Susan McCormick writes cozy murder mysteries. She is also
the author of GRANNY CAN’T REMEMBER ME, a lighthearted picture book about
Alzheimer’s disease. She is a doctor who lives in Seattle. She graduated from
Smith College and George Washington University School of Medicine, with
additional medical training in Washington, DC and San Francisco, where she
lived in an elegant apartment building much like the one in the book. She
served nine years in the military before settling in the Pacific Northwest. She
is married and has two boys, plus a giant Newfoundland dog.
Q: What’s inside the
mind of a cozy murder mystery author?
A: Everywhere I look, I see mystery book
possibilities. A cutthroat music competition that comes every four years and
only one scholarship is given? I see a mom who will do anything to help her
child succeed. An arguing couple in a National Park? I see a husband who might
lean too close to the edge and “fall off.” I am kind, sedate and boring in my
real life, but my imagination is full of mystery.
Q: Tell us why readers
should buy THE FOG LADIES.
A: THE FOG LADIES’ quirky characters, with
spunky older women and one overworked, overtired, overstressed young intern
will appeal to cozy lovers young and old. It is set in an elegant apartment
building in San Francisco, one of the most unique and beautiful cities in the
world.
Q: What makes a good cozy murder mystery?
A: Characters drive a cozy, and I tried to
create a memorable cast of characters that will hopefully survive this killer
in their building and persevere for more mysteries to come. Another cozy
feature is an enclosed setting, like the elegant apartment building in my
story, so the victims and the killer are all known to each other and it is hard
to hide.
Q: Where can readers
find out more about you and your work?
A: My website
is https://susanmccormickbooks.com
I also wrote a
lighthearted children’s picture book about Alzheimer’s disease and dementia,
GRANNY CAN’T REMEMBER ME.
Q: What has writing
taught you?
A: Writing has taught me about a whole different
part of my brain that I did not know existed. With my doctor work, sometimes a
diagnosis or a concern about a patient will come to me in a dream, and these
messages from my brain have always been accurate. Writing is the same. Though I try to plot and plan, my favorite part of
writing is when characters I've created do unexpected things and get themselves
into trouble. One of my characters, Enid Carmichael, discovers Starbucks lattes
at the ripe old age of eighty. She loves the bitterness, the froth. I wrote
that. Then she craved more, and the next thing I knew, she was stealing
Starbucks coupons from her neighbor’s newspaper to feed her addiction. She did
that. Not me. I have learned to give my characters a little space to be
themselves, because the surprises they bring are a delight.
