna Buchanan: Not always. I find that if what I am writing excites me, or makes me laugh, or makes my cry, it seems to have the same effects on the readers. I have been surprised lately that wherever I go, people bring up the terrifying restroom scene in MIAMI, IT'S MURDER -- and that was four books ago. It scared me and made me think twice about using public restrooms. Apparently it is having that effect on readers.
Marley from Baton Rouge, LA: So, are you an organ donor? I hope that's not too personal...Edna Buchanan: I hate to admit it, but as a child I read a book on Indian lore, and the Indians really believed in taking everything with you to the "happy hunting ground." That was one of the reasons they didn't attack at night, for fear if they were killed they would be blind when they arrived at the happy hunting grounds. I know that donating is the thing to do, but on the other hand, what if I get to the happy hunting ground and need my kidneys or liver...
Montgomery from MSG@yahoo.com: Can you tell us a little bit about your day-to-day writing process?Edna Buchanan: This Saturday and Sunday, I will be at my garage sale (which will be listed in this Saturday and Sunday's Herald's classified), and lately I have been in contractor and then moving hell, but in normal times, it is important to write every day. If you are a writer, that is what you do. You plant the seat of your pants on the chair in front of the keyboard and do it. My ideal day is to start at 5am in order to get in a good four or five hours before other people wake up and begin to interrupt. I like to take a break at about 4 and then go back to work till about 7 30. Close to deadline, I work much longer hours, until I just physically can't focus.
Carl from Iowa City: What's the latest in Miami regarding your governor? I haven't heard anything lately, but at one point wasn't he going to be impeached? I remember seeing something on the "Today" show.Edna Buchanan: The governor is on Prozac and Xavier Suarez, the Miami mayor (who wanted to build himself a Gracie Mansion in Miami when the city was going broke), has been deposed by the courts; the former mayor "Crazy Joe" is in power. Believe me, Crazy Joe is the lesser of all evils. In fact he is turning out to be the knight in shining armor. Today, however, one of the city's commissioners was indicted along with his father and a number of his cohorts for stealing votes in the last election -- that was the one where even the dead voted. [New York City Mayor] Giuliani was a former prosecutor in Miami. His wife, Donna, was the local anchorwoman. In fact, they met here. If only they had stayed, he might have cleaned up Miami the way he has cleaned up New York City, but no, we have "X-Man," "Crazy Joe," and a governor who is on medication.
Laurie from Rochester, NY: I am curious to get your opinion of mysteries in general. Do you think the quality of what is being published is as good as ever, or have you seen a drop-off in quality?Edna Buchanan: I think there are more mysteries than ever -- readers always love a good mystery. And I think that the reason people love to read them is the same reason that I love to write them. You know, in real life, there are murders that go unsolved forever, missing people who stay lost, corpses that you can't identify. No matter how many clues you unearth, they all tend to haunt you, but in fiction, writing mysteries, you are in the driver's seat; you and your characters get to solve all of the perplexing mysteries and tie up all of the loose ends. And best of all, you get to write the ending. You can make the good guys win and the bad guys get what they deserve, so unlike real life. It is wonderful to have closure -- too bad it is only fiction. Real life and the justice system can be grim. It is a lot more fun to tell lies for a living.
Moderator: It was certainly thrilling to host you online again, Edna Buchanan. We hope you won't hold us in suspense too long for your next novel. Do you have any final comments for our online audience?Edna Buchanan: Life is short and editors are treacherous.
