Today I’d like to welcome Randee Green and her new release CRIMINAL MISDEEDS to Daring Debuts!
Carrie Shatner is the detective and crime scene technician for the Wyatt County Sheriff’s Office in East Texas. She is also related to the majority of the local criminals – and the Shatners all expect Carrie to use her job to help them get away with or cover up their various crimes. When Carrie finds a dead body at the site of her family’s New Year’s Eve party, she is torn between family loyalty and finding the killer.
“A fun, Texas-style whodunit told with wry humor, quirky characters, and a sleuth you’ll want for a best friend. Never a dull moment!”
– Dianne Freeman, author of A LADY’S GUIDE TO ETIQUETTE AND MURDER
And here’s a teaser!
I come from a long line of criminals.
Moonshiners, rumrunners, and drug dealers. Horse thieves and carjackers. Bank robbers, burglars, pickpockets, and con artists. And then there has been the occasional killer. You name it, whether it’s a felony or a misdemeanor, somewhere along the line a member of my family has committed it.
As far back as the Shatner family could be traced – from southern England to the mountains of western North Carolina, and now to the Piney Woods of East Texas – we had been breaking the law. And running from it, too.
It was a family tradition.
You see, the Shatners have never swum in the baby pool of life. We’ve always been out in the deep end, and we jumped in headfirst.
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Sharon: I love the premise, Randee. Where did you get the idea?
Randee: I first came up with Carrie Shatner when I was a senior in high school. This was way back in late 2005/early 2006. At that time, I was reading a lot of mystery novels starring strong, female sleuths, and I decided I was going to attempt creating one of my own. I also liked the idea of writing a series. Even as a teenager who was still trying to figure out this novel writing thing, I instinctively knew that, once I’ve created a character, I am invested in his/her life. I want to give my characters more than one book to tell their story.
I don’t really remember when or how Carrie Shatner exactly came to life. Like Athena, who came kicking and screaming into the mythological world directly from Zeus’s forehead as an armed, adult woman, one day Carrie Shatner was there. And I immediately knew that she wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. This kick ass woman had a story to tell, and it was up to me to put that story into words. Basically, it was a hostile takeover of my brain…
Over the years, Carrie Shatner has gone through many transformations. In every version, she was in some form of law enforcement, but her job and place of employment changed more times than Cher would change outfits during her shows.
If this all sounds really confusing and frustrating, trust me, it was. At this point, the only thing about Carrie that hasn’t changed is her name.
Sharon: This is why I love talking to authors! How did you come up with your title?
Randee: My agent, Jennifer Alvarez of BookEnds LLC, is the one who came up with the title. I had originally been calling my novel FAMILY TRADITION in honor of the Hank Williams Jr. song. Trust me, once you meet Carrie Shatner’s family, you’ll understand how it was a fitting title. But Jessica didn’t think that FAMILY TRADITION sounded like the title of a mystery novel. So Jessica pitched some new titles at me, and we agreed that CRIMINAL MISDEEDS was a more genre appropriate title.
[bctt tweet=”Do you have any writing quirks? Maybe some people would consider it quirky that I have full conversations with my characters where I carry on both sides of the conversation out loud… ~ Randee Green @RandeeGreen_12 #Authors18″ username=”sharonbwray”]
Sharon: What a great title story! If you could spend a day with one of your characters, who would it be and what would you do?
Randee: I would love to spend the day hanging with almost all of my characters, but Carrie Shatner would have to be my first choice. She and I share a lot of similar interests and traits, so I’m fairly certain we would get along quite well. If I could spend the day with her, I think I’d just want her to take me on a tour of Wyatt County. I invented her world, but I’d love to have her show it to me. And maybe Carrie could take me to a Shatner family gathering so I could meet all of her crazy kin and pass the homebrewed moonshine around with them.
Sharon: I’d love to meet them all too! Are your character based on real people, or do they come from your imaginations?
Randee: Honestly, it’s a little of both. My main characters mostly come from my imagination, but real people have been the spark that ignited ideas for certain characters. Once that spark is ignited into a fire, the character I come up with in no way resembles that real person that got the process started. As for minor characters who appear once or twice and only play a small role…I’ve been known to base some of them on real people.
Sharon: How long did you take to write this book?
Randee: I worked on writing CRIMINAL MISDEEDS off-and-on for three-and-a-half years. I began writing CRIMINAL MISDEEDS in January 2011 when I was in grad school working on my MA in Creative Writing. It wasn’t until the summer of 2014 that I felt that CRIMINAL MISDEEDS was ready to be submitted to agents. I was almost immediately signed to BookEnds LLC. After some revisions, my agent began sending my novel out to publishers in the fall of 2014. It wasn’t until January of 2017 that CRIMINAL MISDEEDS was picked up by Coffeetown Press. Then it was another year of edits and revisions before the novel was published on July 1, 2018.
Sharon: I love stories of persistence. What kind of research did you do for this book?
Randee: The majority of the research I did for CRIMINAL MISDEEDS involved crime scene investigation and police investigation. I also did some research into the Texas Rangers and the Texas Department of Public Safety because one of my main characters, Jerrod Hardy, is a sergeant with the Texas Rangers.
[bctt tweet=”What is your favorite part of your writing process? If I had to choose a favorite part of the process, it would be the revision stage. Then it’s just taking coal and transforming it into a diamond. ~ Randee Green #Authors18 @RandeeGreen_12″ username=”sharonbwray”]
Sharon: What did you remove from this book during the editing process?
Randee: CRIMINAL MISDEEDS has gone through so many editing processes – first with myself, then with my agent, and finally with my publisher. Through all of the editing, many scenes were revised/rewritten and countless things were removed from the novel. The first draft that I completed in early 2011 is vastly different from the novel that was published.
Sharon: I know those kinds of revisions well. Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Randee: I am a little of both. I will thoroughly plot out my novels scene by scene before I begin writing, but I don’t always stick to what I’ve outlined. Just because something seemed like a good idea during the outlining process doesn’t mean that it will continue to be a good idea as the novel takes shape. I plotted out the third Carrie Shatner Mystery years ago, and I knew who the killer would be for a couple years before I started writing CRIMINAL HISTORY. I got to the scene where Carrie discovered who the killer was and it hit me that the killer I had planned on for years was no longer the killer. The real killer came as a huge surprise to me, as I hope it does to the readers. I had to go back and do some rewriting to accommodate for the new killer, but I feel that straying from my original outline allowed for a much stronger and interesting novel than sticking to my outline would have.
Sharon: What is your favorite part of your writing process, and why?
Randee: I love all parts of the writing process – from the plotting all the way up through the final revisions. That’s not to say that the entire writing process can’t be a big pain in the butt. But if I had to choose a favorite part of the process, it would be the revision stage. By that point, I have a complete novel and that means that hardest part is over with. Then it’s just taking coal and transforming it into a diamond.
Sharon: What is the most challenging part of your writing process, and why?
Randee: For me, the hardest part is getting the first draft completely written. I have it all in my head, but it doesn’t always translate to the page in the way that I want it to. As I always say, I wish it could be as easy to write a book as it is to read one.
Sharon: Can you share your writing routine?
Randee: Right now, I work part time every morning. My afternoons are dedicated to writing or doing something writing related. I typically put in three to four hours every afternoon, and more on the weekends. I also put in a lot of time just thinking about my current project as well as future ones.
Sharon: Have you ever gotten writer’s block?
Randee: Writer’s block is a condition that I frequently suffer from. Sometimes it might last for a couple hours, and other times it can last for days. I’ve learned not to force it when I get stuck. I’ll either move on to something else – either revising something I previously wrote or working on a new scene. Or I might just put my writing aside so I can relax and allow my brain to focus on something else. The muses always come back to me when they are ready.
[bctt tweet=”Have you ever gotten writer’s block? I’ve learned not to force it when I get stuck. I’ll either move on to something else – either revising something I previously wrote or working on a new scene. The muses always come back to me when they are ready. ~ Randee Green #Authors18 @RandeeGreen_12″ username=”sharonbwray”]
Sharon: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Randee: Don’t give up. Don’t stop writing. Believe in yourself.
Sharon: I love that! Do you have any writing quirks?
Randee: I’m just a quirky person in general, but I don’t think I have any writing related quirks. Maybe some people would consider it quirky that I have full conversations with my characters where I carry on both sides of the conversation out loud…
Sharon: How did you get into writing?
Randee: I first realized that I wanted to be a writer when I was in second grade. Every day, my teacher, Mrs. Ziegler would read to us for about half an hour while we calmed down after we came in from recess. As an avid lover of books since before I could read, this was my favorite part of the school day.
I will never forget the day that Mrs. Ziegler began reading LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was hooked from the first page. Mrs. Ziegler was partway through reading the first chapter of Little House in the Big Woods when the rest of the classroom just faded away, leaving me with the book. Just me and Laura. That’s when I sat up a little straighter and thought, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a writer.” It was more than a childish wish. It was a revelation and a declaration. A promise to myself that I spent years striving to fulfil.
[bctt tweet=”How did you get into writing? I first realized that I wanted to be a writer when I was in second grade. I will never forget the day that Mrs. Ziegler began reading LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was hooked from the first page. ~ Randee Green @RandeeGreen_12 #Authors18″ username=”sharonbwray”]
Sharon: Apart from novel writing, do you do any other kinds of writing?
Randee: I write in a journal on a fairly regular basis. I began journaling around my tenth birthday, so this is something I’ve been doing for twenty years. I used to write in my journals every day, and I would write about everything – except for certain important things that I should have been keeping track of like progress on what I was writing and the development of Carrie Shatner. These days I only write in my journal when something happens that I definitely want to remember. I also have a blog on my website, and I try to post something on there a couple times a week.
Sharon: Can you share something about yourself that most people probably don’t know?
Randee: I am a huge professional wrestling fan, though I’m not as into it as I used to be when I was a teenager. But there are few things in this world that I love more than hot, sweaty men in speedos.
Sharon: LOL! I totally agree!! What are you working on right now?
Randee: I’m currently working on a new mystery series idea starring a spunky, strong, amateur female sleuth. I also have an idea for a historical novel that I’ve been doing some research on.
Sharon: I can’t wait to read them when they’re done. What’s your favorite writing advice?
Randee: While I have heard/read countless bits of writing advice over the years, the one piece of advice that has really stuck with me is something that one of my mentors told me when I was in graduate school for creative writing. My mentor told me to “just write the damn thing.” It’s poignant and straight to the point.
[bctt tweet=”What’s your favorite writing advice? My mentor told me to “just write the damn thing.” It’s poignant and straight to the point. ~ Randee Green #Authors18 @RandeeGreen_12 ” username=”sharonbwray”]
Sharon: What book are you currently reading?
Randee: I am currently reading A LADY’S GUIDE TO ETIQUETTE AND MURDER by Dianne Freeman. It is a captivating and funny historical mystery novel, and I highly suggesting checking it out.
Sharon: Thanks so much for sharing your debut with us today, Randee, and I wish you the best too luck!
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Randee Green’s passion for reading began in grade school with LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, as well as a master’s and an MFA in Creative Writing. When not writing, she’s usually reading, indulging in her passion for Texas country music, traveling, or hanging out with her favorite feline friend, Mr. Snookums G. Cat.
You can find CRIMINAL MISDEEDS here: Amazon
You can find Randee here: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Goodreads
Sharon Wray is a librarian who once studied dress design in the couture houses of Paris and now writes about the men in her Deadly Force romantic suspense series where ex-Green Berets meet their match in smart, sexy heroines who teach these alpha males that Grace always defeats Reckoning.
Her acclaimed debut book EVERY DEEP DESIRE, a sexy, action-packed retelling of Romeo and Juliet, is about an ex-Green Beret determined to regain his honor, his freedom, and his wife.
EVERY DEEP DESIRE is available on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | |
And adding it to your Goodreads TBR list is also always appreciated!
