November 2007 Spotlight on...

      WENDY WATSON

           by Gina Lee Nelson

So, Wendy . . .  tell us a little bit about you.

Just a little? I've been married to my husband, Peter (yes, we're Peter and Wendy), for almost five years. We were married in Las Vegas by an Elvis impersonator on my birthday. We don't have kids, but we do have cats. Four of them, actually:  Iphigenia and Electra Watson, and Todd and Squeak Baryshnikov. I'm originally from Southeastern Ohio, a town called Zanesville (birthplace of author Zane Grey and home of the famous "Y"-shaped bridge). I am a petroleum brat, so we lived in various parts of Michigan, Ohio, Texas, and Louisiana when I was growing up. My education took me to Virginia and Minnesota, too.

I'm a recovering lawyer, and I now earn my keep as a political science professor at Southern Methodist University teaching American politics, constitutional law, and judicial process. When I'm not grading papers or writing, I enjoy cooking (vegetarian fare and full-fat desserts), reading (just about any sort of fiction), and watching movies (especially Asian horror movies). I started writing "for real" in 2001; at the time, I was writing Regency-set historicals, so I joined RWA. Since then, I have switched to writing mystery, but I couldn't bear to give up my RWA membership. I recently acquired an agent and hopefully we will soon be shopping a mystery series about a frustrated death metal guitarist who forms an 80’s cover band with her college roommates.

Whoa! You're serious about the death metal guitarist? I want to meet your agent. Did she ever ask you to change your story in any significant ways?

I'm absolutely serious about the death metal guitarist. Ruby rocks! My agent has a lot of experience in the mystery market, and she's made several suggestions to make the book and the series more marketable. For example, the 80’s cover band was her idea, and the "80’s theme" will form the hook for the series; the band's gigs will put my amateur sleuth in all sorts of deadly situations . . . an anime conference, a high school reunion, a curling bonspiel, etc. We're still trying to figure out other ways to play with the theme, and Kim is very involved in that process.

That's awesome. How did you find such an innovative agent? Many of us, I'm sure, would love some insight into the process.

I first met Kim when she judged a contest I entered, several years ago. At the time, she was an editor for Berkley where she acquired both romance and mystery and developed mystery series. She requested my manuscript, but I only had about 40 pages written. Several months later, she phoned me to say she was leaving Berkley for Bookends and asked me to consider her as an agent. I was working on my dissertation at the time, so it took me a long time to finally get a manuscript to her. But she and I have e-mailed and talked periodically in the interim. With my completed manuscript ready to roll, I met her for coffee at national this year to verify that she was still interested.

Why mystery? Are there romantic elements to your story?

While I read just about everything, mystery and romance are my favorites. I tried my hand at romance, but kept having people (as in editors and agents) say, "you write very well, but you probably shouldn't write romance."  The hero and heroine of my first historical romance liked each other from the start, and the real conflict of the story was (you guessed it) a murder they had to solve. Eventually I realized that I was better suited to the intellectual puzzle of mystery than the emotional puzzle of romance (or even real suspense). There are a couple of hunky men in my current book, and lust and flirtation occasionally compromise my heroine's judgment, but the romantic conflict is definitely secondary and isn't resolved in this book.

What books and authors have influenced your writing?

Tough question - especially because the list is long. Authors who have influenced me most directly include Amanda Quick, Julia Quinn, Marian Keyes, Janet Evanovich, P.J. Tracy, and Carl Hiaasen. I developed a taste for the absurd and for characters living on society's margins by reading Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (my all-time favorite book!) and everything by Chuck Palahniuk.

What about you would surprise the rest of us?

Oh, geez. I'm so predictable! Well, despite my Midwestern, white bread, Cheez Whiz origins, I've been taking belly dancing lessons off and on for several years. I am utterly graceless and a horror to behold, but I love doing it.

That's hilarious and very brave.

Ah - the line between bravery and stupidity is fine, indeed!

I had the good fortune of hearing you speak recently on eyewitness misidentification. How did you become involved in the Innocence Project?

I am interested in eyewitness misidentification for a variety of reasons. In my academic life, I teach classes on political psychology (the application of psychological theories to political behavior) and criminal procedure, so I end up lecturing on the topic to my students. In addition, I have done some work as a volunteer consultant with the Innocence Project of Texas (helping to create a database of scholarly resources related to wrongful convictions and helping IPOT create a system for coding their cases for later statistical analysis). Hearing the stories of the wrongfully convicted has inspired me to learn more about how the justice system goes awry and what we can do to make it work better. It’s inspired me to spread the word!

It's hard for me to believe anyone with as many degrees as you actually struggles, but here goes... what do you struggle with in your writing?

There's a world of difference between the writing I do for my day job and writing fiction; I struggle with a lot. Sexual tension and sex scenes are excruciating for me, and I really struggle with certain emotions in my writing. Specifically, I have a hard time tapping into personal, vulnerable emotions like grief.

What's your greatest accomplishment?

So far? Finishing my first manuscript. The idea of creating a whole story--beginning, middle, and end--out of nothing but my imagination scared the bejesus out of me. Finishing that first book and handing it to someone, complete, to read felt amazing. The process still scares the bejesus out of me, but now at least I know I can do it.

 ~ ~ ~

Gina Lee Nelson’s short story, My Love Dropped in at the Drop Your Doggie Inn, will appear in the NT Silver Nuggets Anthology in 2008.