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Author wants her books to be propelled by
questions of why and how as well as whodunit
Scott Bottaro
503/234-1887
*
▼
T
he sleuths in Barbara Wilson’s
mysteries—Murder in the Collective,
Sisters of the Road and her newest,
Gaudi Afternoon—spend as much
time chasing ideas as they do hunting
for corpses.
That’s the way this author thinks it should be.
Wilson, writer of short stories, mysteries and
non-mystery novels, translator and a founder of
The Seal Press in
Seattle, wants her
books to be pro­
pelled by questions
of why and how as
well as whodunit.
Her earlier mys­
teries, featuring
feminist sleuth Parí A N N D E E H O C H MA N
Nilsen, dealt with such issues as teenage prosti­
tution and pornography. Even Gaudi Afternoon,
a more active and comic thriller, touches on
questions of child custody, transsexuality and the
politics of gender.
“I don’t find that many mysteries politically
challenging,” Wilson said in an interview last
month following a reading from Gaudi Afternoon
at Murder by the Book in Southeast Portland.
“I’m interested in novels of ideas. I’m interested
in the idea that you can write something political
that is also entertaining.”
Wilson began her writing career as a journal­
ist in the mid-1970s; she wrote investigative
pieces she hoped would influence readers’ hearts
and minds. But she grew frustrated with the
brisk, superficial treatment that journalism de­
manded, and turned instead to short stories and
novels.
“When writing Ambitious Women, I found
myself falling into thriller-like ways of describ­
ing things,” she said. “Murder in the Collective
was kind of an experiment. After that I started
reading a lot more mysteries and thinking about
the differences between male and female detec­
tives.”
Mystery shelves currently hold a new genera­
tion of female detectives stalking bravely
through the male worlds of police departments,
courtrooms and coroners’ offices. At the same
time, writers such as Elmore Leonard are creat­
ing more thoughtful, sensitive male characters
who flout macho stereotypes.
Protagonists such as V.I. Warshawski, the
sleuth in Sara Paretsky’s thrillers, provide a new
pattern for female and male readers, Wilson said.
“V.I. is a woman alone. She’s independent of
men. That’s an appealing thing—it shows
women they can be tough and aggressive,” she
said. “But to me the interesting question is not
why are women taking this up [mystery-writing]
but whether women are affecting any change in
the way mysteries are written. And I think they
are.
When Wilson is immersed in a single project.
•»
she writes every day, but her approach varies
with the style of the book. With mysteries, she
worries over plot and structure; with non-myster­
ies, the characters occupy her mind.
“For [non-mysteries] I have a deeper interior
sense of character,” she said. “They start living
inside me. In the novel I’m writing now, two old
friends who haven’t seen each other in 15 years
get together for two weeks. That’s the plot The
rest is landscape and feeling and conversation.”
Wilson’s determination to be a writer began
early, when she learned to rea3 at age seven. But
until she moved to Seattle and became involved
in feminist publishing, she had little support for
her ambitions.
One source of inspiration was the work of
Norwegian writer Cora Sandel, whose short sto­
ries Wilson translated and published in 1985.
“The spareness of her style influenced Cows and
Horses a little,” Wilson said.
Wilson said she juggles several ideas for
books in her head at once, in addition to her work
as co-editor and co-publisher of The Seal Press,
which will celebrate its 15th anniversary next
year.
Currently she is working on a novel, while a
new mystery featuring Cassandra Reilly, the
heroine of Gaudi Afternoon, is percolating in her
head. “Cassandra’s going to Venice next,”
Wilson told her audience at Murder by the Book.
“I have some ideas about bassoons. Bassoon
theft.”
Wilson said she recently began experimenting
with essays— a form that challenges her accus­
tomed style—and would like someday to write a
memoir.
“I’m so used to splitting up parts of myself
and giving them to different characters,” she
explained. “I’m curious about what it would be
like to speak about my life. I could see myself
doing that in about 10 years.”
In the meantime, her work will continue to
mine the territory where ideas, emotion, environ­
ment and character collide. “A goal for me is to
merge the heart and the intellect,” she said.