Welcome to the Coffee Chat, Booklovers!
This week’s guest is mystery author P.A. DeVoe, featuring her historical Ming Dynasty mystery, Deadly Relations.
A pleasure to meet you Pam. What may I get you to drink?
PA: While I do drink coffee at breakfast, I drink tea during the rest of the day. Green tea or black tea, whichever you have will be great. No sugar or milk, just plain.
Ally: I’ll be right back with drinks in hand. Meanwhile, please introduce yourself to readers.
This week’s guest is mystery author P.A. DeVoe, featuring her historical Ming Dynasty mystery, Deadly Relations.
A pleasure to meet you Pam. What may I get you to drink?
PA: While I do drink coffee at breakfast, I drink tea during the rest of the day. Green tea or black tea, whichever you have will be great. No sugar or milk, just plain.
Ally: I’ll be right back with drinks in hand. Meanwhile, please introduce yourself to readers.
Bio:
P.A. De Voe is an anthropologist with a PhD in Asian studies and a specialty in China. She has authored several stories featuring the Ming Dynasty: The Mei-hua Trilogy, Hidden, Warned, and Trapped; Deadly Relations, A Ming Dynasty Mystery; and a collection of short stories, including the Judge Lu case files.
Warned won a Silver Falchion Award for Best International Mystery in 2016; Trapped was nominated for an Agatha Award and was a finalist for a Silver Falchion in 2017. Her short story, The Immortality Mushroom, (a Judge Lu story) was in the Anthony Award winning anthology Murder Under the Oaks edited by Art Taylor.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: “I have two spinning wheels. Guests often think my first wheel is a piece of sculpture because it’s so modern looking! The second wheel I had made especially for me, and it looks like a classic spinning wheel. I most like spinning sheep and alpaca fleeces.”
Author Links:
Website: padevoe.com
Twitter: @PamelaADeVoe
P.A. De Voe is an anthropologist with a PhD in Asian studies and a specialty in China. She has authored several stories featuring the Ming Dynasty: The Mei-hua Trilogy, Hidden, Warned, and Trapped; Deadly Relations, A Ming Dynasty Mystery; and a collection of short stories, including the Judge Lu case files.
Warned won a Silver Falchion Award for Best International Mystery in 2016; Trapped was nominated for an Agatha Award and was a finalist for a Silver Falchion in 2017. Her short story, The Immortality Mushroom, (a Judge Lu story) was in the Anthony Award winning anthology Murder Under the Oaks edited by Art Taylor.
Something unique/unusual that isn't in your regular bio: “I have two spinning wheels. Guests often think my first wheel is a piece of sculpture because it’s so modern looking! The second wheel I had made especially for me, and it looks like a classic spinning wheel. I most like spinning sheep and alpaca fleeces.”
Author Links:
Website: padevoe.com
Twitter: @PamelaADeVoe
INTERVIEW:
Ally: Where do you get your story ideas?
PA: Being an anthropologist and a China specialist, I am most interested in culture and the interaction between a society’s cultural elements and individual’s behaviors. Culture includes such things as gender, law, medicine, economics, and religion—among many other things. And my stories are historical, set in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, so I want to reflect a time period.
To accomplish that, I do a lot of research: reading law cases, the Ming law code, personal communications, as well as reading about such things as foxes and beggars. When I find something that fascinates me, I put it into a story or even make it the main theme in a short story. I look for the common person in history and try to imagine what their life was like, what they would do in certain circumstances given their cultural environment. My female character in Deadly Relations and No Way to Die is based on a woman who actually lived in the Ming Dynasty. It’s not her, but she’s the model for my character, Xiang-hua, a young woman’s doctor.
My story ideas come from wanting to bring my readers into another place, culture, and time. That’s what I want to bring to my readers; a trip they can’t take any other way except through story telling.
Ally: Do you use a professional editor? If not, what do you do to ensure a quality book?
PA: Absolutely. There’s no way an author can adequately edit her own book. We’re too close. We know the story and the backstory. We can’t see the holes or the areas of confusion. And, by the time we’ve finished (or thought we’d finished LOL), we’ve read those words so many times, we are no longer even seeing them. If nothing else, we need fresh eyes. Someone who is an expert in the art of writing fiction and who will be productively honest with us about our work.
Ally: Do you enjoy research? Does your genre require it?
PA: I can bury myself in doing research. Probably every historical fiction writer will say this. For any of my Ming Dynasty stories, I have to do a lot of reading and exploring. I also call upon personal experiences I’ve had that connect in some way with what I’m writing about. I also enjoy doing research for my contemporary mysteries set in the US. I wrote a cozy mystery set in Maine, The Crate Beyond. While I’d been to Maine, I wasn’t thinking about writing and it’d been some years ago. To write that book I took a trip to the location and talked to as many true Mainers as I could. So, whether it’s reading books, traveling, or talking to locals, research is always number one on my list of pleasures.
Yes, international, historical fiction requires it—and so does contemporary fiction. Details are important. They may not always be right, but 100% is what we should strive for.
Ally: What’s the most meaningful thing a fan could say about your book?
PA: I suppose we’d all say that they loved the book and that it helped them to …. (whatever that particular book was about). Two comments from young people who’d read my YA Mei-hua trilogy stand out to me, because I suppose I didn’t expect them. First, a young girl said that she cried when she’d read a scene in Hidden involving a girl named Ping-an. I was taken aback. It reminded me how my characters aren’t characters, they are real people to the reader. Hidden is the first Ming Dynasty novel I’d written and this was a lesson for me. The second comment was by a ten-year-old boy who’d read the trilogy. I asked him what he thought of the books. He told me he liked the research! I put a Notes section in the back of each book, and he’d read that, too. Quite frankly, I had never expected a ten-year-old to read the Notes section—and to value them, as well! Young people are amazing and should never be underestimated.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
PA: This month, February 2019, No Way to Die, the second novel in my Ming Dynasty Mysteries series, will come out. I’m quite excited about it. It’s a mystery wrapped around gender issues. In a culture that centers on male dominance, how to women fit in?
The murder and partial mutilation of a stranger brings together Shu-chang, an itinerant scholar, and Xiang-hua, the local women’s doctor. They join forces once more in solving a crime neither could solve alone. The road to truth leads them through the seedier side of their town--involving, gambling, prostitution, and gangs.
Karma, secret deals, and jealousy confound Shu-chang and Xiang-hua’s efforts to find the murderer, who remains hidden behind a cloud of misdirection.
After this, I will be working on bringing together in one place, as a collection, of my Judge Lu Case Files short stories. (No title yet) Naturally, there will be a Notes section at the back of the book talking about some of the basic principles of Chinese law over a couple of thousand years.
Ally: Please give me your first response to the following questions:
Ally: Where do you get your story ideas?
PA: Being an anthropologist and a China specialist, I am most interested in culture and the interaction between a society’s cultural elements and individual’s behaviors. Culture includes such things as gender, law, medicine, economics, and religion—among many other things. And my stories are historical, set in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, so I want to reflect a time period.
To accomplish that, I do a lot of research: reading law cases, the Ming law code, personal communications, as well as reading about such things as foxes and beggars. When I find something that fascinates me, I put it into a story or even make it the main theme in a short story. I look for the common person in history and try to imagine what their life was like, what they would do in certain circumstances given their cultural environment. My female character in Deadly Relations and No Way to Die is based on a woman who actually lived in the Ming Dynasty. It’s not her, but she’s the model for my character, Xiang-hua, a young woman’s doctor.
My story ideas come from wanting to bring my readers into another place, culture, and time. That’s what I want to bring to my readers; a trip they can’t take any other way except through story telling.
Ally: Do you use a professional editor? If not, what do you do to ensure a quality book?
PA: Absolutely. There’s no way an author can adequately edit her own book. We’re too close. We know the story and the backstory. We can’t see the holes or the areas of confusion. And, by the time we’ve finished (or thought we’d finished LOL), we’ve read those words so many times, we are no longer even seeing them. If nothing else, we need fresh eyes. Someone who is an expert in the art of writing fiction and who will be productively honest with us about our work.
Ally: Do you enjoy research? Does your genre require it?
PA: I can bury myself in doing research. Probably every historical fiction writer will say this. For any of my Ming Dynasty stories, I have to do a lot of reading and exploring. I also call upon personal experiences I’ve had that connect in some way with what I’m writing about. I also enjoy doing research for my contemporary mysteries set in the US. I wrote a cozy mystery set in Maine, The Crate Beyond. While I’d been to Maine, I wasn’t thinking about writing and it’d been some years ago. To write that book I took a trip to the location and talked to as many true Mainers as I could. So, whether it’s reading books, traveling, or talking to locals, research is always number one on my list of pleasures.
Yes, international, historical fiction requires it—and so does contemporary fiction. Details are important. They may not always be right, but 100% is what we should strive for.
Ally: What’s the most meaningful thing a fan could say about your book?
PA: I suppose we’d all say that they loved the book and that it helped them to …. (whatever that particular book was about). Two comments from young people who’d read my YA Mei-hua trilogy stand out to me, because I suppose I didn’t expect them. First, a young girl said that she cried when she’d read a scene in Hidden involving a girl named Ping-an. I was taken aback. It reminded me how my characters aren’t characters, they are real people to the reader. Hidden is the first Ming Dynasty novel I’d written and this was a lesson for me. The second comment was by a ten-year-old boy who’d read the trilogy. I asked him what he thought of the books. He told me he liked the research! I put a Notes section in the back of each book, and he’d read that, too. Quite frankly, I had never expected a ten-year-old to read the Notes section—and to value them, as well! Young people are amazing and should never be underestimated.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
PA: This month, February 2019, No Way to Die, the second novel in my Ming Dynasty Mysteries series, will come out. I’m quite excited about it. It’s a mystery wrapped around gender issues. In a culture that centers on male dominance, how to women fit in?
The murder and partial mutilation of a stranger brings together Shu-chang, an itinerant scholar, and Xiang-hua, the local women’s doctor. They join forces once more in solving a crime neither could solve alone. The road to truth leads them through the seedier side of their town--involving, gambling, prostitution, and gangs.
Karma, secret deals, and jealousy confound Shu-chang and Xiang-hua’s efforts to find the murderer, who remains hidden behind a cloud of misdirection.
After this, I will be working on bringing together in one place, as a collection, of my Judge Lu Case Files short stories. (No title yet) Naturally, there will be a Notes section at the back of the book talking about some of the basic principles of Chinese law over a couple of thousand years.
Ally: Please give me your first response to the following questions:
- favorite accessory: scarves, although I wear jewelry a lot, too
- high heels or sneakers: Merrell Shoes
- What comes to you first – character or plot? Theme, then character, then plot
- What are your hobbies? Spinning yarn and making vintage fur bears (by hand, of course!)
- favorite place to write: My cozy office with its overflowing book shelves and my large computer screen (for easier viewing)
Deadly Relations (A Ming Dynasty Mystery)
Genre: historical/classic mystery
Book Blurb:
As Hong Shu-chang struggles to move out of poverty, his father and uncle are murdered. Facing destitution, yet determined to find their killers, he takes a position as teacher in a nearby town where he meets Xiang-hua, the enigmatic local women’s doctor. Soon, a burned-out warehouse and two more mysterious deaths lead to his teaming up with Xiang-hua, and together they delve into the dark side of the town and its families, endangering both their reputations and lives.
Buy Link:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Relations-Ming-Dynasty-Mystery-ebook/dp/B079J9CPRW (also available via kindleunlimited)
Amazon Author Page: https://amazon.com/P.A.-De-Voe/e/B07D3BVGR8
Coming soon:
No Way to Die, A Ming Dynasty Mystery, the second book in this series, releases this month, February 2019.
RSS Feed
