An Interview with Clare O’Donohue
Clare O’Donohue worked as a freelance writer & television producer. She produced the popular television show, Simply Quilts, on HGTV. Clare has done a variety of other shows and has used her experiences in writing her two series…Someday Quilt & Kate Conway series.
We are happy to welcome Clare to The Reading Cafe. Let’s begin our interview.
TRC: Hi Clare. Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions today. We are always looking forward to reading about the author behind the book.
Let’s start with some background information. Will you please tell us about yourself?
Clare: I’m the author of six books, four in the Someday Quilts Mysteries series and two in the Kate Conway Mysteries series. Someday is my more traditional series, and Kate is a bit more sarcastic and complicated. When I’m not writing novels I’m a television producer.
TRC: When did you start writing? Have you always liked to write?
Clare: I’ve always loved reading and making up my own stories, even before I was old enough to read. I started actually writing stories as a teenager, and I became a newspaper reporter when I graduated from college, then about 13 years ago, I started working in TV. In documentary and informational TV, (HGTV, History Channel, Investigative Discovery etc…) producers write the shows we work on. So I guess I’ve always been a writer.
TRC: Many writers bounce ideas and information with either a family member, a friend or another writer. Who do you vent with or bounce off ideas?
Clare: I usually talk over my ideas with my sister, Mary, who is also an author (of a non-fiction parenting book). It helps to say things out loud, and be challenged to explain why characters are doing whatever they’re doing. It makes me see where I’ve gone off track, and often sparks some new idea.
TRC: What was your first book published? What was your reaction when you found out your book was going to be published?
Clare: My first novel was The Lover’s Knot, the first in my Someday Quilts series. I wrote it in late 2006 into 2007, and it sold in Sept. of 2007. It was published in 2008. It was a bit of a whirlwind. When I found out it was going to be published, I think I screamed. Probably jumped up and down. I’m not a particularly emotive person, so that’s big for me.
TRC: Will you please tell us about the premise of the of your Kate Conway series? How did you come up with the idea for this series, and how long did it take for you to write the first book of this series ..Missing Persons?
Clare: Kate is a freelance TV producer, working on everything from home decorating shows to true crime. Kate and I share a day job, which is where I got the idea. I meet people from all walks of life and they invite me into their homes and answer my long list of sometimes invasive questions. It’s the perfect job for an amateur sleuth. For a long time, I had this idea of a woman in the middle of a divorce when her husband dies. I liked how confusing that would be for a character. And I had this scene of Kate at her husband’s wake when the woman he left her for shows up. It sounds like something out of a soap opera, but I wanted to play it as it might happen in real life. People not wanting to make a scene, all the tension beneath the surface. It told me a lot about Kate’s personality that she wouldn’t kick her out, even though she might want to. Once I combined the TV producer and the woman in the middle of a divorce, it took me about 10 weeks to write Missing Persons. It sort of fell out of me.
TRC: Life Without Parole is your latest book in the Kate Conway series. Can you please tell us something about the premise of this story?
Clare: In Life Without Parole, Kate is in that odd in-between stage. Her old life ended with Frank’s death, and yet she hasn’t exactly started a new life. She’s sort of frozen, working too much and eating lots of take-out. She gets two job offers at the same time and takes them both, which is pretty common in the TV freelance world. In one she’s working on a show about the opening of a high end Chicago restaurant, owned by the sort of people who appear to have it all. In the other, she’s documenting the lives of two men who are serving prison sentences for murder. She finds herself drawn to these guys, their lives being as stuck in neutral as her own. Then, when someone at the restaurant is murdered, Kate leans on the men in prison to help her figure out who did it, and in doing so gets dangerously close to people she probably shouldn’t.
TRC: Someday Quilts is your other series, also in the Mystery genre. You have 4 books currently published in this series. Can you please tell us the premise of this series?
Clare: My Someday books center around the lives of five women who meet weekly at a local quilt shop owned by Eleanor Cassidy. Eleanor’s grand-daughter Nell comes to their little upstate NY town in the first book in the series, and decides to stay. Nell is curious, some might say nosy. She’s a bit of a romantic, but also fiercely independent. She becomes very close to these women, and to the local police chief, and helps (whether she’s asked to or not) when there’s trouble.
TRC: You worked on a television show called Simply Quilts. Did this give you the idea on your Someday Quilts series?
Clare: Simply Quilts was my first TV job, and I got it because I’m a quilter. Being around the guests of the show, and in the years since meeting other quilters, inspired me. Women (and men) who have nothing in common other than quilting are really bonded by this art form. I wanted to write about that.
TRC: What made you decide another series, and how would you describe the difference between the two series?
Clare: Both of my series are about friendship, love, and death. In Someday, there’s an optimistic spin to those subjects. In Kate, they’re complicated and sometimes painful. Just like an actor doesn’t want to play the same role his whole life, I didn’t want to always write from one point of view. These two series allow me to explore familiar topics in very different ways, and I think it keeps me more excited and interested in the process.
TRC: On your website, you talk about your career in Television as a writer and producer. How do you feel this helped with your writing career?
Clare: I’ve met lots of interesting people, from politicians to killers, and getting to know all of them has helped me imagine very different lives from my own. And probably even more important, it’s helped me have the discipline to write on deadline. There are no TV producers with writer’s block.
TRC: Is there any other genre that interests you to write in the future?
Clare: At the moment, I can’t imagine straying too far from mystery. I think the immediacy of a dead body really sets the characters on edge. It makes everything very important, very tense. People’s true nature comes out in crisis, and that interests me.
TRC: What are you currently working on?
Clare: I’m writing the 5th in the Someday series, in which there are major changes in the lives of several of the characters. It causes Nell to rethink everything she’s been doing since she arrived in Archers Rest. And I’m also putting together my research for the 3rd Kate Conway, in which Kate delves into the life of a misunderstood historical figure and also makes a pretty significant leap in her own life.
TRC: Where do you like to do your writing? In a quiet room…by yourself?
Clare: Generally I do write in a room alone. I will often say the dialog out loud to hear if it sounds natural, so being in a coffee shop just makes me look odd.
TRC: Would you like to add anything else?
Clare: I do want to say that one of my favorite aspects of being a mystery writer is the lovely people – authors and readers – that belong in this community. I’ve made so many new friends since my first novel was published and it’s been an unexpected bonus to the job.
LIGHTNING ROUND
Favorite Food: Anything sweet. Dessert is my weakness.
Favorite Author: Too many to list – I read everyone from Elmore Leonard to Charlaine Harris. Donald Westlake’s ability to write both funny novels and dark novels has been an inspiration to me.
Favorite Book: The Great Gatsby was the book that made me want to be a writer, so that probably fits the bill. I loved the words, the phrasing. But honestly, I have so many favorites, and hopefully will keep discovering more.
Favorite Movie: The Quiet Man. My parents are Irish, and it was filmed near where my aunt grew up. It feels familiar and fun, and I like to think I’ve got a bit of Maureen O’Hara’s attitude in me.
Favorite TV Show: Justified, Breaking Bad & Mad Men. There’s not a wasted minute in any of these well acted, well written shows. I’m also a huge fan of Big Bang Theory.
Last Movie that you saw: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Do you have a favorite fictional character (not your own): Probably Nora Charles of The Thin Man. She was loyal, smart, could hold her liquor and knew how to patch up a bullet.
Thank you, Clare for answering our questions. The Reading Café wishes you the best of luck with your latest release, Life Without Parole. Keep us informed about your upcoming releases. We look forward to working with you again.
If you would like to know more about Clare, please visit her at the following links:
Website: http://clareodonohue.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Clare-ODonohue/112467152159507
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/clare_odonohue
