Interview: Alice Loweecey

Baker of brownies and tormenter of characters, Alice Loweecey recently
celebrated her thirtieth year outside the convent. She grew up watching Hammer horror films and Scooby-Doo mysteries, which explains a whole lot. When she’s not creating trouble for her sleuth Giulia Driscoll or inspiring nightmares as her alter-ego Kate Morgan, she can be found growing her own vegetables (in summer) and cooking with them (the rest of the year). Her fourth Giulia Driscoll Mystery The Clock Strikes Nun will be released on May 30. You can preorder now at Amazon or B & N.

Did you have a playlist for The Clock Strikes Nun?

For The Clock Strikes Nun, I discovered white noise on YouTube. Those sleep recordings that mask outside noises. Did you know there are more than a dozen haunted house white noise recordings? They have crackling fire, thunderstorms, ghost sounds, howling wind. They’re great atmosphere. Plus they really do mask things like rugby on the TV. I like sports as a kind of white noise, but haunted houses were perfect for this book.

How did you become interested in fascinators?

Alice Loweecy with fascinator

I’ve always liked vintage fashion and jewelry and I’m fortunate to be able to wear hats. Except baseball caps. I look awful in those. When I turned 50 I decided I wanted to try a fascinator. I spent a week or so on the black hole that is Etsy and found my first one. I was going to wear it as a confidence booster for my first-ever Bouchercon panel (9 am) and take it off afterwards. But everyone started recognizing me in it and I loved wearing it. Thus a style was born. I have five now. Chiki Bird Hat Studio is amazing! I tell her the theme of my current book and she creates a hat for me.

Do you start out knowing “who did it,” or do you discover it as you write?

I write gigantic anal-retentive outlines, so I usually know who did it, but characters are ornery creatures and sometimes they take over the story. For The Clock Strikes Nun I knew who did it from the start. For the next book in the series, I wrestled with the outline for at least a week longer than usual until I realized I was trying to make the wrong person the villain. Once I let that go, the story fell into place.

What’s your writing process like?

Every single free minute is either at my keyboard or at my trusty three-ring binder. I work full-time and deadlines don’t care if you’re tired or want to watch a Saturday night horror movie. Even fifteen minutes is enough to write a few paragraphs or edit a page. I learned this years ago when I was shuttling my kids to soccer games and band practices.

How do you keep track of reoccurring characters and back story?

Excel spreadsheets are my life. Each book has a giant spreadsheet with multiple tabs. Character charts, research, backstory, outline. I also use Scrivener for its corkboard and web page cache features.

Any advice about how to plot?

I’m a tactile writer. I work best with pen on paper or fingers on a keyboard. I always start with a character. My first step is to open a blank spreadsheet and brainstorm. There’s no pressure this way, and my characters reveal all kinds of personal information as I type, especially the villains. They love to talk. Doing this in a Word doc is probably easier, but I started out this way and it frees my mind because my fingers go into auto-pilot.

While I firmly believe the best way to plot is the way you’re most comfortable with, I’ve recommended my method to several new writers as a jumping off point.

What’s your writing environment like (your work area and tools of choice)?

It depends on the season. We have a small koi pond in our back yard. In the summer I sit out there as much as possible with a three-ring binder and a fountain pen. When Buffalo weather does its thing, I plant myself on the couch with either the binder or my laptop. If the words aren’t flowing, I switch from one to the other.

Enquiring minds want to know; whats in your binder?

In the front of my binder is a hard copy of my outline. Then 30–40 blank pieces of paper. At the back are hard copies of all the character charts and any backstory. Everything I need for an extended stay in the sun.

What have you read lately (in the last year or so) that you really liked?

A Line in the Sand (Jesse James Dawson #5) by K.A. Stewart. I’ve devoured every one of these in a single sitting and am salivating for book 6.

When Falcons Fall by C.S. Harris. Another terrific series, with a riveting antihero.

There’s also manga, which I read for relaxation. The current series I’m reading are Bungo Stray Dogs and The Ancient Magus’ Bride. So much fun!

Do you have any particular favorite books about writing?

Save the Cat! (Blake Snyder)
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers (Browne & King)
Zen in the Art of Writing (Bradbury)
Writing the Breakout Novel (Maass)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves (Lynne Truss)
The First Five Pages (Lukeman)

Save the Cat! is a screenplay book, but it made me look at characterization in a whole new way. When I read Maass, my takeaway was his advice to think of the worst thing you can do to your MC, and then do it to them. I applied that to my then-unpublished horror novel which had piled up an Eiffel Tower of rejections. It changed the MC’s motivation and made her darker and more obsessed. The book sold.

What’s your most memorable fan mail?
Fan mail is the best, but this one stood out because I could practically hear its tone of voice. It began, “I want you to know I don’t like to read! I finished all three of your books in one weekend. When’s the next one coming out?”

I replied “Sorry not sorry” and named a character after this fan in the next book. I smile every time I tell this story.

What’s your favorite charity?

A local organization, Buffalo City Mission. They’ve been helping the homeless for years. They also have a women’s shelter.

Alice Loweecey has a Website. You can also read more about her books on Facebook and Goodreads. Sometimes, she Tweets