Ask the Author: Dale E. Lehman
Answered Questions (11)
Dale E. Lehman
I'm not a professional editor. I do have long experience revising and editing my own work. Also, I've done a little revision and editing for a couple of friends. I generally don't offer revision/editorial services for hire, but if you're interested in hiring me for that, send me a PM and we can talk. Just remember, I'm not a professional editor.
Dale E. Lehman
Hi Steve! I'd be interested in hearing what details gave you that impression. It's been a while since I read it, and I don't remember everything that's in it.
You're correct that I made a chronology mistake, but I didn't think it was that. When wrote Fibonacci Murders, I intentionally avoided specifying a year for the events. I did, however, have in mind a time somewhere around 2007-8. As I recall, there's a reference to the recession that occurred around that time. It was only when I got into True Death (HCM #2) that I realized I had flubbed some of the chronology. In particular, the ages for Peller, his son Jason, and his grandchildren do not stack up correctly. I fiddled with a timeline to try to make things as close to reasonable as possible, and ended up with Fibonacci and True Deathtaking place in 2005 and Ice on the Bay in 2006. (The forthcoming HCM #4, A Day For Bones also takes place in 2006.)
But there was no fixing the chronologies. The ages in Peller's family are still out of whack. My editor/wife told me not to worry about it, since most people likely wouldn't notice anyway. I make this confession only because you've asked. And as I say in "About the Setting," I won't guarantee perfection in all areas. ;-)
You're correct that I made a chronology mistake, but I didn't think it was that. When wrote Fibonacci Murders, I intentionally avoided specifying a year for the events. I did, however, have in mind a time somewhere around 2007-8. As I recall, there's a reference to the recession that occurred around that time. It was only when I got into True Death (HCM #2) that I realized I had flubbed some of the chronology. In particular, the ages for Peller, his son Jason, and his grandchildren do not stack up correctly. I fiddled with a timeline to try to make things as close to reasonable as possible, and ended up with Fibonacci and True Deathtaking place in 2005 and Ice on the Bay in 2006. (The forthcoming HCM #4, A Day For Bones also takes place in 2006.)
But there was no fixing the chronologies. The ages in Peller's family are still out of whack. My editor/wife told me not to worry about it, since most people likely wouldn't notice anyway. I make this confession only because you've asked. And as I say in "About the Setting," I won't guarantee perfection in all areas. ;-)
Dale E. Lehman
Typically 9 months to a year. The first draft of "Ice on the Bay" was written in about that time frame, but the editing has taken a full year because my editor-wife Kathleen was assaulted by a combination of too much other work and too many health problems. Also, she's my co-author for this book, having written a lot of the material dealing with Detective Sergeant Corina Montufar's struggles with her religious life. So in a way, the writing actually took something like a year and a half to two years, but it's a lot better for the extra time we put into it.
Dale E. Lehman
I've always been interested in mysteries. When I was in junior high (I think) I owned a book called "Two-Minute Mysteries" which were very short stories that all hinged on a cleverly concealed clue. The detective solved the case, and the reader was asked, "How did he know?" I watched various mystery series on TV, including "Columbo" and the PBS "Mystery" series. I also read into Sherlock Holmes, various of Agatha Christie's works, and a number of more recent mystery authors.
So it's fairly natural for me to write crime stories. I'm not sure exactly when I started. I used to write almost exclusively science fiction, but I probably wrote some that would be considered SF/mystery stories. My first attempt at a novel was a mystery, sometime in the mid-1990s, but it came out rather short. The novels I wrote before my 10-year hiatus were all over the place: SF, fantasy, mystery, and SF/mystery. My Howard County Mystery series kickstarted my fiction efforts.
So it's fairly natural for me to write crime stories. I'm not sure exactly when I started. I used to write almost exclusively science fiction, but I probably wrote some that would be considered SF/mystery stories. My first attempt at a novel was a mystery, sometime in the mid-1990s, but it came out rather short. The novels I wrote before my 10-year hiatus were all over the place: SF, fantasy, mystery, and SF/mystery. My Howard County Mystery series kickstarted my fiction efforts.
Dale E. Lehman
It was meant to add some tension and flesh out Corina Montufar's character. I need to explain something, though.
Due to a 10-year hiatus from fiction writing, I was admittedly out of practice. I was so focused on getting the crime sequences right that I didn't delve much into the main characters' backgrounds. In hindsight, the little bit that's there probably wasn't enough. We learn that Peller's wife died in a car crash four years earlier, and he has one brief phone call with his son and grandchildren. The car crash brings in Corina's sister Ella and brother Eduardo. But that's it. Dumas stands strangely alone, without any past to speak of. If I were to write Fibonacci today, I'd do it a bit differently.
Nevertheless, that shortcoming afforded me, in True Death, the opportunity to explore my detectives' backstories. Sandra Peller's fatal accident comes to the fore. How he confronts the truth of her death and works through it with his son's family reveals a great deal about him. The Montufar siblings must simultaneously cope with the aftermath of Eduardo's accident. And we find out about Eric Dumas's troubled, hidden past.
The forthcoming installment in the series, Ice on the Bay, continues these explorations in the context of a disappearance, a murder, and an arson, and opens (sort of) a new chapter in Rick Peller's life.
What happens in HCM4 remains to be seen. ;-)
Due to a 10-year hiatus from fiction writing, I was admittedly out of practice. I was so focused on getting the crime sequences right that I didn't delve much into the main characters' backgrounds. In hindsight, the little bit that's there probably wasn't enough. We learn that Peller's wife died in a car crash four years earlier, and he has one brief phone call with his son and grandchildren. The car crash brings in Corina's sister Ella and brother Eduardo. But that's it. Dumas stands strangely alone, without any past to speak of. If I were to write Fibonacci today, I'd do it a bit differently.
Nevertheless, that shortcoming afforded me, in True Death, the opportunity to explore my detectives' backstories. Sandra Peller's fatal accident comes to the fore. How he confronts the truth of her death and works through it with his son's family reveals a great deal about him. The Montufar siblings must simultaneously cope with the aftermath of Eduardo's accident. And we find out about Eric Dumas's troubled, hidden past.
The forthcoming installment in the series, Ice on the Bay, continues these explorations in the context of a disappearance, a murder, and an arson, and opens (sort of) a new chapter in Rick Peller's life.
What happens in HCM4 remains to be seen. ;-)
Dale E. Lehman
From the day the skeletal old man moved into the apartment across the hall, Roger sensed death in the air, but when that evening in the dim of the hall the shriveled fellow extended a shaking hand cupping a little black jewelry box and said, "You've never seen the like of this," he felt compelled to look. And when the man opened the box to reveal infinite blackness and swirling stardust, a cosmos in a box, Roger felt drawn into it, right to the moment when pinprick fangs sank into his arm and pulled him whole into the dark with his neighbor's hollow cackle following eternally through the void.
Dale E. Lehman
I don't usually construct a reading list. I pick up titles as they look good. That said, I've been wanting to reread Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" and have now started it. So I guess that's at the top of my list.
Dale E. Lehman
It's a mystery to me. ;-) To be honest, I can't think of any real mysteries in my life. Most of them resolve themselves with a little thought or new information. I know, basically, how the cat that fell spectacularly out of the dropped ceiling got up there. I found out what caused that otherworldly midnight glow alongside the South Dakota interstate. The scratching at the bedroom window that so frightened my children and even set the dog to snarling turned out to be an escaped cat--the same one that later fell out of the ceiling, wouldn't you know. But while none of these are real mysteries, any of them could certainly spark a story. Hmmm . . .
Dale E. Lehman
Thanks, Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, for posing a question I can't easily answer. ;-) I'm not sure I have a favorite fictional couple. A lot of the best-drawn characters I know seem to be without or between partners. Also, I have a terrible memory for names and for history, so I probably can't even remember the best fictional couples I've met.
Sooooo . . . at the risk of sounding like I'm indulging in shameless self-promotion, I'll say that I'm very fond of two of my own couples: Rick and Sandra Peller, and Eric Dumas and Corina Montufar, denizens of my Howard County mysteries.
Rick and Sandra are a special case. Sandra was killed in a hit-and-run four years before the series begins, but Rick still senses her presence and sometimes talks with her. Eric and Corina, meanwhile, are just starting out together.
So okay, they're my characters. Of course I like them. But moreover, I like them because they are devoted to their partners and would willingly die for each other. I imagine that like all couples they have their ups and downs, but their bond is deep and genuine, and can't be broken by the changes and chances of this world. In other words, their love is transcendent.
As all genuine love must be.
Sooooo . . . at the risk of sounding like I'm indulging in shameless self-promotion, I'll say that I'm very fond of two of my own couples: Rick and Sandra Peller, and Eric Dumas and Corina Montufar, denizens of my Howard County mysteries.
Rick and Sandra are a special case. Sandra was killed in a hit-and-run four years before the series begins, but Rick still senses her presence and sometimes talks with her. Eric and Corina, meanwhile, are just starting out together.
So okay, they're my characters. Of course I like them. But moreover, I like them because they are devoted to their partners and would willingly die for each other. I imagine that like all couples they have their ups and downs, but their bond is deep and genuine, and can't be broken by the changes and chances of this world. In other words, their love is transcendent.
As all genuine love must be.
Dale E. Lehman
"The Fibonacci Murders" started with the idea of a mathematician as a key character in a mystery. I honestly don't remember what sparked the idea; I think it just popped into my head one day for no apparent reason. It took about two years for that basic idea to find a story, though.
The sequel, "True Death," currently being written, had its seeds in the first book. Since it would be a bit of a spoiler, I'm not saying right now what it is, but if you read "The Fibonacci Murders" you will (possibly without knowing it) run across the genesis of "True Death."
The SF/humor novel I have in progress began as a play on words. I was thinking I'd like to try my hand at some SF again. I used to write almost nothing but; I haven't written any for a long time. The question was: SF of what sort? While rummaging through the history of the genre, I recalled the old category of space opera. A title sprang to mind based on that: "Space Operatic." From there, it became a tale of a hapless opera company trying to make a living traveling to various outposts scattered on the fringes of our solar system.
The sequel, "True Death," currently being written, had its seeds in the first book. Since it would be a bit of a spoiler, I'm not saying right now what it is, but if you read "The Fibonacci Murders" you will (possibly without knowing it) run across the genesis of "True Death."
The SF/humor novel I have in progress began as a play on words. I was thinking I'd like to try my hand at some SF again. I used to write almost nothing but; I haven't written any for a long time. The question was: SF of what sort? While rummaging through the history of the genre, I recalled the old category of space opera. A title sprang to mind based on that: "Space Operatic." From there, it became a tale of a hapless opera company trying to make a living traveling to various outposts scattered on the fringes of our solar system.
Dale E. Lehman
I currently have three projects in the works. My next mystery novel, "True Death," is a sequel to "The Fibonacci Murders" and features the Howard County detectives. I have another mystery in the works, a cozy tentatively titled "The Baha'i Lady" which features an elderly lady who happens to be a Baha'i (thus the title) and who helps a small-town police chief from time to time. (That one is somewhat stalled at the moment, but I'll get back to it eventually.) The third project is an SF/humor novel titled "Space Operatic" dealing with the misadventures of a spacefaring opera company .
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