Interview with Author Liz Graham by Melissa Brooks

Liz Graham lives in Newfoundland, Canada, the perfect mysterious setting for her Carmel McAlistair Mystery series. I interviewed her to find out more about her writing, her inspiration, and what she is working on now.

1. Have you always been interested in writing?

Actually, I’ve been a reader first and foremost. It was when I couldn’t find more books on the scale of the Narnia series that I became a writer at a young age! This was quite a few years ago, before the surge in fantasy and Young Adult books, and of course, e-books. I began to write because I couldn’t find the stories I wanted to read.

2. What inspired you to start writing mysteries?

Again, my love of reading mysteries and cozies as an adult. I wanted to read something set in my home province of Canada, as this is a land rich in wonder and mystery, and the perfect setting for mysteries. As there were few available, I created them!

3. What is your writing process like? How does writing a story start for you?

It can start with an idea, or an image, like seeing a red coat across a misty lake. Then I sit and write an outline, and bits of scenes like movie trailers. Then I plunge into writing, often leaving the outline behind as the story uncovers itself.

4. Where do you find inspiration for the plots of your books?

Everywhere. In a coffee shop, in overheard conversations, even (in my present fantasy series) in an interestingly colored boulder on a beach! Nothing is sacred.

5. Do you get writer’s block? If so, how do you deal with it?

I’ve found that whenever I hit a block, that’s because the next bit that needs to be written is very important to the story AND is an unexpected twist. I have to allow myself to go with it, follow wherever the story wants to go. That really means removing myself, my preconceived notions, and my mind away from my story plan. It was a hard lesson to learn to do, and actually every time it’s still difficult.

6. Why did you set your Carmel McAlistair Mystery series in Newfoundland?

This is such a perfect setting for mystery and spookiness. Lots of wilderness, fog and weather, and tiny little coves inhabited by very interesting characters.

7. What was your inspiration for Carmel McAlistair, and how did she develop as you wrote her?

Ha! Your first series is always a little autobiographical, it seems. I imagined myself in the situation she gets in to. She developed into someone quite different from me though, a person in her own right. She does things I would never do; that’s partly why I love being a writer. I get to experience things and adventures that don’t really show up in real life.

8. Are you working on anything right now?

I’m veering towards contemporary fantasy right now, with two in the series published and a third almost finished. There are still a couple of Carmel McAlistair’s half-written though, and I’ll revisit them in time.