Someone Else’s “Normal”

Fake is the story of a con man running from his past. Kip sets out to take advantage of two older women who are trying to start a detective agency. They find it’s slow going because of their age, so they are looking for a young “front man” to appeal to clients. Kip figures he can handle the job and make a little money grifting on the side. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

As I age, my mysteries have tended more toward older protagonists. The idea of a conman seeing two sixty-something women as marks ripe for picking isn’t new, but the unexpected outcome is both fun and fresh. In this story, nobody is tending to her knitting!

What was your approach to writing the interactions between your cast of characters?

That was a bit of work, because I wanted each narrator to have their own voice. Kip the Conman is brash and conversational. Maureen the invalid reads more than she talks, so her style is more formal. They clash on several levels, and vocabulary is a large part of showing readers how they think and where they’re coming from.

What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?

As humans, we tend to believe that we’re normal. What I have experienced is how the world is. What I think is how rational people think. Reading is a great way to learn that normal isn’t only one thing. It isn’t you; it isn’t me. In books, we get to know the characters better than we know even our closest friends and family, because we see inside the minds of others. Reading lets us experience someone else’s “normal.”

Can fans look forward to seeing more work from you soon? What are you currently working on?

I want to write a sequel to Fake, but it hasn’t yet started growing inside my head, and I can’t force a story. It will come soon, I hope.

My alter-ego author, Maggie Pill, writes cozy mysteries, and her Cats & Crimes series has a book set for release in October of 2024 (It’s #3 in the series). It’s called Have Cats-Will Crime-Solve.