Harlequin Australia has four fantastic book packs to give away this month. Pamela Hart has written another sparkling Poppy McGowan mystery An A-List for Death. We’ve also included the first Poppy McGown novel Digging up Dirt.
Enter for a chance to win this month’s most sought-after women’s fiction titles.
For more information on any of these titles, go to romance.com.au
Author Pamela Hart sat down for a Q&A.
Tell us a little bit about your most recent novel An A-list for Death?
An A-List for Death is the second Poppy McGowan mystery. This time, Poppy gets caught up in a media frenzy when she’s photographed with a pop/rock god – she’s with him because she found his mother Daisy (her aunt’s best friend) collapsed with a head wound. Was Daisy attacked? No one else seems to think so, but after Daisy’s flat is burgled, even the police think there might be a potential killer about; and they are proved right when an unexpected person becomes the victim…
We are so pleased to see the return of Poppy McGowan. Has she changed much from your first novel Digging up Dirt?
She’s trying to decide if she’s really in love with Tol Lang, whom we met in Digging Up Dirt, so she’s contemplating the future a little more. And, in this book, she’s responsible for her indefatigable Aunty Mary as well as coping with the fallout for Patience Carter, the teenage girl from the last book, so we probably see a little more of her serious side – but not too much!
You write very authentically about certain parts of Sydney – and not necessarily the stereotypically well-known or touristy parts of Sydney. Do the museum, cafes and stores that appear in An A-List for Death really exist? If so, aren’t you scared that everyone will now want to go there?
J The Museum of NSW does not exist – but the Chau Chak Wing Museum does, and the University of Sydney would be very happy for everyone to go there! (It’s a great place and brilliant for a rainy-day kids’ outing.) The various cafés and stores do exist, but I’ve been sneaky and put them in different places and given them different names, so good luck finding them!
Are there any parts of An A-List for Death that have any special significance to you?
There’s a lot of my late Aunty Pauline in Aunty Mary, so I admit there were a few tears when I was writing her scenes; I was very fond of her. She was a fantastic role model for a girl growing up in the suburbs – a woman who forged her own path and ran her own business in the ‘60s and ‘70s was pretty rare. And she wore gorgeous hats!
What was the most challenging aspect of writing An A-List for Death?
The murder in A-List doesn’t come for quite a while; it’s harder to write a compelling mystery when the big crime doesn’t come early in the story. So getting the tension strong enough in the first half was probably the hardest thing. And balancing the serious themes with enough humour!
You write very genuinely about Poppy’s juggling of family life, renovations and her job as an ABC researcher. Did you need to do much research about these aspects of the novel? What sort of research was involved? Do you like this part of the writing process? Did you learn anything that amazed you?
I have to laugh at these questions, because I did no research at all into those things! Poppy’s job is my old job at the ABC. Poppy’s little house is my old house which I renovated from the ground up (I went back to bare bricks and dirt), and I come from a big Catholic family, just as she does. (But her family members, except for Aunty Mary, are not based on my family – I wouldn’t dare!)
But I do love research (one of the reasons I also write historical romances, like Long Meg and the Wicked Baron). I can get caught down a rabbit hole of research very easily. In fact, I was recently writing a Poppy short story to give away to my newsletter subscribers, and for a 3000 word story I spent a couple of days researching! For A-List, I did discover the Chau Chak Wing Museum, which was fascinating.
Poppy McGowan is a gorgeous character, a great combination of intelligence with a “can do” attitude but you’ve also written the supporting characters in An A-List for Death with great depth. Can you tell us more about Daisy and Mary? Who inspired these fantastic, feisty and glamorous women?
As I’ve said above, Aunty Mary was inspired by my Aunty Pauline, and I basically used stories she had told me about going off to London and shopping in Carnaby St, etc. It so happens that one of Aunty Pauline’s friends was the mother of a slightly famous band member, so that’s where I got the idea of Daisy from – but mostly Daisy invented herself. Once I had the idea of Daisy Chains, the song written about her, I asked myself: What kind of woman inspires a song? And I worked from there to develop Daisy as a character. I have to say, I’m a bit smitten with Daisy and I wouldn’t be surprised if the two of them make appearances in later books!
What do you hope people get out of reading An A-List for Death?
As with all the Poppy McGowan stories, I hope they get entertained! A puzzling mystery, a few laughs, a story that keeps you guessing and moves along, characters you can care about, and a little romance. And each of the Poppy books gives you a sneak peek into a particular world: in this case, the uneasy alliance between fame and the media/social media.
Can you tell us a bit about you and your writing? Do you have any writing quirks or rituals?
I write sitting cross-legged on my sofa. I usually do admin in the mornings (emails, social media, answering reader messages, interviews, etc.). Then I write in the afternoons. When I’m in the middle of the first draft, I aim for 2000 words a day.
I also teach for the Australian Writers Centre, which usually takes up about a day and a couple of nights a week, so I work around that. (I do love teaching new writers.)
As for quirks and rituals…hah! I’m a mum, and I began writing for adults after my son was born. Generally, mums can’t afford to be picky about when and where they write – some of my best work was done with a bunch of boys thundering up and down the house! (My son is an adult now, btw, and it’s all a lot easier.)
An A-List for Death is very much an Australian cosy crime. Why do you think that this genre is increasing in popularity so rapidly? Why do you think people love reading cosy crimes so much?
When the world outside is difficult, as it’s been for the last few years, it’s great to be able to pick up a book and know that the author won’t betray you with violence and tragedy and viciousness. A good cosy crime is enthralling because of the characters and the mystery, but it’s also uplifting; good triumphs, you’re not asked to confront violence or sex on the page, and you can read it knowing that everything will turn out right at the end.
Australian cosies are a little freer with swearwords and not so religiously-inclined as the American versions, and certainly don’t respect rank or class as British ones often do, but they keep that promise to the reader: come read me and you’ll end up feeling better.
Happy endings/just endings are a gift to the reader (I feel this very strongly as a reader myself). Also, cosy crime is woman-centred – overwhelmingly it’s women sleuths. So women can read them knowing they won’t be confronted with exploitative sexual violence or misogyny. They’re a refuge and a tonic.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
I’ve written in a lot of different genres (A-List is my 42nd book). Mystery brings all the good bits of all the other adult genres together! So I’ll be writing mysteries for the foreseeable future, I think.
I enjoy writing Poppy so much, and one of the things I really love is the number of reader messages I get. A LOT of people have found me on Facebook or Twitter or through my website to say that they hadn’t been able to concentrate on a book for a long time, but they read Digging Up Dirt straight through. That means a great deal to me. I love the idea that the Poppy stories can take people out of themselves for a while, and even bring people back to reading.
ENTER TO WIN
To enter, email [email protected] with ‘An A-List for Death’ in the subject field. Tell us your name, full contact details (including best delivery address) and the author of the Poppy McGowan mystery novels. Entries close 9am Friday 17 June 2022 and winners drawn same day. One entry per person. Entrants must be aged 18+.
