Margaret Coel - An Interview

Margaret Coel is the New York Times best-selling author of the acclaimed Wind River mystery series set among the Arapahos on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation and featuring Jesuit priest Father John O'Malley and Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden. The latest in the series, Buffalo Bill's Dead Now, was released on September 4.




MB:
What made you choose to write crime fiction? 

MC:
I write what I love to read. I grew up reading and loving crime fiction. (Nancy Drew, anyone?) Of course there is the heart-pounding suspense in crime fiction, and also the puzzle and the fun of trying to solve the crime ahead of the detective.
But what I really love about it is that something happens. Crime fiction is about something, not just the psyches of the characters. No navel gazing in crime fiction! The best crime fiction novels take you into a whole world, and I love getting an inside glimpse into new and unusual places, the people who live there, the challenges they face.
I try to give my readers the kind of experience that I enjoy. In Buffalo Bill's Dead Now, the plot moves back and forth between the present on the Wind River Reservation and 1890 Berlin and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show--two very different worlds. Bottom line for me is that crime fiction novels are interesting to write and to read!!


MB:
You began the Wind River series more than 15 years ago. How did you decide to make your main characters a female attorney and a Catholic priest? 

MC:
I was looking for an outsider to the Arapaho world, someone who would come into that world not knowing anything about Arapaho culture or history who would have everything to learn. My thinking was that, as my outsider character got to know and appreciate the Arapahos, readers could come along on that journey. Since there was a mission on the Wind Reservation that had been run by the Jesuits for more than a hundred years, it hit me that my outsider could be a priest. Not a perfect man, dealing with his own demons, and finding a home in a very different place from his own home in Boston.


Vicky arrived almost on her own--pushing and demanding to be included. I loved her from the minute she popped into my head. She's Arapaho, shaped by her own culture, and yet she is also an attorney fluent in the outside culture. She brings a strong Arapaho voice to the novels. But I also wanted her to have power, and attorneys have power. Both Vicky and Father John are what the Arapahos call "the edge people." They live at the edge of two cultures.



MB:
You get into Father John’s head very well. Is it difficult to think like a man? 

MC:
This is what writers do. We get into the heads of all kinds of people that we are not. Murderers. Psychopaths. People of different races. Gay people. Straight people. As for writing in the head of a man, I've lived my entire life with men--father, brothers, husband, son. What writers always have to tap into in creating any character is our common humanity, despite our differences. I feel that I know Father John very well. After all, I've lived him for a lot of years.



MB:
What is your workspace like?

MC:
I have a large study with a corner-wrap-around desk big enough to accommodate my computer, printer and stacks of --who knows what all is in those stacks? I have filing cabinets that badly need to be cleaned out and organized. I have two large bookcases groaning under my research books and the books I intend to read. There are photos and Indian art on the walls, and a lovely leather sofa where I can meditate (that's what I call it; some might call it napping.)



MB:
Could you describe your typical day of writing?

MC:
First thing in the morning I walk about 3 miles. This is great "writing " time because I can mull over what I'll be writing that day. I'm usually at my desk by 9 a.m. Spend about 4 or 5 hours writing my next novel. Then spend the rest of the afternoon handling business, dealing with my website and Facebook and about a thousand other things that crop up each day. The truth is, the writing business is a business, with all that entails. I try to cram in some reading, but evenings are best for my own fun reading.