Tell us about NO MEMES OF ESCAPE!
Amateur sleuth Odessa Dean is about to discover the only thing harder than finding her way out of an escape room is finding an affordable apartment in Brooklyn in this sequel to KILLER CONTENT.
What could be more fun than an escape room? Solve a few puzzles, strategize with new friends, compete against the clock, and maybe even discover a dead body. The party grinds to a halt when a player is murdered in a locked escape room, and Odessa and her bestie are included in the five possible suspects. With time running out to save her friend before Odessa has to leave Williamsburg for good, Odessa must navigate the demands of waiting tables at a popular bookstore-slash-café and the perils of internet dating, all while hunting a murderer.
What’s the hardest part of writing a mystery?
Writing a mystery is like trying to solve a crossword puzzle without any prompts. Once you’re able to fill in all the blanks, you have to make sure that the puzzle you’ve created is challenging enough that people who can solve it feel like they’ve had to work for it, but with enough clues that it’s fair. My goal is that at least some people think they know whodunit early in the book, then make them keep second-guessing themselves until the big reveal, but I try to make it so the majority of readers to get to the end and realize that the answer was obvious all along, but they missed it.
Of all possible mystery styles, what drew you to writing cozies?
I wanted to write something that my grandma or my in-laws could read without blushing or cringing. Cozies are that perfect balance of humor and mystery without being overly graphic.
How did your writing process for this book compare to your process for KILLER CONTENT?
In KILLER CONTENT, Odessa was just starting to find her footing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But all things change, and NO MEMES OF ESCAPE brings new challenges at work, at home, and in her new relationships. I was able to shift my focus from developing a cast of characters and building Untapped Books & Café, and could now concentrate on how Odessa’s interactions with her new friends helps shape the investigation. I had a clear view of what needed to happen, but it was these interactions that brought me (and Odessa!) to the conclusion.
What inspired you to write this series?
I was drawn to the idea of setting a cozy in New York City instead of a tiny, quaint town that a more traditional cozy would feature. I am in love with the trendy neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn and knew it would be the perfect backdrop for a mystery series. One of the drawbacks of a murder series set in a small town is that when you’ve got a population in the hundreds, by book six or so, you’ve killed off a large percentage of the population (ie the “Cabot Cove Syndrome”). I thought I was onto something – setting a series in a neighborhood with 150,000+ residents gave me a lot more wiggle room. Then I did my research and found out that Williamsburg has a crime rate *lower* than the national average. Good thing I write fiction!
In addition to the urban setting, I’m fascinated by how technology is evolving and what that means for an amateur sleuth. Once upon a time, Odessa might have had to scroll through microfiche or try to sneak around to get access to security cameras, but now, anybody with a cell phone can get ten times that information in just a few minutes with a google search or by scrolling an Instagram hashtag.
Do you relate to the heroine, Odessa Dean, in any way?
I put a whole lot of myself into the Brooklyn Murder Mysteries. Odessa is a reflection of my starry-eyed twenty-year old self who moved from the south to NYC and soon realized that she was in over her head. In NO MEMES OF ESCAPE, Odessa has to find an affordable place to live or go back home to Louisiana. Moving into your first apartment is a rite of passage – and one that Odessa has yet to experience. Unfortunately, every housing horror story her friends share about their apartments in NO MEMES OF ESCAPE are based on my real-life experiences. I must have really bad apartment karma, because from ridiculously expensive Manhattan closet-sized studios with no working appliances to haunted illegal basement apartments in Staten Island, I’ve had my share of apartment nightmares.
What was your favorite part of writing NO MEMES OF ESCAPE? What was your biggest challenge?
My favorite part of writing NO MEMES OF ESCAPE was seeing NYC through Odessa’s eyes. It’s a town that is near and dear to my heart, and especially right now with travel and even the simple joy of browsing through a bookshop or grabbing a meal with friends in a café is difficult, letting myself do those things on paper was a real joy.
The biggest challenge was figuring out the mechanics of an escape room and making everything connect logically behind the scenes. Luckily for me, my bestie and his husband are escape room junkies, plus he’s worked at a couple of escape rooms, so I was able to pick his brain which was an immense help with designing a working escape room.
Thinking way back to the beginning, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned as a writer from then to now?
As cliché as it sounds, I learned that it takes a village to write a book. Collaborating with an agent and an editor and a whole team of professionals is a lot different that writing on your own. I’ve always had a core group of a friends that have read more horrible drafts than I’d like to admit, and now on top of that, I met a fantastic writer’s group (Hi, #Berkletes!) that really helped keep me going when things got hard. The community of writers I’ve met is absolutely amazing and I don’t know what I would do without their support.
What do you like most about the cover of these books?
I love the covers of KILLER CONTENT and NO MEMES OF ESCAPE. They are both illustrated by the enormously talented Rose Blake. Recently, publishing has seen a shift in covers from photographic to illustrated, and I’m as pleased as anything that my books were among the cozy mysteries to get these bright, graphic covers because they’re so eye-catching and really do capture the spirit of the books. By far, my favorite detail in the NO MEMES OF ESCAPE cover is that Odessa is standing in front of a cell phone disguised as the door to the café. It’s those kinds of details that make reading cozies so much fun – you might overlook some clue at first but once it’s pointed out, it’s glaringly obvious.
Which character gave you the most trouble when writing NO MEMES OF ESCAPE?
Todd Morris is the character I love to hate. He’s the inept manager at Untapped Books & Café, and it would have been easy to make him into a caricature, but he’s an actual human being (based on parts of my own personality, in fact). Well, fictional, but you get the point. He comes across as intentionally trying to make his staff’s lives harder by doing things like writing the schedule on a piece of paper in the hall instead of posting it to a shared calendar, but he only does that because he’s inept with technology. He likes to bark orders at the employees and will always take the last cookie from the breakroom, but he’s also willing to close the café so everyone can go to a party together. Finding a balance with Todd is always a challenge because he’s a jerk, but in his head, he’s everyone’s best friend.
What’s up next for you?
Right now, I’m hard at work on a new series set in an Austin record shop. The first book, VINYL RESTING PLACE, is due out from St. Martin’s Press in 2023. Anytime I have exciting news to share, I’ll make an announcement on my website (OliviaBlacke.com), Twitter (@OliviaBlacke), Instagram (@OliviaBlackeAuthor), and Facebook (AuthorOliviaBlacke). Additionally, newsletter subscribers (http://oliviablacke.com/newsletter/) get early or first access to big news, upcoming events and sweepstakes, and other content such as free short stories or giveaways.
