Her new Dorothy Martin mystery is A Thief's Folly.
My Q&A with the author:
How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Jeanne M. Dams's website.
A Thief’s Folly was not my title. Readers may not realize that titles are the prerogative of the publisher. My title, Deadly Treasure, says a good deal more about the subject of the book, which concerns an object of value in the home of a good friend of the protagonist, Dorothy Martin. Jane, the friend and neighbor, has suffered a stroke and is unable to talk well enough to tell Dorothy what she (Jane) wants Dorothy to find and hide. The search takes Dorothy and Alan to Paris and ends in a death and a criminal’s reform.
What’s in a name?
My protagonist, Dorothy Martin, is named after my favorite cousin. She’s been gone for a good many years now, but I loved her dearly. To me the name suggests solid Midwestern values. Like me and my cousin, character Dorothy is from Indiana, though now living in England, as I have for many years longed to do.
How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?
I think she would not be surprised at all. Even at that age I’d read Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes and loved the mystery genre, including the adventures of Freddy the Pig—look him up if you don’t know him!
Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?
Oh, beginnings are easy! All I know when I begin is the setting and a very rough idea about the plot. I knew, for example, that Folly would feature Jane, and would be aboutvalues, what really matters. For the rest, I let the characters take over and do what they will. That may sound idiotic, but it works for me. If I get too far ahead of them and start having ideas about the ending, they firmly pull me back into control. If that sounds weird, I admit that it is, and I have no explanation of how they, creatures of my own mind, take on life and ideas of their own.
Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?
That’s easy: Dorothy Martin is me. Is I? Anyway, her ideas and attitudes, her background and opinions, are entirely mine. Friends say when they read her dialogue, they hear me speaking. The other characters have some things in common with me, but not a lot. Nor are they based on real people I know.
What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?
My books are full of references to music and art that I love, but I don’t think they influence my writing much, except insofar as they have influenced me over the years and helped form my, i.e. Dorothy’s, character. Certainly my faith has influenced every aspect of my persona, including my writing.
Writers Read: Jeanne M. Dams.
--Marshal Zeringue