Bookpleasures.com welcomesas our guest, Leslie Budewitz whose latest novel The Solace of Bay Leaves has just been published.

Leslie is the first author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction. Death al Dente, first in the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, won the 2013 Agatha Award for Best First Novel.

Her guide for writers, Books, Crooks & Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure, won the 2011 Agatha Award for Best Nonfiction.

She also won the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story for All God’s Sparrows, a historical mystery, and the 2018 Derringer Award in the Long Story category.

A Montana native, Leslie graduated from Seattle University and Notre Dame Law School. After practicing in Seattle for several years—and shopping and eating her way through the Pike Place Market regularly—she returned to Montana, where she still practices law part-time. Killing people—on the page—is more fun.

A true believer in the power of writers helping other writers, Leslie served as president of Sisters in Crime (SinC) in 2015-16, and a founding member of the Guppies, the SinC chapter for new and unpublished writers. She currently serves on the national board of Mystery Writers of America, and is also a member of the Authors of the Flathead and Montana Women Writers.

Leslie loves to cook, eat, hike, travel, garden, and paint—not necessarily in that order. She lives in northwest Montana with her husband, Don Beans, a singer-songwriter and doctor of natural medicine, and their gray Tuxedo, named Squirt but usually called Mr. Kitten. Because what else would you call a 13-year-old, 17-pound killer and cuddler who always dresses in formal attire?

Norm: Good day Leslie and thank  for participating in our interview.

What do you consider to be your greatest success (or successes) so far in your writing career?

Leslie: Two, I think, and they’re closely related: Telling the stories of women’s lives, that is, touching on truths of personal experience, particularly when I write about women’s friendships and the search for identity, which I think is at the core of a woman’s journey.

The point of mystery and crime fiction is to use the crime story to tell a larger story, to explore a theme and provide some insight into experiences we may not have had or haven’t thought about in a particular way. What tells me I’ve done that is hearing from readers that they have connected with the stories. Not with the murder, but with what it reveals about people. Giving readers that insight and a few hours of enjoyment, introducing them to a place, a business, food that’s new to them, giving them a respite during a difficult time---that’s the real success. 

Norm: What has been your greatest challenge (professionally) that you’ve overcome in getting to where you’re at today? 

Leslie: Any arts-based career requires a person to keep the business and creative aspects of their career separate. That’s hard, and it’s a daily challenge. It demands passion and persistence, and the right balance of coffee and wine. 

Norm: Does the line between truth and fiction sometimes become blurred for you?

Leslie: Fiction is sometimes described as the lie that tells the truth. What that means, I think, is that by inventing stories, we can delve into the truth about human experience. That’s the real challenge for a writer---to touch those truths. When we do it, that’s when a book succeeds. 

Norm: If you could invite three writers, dead or alive into your living room, who would they be and why?

Leslie: Well, I would be totally daunted, but I’d be delighted to sit and listen to Toni Morrison. I actually did hear Chaim Potok speak once, about writing, religion, and baseball. Add Ivan Doig, who wrote so beautifully about young boys in Montana’s farm and ranch country, and I’d be totally captivated.

You’ll notice they were all mainstream novelists, not crime or mystery writers. One of the unexpected bonuses of this career, and of my work with Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, has been to meet, talk, and even become friends with some of the finest writers of the day---Sara Paretsky, Laura Lippman, Laurie R. King, and many more. They’re welcome in my living room any time. 

Norm: How do  you live with the way people interpret and analyse your books?

Leslie: It’s great fun to hear people talk about Pepper and Erin and Detective Tracy as if they know them, and in a sense they do.

As writers, we create the characters and tell the stories, and then they go out and have lives of their own. Sometimes they skin their knees---no one likes a two-star reader review on Amazon---and you have to put a Band-aid on your own scratched ego, then learn from it and move on. And it’s particularly wonderful when a reviewer sees just what I was trying to do with a book, and says I hit the mark. 

Norm: If you could relive a moment in your life, which moment would you choose and why?

Leslie: The first bite of Boeuf Bourgignon at a sidewalk table at Bistro Paul Bert in Paris on my 50th birthday. Or maybe the first bite of the chocolate cake with basil crème anglaise that ended the meal. No apologies---I love Paris and I love good food!

Norm: In your opinion, what is the most difficult part of the writing process?  

Leslie: Finding the emotional core of the story. There are two, really, in crime fiction, and they should intersect or reflect each other: the reason for the killing, and the reason the main character, an amateur sleuth, must solve it. 

Norm: Could you tell us about The Solace of Bay Leaves?

Leslie: When her life fell apart at age 40, Pepper Reece never expected to find solace in bay leaves. But her impulsive purchase of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market turned out to be one of the best decisions she ever made. Between selling spice and juggling her personal life, she also discovers another unexpected talent – for solving murder.

In Solace, the fifth book in the series, Pepper is about to celebrate her second anniversary running the shop. She’s got a great staff, a new relationship that’s heating up nicely, and solid friendships.

But when an old friend is shot and seriously injured, and the evidence links the shooting to an unsolved murder, she’s drawn into the investigation.

What she doesn’t expect is that she’ll be forced to confront her own regrets and the effects of her decisions on other people, including her friends and her former husband. It’s all connected to the investigation of the present and past crimes. There’s an exploration of Seattle’s neighborhoods and long-gone movie houses, some spice spying, and a taste of what makes Seattle’s Pike Place Market so special. It’s all a rather delicious combination, if I do say so myself! 

Norm: Where do you get your information or ideas for the novel?

Leslie: Pepper likes to say that when her life fell apart, she never expected to find solace in bay leaves---meaning that buying the Spice Shop would be the best decision she ever made.

With the anniversary of her ownership in Solace, I wanted to explore that decision and what it meant for her. I’d had a conversation with a friend about envy and jealousy that gave the story an emotional element.

That same friend and I wandered Seattle’s Montlake neighborhood, which gave me visual details that prompted some of the story events. The unsolved murder in Solace is based on a real case in Seattle, although I have fictionalized everything except the victim’s occupation; I wanted to explore the ripple effects of crime in a community. 

And of course, fall and bay leaves mean soup, which is the heart of the recipe section in the back of the book. 

Norm: Did you write the novel more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? Please summarize your writing process.

Leslie: I’m a planner, meaning I try to learn as much as I can about the characters, their conflicts, and the story itself before I start with the sentences. For me, having this rough idea of where I’m going allows for more freedom and creativity along the way. 

Norm: What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them? 

Leslie: Good question! I jot a few intentions down on a 3X5 card when I start a book. I wanted to explore the next phase of Pepper’s life, deepening the tone and meaning while still appealing to the light side.

I wanted to solve the murder of Pepper’s friend Laurel’s husband, which occurred before the series started, and ease Laurel’s pain. I wanted to show the polyglot world of the Market in action. There is no present-day murder, a first for me. I think I pulled it off---I’ll let the readers tell me!

Norm: Did you know the end of your book at the beginning?  

Leslie: In general terms, yes, though I sometimes discover who the killer is and their motivation in the planning phase and sometimes not until the first draft. 

Norm: What was the most difficult part of writing this book and what did you enjoy most about writing this book?  

Leslie: The biggest difficulty was recognizing that my original plot would work perfectly well, for a different book, and that Pepper’s relationship with Maddie Petrosian was the heart of the story. Once I realized that, the words flew!

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and The Solace of Bay Leaves?

Leslie: Readers can learn more about me and all my books, and read excerpts, on my WEBSITE

 I share books news, talk about inspiration and research, and more in my bi-monthly newsletter; subscribers also receive a free short story. Sign up on my website. I also enjoy connecting with readers on Facebook,

 Readers who love good food as well as crime novels will enjoy Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, where I’m one of a bakers’ dozen of writers serving up crime and recipes; I blog on the 1st, 3d, and 5th Tuesdays. 

Norm: What is next for Leslie Budewitz?

Leslie: My suspense debut, Bitterroot Lake, written as Alicia Beckman, will be published by Crooked Lane Books in April 2021. When a young widow returns to her family’s lakeside Montana lodge in search of solace, murder forces her to reconnect with estranged friends and confront everything she thought she knew about the tragic accident twenty-five years ago that tore them apart. 

Norm: As this interview comes to an end, what advice can you give aspiring writers that you wished you had received, or that you wished you would have listened to?  

Leslie: Read, write, study the craft, and repeat. Find what matters most to you, and delve into it on the page; writing is hard, but when you use your passions, you’ll do good work.  

Norm: Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

Thanks, Norm!

Norm Goldman -- bookpleasures.com
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