Sydney Graves

Sydney Graves is a pseudonym for Kate Christensen, an Arizona native and the author of eight novels, most recently Welcome Home, Stranger. Her fourth novel, The Great Man, won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. She has also published two food-centric memoirs, Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose, which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. Her essays, reviews, and short pieces have appeared in a wide variety of publications and anthologies. She lives with her husband and their two dogs in Taos, New Mexico.

Graves's new book is The Arizona Triangle: A Jo Bailen Detective Novel.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The word Arizona tells the reader where the book is set. It's an economical way to invite her into the book's world, and it's also a lovely state name. Arizona carries metaphorical implications too, the romance of the west, the visual of dramatic mountains against deep blue sky and saguaro silhouettes, so it instantly gives the reader so much of the atmosphere the book is imbued with.

The word Triangle does double duty, as a play on the Bermuda Triangle, a place of danger and mystery, as well as a reference to the love triangle at the heart of the mystery.

What's in a name?

I wanted Jo Bailen's name to work on several levels. First, she's queer and mixed-race, and both vulnerable and strong. I chose Jo because, of course, we all associate that name with the invincible heroine of Little Women. It's a plausibly masculine name with a feminine spelling, and I liked the interplay of those two qualities. Her last name is a Spanish name, not a Mexican one. Her Mexican-based family is offensively proud of their European heritage, and I wanted a name that reflected Europe rather than Mexico, and that also had an English pronunciation, because her mother is Anglo. Jo deplores her Mexican relatives for their racism and wants nothing to do with them, just as her late father didn't. In terms of naming her, I wanted to get at the contradictions and depths of her character. And I also like the way Jo Bailen looks on the page, from an aesthetic standpoint. It’s a very good name for a detective.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

When I was a teenager, I was an avid, passionate fan of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Dick Francis. My teenage self would be absolutely thrilled to know that she would someday be publishing her own detective series. In part, I wrote this book for her.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Beginnings are harder. Ironically though, I also find beginnings more fun. Starting a book opens a world of possibility, suggestion, intrigue, and interesting characters. By the time I get to the ending, I already know what's going to happen, so it's a matter of wrapping up what I've said in motion rather than a thrilling process of discovery.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

All of my characters contain parts of myself, and all of them have qualities I don't, both traits I wish I had and ones I'm glad I don't have. I try to create flawed and complex people who feel as real as anyone we know.

Visit Sydney Graves's website.

--Marshal Zeringue