Debbi Mack's 20 Questions Blog Tour

Question 12: What books or other works have influenced your writing most?

Wow. What an interesting question. I'm glad you asked that, Tina. And let me say it's a real pleasure to post here at Tina's Book Reviews. Thanks for hosting me.

My work has been influenced by so many things I've read. But my earliest influences were probably television and movies. When I was growing up during the Sixties (you know, the dark ages when dinosaurs roamed the earth LOL), one of my favorite television shows was Honey West. She was a female private eye at a time when there was no such animal being widely distributed as entertainment. She was nothing less than amazing. I wanted nothing more than to be her, with her cool convertible, her handsome sidekick, Sam (hmm, that's my protagonist's name … coincidence?), and her cool apartment where she kept her pet ocelot. Yes, Honey apparently was fond of big cats. As in really big cats. I can still picture myself gawking in awe at Anne Francis playing that awesome role. But my television influences didn't stop with her. I went on to become possibly the biggest fan of The Avengers ever. If Honey West impressed me, well, Mrs. Emma Peel simply blew me away. She knew everything. She could do everything. (And she had a really cool convertible, too. A very important component. LOL) And she could fight! Whenever bad guys showed up, did Mrs. Peel run and hide? No. She came right at them with karate kicks and judo moves. (Corny and poorly choreographed ones, but I was a kid, so …) Now, The Avengers may have been something of a cartoon and more than a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I took it seriously. I aspired to be as amazing as Mrs. Peel. I wanted to be as confident and sassy as she. Mrs. Peel was nothing less than a role model. But this was just the beginning of my love affair with mystery and crime fiction. Other television shows that influenced my writing included: Perry Mason, Mannix, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart (okay, those last two are spy shows and one a spoof – even so …), The Rockford Files and The Name of the Game. (Does anyone even remember that show? LOL)

As time went by, I started to watch a lot of old classic films. I became enthralled by such classic films as The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Shadow of a Doubt, North by Northwest … I could go on, but can you see the progression? I really loved mysteries, crime fiction and thrillers. And not just blood and guts and gore thrillers, but thrillers made by masters of suspense like Hitchcock. (You can just consider all his work influential by default.) It was through thrillers like these that I learned that characters matter. Stories are about people. And even if there were all sorts of jolts and twists on these thrill rides I was taking, the stories also revolved around characters I cared about.

It was also through the dark mysteries based on the books of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain (to name a few) that I learned about how intriguing life's ironies could be. These stories influenced me because (for good or ill) I was so keenly aware that life wasn't always fair. And I wanted to tell stories about how life wasn't always fair. And tell them in an entertaining way, the way those authors had done. One thing that bothered me (even as a kid) was how few women got to play the lead in these dramas. Other than the exceptional few, the lead character was almost always a man. I swore that if I ever had the chance to write fiction, I'd make my lead character a strong, hard-nosed woman. One who could take care of herself. Not one of these frilly, girly characters who couldn't run without tripping over her shoelaces. But a woman of character and strength. All these things were floating about in my mind, influencing me, as I envisioned someday writing a private eye novel with a strong female lead.

Needless to say, as a child, I was heartened in the fiction department by discovering the Nancy Drew mystery series. Again, Nancy was a girl who was strong and independent. Her father was a lawyer. Her mother was, um, conveniently absent. Nancy wasn't the type to sit back idly if there was a mystery to be solved. (And, yes, she had the requisite cool car.) She had all these friends (their names kept changing LOL) and a really great boyfriend whose forces she could marshal if she needed help. That along with the Cherry Ames series about a mystery solving nurse (who couldn't hold a job to save her life LOL) all went into influencing my writing. Once I discovered that these amazing old movies I was watching were once books, I turned to reading them next. And I started reading modern writers who followed the hardboiled tradition. This would include, of course, Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, and Sara Paretsky. It would also include Ross MacDonald, Lawrence Block, Robert B. Parker, and Walter Mosley.

One of my greatest influences (who I started reading shortly before I started writing in earnest) is Judith Van Gieson. Now, Van Gieson isn't a name you'll see on the New York Times bestseller list. But she had a profound influence on my writing. You see, at a time when female private eyes had become trendy and were all the rage, I was afraid of creating yet another one. I needed something to make my protagonist distinctive.

When I read my first book in the Neil Hamel series by Judith Van Gieson about an Albuquerque, New Mexico attorney who solves mysteries, it hit me. Neil Hamel was (basically)a female lawyer solving mysteries like a hardboiled private eye. And Van Gieson wrote so evocatively about New Mexico that the setting was almost like one of the characters in the book. I thought, "Why not take that concept to Maryland?" After all, I was a lawyer. I could bring that experience to the table.

So, I'd like to thank each and every one of these authors (and the many, many more who go unnamed) for influencing my work so much. But I especially thank Judith Van Gieson without whose books Sam McRae might not even exist today.

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Thanks for reading, everyone! Don't forget to leave a comment with your email address if you'd like to enter the drawing for the 10 autographed copies of IDENTITY CRISIS I'm giving away. (One entry per person, but comment as often as you like.) The drawing will be held on my blog My Life on the Mid-List after the tour is finished. Check my blog for the entire tour schedule. And please join me at my next stop tomorrow: Rex Robot Reviews

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Debbi Mack is the author of IDENTITY CRISIS, a hardboiled mystery and the first in a series featuring lawyer Stephanie Ann "Sam" McRae. She's also a short story writer whose ebook anthology, FIVE UNEASY PIECES, includes the Derringer-nominated "The Right to Remain Silent," originally published in The Back Alley Webzine. Debbi's work has also appeared in two of the CHESAPEAKE CRIMES anthologies.

Be on the lookout for her next Sam McRae novel, LEAST WANTED, which will be published soon (in print and ebook versions).

Debbi practiced law for nine years before becoming a freelance writer/researcher and fiction author. She's also worked as a news wire reporter covering the legal beat in Washington, D.C. and as a reference librarian at the Federal Trade Commission. She lives in Maryland with her husband and three cats.