Bookpleasures.com welcomesas our guest, Felicia Watson, author of Where No One Will See.

Felicia Watson, author of the ground-breaking romance, Where the Allegheny Meets the Monongahela, and the award-winning scifi novels, The Lovelace Series, started writing stories as soon as they handed her a pencil in first grade.

When not writing, Felicia spends her time chasing after her not-so-brilliant, but darling and beloved dogs, being chased by her truly brilliant, darling, and beloved husband.

She is known to friends and family as an amateur pastry chef and still finds time for swimming and her day job as a scientist.

Bee: Welcome to BookPleasures.com Felicia.  Thank you for taking part in this interview.

Felicia: It’s great to be here – thanks for having me!

Bee: How completely do you develop your characters and their surroundings before beginning to write?

Felicia: I put a lot of thought and effort into both of those things prior to writing.

 I write out sketches for all of the main characters detailing their background, family life, education, defining moments, likes/dislikes, favorite phrases, any physical tics, and so on. Even when I don't use all of that in the narrative (Okay, I never do) it helps me inhabit their heads when I write their scenes, ensuring their actions and emotions are authentic.

For the settings I always have a map (whether the place is real or imagined) and sketch out my character’s home, office, or other places which they frequent.

Where No One Will See is set in Philadelphia not far from where I live so there wasn’t as much in-depth research required but I still had to “design” Lucia’s fictional office building and her basement office.

Bee: What is your favorite scene in Where No One Will See and why?

Felicia: That would be the scene near the end where Lucia discloses where she’s been hiding some key pieces of evidence. Not only is the full meaning of the title revealed at that point, but we see how clever and resourceful Lucia is.

 Lastly, the reader gets a glimpse of Lucia’s complicated emotions about her father and understands why she was so determined to solve the mystery.

Bee: The cover is amazing; it fits so well with the novel. How did that happen?

Felicia: My publisher gave me three options – one centered around Lucia as a skilled gunman, one around the diamond at the heart of the mystery, but the third was the one I went with.

I immediately fell in love with it. It’s so evocative of the story – showing the constant threat Lucia is under and also her use of the internet (a novelty in the 90s) to hunt down the killer.

Bee: What kind of research did you do for the Where No One Will See, if any?

Felicia: Since I didn’t know much about them, I started out researching guns: their uses and accuracies, the drawbacks and advantages of different models.

Then I moved on to reading about infamous hitmen, real-life accounts of police informants, court procedure, and the Mafia. Lastly, there was some lovely research into things like how bodies decompose. After all of that, I know I’ve wound up on at least one FBI watch-list.

Bee: How have your dogs influenced your writing? (LOL)

Felicia: Ah, yes, you noticed. I love dogs and one was featured heavily in my sci-fi series.

The dog in Where No One Will See is named after and based on my late dog Rocco, though the character is heavily mixed with one of my other dogs, Tristan, who was, yes, also a dachshund.

 As an Easter Egg for my friends, a lot of the characters in Where No One Will See are named after dogs I’ve had or known. 

Bee: What writers have you drawn inspiration from?

Felicia: Ursula K. Le Guin is one huge influence for me. I devoured sci-fi in my youth and I was captivated by how she centered the characters and themes in her futuristic novels, rather than space battles, magic, or technology.

Not that I ever object to a bit of those. And Jane Austen was another, mainly for her pithy style, inimitable way with words, and use of free indirect discourse.

She was one of the first authors to ever use that technique, and after reading up on it I realized I wanted to try my hand at it. Therefore, it shows up in Where No One Will See.

Bee: From your website, it looks like Where No One Will See is your first mystery book. Can you tell us how you came from writing science fiction to science fiction?

Felicia: I write what I like to read. I have read a ton of sci-fi but I also love a mystery novel. I grew up reading the classics like Ellery Queen and Sherlock Holmes.

When I moved on to Patricia Moyes, Dorothy Sayers, and P.D. James I became determined to join their ranks as a published female mystery writer so I wrote my first mystery novel back in the 90s.

It didn’t get picked up but I returned to it a couple of years ago, re-wrote it almost completely and the result is Where No One Will See. To paraphrase Louis Pasteur, the key to my success lies solely in my tenacity. 

Bee: What book/s are you currently reading?

Felicia: The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s a collection of her short stories, some I’ve read, most I haven’t.

The subject matter ranges from fantasy to old-school sci-fi, all of them extremely thought-provoking. I never read in the genre that I’m currently writing so I’ve been catching up on some sci-fi these past couple of years. 

Bee: Are you currently working on any new writing projects? Will we hear from Felicia again?

Felicia: Oh yes. I’m putting the fishing touches on the sequel to Where No One Will See right now.

Bee: Thanks again and good luck with Where No One Will See and any future endeavors.

Follow Here To Read Bee's Review of Where No One Will See