by E.J. Copperman
So. E.J. Tell us what kind of books you write.
I'm so glad you asked.
Thank you.
The Haunted Guesthouse mystery series focuses on Alison Kerby, divorced mom of 10-year-old Melissa, who has moved back to her Jersey Shore hometown of Harbor Haven (which I completely made up). She bought herself a huge Victorian to renovate and eventually open as a guesthouse, but she wasn't counting on a problem. Two problems. Their names are Paul and Maxie, and they're dead. But they're still in the Victorian, and they're, at least technically, haunting the place.
Oh, my.
You haven't read the books, have you?
I do a lot of interviews...
Well, suffice it to say that through the first book in the series, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEED and the second, AN UNINVITED GHOST, Alison and the ghosts have worked out an arrangement: Because some tour groups actually seek out a paranormal experience, the ghosts provide "spook shows" for the guests to help keep the place booked--it gives Alison a reputation as the "Ghost Lady," but she's handling it. In return, however, she has to help Paul, who was a private detective in life, investigate the occasional crime. Turns out the afterlife is, among other things, boring, and he needs a hobby.
So what is OLD HAUNTS about?
In OLD HAUNTS, everybody in the house (except Melissa, who is, after all, 10) is dealing with a romantic entanglement that ended, shall we say, badly. Paul has asked Alison to find the woman to whom he was going to propose marriage just before he died, just to see if she's adjusted to his being gone. Maxie is stunned to hear that the man she married (albeit for only four days) has been found murdered under the beach in Seaside Heights, and wants Alison to investigate. And Alison is dealing with the worst problem of all, because her ex-husband, whom she calls The Swine, has just shown up on her doorstep after two years in California, and he has an agenda he's not sharing. It should be a fun week.
Indeed. What's your style of writing?
Chaotic. I never know what's coming next. Well, I sort of know what's coming next: I have a few scenes in my head that I know will end up in the book. The connective tissue happens as I'm writing, which I do every day, a minimum of 1,000 words.
Every day?
Yup. Weekends, holidays, every single day. Except when I'm not specifically working on something. Then it's all going on in my tortured brain until I'm ready to type the words.
Ooh, TMI. People say there's a lot of humor in your books.
Aren't they sweet.
Is that intentional?
If you have to ask... yes, it's intentional. These books are, to me, sort of a throwback to the type of ghost story that something like Topper used to be, both the movies and the TV series, which ran for the first time in the late 1950s and then in reruns through everybody's childhood. It's about ghosts who aren't necessarily scary, but can be seriously inconvenient.
How do you write ghosts?
You write people. Some of them just happen to have died and not taken the hint.
You have a contest on your web site, www.ejcopperman.com What are the rules?
It's very simple. Anyone can enter--all they have to do is email me at ejcopperman [AT] gmail [DOT] com and tell me (along with their email and snail mail addresses) who their favorite character in the Haunted Guesthouse mystery series might be. Those who haven't read the books (and here's your chance!) can just say THE HOUSE. Prizes are one 16-oz. OLD HAUNTS travel mug and two OLD HAUNTS t-shirts. Deadline is Leap Day.
What are you working on now?
That would be telling.
Yes, it would. What do you think we interviewers are for?
Publicity?
Fine, be that way. Just as an aside, what does "E.J." stand for?
Almost anything.
Thanks for the answers.
It's been a slice.
E.J. Copperman is the New Jersey-based author of the Haunted Guesthouse mystery series, beginning with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEED and AN UNINVITED GHOST, and now continuing with OLD HAUNTS. E.J. says to tell you that you don't have to read them in order.
Well, Valentine's Day is bearing down upon us with the inevitability of an unstoppable freight train. I have to confess, my husband and I rarely do anything special for Valentine's Day. We're really not very sentimental. Oh sure we exchange cards—usually funny cards—but that's about it. Probably because we don't have to. He knows I love him and I know he loves me. He shows it in little ways every day and I hope I do too.
Thanks to St. Valentine, February is the month of love. For some of us . . . especially those with a soft spot for romance, it’s the month of love for books. Yeah, yeah, I know, for many of us every month is filled with affection for the written word, and I’m certainly no exception. I loves me some novels 365 days a year!
An hour after I hung up from talking with my editor, the doorbell rang and the mailman handed me a certified letter. It contained a notice that my landlord had sold the home we lived in and that the new owner had decided not to renew our lease. We had 30 days to pack up everything we owned and find a new place to live. I panicked for a few minutes, and then a very clear thought that seemed to come from somewhere, or someone, else went through my head. “If you have to pack up everything you own and put it on a truck, you might as well take it off the truck in Florida.”
In CAKE ON A HOT TIN ROOF, she also gets custody of the ceramic baby her almost-ex found in last year’s Mardi Gras King Cake and with it, the obligation to host this year’s party for the Krewe of Musterion. The party takes Rita out of her comfort zone, and an unexpected visit from her aunt and uncle add to the stress. But things go from bad to worse when local celebrity Big Daddy Boudreaux is found floating face-down in the swimming pool.
There is no shortage of 'strong' women in romantic suspense…none at all.
I blame Nancy Drew for my life of crime. Reading it and writing it.
Many of us are acquainted with that giddy feeling you experience when you wait all year for a seasonal item and then one day you walk into the store and it's there. Well, I'm feeling that thrill today. A SEDUCTIVE KISS, the 5th book in the Grayson Friends series, was released yesterday. The last book in the series was released over a year ago. Well, those wonderful heroes are back and they're taking on women who will challenge and inspire them in New York.
I have always had a lot of fun writing the Monk books, but most of the time, I was constrained by having to stick to the continuity of the TV series (which I also occasionally wrote for). That changed with the finale of the TV show, which really shook things up and liberated me to let the characters evolve in new and exciting ways...and to even introduce a few new, regular characters. It also freed me to pay off some of the character arcs that began early the novel series, which began back in 2006 with MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE (which I adapted into the episode "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing").
But there's a side benefit. It’s allowed me to add an emotional resonance to the story-lines that goes beyond just Monk’s eccentricities and the solving of puzzling mysteries. The underlying theme of the books (and yes, there's always one) are often reflected in whatever is happening in Natalie’s life. Her personal story frames the way in which she perceives the mystery and reacts to Monk, so it’s all of a piece. It’s allowed me to make her a deeper, more interesting, and more realistic character. By doing that, I make Monk more dimensional as well, and I can ground the story in what I like to think of as “a necessary reality.”
