Speaking of Fictional Authors...

...as I was in my post about Stranger Than Fiction, I have just finished reading Fiona Brand's gripping Body Work. I'd meant to stretch it out over the week, to read a few chapters a night, but just like Linda Howard warned me in the cover quote, the story sucked me in and I had to keep on reading. Here's the blurb:

Someone wants her dead and she can't remember why....

As a child, Jane Gale witnessed her mother's murder and was nearly killed trying to escape. Left for dead, she has suffered complete memory loss, unable to recall who she was before the "accident" or the events that caused her mother's death. Twenty-five years later, Jane has a new life and a blossoming career as a novelist--until the killer picks up her book and discovers that the only eyewitness to his secrets has survived. And told.

Oblivious to the fact that she has attracted the murderer back into her life, Jane has no idea where the inspiration for her bestseller came from. But she has a photograph that leads her back to Louisiana, to a place she knows but can't remember--and to a stranger she wants to trust. Because somehow, he is a link to her past...and her only chance of staying alive.

I asked the real author, Fiona Brand, a few questions about Body Work, which she has been kind enough to answer.

Bron: I love the premise, Fiona. Is this an idea you've had brewing for a while or did it just strike you, all ready to go?

Fiona: I started working on the idea years ago. It was nothing out of the ordinary--a thriller type plot--and then I had a moment of inspiration. It was actually quite an electrifying moment. I wish I could come up with stuff like that every day. At the time I knew I wasn't ready to write the story, so I put it on the backburner. It was about seven years before I finally got to it.

Bron: Did you enjoy writing a heroine who was an author writing a thriller? Did you have to step back and consciously make her "not you"?

Fiona: I guess out of all the heroines I've written, Jane was the easiest to write because I felt really at home with her. I didn't have to dig around looking for quirks or insecurities--I knew them all :-) I got to put in a couple of 'writer's' jokes, which made my day. As for stepping back and making her 'not me'; I think the main line was drawn by the situation she was in--hunted by a serial killer and falling in love with a really hot guy. Definitely not me!

Bron: Why Louisiana?

Fiona: Because I love books set in the South, especially Louisiana. I'm not sure what it is, but Louisiana is one of those fictional destinations that creates an automatic thrill for me. Also, I still have fond memories of the 2001 RWA conference I remember arriving in New Orleans, walking through the airport and hearing all those wonderful Southern accents. Strolling down Royal Street in the steamy heat and having some guy mutter a compliment as he walked past. Then there was the night of The Cockroach in that bistro...

Bron: (I'm disappointed that the monster cockroach didn't make it into the book.) So, you were researching this book back then?

Fiona: I knew I was going to write the book, so I was looking around with purpose... I got lots of tourist pamphlets, a street map of New Orleans, and best of all a cookbook produced by a local civic club. Every recipe had the name of the contributor, so it was a great resource for the type of names they have there.

Bron goes off into a slight fog thinking about Toussaint, the hero in Body Work, and returns to find that Fiona, tired of waiting for the next question, has returned to writing her current thriller-in-progress, part of a trilogy scheduled for 2008.

Thanks, Fiona, for being the first of a series of guests at Sunburnt Author. Readers, if you like taut suspense with intriguing, fully-drawn characters, Body Work is a book worth checking out.