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Dan Cameron Author of The Emma Fielding Series A Different Look at the World
Fielding came to the Shrewsbury Foundation to read the encoded diary of Margaret Chandler, accused witch and murderess. She sees striking parallels between the events in the diary and the murders of other fellows studying on the Shrewsbury Estate. As murders unfold and the tensions rise, she discovers that "sometimes emotional content or circumstances...can change the meaning of someone's actions. A Fugitive Truth is an intelligent mystery filled with parallels between historical and current events. It includes just enough archaeology to intrigue readers. Cameron's heroine explores the power of greed, fear and more with the help of quirky characters and her own keen mind. Be prepared for a bizarre balance between brilliance and insanity when the killer's motives are exposed. Cameron, who was an archaeologist before she became a writer, blends knowledge, action, and literary expertise in the Emma Fielding series. Read how she does it. LG: Tell us about yourself. When did you discover you could write fiction? DC: I came to fiction late, after I'd already become established as an archaeologist. I began to write about ten years ago, when I was telling some of my experiences to a friend and I realized how differently archaeologists look at the world. LG: When did you discover that who, what, where, when, how, and why were a detective's questions as well as an archaeologists? DC: It wasn't until I began to write the mystery that I understood that what my character Emma Fielding did as an archaeologist also served her as an amateur sleuth. Both archaeologists and detectives are reconstructing past events from physical evidence and testimony, with different things at stake, of course. LG: How did your writing as an archaeologist help prepare you to write fiction? DC: Learning to build a compelling case based on the evidence I had was a help. Trying to put flesh on the bare skeletons of a framework of court records and broken pottery is good practice for writing fiction. LG: What a wonderful analogy! How did you discover Emma Fielding? DC: I met Emma with the first book, Site Unseen . I wasn't sure what would happen as I began it, but I knew the main character would be an archaeologist. It was through following Emma as she responded to various eventsthe death of a friend and her implication in the murderthat I got to know what she was like: bright, driven, tough on herself. LG: Do you think she will ever give up archaeology for detective work? DC: I don't think soit's literally in her bloodbut she's been showing every indication that she'd be happy to formalize her role as an investigator, using her skills to help the police. LG: The statement that fact and truth are different takes on added meaning in today's political climate. Did the idea come from Emma, from your work as an archaeologist, or somewhere else? DC: The idea isn't a new one, but it struck me that cultural and historical context makes a lot of difference: someone can behave with perfect civility according to his society, and have it seem just the opposite to someone from another culture. Finding an intersection of understanding so people can communicate is crucial. In A Fugitive Truth , Emma realizes that you can collect mountains of facts, but they still won't tell you the whole story. There is sometimes emotional content or circumstances that can change the meaning of someone's actions. LG: You've made a complex idea very accessible. You present clues and historical information in a clear, ever-escalating format. Any tips for doing that? DC: Wow, thanks. I guess I've learned to pay attention to the story's theme, and if I see a chance to re-emphasize that through a clue or character trait, I will go back and insert it into the story, even after I'm done with a first draft. I'm also learning to keep the stakes commensurate with the danger. I try to make the most of the human element to get the historical information across, because not everyone is familiar with this stuff or even interested in it. I use characters who don't know about history or archaeology: in Grave Consequences , I used a school group to explain about archaeology; in Past Malice , I used the different tour guides to talk about history. LG: Tell us about your writing process. How long did the first mystery live in your head before you started drafting? DC: Once I got the notion to write, I started right away, but secretly, because I wanted to find out if I could really do it. I went through probably close to a dozen drafts between that first one and the finished book, over more than six years. LG: Do you know how the story will end before she starts writing? DC: I don't always know exactly what is going to happen at the end, even when I've figured out who did it. The characters can change things all on their own sometimes. That's the fun part of writing. LG: How long did the first draft take you? DC: The first draft of the first book, Site Unseen , took about a year, and then went through a lot of changes as I learned about writing. These days, a first draft takes less than a year. You have the luxury of writing the first book in a series over years; you need to work a lot faster to follow up! LG: How did you find the right people to read, comment, and edit for you? DC: I showed my writing to my husband, then some friends who knew me well enough to realize I wanted the truth about my work. Then I found a great writing group. Then I went to Bread Loaf. You learn to trust yourself, when to take your own opinion, when to take someone else's, and I did that by finding more and more critical and experienced readers who were also writers. LG: What is your schedule? DC: I try to write five pages every day. LG: Once your first book was published, what parts of writing were easier and what parts became harder? DC: Getting the time to write became harder! There's the formal editing process and promotionthe web site, bookstore visits, conventionstakes a lot of time. Writing one book while you edit another and promote a third is a lot like juggling. It's all fun, though, because I get to meet so many people. LG: How did the Bread Loaf Conference help your writing? DC: It taught me that good writing can take many different forms; your stuff might not look like the next person's, but that's not a bad thing. Bad writing tends to be bad for a finite number of reasons. LG: What's next for Emma Fielding? What are you working on now?
LG: You make the juggling act sound great. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience and insights. For a fast-paced mystery with quirky characters, profound thought, and nerve-wracking action, check out Dana Cameron's A Fugitive Truth. |
B. Lynn Goodwin is the editor of WriterAdvice, http://www.writeradvice.com and contributes author interviews and book reviews to it. She writes book reviews for the Small Press Review and web site reviews for the California Writers Club, has been published in the Oakland Tribune and the Contra Costa Times, and has a piece called Needed in the Winter issue of Flashquake. |
An archaeologist uses the same skills as a detective, searching for data, examining evidence, and drawing conclusions. In Dana Cameron's A Fugitive Truth, archaeologist Emma Fielding discovers that mountains of facts... still won't tell you the whole story. 
DC: I'm working on the fifth book, More Bitter Than Death , which takes Emma to a snowed-in archaeology conference. It also brings her face to face with an ex-boyfriend and she is forced to confront her past, which isn't everything she'd like to imagine. I'm also working on book six, and all I'll say about that is, if you had any questions at the end of Site Unseen , they may be answered in book six. 