Today I welcome Sara Sue Hoklotubbe to Terry’s Place. Sara is the award-winning author of the Sadie Walela Mystery Series.
Plotter or Pantser?
When I begin to work on a book, I have a general idea of the larger picture, the beginning and the end. However, the characters always take over and fill in the details and I have to be flexible. Sometimes they change the ending, too.
Setting: real, totally made up, or based on a real place?
My books are set within the Cherokee Nation and based on real places. You can find Eucha, Sycamore Springs, and Liberty, Oklahoma, on a map, but if you go there you will discover these once vibrant small towns are practically non-existent today. You’ll find a church, a few houses, maybe a post office, but they are nothing like the versions of those towns that appear in my books.
E-books, print, or both? Any preferences? Why?
I like both. I can load my Kindle with books, throw it in my bag, go on vacation, and never run out of anything to read. However, I love the feel of a printed book in my hands and I like to have author-signed books.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve done in the name of research?
I found a place on the map called Billy Goat Hill and knew I had to use it. With notebook in hand, I talked my husband into driving us deep into the countryside, down a dirt road, where we found the steep, rocky Billy Goat Hill. It was perfect and is a location I used in The American Café.
Do you read books more than once? If so, name one. What’s special about it?
Yes, I’ve read Neither Wolf nor Dog by Kent Nerburn three times. It’s a nonfiction book that reads better than fiction. The author captures the persona of his characters so well that they come alive on the page.
What triggered the story behind your latest release?
My latest book is set in both Oklahoma and Maui. One day while we were on Maui, we drove by the place where the Fourth Marines were camped during World War II. I couldn’t help but wonder if my dad, who was in the US Army and stationed on Oahu during the war, ever came to Maui for training. Then I wondered, what if . . . and what if . . . and the seeds were planted that eventually turned into my latest release, Sinking Suspicions.
Music while you write? What kind?
Absolutely. I like to listen to quiet, instrumental background music while I write. It flips a switch in my brain that says it’s time to start writing.
You can invite anyone, alive or dead, or a fictional character (your own included), to dinner. Who would you invite and why?
I would invite my protagonist, Sadie Walela. We are both Cherokee and I like her a lot. She is a down-to-earth, head-strong, single woman who lives alone. Her best friends are a wolf-dog named Sonny and a paint-horse stallion named Joe. She’s been unlucky in love so far in her life, but I’d like to tell her not to let Lance Smith get away. I know she’s scared, but he’s handsome, loves her, and would give his life for her.
What do you read? Do you read different genres when you’re writing vs not writing?
I like to read both fiction and nonfiction, but my favorite genre is traditional mysteries. I don’t like to read about blood-and-guts violence, which is why I don’t include it in my books. I don’t mind if the murder takes place on the page, but I think it can be written without gut-wrenching details.
What kitchen utensil would you be? Why?
A blender. I like to take a lot of things and put them together to create an enjoyable story.
Sara’s newest release: Sinking Suspicions
Sinking Suspicions, the third book in the Sadie Walela Mystery Series, (University of Arizona Press, 2014) offers a heartwarming story of loss and redemption, murder and healing in Oklahoma’s modern-day Indian Country. It is an authentic tale that mixes stolen identity with a fast-paced search for a killer. Craig Johnson calls it “one heck of a good read.”
Sara’s books are available in bookstores nationwide and online. She is the winner of the 2012 WILLA Literary Award, the 2012 New Mexico-Arizona Book of the Year Award, and 2012 Wordcraft Circle Mystery of the Year. For more information, visit www.hoklotubbe.com and http://facebook.com/sarasuehoklotubbe