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Mystery, murder and real estate: An interview with Nancy Lynn Jarvis

Nancy Lynn Jarvis is a Santa Cruz real estate agent turned cozy mystery writer. She has written four books: The Widow’s Walk League, Buying Murder, Backyard Bones and The Death Contingency, all starring Regan McHenry—also a real estate agent based in Santa Cruz. Though her real life experience as a realtor has informed her writing, Jarvis is keen to insist that Regan is not merely her literary dopplegänger. We caught up with her via email and asked her a few questions about her ideas, influences and current interests. Here’s what we uncovered!

Who are your favorite authors and/or influences?

If the writer sets the scene in England as it might have been (but probably never was) in the first half of the twentieth century, I’m hooked. My favorites are Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. Tony Hillerman probably had the greatest influence on me starting to write, though. I had just finished reading all of his Chee and Leaphorn books when I took a time-out from being a real estate agent because the market was so bad. I got bored and decided, as a time-filling game, that I would try to write a mystery.

Do you have a favorite quote about the writing process?

I can’t quote verbatim, but I remember one of my favorite writers, Doris Kerns Goodwin, saying she always thinks her writing is perfectly clear until her husband reads what she had written and asks her what the heck she is trying to say. Do I ever empathise with that.

How does your geographic location influence your writing?

I need to describe my surroundings based on what I see and to know where I am as I write. My books are set in Santa Cruz, where I live, for that reason.

Has your past influenced your writing at all, and if so, how?

Oh, absolutely. Shakespeare/Santa Cruz, where I worked for a time, always gets a mention in my books. My protagonist, Regan McHenry, is a realtor who owns a real estate company with her husband like I did. Except for the murders, all the real estate stories in the books either happened to me or to realtor friends of mine. Regan, however, is not me. She’s much younger, thinner, and more successful than I am.

Pick your poison: what’s your favorite writing fuel?

A good strong cup of Earl Grey tea, slightly sweetened.

Do you have any special writing routines, exercises or superstitions when starting a new project?

I do a psychological profile of each of the characters in the book and think about their past before I start writing. Often my characters tell me things that find their way into the books. They wouldn’t do that if I didn’t know them so well and if they didn’t trust me to listen to them.

What are your hobbies, outside of writing?

I’m an avid gardener with a three-story third-of-an-acre plot, I’m addicted to The Mentalist and PBS mysteries, and a I’m a serial needlepointer.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

I’d be retired and bugging my kids to give me grandchildren.

If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would it be?

The Basque areas of Spain and France. You caught me; I just watched a Rick Steves travel show about those areas. They look gorgeous.

As a self-published author, do you have any advice specifically for self-publishers?

Stop making excuses for not writing. Do it now. Then, after you finish writing, edit, edit, edit. And when you think what you’ve written is well edited, turn it over to a pro.

What are you currently working on, or what’s next for you?

I realize my two favorite characters in the books I’ve written are Mrs. Rosemont from The Death Contingency and Olive from The Widows Walk League. Both are older women. I decided to try my hand at writing from the perspective of Mags, an eighty-three year old woman who finds herself leading a gang of her peers in a bank robbery. I’m a little over halfway through the book and having lots of fun writing it, although I’m beginning to feel the need for the order and logic of a mystery and have been turning over a couple of plots in my mind.

Mark Your Calendars

Black Heart readers can download a FREE copy of Nancy Lynn Jarvis’ book, Backyard Bones, this Friday, July 13!

Can’t wait? You can read all of Nancy’s books at Amazon. And don’t forget to visit her website at Good Read Mysteries.

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