Margaret Lucke is the author of House of Whispers, first in a series of
paranormal romantic suspense novels from Juno Books. (Her personal Web site is:
www.margaretlucke.com.)
Her earlier novel, A
Relative Stranger, was nominated
for an Anthony Award for Best First Mystery. A former president of the Northern
California chapter of MWA, she teaches fiction writing classes and is an
editorial consultant for businesses and individuals. She has authored two how-to
books, Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great Short Stories and Writing
Mysteries, as well as short stories, feature articles, and scripts for
mystery weekends. Lucke lives near San Francisco in a house that she shares with
a husband,
a cat, and various wilting houseplants. She enjoys black tea, red wine and dark
chocolate.
Margaret Lucke says she has been "flinging words around for most of my life, as
a writer, editor,
communications consultant, teacher of writing classes, and writing coach."
Writing fiction is her first love. "Ever since I produced my first book at age
five (I still have the one and only copy), I've been fascinated by the power of
stories and the magic of creativity."
Lucke's debut novel, A Relative Stranger, was published by St. Martin's
Press in
...well, the same year Nirvana released Nevermond...but she's not been
idle.
"Between novels, I wrote two nonfiction books,
Writing Mysteries (Self-Counsel Press) and Schaum's Quick Guide to
Writing Great
Short Stories (McGraw-Hill), ghostwrote a third (shh!), published a number
of
short stories and magazine features, and served two terms as president of the
Northern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America." She does hope the
interval
between this novel and the next will be much shorter. (And it should be MUCH
shorter: Mansion of Desire is
slated for publication in February 2009.)
The "Supernatural Properties" series (admittedly, the nameis a bit of a pun) is,
she explains,
"on one level, a fancy way of
saying 'haunted houses.' Claire Scanlan, the central character in the series, is
a real estate agent who comes to make a specialty of selling problem
properties--places that are difficult to sell because they are beset by
paranormal phenomena. On another level it refers to Claire herself. She is
characterized by her own 'supernatural properties'--the skills and sensitivities
that make her aware of spirits, energies, and occurrences that most people don't
notice or can't understand."
The property featured House of Whispers is a modern, architect-designed
home overlooking the
San Francisco Bay; in the second book, Mansion of Desire, a Victorian
mansion in San Francisco that was once a bordello is featured. "As the series
moves forward," say Lucke,
"Claire may take on challenging properties in fascinating locales all over
California--the wild and remote Lost Coast, the sybaritic Wine Country, the
historic Gold Country with its lure of wealth, the majestic Sierra, the dazzling
environs of Hollywood. Each place will lead her to a new mysterious and romantic
adventure."
Why are so many mysteries set in the SF area? "One reason is that it's
such a colorful place. In San Francisco, though,
"colorful" doesn't mean reds, greens, or blues. It refers to the region's
rough-and-tumble Gold Rush history, the eccentricities of many current
residents, the mix of cultures, the variety of lifestyles. It has been said that
San Francisco is a city of schemers and dreamers, that people come here because
they are running from something or to something. Rudyard Kipling called it 'a
mad city--inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people...' What writer
couldn't find great plots and characters in a place like that?"
Lucke feels writing mysteries offers many challenges and satisfactions.
"Mysteries
demand that I tell a
good story and create a challenging puzzle, and in return they offer an
unlimited canvas on which to explore any theme or subject that intrigues me. On
the page I can have adventures and take risks that I never would in real life,
and I have the power to create order and logic in what is really a disorderly,
capricious, and confusing world. In a mystery, I can unveil the secrets,
discover the truth, and make justice prevail."
But with Claire Scanlon, Lucke also had the task of inventing
a chracter with paranormal powers. "One challenge was to understand what those
supernatural powers are. What can the
character do, and what can she not do? There are many kinds of paranormal
powers, in the same way that there are many kinds of artistic abilities. Just
because someone can, say, perform magic, it doesn't follow that she can also
read minds, any more than you can expect a gifted musician to produce beautiful
paintings.
"Another challenge is to figure out how her powers, and any paranormal phenomena
in the story, might work. We understand that the physical universe operates by
laws of physics. Similarly, the supernatural world must behave according to
certain rules. Readers are more willing to suspend their disbelief when the
writer brings them into a story world that seems consistent and logical, even if
the logic differs from what we're used to."
Lucke is currently busy writing her second Supernatural Properties novel and
researching a third.
"Research" may involve spending some time visiting its locale: California's
beautiful, isolated
"Lost Coast". "I love to travel," says Lucke. "My writing career has given me
chances to visit
Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, England, and Italy, as well as Alaska and other
U.S. places. Most days, though, I journey no farther than my desk--and into my
imagination."
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