[Announcer] This program is brought to you by the generous support of The Secular Society, advancing the interests of women and the arts in Virginia and beyond.

[♪♪♪♪♪] -♪ Every day every day Every day ♪ ♪ Every day I write the book ♪ [♪♪♪♪♪] -Welcome, I'm Rose Martin, and we are Write Around The Corner at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts library with author Victoria Gilbert.

She writes really fun and engaging, cozy mysteries.

And, of course, she was a librarian.

Hi, Victoria.

Welcome so much.

-Thank you so much.

-And thank you for this great location.

And you've got a history here, right?

-Yes.

I was the library director here for 25 years.

And actually, this building, I was one of the people who was in charge when they were designing and building it.

-So it's like coming home.

-A little bit, yeah.

-Yeah.

How long have you been away?

-Um... six years now.

-Okay.

And were you writing all the way through your time as directing the library?

-No, I actually didn't start writing professionally until I was 56.

So I was working for many years before that.

-And I love the fact that you said, at 61 you published your first cozy mystery, and you're telling people, don't ever think it's too late to do anything in your life.

-That's right.

That's right.

Because I... that's one of my mantras I always tell people when I'm talking.

And excuse my voice, everyone, because I have bronchitis.

And now, I sound a little bit, I hope, like Lauren Bacall and not, you know, a frog.

But anyway... yeah, it's never too late to do what you really want to do.

And that was one of the things that I like to let people know.

-So, as a young Vicky, growing up, I understand your dad had a Secret Service clearance... -Yes.

-...and was a virologist.

And so, that had to be interesting.

-Yes.

He was a virologist.

He worked for the government for many years.

He had one of the highest levels of security clearance.

And so, we grew up, and I didn't really think much about it, but FBI used to visit our neighbors and say, make sure everything was okay at our house.

But, yeah, he then left and worked in private industry, and he actually was on a team that developed the first blood test for AIDS.

-Wow!

-And he was very well known in his field.

-Mm-mm.

So, was reading or mysteries always something that you came by naturally, either trying to figure out what he did as a job because he couldn't tell you, or just uncovering things on your own?

-I just always loved mysteries.

I always loved to read.

I used to read so much that people didn't believe I could read that much because I'm also a speed reader, so natural speed reader.

So, the teachers would say, well, you can't possibly have read that much.

-Right.

-And then I would tell them all the plots of all the books, and so.

-Well, I love the fact that you said, librarians are sleuths by nature.

-Yes.

-Because we're always looking, and we're always investigating and figuring things out.

But I think what might be interesting for people to know is librarians don't get to read books all day.

-No, not at all.

In fact, I talk about that in my books.

People think, oh, a library job, that's great.

You get to sit and read.

But actually, no, very few hours of the day that you could read.

-So you've got a huge collection of books, but you started off in kind of a science fiction fantasy world, and you're a Doctor Who fan, I read.

So, then you pivoted because of an agent or because of personal interest?

-Well, I had written a couple of young adult fantasy books, and they are still published, but I just felt like it wasn't really going in the direction that I wanted to go in with my career.

So my agent, who I had switched to at that point, my current agent, she said, "Well, what do you want to write?"

And I wasn't sure.

And she said, "Well, what do you really like to read?"

Which is, you know, the smartest question you can ask.

-Hm-mm.

-And I said, mysteries.

So she said, "Well, why don't you write one of those?"

So I did, and that was A Murder For The Books , which was my first mystery to be published.

[Rose] And I loved it, and it was amazing.

We're going to get to that in a minute.

But also, I also read that you love to rescue cats or you're a... -Cat lover.

-...rescue, yeah.

-Yeah, I have two.

Well, we've had cats, my husband and I have had cats all along, but we always like to either get them from the shelters or, you know, if someone's got cats they're trying to find homes for.

-And I think it's so interesting you also have a background in art and music and costume design.

-Yes.

-How does that all play into the creative process when you're writing?

-When you're reading my books, you will see a lot of references to art, art history.

I graduated from the University of Virginia, and I had a theater degree, actually, and I specialized in costume design.

And then, I also studied art history there as my minor, and I studied music on the side.

So, all throughout my books, I like to bring in the performing arts, visual arts, and I'll talk about them.

And, you know, some of my main characters are involved in the arts.

-Right.

And we'll notice that when we go through some of the books, from the dancers and everything else that you have as the characters.

They're fun to read, and I'm sure they're probably fun to write.

-Yeah.

-Now you have so many books out.

I read that you are in a really tight publishing schedule.

So, is this true?

Five months, and you get a new book out there?

-Yes.

[chuckles] -Okay.

-And sometimes, six months of... five to six months.

-Wow.

Well, and that's amazing because when you think about coming up with a new idea, and then fleshing it out because you're also a plotter, so, you know, kind of where it's going, and you're very sure about who the characters are going to be, and what's going to happen.

How many of the characters are you carrying through the series that are going to be the ones, let's say, that are your anchors?

-Well, of course, there's always a protagonist.

[Rose] Mm-mm.

-But I usually have, at least, mm, I have to think, probably five others from each series that would keep showing up in the books.

-So we get to know them as we make our way through your series.

And I heard you say once that there's always a point, no matter which book you're in, you're like, I don't like this.

I don't like this.

And I don't know, is that true?

-Yes.

-[Rose] Okay.

-I think every author does that.

And you have to just kind of go, no, I'm just going to keep writing.

And eventually, you get back in your editing and you bring it all together.

-Well, and I love the fact that, you know, you treat all ages with a sense of vitality and intellect.

So, we love seeing people who are of a certain age, because I'm right there with them, to see that they're vital and they're interesting.

Is that conscious on your part to make sure that you do that with your characters?

-Yes, it is.

Well, first of all, I'm not super young myself.

I like to think that I'm still, you know, vibrant and active.

-[Rose] Mm-mm.

-And my mother, who passed away a couple years ago, she died at 91, but she was very, very active and vibrant.

And, you know, when I would see things with all these people, older people, and they were always depicted as not being very vital, who couldn't do much of anything, I thought, well, that's not true.

That's not true of everybody.

-Well, and by publishing your first at 61, you're like, I'm going to set the world on fire and let them know what's really happening.

So, in the process, did you have a favorite part of the process?

And then there's a part of the process that is more like, not only you struggle with it, but you're like, urgh, I know I have to do this for every book.

-It's funny because a lot of people don't like editing, but I do.

-[Rose] Hm-mm.

-I really, actually do.

I get great notes from my main editor, and just working through that and really honing the book into shape is what I...

I really enjoy that.

Drafting, I like parts of it, but always in the middle of the book again, that's where you're kind of like, uh, you know, is this going in the direction I want it to go in?

And so, I think the doubt creeping in about, is this going to work?

-I'm so excited to get into your series.

And A Cryptic Clue, let's start there.

So, we have a librarian who was taken out of her job.

She didn't really want to leave.

And then we have Cameron Clewe, who is a little bit eccentric, and he hires her to be an archivist.

And pretty soon, they find out that they're in a murder because someone has been stabbed in the library.

And on we go from there.

All right, I'm going to let you take it from there.

-Well, my protagonist, Jane, is 60, 61, and she was sort of forced to retire, so she's looking for more work because she's not ready to just quit working.

So she does get this job with Cameron Clewe, and he owns a big estate he's inherited, and he has social anxiety and sort of doesn't like to leave the house and gets nervous around people he doesn't know and things like that.

But he's really brilliant, and he has all this money.

So when she goes to work for him, they start out a little bit antagonistic or they, you know, kind of don't get along.

But they start to learn more and more about each other, and in the end, they become a team, like Sherlock and Watson, basically.

-Right.

Because they have to solve a mystery.

-Yes.

-They have to solve a murder.

During a big party, all of a sudden, someone ends up dead in the library.

So then, it unravels with, okay, who did it, and why did they do it?

-And Cameron is one of the suspects because it was his former girlfriend who was killed.

-And I like the way that, kind of, you put everybody under the microscope for a while so that the reader is going, "Well, I don't know.

It could be them, or it could be them."

And so, when you were writing this series, do you follow the same kind of, like, schematic of knowing when you're going to do the reveal, and how you're going to put the pieces of the puzzle together to guide the reader, but not really let us know who until you choose to tell us.

-That's basically true with all of the mysteries.

And that's one of the trickiest part, I think, of writing mysteries, is that you have to give enough clues so that when the reader gets to the end of the book, they go, I can see why that happened.

But you can't give it away.

-Right.

-So it's a balancing act.

-Yeah.

-You have to do this... -So, before we get to the B&B series, how much do we have Victoria Gilbert as the librarian and the people in your world, seen as the characters in this or you?

-I use my library experience as a background, but I try not to insert too much of myself into the books.

I use things I know about.

So, we were talking about art and music and things, but I like to create characters who are really individuals.

And people say, "Well, how do you keep all these characters straight?"

Because I have a lot of characters.

-Right, -And I say, well, to me, they're very much individuals.

They're all very specific people, as if I'd just met them in real life.

And so, you know, I try not to put, you know, like everything about me and make it sort of a stand-in for me in that.

-[Rose] Mm-mm.

-Just my knowledge of things.

-Well, and that makes it kind of fun that they're kind of like real people.

Like, I'm gonna go visit these people now, and they're their own little community or they're people that I know because you know them when you go back to write those stories again.

So... okay, go ahead.

-I was just gonna mention the second book in that series, A Killer Clue .

This is an ARC, which is an advanced reader copy, which is what publishers send out.

-[Rose] Yeah.

-And... this one comes out in September.

-And so, we have Cameron and we have some... -Jane.

-Jane, and we have some new kind of adventures for them.

And so, the B&B series.

And so, let's set that up.

So we've got Charlotte, and she was left a bed and breakfast by her relative Isabella.

And so, she's kind of a mystery.

But again, she's holding these author events and not knowing who's there.

There's dress-up parties.

There's all kinds of great things.

But again, someone ends up dead.

So you take it from there.

-Well, the B&B series is set in a real town, Beaufort, North Carolina.

And it's a very historic town, and I have fun with that because I can bring the history into the story.

And Charlotte, she was an English teacher whose husband was unfortunately killed in a tragic accident.

And she's in her 40s, and she takes over the bed and breakfast.

She really doesn't know what she's doing.

So she has a longtime person who's worked there who helps her out figuring out this.

But Charlotte learns how to run the B&B while she's working on this mystery.

And what really helps her is, she has a next door neighbor, who's an older lady, who seems like this typical older woman, but she has a background that's a little different than your typical 70-something-year-old.

-Well, and what's interesting is she's like the trustee first for the B&B.

So Charlotte thinks she's just associated through her aunt as a way to do fun.

So she's really kind of cautious about, do I want to involve her?

Do I really need to ask for the money?

But, when a knife goes missing in the B&B, all of a sudden, she needs to enlist the help of everyone, including her next-door neighbor, which is a great twist and turn to figure out what happens to her, and what a pivotal role she plays along with her aunt.

That must be a fun series to write, too.

-It is, because it brings in, I'll just say, it brings in a little espionage type.

-Yeah, it does.

That's a good way to put it.

So then, we're going back to some of the things maybe you learned from your dad, right.

-Well, that whole idea of secrecy and how people can look very much normal, and it's not like, you know, James Bond spies and stuff, but it's people that you meet every day on the street, and yet they might be involved in things that are top secret.

-Well, and the fact that, I think, also we don't really know everybody, right.

We might think we have an impression of somebody, and there are characters in that particular story that you think they're one thing, but they may not be, or they have intermingling relationships that don't really reveal themselves until the end, which keeps us reading, and keeps us interested in the series.

-Yeah, I like weaving in history into the contemporary.

These are all contemporary books, but there's a lot of history, and the history actually affects the modern-day events sometimes, too.

-So what do you think?

So far, we've talked about two series.

What makes them different?

-Well, A Cryptic Clue is more of a traditional mystery series, like an Agatha Christie type.

The Bed and Breakfast series, the B&B book lover series, is much more of a cozy, is more cozy... -Okay.

-I think.

And, you know, just the... there's more humor and lightheartedness in the B&B, I think.

At least, that's what I'm striving for.

And then, the other series is a little more... it's dark, but it's just a tinge more dark.

-Yeah.

Like Sherlock and Watson, they're uncovering different things in the mansion or in the grounds, whereas B&B, they're doing some parties, they're doing some reenactments, they're doing some book discussions.

And so, you know, each of those characters from that series, even the chefs, have their own little backgrounds that you begin to wonder, right.

Are they involved, or are they not involved?

Okay, so the Blue Ridge Library Mystery Series, I love this.

The first one was A Murder for the Books .

And there are how many in total?

As of today?

-Eight.

-Eight.

-Although I'm writing nine right now.

-Okay.

So what I love about this series, so we've got kind of like a mystery within a mystery.

So I'm gonna let you take it from there.

I'm not gonna tease it anymore.

[Victoria] Well, this, again, has a librarian as a main character, but she's in her 30s in this one.

And she goes to a small town, which is actually where her family was from, so there's family history there.

And, there was an old mystery associated with a house and the family there where someone was accused of murder and then disappeared.

And so, everybody believes this woman from back in the 1920s was a murderer.

But then, my librarian character gets involved with a man who moves in next door to this house, and it's in his family.

And he wants to prove the woman was not a murderer.

So they get involved in this, and there starts to be contemporary murders, too.

So, the two of them become partners as well as a good friend of hers, Sunny, who's a fun character.

-She is.

So Sunny is her assistant and is kind of helping her out, and she's living with a family member.

And so, right next door, there happens to be a little bit of a love interest, and he's a dancer.

But I love the fact that she's got some body insecurity, right?

And you play that to where her insecurity almost has her back off of the relationship.

And then, you know, he's like, "No, I love you who you are," and, you know, "Watch this, and you're really going to know that I love you."

Was that conscious that you wanted... -Oh, yeah.

-...every woman or every girl to feel like... you know?

-Well, you know, so many times we have so much images of people that this is the only way you can be.

And if you're not like this, then people won't love you or you won't be considered attractive.

And I believe that, and I wanted to show, especially with somebody who, a dancer who's very much aware of bodies.

And he has a lot of reasons why he, Richard is his name.

He has a lot of reasons why he is open to that because he has a past, too.

And he, over the course of the books, has to overcome something in his past.

-Right.

So Amy and Richard have this beginning of this relationship.

And then we have Sunny.

And I love the character of Aunt Lydia.

-Oh, Aunt Lydia.

-She's so much fun, you know.

-Zelda.

-Yeah, yeah.

So that's great.

But then you introduce us to this Kurt Kendrick.

-Oh, yes, Kurt.

-All right, who is... -One of my favorite characters.

He is a very interesting kind of guy who, he's in his 70s.

He's very handsome, tall, big guy, and he is mysterious.

You don't know if he's good or bad at first.

And he is related to Richard in some ways, and comes back to this town, which he lived in when he was young.

And so, he goes throughout the whole series, and he's one of the most fun characters to write because he does have that sort of gray quality where you can... not everything he does is probably legal.

But he's actually got a good heart with it.

When he cares about the people, he really cares about them and takes care of them.

-And when you introduce him in the first book, you're kind of wary about him, like, who is he?

You know, a little bit standoffish.

We don't really know what role he's going to play in the series as it moves forward.

Or even how Amy and Richard's relationship is going to go.

Or how Aunt Lydia and Sunny are going to fit in.

And then I thought it was interesting that they found a locket.

They found a locket in the backyard.

And Amy has a sense of, I don't know, righteousness or right and wrong.

And she just seems so authentically real in the way she thinks and the way she acts.

Is that the way you kind of designed her to be?

And then, are we going to see Amy change through the series or not?

-Yes, she changes, but she actually becomes more confident.

The relationships all grow throughout the series.

[Rose] Yeah.

-And they are all intertwined throughout.

New mysteries, new characters brought in for the mysteries, but these core characters, their lives go forward and they become very much of a sort of family unit.

I mean, a big family unit.

-And the town is actually kind of a character in itself because of so many things going on.

And we should probably mention Amy left a university job, library job, so is there you in any more in this series or more in Amy or--?

-Well, there's me in that I grew up, this is set in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

-[Rose] Right.

-And that's where I grew up, in Loudoun County, Virginia.

I don't say it's Loudoun County, but basically it is.

So I pulled in a lot of what I remember from growing up.

The mountain lore, mountain folk tales and other things come into the series.

-Was that fun to write?

-Yes.

Yeah.

I talk about mountain people, too.

[Rose] Yeah.

-And how they are, whether they're educated or not educated, they have their own intelligence and they have their own skills.

-And don't we all?

-Yeah.

-I mean, if we think about the variety of the characters, where they come from, their interactions with each other, I think one of the best things is being able to say, I feel like I could walk in that town and I could go to Richard's house, or I could go next door, visit Amy and Aunt Lydia, or I could go to the library and see what kind of things are going on there.

So visually, I can see the draw from your past experience kind of woven through there in a way that you can kind of take readers on a wonderful adventure, too.

-Yeah, I hope so.

-Yeah.

So let's say you want to read something for us.

Will you pick something?

-Sure.

-What do you think?

Maybe from the first series?

-Okay.

And again, forgive my voice, but... -And whereabouts... set it up for us.

-Well, this is the very beginning, because I was told by my editor when they acquired this book that it was the very beginning that immediately caught their attention.

And so, the first sentence.

"Anyone who claims there are no stupid questions has never worked in a public library."

-We could just pause there for a second because that's amazing.

That got us, too, okay.

-So, you know, that's everybody always goes-- It came to me in the middle of the night while I was writing.

"'So what do you think?

Hemlock or cyanide?'

"I allowed this query to bounce around in my mind, "recalling what little I knew about poisons.

"Cyanide would be quicker, "but there was a certain philosophical charm "associated with hemlock... "I shook my head to silence this amusing diversion.

"It really didn't matter.

"My answer would be ignored.

"The woman blocking my passage "through one of the library aisles "had been writing a mystery, and asking similar questions, "for the last ten years.

"Not that I'd known her that long.

"I'd only started working at the Taylorsford Public Library "a year ago, but fortunately, my predecessor, Ralph Harrison, "now happily living patron-free with his family in Georgia, "had left behind a list "detailing the eccentricities of the library 'regulars.'

"I'd thought this in poor taste "when I found it stuffed in a file, "but soon realized that he'd bequeathed me a great treasure.

"Without those notes, "I would have undoubtedly done something extremely foolish.

"Something even worse than asking the mayor "if he had a local address.

"Of course he did.

"He couldn't be the mayor if he didn't live in town.

"In fact, without Ralph Harrison's list, "I probably would have been dismissed from this job months ago."

-That's fun because you think about all the ordeal that went into that.

So, tease us a little bit to how Amy, Richard, Sunny, go about trying to navigate the mystery that's in this book.

-Well, they use, and one of the things that's really important, I think, and you mentioned it earlier, is librarians are sleuths.

So one of the things that makes sense is that a librarian can do research.

And so, instead of having her antagonistic toward the local sheriff's department, the sheriff learns that she's great at research.

He basically gets her doing research.

And so, that's how I get her involved in a reasonable way.

And Sunny helps out, and Richard helps out, and Aunt Lydia, everybody helps out.

But it makes sense because it's not like, well, why would this woman just wander in and take over an investigation?

But she's actually working with the sheriff's department because she's going through the archives of the town, and she's trying to find out historical information that might have impact on the current crimes.

-Have you built a couple of clues in early for someone to say, if you pick this up, it may guide you on a path throughout the book.

Did you bury some clues early, or did you wait to reveal them at the end?

I buried some throughout.

-You want to say one?

-Well, okay... -Now, don't give it away.

Just say, you know, if you notice this or you pick up on this.

-If you notice a certain relationship among family members, you might start to think about things.

-Okay.

All right, we'll take it.

We'll take that.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate you being on the show.

-Nice being with you.

It's been wonderful to be here.

-My special thanks to Victoria Gilbert for inviting us here to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, and for sharing her cozy mysteries with us.

There are lots of books to read, and I hope that you're going to pick some up soon.

And you know what?

Tell your friends about us and stick around.

We're going to be talking more to Victoria, more about her books that are upcoming.

I'm Rose Martin, and I will see you next time Write Around The Corner .

[♪♪♪♪♪] -♪ Every day every day Every day ♪ ♪ Every day I write the book ♪ [♪♪♪♪♪] -♪ Every day every day Every day ♪ ♪ Every day I write the book ♪ -♪ Every day every day Every day ♪ ♪ Every day I write the book ♪ [Announcer] This program is brought to you by the generous support of The Secular Society, advancing the interests of women and the arts in Virginia and beyond.