M. S. SPENCER (Cont.)
INTERVIEW
MFRW:
M. S.:
MFRW:
M. S.:
5
Tell us about your latest book. What moti-
vated the story? Where did the idea come
from? Where do your story ideas usually come
from?
I usually start with a setting, then rum-
mage around on the internet for interest-
ing tidbits to inspire me. My work-in-
progress is set in Maine, at the same little
village where The Penhallow Train Inci-
dent was set. Tentatively entitled Mrs.
Spinney’s Secret, it’s based on a true
event. My family were vacationing at a
small place, and a movie production com-
pany came to town. At first we were ex-
cited, but it soon became very irksome
and restrictive. But at least we didn’t have
to deal with a series of murders and treas-
ure hunters like my heroine Cassidy Jane
Beauvoir did!
How many books have you written? How
many have been published?
I did write a mystery many years ago, be-
fore computers and printers. It was a mur-
der set in Williamsburg and Yorktown,
VA. I thought it was pretty good, & had
an agent look at it. We’ll never know if it
would have been published, since my hus-
band inadvertently threw it out. Inadver-
tently was his word. I now have
twelve mystery/romantic sus-
pense novels under my belt.
Orion’s Foot: Myth, Mystery &
Romance in the Amazon will be
published this year. Here’s the
blurb:
Petra Steele is wallowing in self-
pity after being dumped at the altar,
when her brother Nick invites her to
come to the Peruvian Amazon. Be-
MFRW:
M. S.:
fore she even sets her suit-
case down, she‘s con-
fronted with a murder vic-
tim. Mystery piles on mys-
tery in a research station
peopled with a quirky as-
sortment of scientists. She is drawn to Emory
Andrews, the ornithologist, a gruff, big man
with a secret past, until his beautiful ex-wife
shows up. More murders, more secrets, more
mysteries ensue, all in the deeply romantic,
sizzling jungle.
What book for you has been the easiest to
write? The hardest? The most fun?
The Penhallow Train Incident was the
easiest—I like to be actually in the setting
when I write a story, and I was enjoying a
summer in Maine. I was able to harness
my passions for Maine and for anthropol-
ogy in one nice volume. The Pit and the
Passion: Murder at the Ghost Hotel was
hands-down the most fun. Rancor Bass,
the hero, is simultaneously exasperating
and lovable. I also loved writing the sec-
ondary characters in The Mason’s Mark:
Love & Death in the Tower—my “Miss
Marples.” The hardest was definitely Flot-
sam & Jetsam: the Amelia Island Affair,
because through
forces beyond my
control (Simon
made me do it) I
had to cede the
POV to the hero
and not the heroine.
Ensuring an au-
thentic male point
of view was a real
challenge.