Early Christian prophet Jeremiah wrote, “the heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?” I am a person emotionally scarred by life, and a passionate observer of human frailties therefore I have come to know this fact very well. I am also an African-American woman writer with views colored by my life experiences. My body of work has to have an ethnic slant. You write about best, what you know about, or fully comprehend. It is the craft of the mystery writer to uncover, and unmask the treacherous heart.
My parents raised me in Detroit, Michigan during the late ‘60’s and early 70’s in a black American middle class family. I have been a resident of Austin, Texas for over 27 years. I went from living in a predominantly African-American, slightly Latino, and growing Arab-American community, which suburban Detroit grew to become in the late 70’s, to living in a predominantly white community in Austin, Texas beginning in 1982. In my writing of fiction, I seem to always end up with a multi-cultural cast of characters. I believe it is inevitable.
I personally enjoy and celebrate the vast majority of varied cultures represented in America. I am a voracious nonfiction and fiction reader, with eclectic taste. In my writings, I hope that I “steer clear of” racial stereotypes by incorporating factual cultural information I’ve gleaned during my research stage, and from my personal experiences as well.
There exist genres within the genre of mystery writing. My novel entitled, “Howling Against the Wind” is medical suspense. My personal experiences related to injuries I sustained by the failed Vitek Proplast II TMJ Medical Implant device, along with subsequent abuse heaped upon me by the Texas medical community is what “Howling Against the Wind” is loosely based on. I did not set out to write a medical suspense novel. The anger I nurtured in my heart over what happened to me needed a constructive, rather than destructive release. My treacherous heart kept leading me plan, and act out the murder of Dr. Gleeson. The doctor that lied to you deserves to die! If you really want to kill him, ponder how you might get away with it. Be very smart. How can you get away with it? I finally surmised, I either write the novel, or possibly end up on the State of Texas Death Row for intentional murder. I am For Real People! I could see myself doing the murder. As everyone in America should be aware by now, the so-called justice system in Texas does not play around. The Texas penal system will kill you, and the Governor of Texas will not be coming to your aid. My personal knowledge of these facts accounts for my decision to write “Howling Against the Wind.” I chose to utilize my unpleasant experiences with doctors, mainly the Austin medical community to exorcise bad, hurtful feelings.
Whereas my experience with medical implant device failure made me feel powerless, fictionalizing and embellishing the events surrounding my experience provided me with a feeling of liberating internal power. I learned that I can be passionate about things and/or circumstances in life that have caused me physical and emotional pain while appreciating the healing value of channeling those feelings creatively.
While writing the book, I was able to effectively discharge emotional pain and anger. The goal in writing “Howling Against the Wind” was to prompt the reader to hate the lead surgeon as much as I hated my surgeon as well. I purposefully made him a despicable character. It was not enough for the main protagonist (the patient) to desire the doctor dead. Two other characters would not mind his disappearance from the face of the earth either. The three murderous hearts, key to the suspense of the novel, set up the ongoing conflict. The questions that I desire the reader “to die for” or to really want to know are Which one of these three main characters will murder Dr. Gleeson? Lenore the permanently injured patient, the abused wife of Dr. Gleeson, or will the murderer turn out to be his business partner who happens to be fed up with his surgical ineptitude. Perhaps Dr. Gleeson’s enemies will forge together in a conspiracy to commit murder pact. Does a murderer or murderess suffer emotional consequences by choosing to go against societal mores? Lastly, will the murderer or murderers get away with whacking Dr. Gleeson?
I have been keeping journals and writing poetry since third grade. I wrote “Champions of Change: Biographies of Famous Black Americans” as a writer for hire. Steck Vaughn Publishers published the work-text book in 1988. You might wonder what made me believe that I could write a medical suspense novel.
“Champions of Change: Biographies of Famous Black Americans” is a text-workbook compilation of ten nonfiction short stories, which I wrote for fourth through eighth graders according to the editors specifications. Writing this book was an 8-month learning experience for me. My editor for this writing project had informed me that she thought that I possessed the gift of written expression after I had relayed my concern to her over what I perceived as my deficit in the mechanics of writing. She also told me that if all writers were competent in the mechanics of writing that she would not have a job. My editors’ words gave me courage. Therefore, I challenged myself to write a novel, which when fully created became Howling Against the Wind. I also have an extensive medical background as a Radiological Technologist. My familiarity with medical terminology and procedures gave me an advantage. Even so, I still checked my medical data for scientific and clinical accuracy. Dr. Jens Turp, visiting professor of Maxillofacial Surgery with the University of Michigan wrote a Note to Readers for the novel. In the Note to Readers, Dr. Turp provides the reader with a brief introduction of the novels main theme. He highlights the medical conditions caused by the medical implant device failure fiasco.
When I read, I enjoy being educated. I want the writer to teach me something that I did not know, or assist me in understanding a different point of view. It does not matter whether I am reading fiction, or nonfiction I believe mental insight should be gleaned from the written word. When I am finished reading the last word on the last page, I want to be able to close the cover and reflect upon an underlying moral, perhaps an in-your-face-fact, or glean enlightenment about a culture, group, specific dogma, ideology. It is my desire to provide the same mental and emotional interests for readers of my work.
So what is an Ethnic Mystery? Is an Ethnic Mystery, a murderous, titillating secret kept by a non-white person, and/or salacious act committed by a non-white person, or against a person with ethnic origins, which must be uncovered or solved?
Maybe the Ethnic Mystery is various combinations of all of the above scenarios.
What I do know beyond any “shadow of a doubt” is that circumstances in my life have propelled me to be consumed with the many facets, and intrigues of murder. I am presently revising my second novel, because “my heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?”
