Interview with Author David Gillespie by Melissa Brooks

Dave Gillespie is a college composition professor and the author of the Matthew Diggerson

Mysteries series. I interviewed him to find out more about his writing, his inspiration, and what

he is working on now.

1. Have you always had an interest in writing?

Always, ever since devouring the comic strip Peanuts as a child. I loved Linus and even carried a

little white blanket around for quite awhile. Peanuts can be read and enjoyed on many different

levels, like many of my favorite works, from the Harry Potter books to The Walking Dead TV

show.

2. What inspired you to start writing mysteries?

Probably Tony Hillerman’s novels and his main characters, Chee and Leaphorn, two Navajo

police officers operating in the four corners region of the southwest. Hillerman created such a

beautiful tone without bogging the stories down with descriptions, and the characters are always

true to themselves. Then I discovered Henning Mankell and his Wallander books, after seeing a

televised version of his stories on PBS. Although Mankell’s setting in Sweden is completely

different from Hillerman’s desert, both writers create that stark atmosphere, and I just love Kurt

Wallander’s flawed character, his trouble dealing with fellow humans, his self-incrimination, yet

his steadfast ethical core. I’ve read many other mystery authors, but those are my two staples.

3. What is your writing process like? How does writing a story start for you?

I practice what I preach. I always tell students to make rough outlines, plans to guide them as

they do the actual writing, and I begin my books with lots of notes that become loose plans for

chapters. After generating loads of notes and fitting them into chapters (I’m talking a good 20 to

30 pages of notes), I write the opening chapters and then the final one. I did that same process

four times, for each of my books.

4. Where do you find inspiration for the plots of your books?

I just try to make the plot believable. Simple plots are fine for me, as long as the reader has to do

some guessing. I care more about character and tone than plot, and that’s no doubt why I love

Hillerman and Mankell so much. In my first two books, I didn’t even know the “killer” until I

started to fill in the chapters between the opening ones and the end one, and then I revised the

end one to fit in the chosen villain. I knew the “bad guy” already for the third book, which spills

into the fourth and final one.

5. Do you get writer’s block? If so, how do you deal with it?

I didn’t get writer’s block with any of the four books in my series, probably because I planned so

thoroughly. Using my notes, I would just walk around in each chapter and look at the world

through either my protagonist’s or the killer’s eyes. Doing that got easier with each book, too.

My last one actually bloomed into over 90,000 words, but with my publisher’s urging, I lopped

off close to 15,000 of them, stuff that just wasn’t needed.

6. How has your experience as a teacher contributed to your writing?

Teaching’s a huge part of my stories because of my main character’s job—a college composition

professor (my own job, of course). I use classroom scenes in every book in order to introduce

characters and add clues—never just as fluff. I like the university setting, the ivory tower. Who

would rather be out slogging around society? Plus, I add a teaching angle to the chapter

beginnings of each book, terms and tips to teach readers a bit, just a bit, though, sort of

reinforcing my protagonist’s character and very loosely reflecting the chapter’s plot. My book

titles reflect teaching and the mystery genre, too—bit hokey.

7. Why did you base so much of your main character, Matthew Diggerson, on yourself?

That’s the only way I can make the stories real, or somewhat. My wife (Elena) and I have a

great marriage, truly best friends, so to give “Digger” a flaw I simply took away his “better half.”

I thought about how I would act if Elena had ever skipped out on our marriage, and I’m sure that

I would have maintained the rigid loyalty to the marriage’s memory, just as Matthew Diggerson

did. In a sort of self-induced exile. And of course, I would have lived with dogs. All the dogs

and cats in my books are real, although Snodo’s a mix of my two current hounds, a crazy terrier

mix named Holly and a sweet little black lab mix named Belle.

However, Digger’s not exactly me, just part of me. In my third/fourth books, I even used an old

flaw of mine, but I gave it to a character other than Digger—a deep envy, a really silly but

personal thing involving a former college “peer.” At the University of Arizona, I actually crossed

paths with the famous author David Foster Wallace (check Wikipedia if you don’t know that

name). We were both Teaching Assistants, and he was in one of my classes, where I discovered

how incredibly smart he was, how much smarter than I am. And he had already published a

novel, something that really rankled me. For years, I suffered under a silly self-imposed

comparison with that great writer, and then I learned that he had committed suicide about 20

years after we graduated. My envy ended right then. So reality can offer a lot of great ideas for

fiction. Through my protagonist, I can express myself, my teaching philosophies (such as using

collaborative class activities, active learning), my life ones (such as being loyal), the few that I

have.

8. Are you working on anything right now?

Five years ago, and for my whole adult life actually, my goal was to write one book, but then my

publisher urged me to create a “series.” Right away, I thought of the outline for a prequel and a

sequel, and I expected the series to end there, with the third book—and the death of my

protagonist. Henning Mankell ended his Wallander books in a similar abrupt fashion, one that I

admired even as I lamented the loss of more stories. However, my publisher once again urged me

not to kill off Digger, so I added a couple paragraphs to the third book’s ending and this past year

wrote a fourth book, one that brings the series in a nice circle, sort of completing it I’m done

with Diggerson, probably. I’d like to write another scholarly article (I have one of those

published), so that’s what I’m planning. Plus, I’ll keep adding on to my website (link below),

where I offer my scholarly article and a lot of my Grammar Jam songs, which appear in my

books, too.

I urge readers to visit this site and to let me know what they think. The song lyrics are on a

second page, so viewers have to click “New Page” to find them. I’ll be adding more, along with

some videos, too. https://dggillespie.wixsite.com/dggillespie