Interview with author Owen Magruder by Aliza Brylinsky
Since you also write on the Civil War and have published a variety of other novels, what inspired you to write mystery novels for Cozy Cat?
- Growing up, I was very interested in mystery. As I said in that biographical sketch, I grew up on Sherlock Holmes. I remember that they weren’t always to my liking, but what I liked about Conan Doyle was that his stories were very intricate and that you really had to be thinking as you were reading. The thing is, I don’t think a lot of people think of mystery as good literature. But mysteries can be excellent literature, and that’s why I enjoy them as much as I did growing up. And I decided I’d try my hand at writing one. That was my first piece, The Strange Case of Mr. Nobody, which was not for Cozy Cat but published independently. I used the pseudonym Owen Magruder, and the reason I did that was because at the time my wife and I had a small publishing company which published Civil War books. I didn’t feel like it was quite appropriate for me to then publish books with my name on them, so I went with a pseudonym that was a family name.
How do you continue to foster your interest in the Civil War?
- As you know, the area of upstate New York is an important Civil War area. There used to be a Civil War weekend in Peterboro for about fifteen years- one weekend in June where they brought in reenactors and set up a mock campsite, and they would have vendors with all kinds of books and Civil War materials. We used to go over there and sell our books. We also usually go down to Gettysburg regularly, particularly for the 4th of July when they reenact Pickett’s Charge.
You and your wife ran a publishing house that specialized in Civil War materials for some time. Were there any unique challenges to that?
- No, actually, that was fairly easy. I had written a book in which I put together a series of readings from diaries and other materials, and at the time I was part of a small theatrical group that did readings- several of which were on the Civil War, which I helped put together. That’s how I got into the Civil War. Then I had a very good friend who was even more of a Civil War buff than I’ve ever been, and he was aware of a man’s book that was written right after the war. He advocated that we as publishers publish it- reissue it, really. That’s what we ended up doing, and that got us into it. One book led to another, and we published about ten books over the years about that subject matter.
You grew up in Scotland, and your “John and Mary Braemhor Mysteries” are set there. Did your background- growing up in the highlands- influence your writing here?
- My family was from Scotland, and they still have their estate there, not far from Glasgow. We usually visit it several times a year. It’s an old castle that they’ve managed to modernize. But that’s my heritage, and how I became involved in writing for John Braemhor. I was more familiar with the layout of the land there, and in all my stories I pick up pieces that I remember from travels over there. I didn’t have to do much other research in order to write them.
You taught at Colgate for a number of years. What was your experience like, and do you personally think that writing or teaching is harder of a profession?
- Well, I’ve written three professional books, plus over fifty-five professional articles. So I had a lot of work and practice at just writing. I enjoy writing very much, so that’s how all of this came about. Is writing more difficult? No, I don’t think so. I find that when you’re trying to tell somebody a story, whether it’s a story about research that you did or whether it’s a story about a crime, the challenge is to get it across and write it as best as you can. As I’ve said, a number of people that I’ve run across don’t really believe that writing mysteries is good literature. They enjoy reading them, but they don’t put them into the category of literature. But I’ve always thought that stories which are mysteries can be just as fine of literature as any other material. In literature, particularly English literature, there’s a certain amount of snobbery, and that snobbery does not include mystery writing. However, there’s no reason why a mystery novel can’t be just as excellent of writing as the writing of Wuthering Heights.
Do you have any specific routines when it comes to writing?
- My process is that I read something that catches my eye, and then I develop it into a story. Once I’m writing, I have a routine in that I write every morning. And what I usually do is briefly read through what I wrote the day before- this helps me get a sense of continuity, obviously- and then I keep working at it. I don’t tend to write any sort of outline. I’ll get an idea of a possible mystery or crime, and I’ll just start writing. To me, sometimes what comes out comes as a surprise, and I enjoy it because I’m interested in seeing how the writing is going to turn out. I have been told that I should have an outline, but generally I let the storyline come naturally. It seems to me that when you’re writing a good story, the story almost writes itself, and it’s up to you as an author to tamper it through the writing process to fruition. You have to stay open to all kinds of ideas coming into a story, because if you don’t, it can get pretty boring- not just for you as the author, but also for the reader.
Younger authors have asked me questions like “how do you write?”. And I tell them that you get some kind of an idea, and you let the idea take itself where it needs to go. You don’t force the story. I also think it’s important that if you’re going to write, you write a lot. You write as much as you can. Nothing improves writing more than the act of writing. To me, it’s not something that you can set aside for three or four months and then get back to it. You need to start in where you left off. Write constantly, and as you write, you’ll learn.