Susan Wittig Albert

(Scroll down to Author Interview)

(Also writes with Bill Albert as Robin Paige)

Read about Susan's 2006 appearance in Wauconda, Illinois -- click here.

Books:

The China Bayles Herbal Mysteries

The China Bayles Herbal Mysteries feature herbalist China Bayles, who abandoned her career as a hot-shot Houston criminal attorney to buy an herb shop in a small town located half-way between Austin and San Antonio, Texas. China wants the things that many contemporary women seek: a quieter life, rewarding work, a close relationship, friends, and community. Each of her mysteries has a signature herb that is connected to a major theme, and each is liberally sprinkled with information on growing and using herbs. The China Bayles novels have been praised for their intelligent plots, quirky and appealing characters, interesting settings, and strong writing. From www.mysterypartners.com

The Victorian Mysteries by Bill & Susan Albert writing as Robin Paige

The Robin Paige Victorian mystery series begins in the mid 1890s and continues through the early years of the reign of Edward VII. The books feature two sleuths: Kate Ardleigh Sheridan and Sir Charles Sheridan. Kate is an Irish-American woman who writes penny-dreadfuls under the pseudonym of Beryl Bardwell. She comes to England and inherits a small fortune and the estate of Bishops Keep, located in East Anglia, near the village of Dedham, Essex. Sir Charles is a landed peer and amateur scientist with a special interest in new forensic techniques, such as fingerprinting, ballistics, toxicology, and photography. In each book of the series, Kate and Charles meet notable figures of their time. From www.mysterypartners.com

The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter by Susan Wittig Albert

The Cottage Tales is a mystery series for readers of all ages, featuring beloved author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. In 1905, Beatrix bought a farm in England's beautiful Lake District. The books in this series (eight are planned) follow her adventures as she gradually moves away from her London life as a dutiful Victorian-age daughter, and into an independent life that offers new hopes, new love, and the possibility of self-determination. You will enjoy the authenticity of the historical setting and the details of Beatrix's life, smile at the antics of the animals, and warm to the strong feeling of place and community. A stand-out series, for adult and young adult readers. (From author's website, used with permission.)  Read more at www.mysterypartners.com.) 

Brief Bios (from author web-site, used with permission):

Susan Wittig Albert -- Susan became a full-time writer after abandoning her second career in teaching. (Her first career was in mothering, during which she produced three great kids, sons Bob and Michael and daughter Robin.) After undergraduate work, she went on to earn a Ph.D. in English from the University of California at Berkeley. For 15 years, she taught and held administrative positions at the University of Texas at Austin, Newcomb College of Tulane University in New Orleans, and Southwest Texas State in San Marcos, Texas. Thoroughly fed up with academic politics, she quit (yes, just like that) and began writing books for young adults. In1986, she and Bill Albert were married, and the rest is ... murderously good fiction.

Bill Albert -- A New York native and Texas transplant, Bill graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Industrial Management. After a two-year stint in the Army and various travels around the globe pursuing his passions (photography, archaeology, scuba diving), he took up with computers and spent the next 15 years as a programmer and systems analyst. After Susan discovered his talent for constructing wickedly intricate plots that are a cross between a knot garden and a flow chart, she recruited him into the writing business. Among his pseudonyms are Franklin W. Dixon, Carolyn Keene, Nicholas Adams, and Robin Paige. In addition to writing mysteries, he maintains the family stable of computers, printers, fax machines, copiers, and telephones. Life in the rural electronic cottage is not as easy as it looks in the ads.

Author Interview (2-12-2006): 

Cozy Library: A writer friend contends that in mystery writing, if a female protagonist marries, eventually, the author eventually needs to kill off the husband to keep the series interesting. You’ve come close to killing him off, but McQuaid lives. Is it tempting to get rid of him? (My friend hasn’t bumped off the husband yet in her series, either.)

 

Susan Wittig Albert: It’s the old Nancy & Ned syndrome, isn’t it? When you get the lovers together, you lose the dramatic tension: what holds them together, what keeps them apart. But since I don’t want to kill off McQuaid (as an ex-cop PI, he holds too many interesting plot possibilities), I need to find a substitute for the lost dramatic tension. Luckily, there are plenty. But that doesn’t mean that every male I introduce in the series will survive. <grin>

 

CL: I’ve read all your China Bayles and Victorian mysteries and am amazed by how you retain quality while cranking out a lot of books.  Most writers produce stinkers but you haven’t yet. What’s your secret?

 

SWA: I love to write—it’s as simple (and as mysterious) as that. Which is not to say that every book is equally “fun” or equally “good” (by my standards). And some days I’m just not in the writing place. But there’s the deadline, and there’s the current word count, and there is the story yet to be told, and somehow it all comes together, on time. Self-discipline has something to do with it, and practice (I’ve been writing full-time, for a living, for over 20 years). And motivation. Notice the “full-time, for a living” part? That’s a pretty powerful motivator, too.

 

CL: You’ve got a grueling tour schedule for April 2006 How will you maintain your energy and enthusiasm? Or do you think that part of being a writer is fun?

 

SWA: I won’t say that touring is fun -- there are too many opportunities for screwups along the way: getting lost, having car trouble, making sure I have enough clean underpants, living on MacDonald’s salads. The “meeting-the-people” part is what’s fun for me, and what keeps me going. I used to be a college teacher and I love talking to groups, helping them learn about the books, about the writing life. In the best of all possible worlds, all I’d have to do is push a button and say: “Beam me, Scotty,” and I’d materialize in the store or the library or wherever, without the hassle of physically getting there.

 

CL: I have to admit that Ruby is my favorite character in the China Bayles books. I’m guessing she’s based on a real person … although I’ve never met anyone quite like her. Whom is she based on? Or is she a composite?

 

SWA: Ruby must be real. I keep getting emails from people who tell me that they know her, or they are her, or she’s exactly like their best friend. But she’s entirely fictional, as far as I know. I wanted to create a character who was China’s opposite: right-brained, non-linear, intuitive, psychic, wacky, wild. China’s task has been to realize just how much she needs Ruby—in the same way that we need that part of ourselves (the right-brained, non-linear, intuitive part).

 

CL: I’m really curious about how you and your husband collaborate in writing the Robin Page mysteries. Do you write alternate chapters? Or does one contribute the narrative, the other the dialogue? How does it happen?

 

SWA: We've been writing together for 20 years now, so it's almost second nature. This Victorian/Edwardian British series features real people -- Guglielmo Marconi, in the latest book (Death on the Lizard). This is basically Bill's series, so he does most of the up-front work. He chose the character, compiled a bibliography on Marconi, did the basic research on the wireless stations on the Lizard (in Cornwall), and came up with a main plot and a subplot. I added a couple more subplots and did a lot of the writing. We read what we’ve written out loud to the other, and trade files for editing. It’s a  team project, and these are daunting books--not something either of us would want to do on his/her own.

 

CL: Which do you prefer? Writing with someone else or going it alone?

 

SWA: It’s easier to do it alone, actually. But the Robin Paige mysteries depend on both our talents and skills. I couldn’t write those books by myself -- they’re too complicated. Sometimes we’ll have seven or eight plots and ten or twelve viewpoint characters. And then there’s the historical detail to get right. It’s HARD. The other two series I do are less complex, although each presents its own challenges. Maybe we make the Robin Paige projects more complicated than they need to be, just because there are two of us.

 

CL: Seeing that all the Robin Paige mysteries weave real people into the fictional plot, how careful do you have to be about meshing truth with fiction? Do “experts” pore over your books looking for inconsistencies?

 

SWA: No, although we sometimes get silly reviewers who say things like “Fans of Jack London will not like this book” -- as if somebody who reads London would be offended by the truth of London’s boozing, womanizing life! Really! We pay careful attention to developing characters that we can substantiate from some sort of historical, biographical record, done by scholars who have thoroughly researched the individual. And we put our bibliographies into the books, so readers can check our interpretation against the “facts.” (Of course, we all know there is no such thing as a “fact,” right?)

 

CL: Who are your favorite authors?

 

SWA: For mysteries, Elizabeth George and P.D. James.

 

CL: Which writers most influenced your work?

 

SWA: Each of the series is very different and is influenced by a different constellation of writers. The Beatrix Potter series is influenced by Beatrix (of course), Miss Read, Angela Thirkell, and Kenneth Graham (what? you don’t know those authors?!). Robin Paige is influenced by Ann Perry and a handful of other historical mystery writers. China Bayles is influenced by Sue Grafton and Marcia Muller. Most of these influences must be pretty far in the background—people say a lot of things about the books, but I’ve never heard them called derivative.

 

CL: What are you reading now?

 

Maps. I’m getting ready for the tour. And The Twisted Sisters Sock Book, which has some nifty sock patterns and a great section on dyeing.

Author Website: www.mysterypartners.com 

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Wittig_Albert