With over 60 novels to her name, bestselling author Patricia McLinn has built a loyal fanbase across mystery, romance, and women’s fiction.
As she celebrates the release of Death on the Road, the latest installment in her Secret Sleuth series, McLinn gives us a behind-the-scenes look at her quirky process, favorite books, and the one comfort food she can’t live without. From writing out of order to channeling real-life irks into fictional foes, her answers are as honest as they are delightful.
Ready to meet the mind behind the mystery?
1. Your best virtue as an author.
Guilt. (See the answer to the next question.)
2. Your most quirky author habit.
I write out of order. Stories usually start for me with a character who steps out of the mists. I start writing what that character gives me and keep going as long as scenes and insights come to me. Then I have to buckle down and fill in all the gaps that are left to create a complete story. That is truly hard work. But by that time, I know the characters well enough that I’d feel too much guilt if I left their stories unfinished. So, hard work here I come.
3. Your favorite quality in a protagonist.
They talk to me a lot. Pour out their secrets, pasts, hopes, flaws. Alas, this is theoretical because I’ve yet to have a protagonist who’s been perfectly forthcoming. That means I also appreciate characters who bring a bit of humor to make the process more fun.
4. Your favorite quality in an antagonist.
They’re antagonists — no favorite qualities, especially since they tend to be sneaky quiet, failing completely when it comes to talking to me. On the other hand, they earn their keep because there’s a greater than zero chance that a few antagonists in my books were sparked by people from real life who irked me. (It’s so cathartic.)
5. If you could ask any other author, past or present, a question who would it be and what would you ask?
Oh, this one’s easy. It would be William Shakespeare. I’d start with if he truly wrote all the plays and poetry ascribed to him (and if not, who did)? And if he did, it would be followed up with: Will you share all your secrets?
6. When you aren’t writing, you are___
Haunted by characters backed up in the waiting room of my mind, demanding their turn. I try to ignore them by gardening and dog-owning.
7. Your easiest book to write.
Truly, it’s the one I have in mind to write next, but haven’t started. It sits there, just out of reach, all shiny and promising, whispering that it will be the smoothest, easiest, fastest, most rewarding book ever.
8. Your hardest book to write.
The one I’m actually writing. Before starting a book, everything is possible. Writing one requires cutting off some of the potential avenues to find the right one for that book. You know, being a grown up and making hard decisions.
9. Your ideal writing place.
The joy of laptops is the ability to move around and that’s what I do. On the deck overlooking my garden, on a loveseat in my office, on a red upholstered chaise by big windows. I do also write at my office desk with a real, grown-up desk chair . . . that twirls.
But my ideal editing place, when I’m working with printouts, is always the red upholstered chaise. It has the right amount of room for piles of papers without crowding me.
10. Your favorite childhood book.
One? You can’t make me pick just one. That’s cruel.
I’ll say one that had a lot of impact – Misty of Chincoteague. In addition to loving the book, it gave me a great gift, when I learned that the author, Marguerite Henry, once lived in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, the town next to where I grew up.
It was a revelation to me that real people – someone real enough to have lived in the next town over – wrote books. It opened the door to the dream that I could write books, too.
11. The book you’ve reread the most.
I reread quite a few books, including Josephine Tey, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Rex Stout. Those are my comfort reads. And then there’s one that always makes me laugh: The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer — dry humor, two romances, and a touch of mystery. (I also enjoy several of Heyer’s humor-laced mysteries.)
12. Your favorite hero from literature.
Atticus Fitch from To Kill a Mockingbird.
13. Your favorite villain from literature.
It’s cheating, but I’ll still saying Scrooge from A Christmas Carol – because he’s no longer a villain at the end.
14. The name of your autobiography.
No Ending in Sight
15. Your favorite comfort food.
Chocolate! And I need a lot of comfort.
16. First thing you do when you finish writing a novel.
Sleep. I’m always short of it when I finish.
Then, I usually try to make up for lost time with my dog, Tessa, which includes refresher training, cutting nails, catching up on coat grooming . . . so she’s soon wishing I’d go back on deadline.
17. A secret talent you have.
I can recite the alphabet backward, a carryover from my first paycheck job, when I was a page at the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library and shelved returned books backward because of the layout. (Helen and her husband Colonel Plum donated their house for the library and their property for Lilacia Park in my hometown, Lombard, Illinois. So, yes, there was a Colonel Plum in the library!)
18. Where have you always wanted to travel?
I’m fortunate to have been to most of the places I’ve wanted to travel to – though I’d love to go back to many. I do want to go to Alaska and Utah, because they are the only two U.S. states I’ve never been to. And then there’s Portugal . . .
19. One tip for aspiring authors?
All writing advice is a buffet. Only you know what might be worth trying and what doesn’t hold any appeal, because only you can write your stories. As I confessed above, I write out of order. In other words, I have a weird process. Most advice says to abandon my process and do it the “right way.” Doesn’t work for me. (And if you have a strange process, I’ve written a book called Survival Kit for Writers Who Don’t Write Right that might offer support.)
So, find your process, then respect it . . . while also being open to sampling new tastes that intrigue you from that advice buffet.
Relax about all the other stuff. There’s nothing that happens that you can’t recover from as long as you keep writing.
20. Puppies or kittens?
Puppies. My rescue collie Tessa would think she’d gone to heaven with little fuzzies to herd. Though kittens wouldn’t be the worst thing. 😉
About Patricia McLinn:
Patricia McLinn is the USA Today bestselling author of more than 60 published novels cited by readers and reviewers for wit and vivid characterization. Her books include mysteries, romantic suspense, contemporary romance, historical romance, and women’s fiction. They have topped bestseller lists and won numerous awards.
She has spoken about writing from London to Melbourne, Australia, to Washington, D.C., including being a guest speaker at the Smithsonian.
McLinn spent more than 20 years as an editor at The Washington Post after stints as a sports writer (Rockford, Ill.) and assistant sports editor (Charlotte, N.C.). She received BA and MSJ degrees from Northwestern University.
Now living in Kentucky, McLinn loves to hear from readers through her website PatriciaMcLinn.com and social media.
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