Caroline B. Cooney is the bestselling author of teen suspense, mystery and romance novels that have sold over 15 million copies worldwide. Her latest novel, Before She Was Helen, is a mystery for adult readers and it is set in South Carolina where she resides. Cooney recently agreed to talk about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.
What was your inspiration for Before She Was Helen?
When I moved to the very Sun City in which this book is set, I immediately thought—what a great setting for a mystery! The similarity of housing is unnerving. For months I couldn’t recognize my own house and had to press the automatic garage door opener to see which one went up! People turned out to be remarkably friendly—and nobody cared about what you did in your previous life; they cared only if you could sub in a card game or play piano for the chorus rehearsal. You know about your new friends—and they know about you—only what you choose to say. A perfect place to be somebody you’re not.
Are Clemmie/Helen, Joyce, Johnny, Borobasq, or any of the other characters in the novel inspired by or based on specific individuals?
I make everybody up, in all my books. However, my friend makes glass, an art called lampworking, and his stories gave me the idea for Borobasq.
What’s currently on your nightstand?
I usually have a couple of mysteries going, and a history or two. Right now I’m reading The Year 1000 by Valerie Hansen and re-reading Kipling’s Kim (still wonderful). Last week I discovered the Ballard/Bosch series by Michael Connelly and I’m on my third, and I just started a mystery in a series I’m not familiar with by Charles Finch, called A Death in the Small Hours. That way, no matter what room I’m in or what sofa I’m on, I have a book there.
What is a book you've faked reading?
Once about twenty years ago a friend of mine started a book club in which we would read all the titles we lied about reading in high school! I was so excited. But somehow it became a Jane Austen club instead. A great loss, because my list of lied-about books was long.
Is there a book that changed your life?
This book changed my writing life decades ago. I’d been floundering; writing a lot but accomplishing little. Dean Koontz published a book called Writing Popular Fiction. I think I read once that he sort of disowned it, but for me, it opened the door to writing for a living.
Is there a book you would most want to read again for the first time?
During this time of isolation, I decided to reread the Little House books, which I had not touched since I read them to my own children forty years ago. They are still absolutely wonderful. Ma and Pa can do anything! Now and then, though, I kind of shrink from re-reading, because I’m afraid I won’t recapture the original joy of a long-ago book.
What is your idea of THE perfect day (where you could go anywhere/meet with anyone)?
I would like to be with my parents. They are no longer alive, but what a wonderful and perfect day it would be if we could spend a day at Tod’s Point in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, and toast marshmallows and skip rocks.
Is there a question nobody asks that you’d like them to ask?
Sure. “Ask me about my bookmarks.” When I moved from Connecticut to South Carolina, the concert choir in which I sang all gave me bookmarks for good-bye gifts: hand-painted, or travel souvenirs, or embroidered, or laminated music we’d sung! My favorite is one crocheted by the giver’s grandmother!
What are you working on now?
Writing Before She Was Helen was hugely exciting because I’ve mostly written YA. This is a whole new career. My second mystery, tentatively titled Trapping Freddy, will come out in 2021. And now I’m writing a third, which will be another book about Clemmie. I became very fond of her, and her ability to hideout. At one point I wanted her to hide literally, and I found out that you can hide in the trunk of your car, which has a pull cord so you can escape. My grandsons came over and we practiced to see if it would really work. Sadly, it will really NOT work for a woman in her seventies. I couldn’t get in or out!
