S. 3, Ep. 7: A Chat with Mystery Author Ellen Byerrum

Debbi Mack interviews mystery author Ellen Byerrum on the Crime Cafe podcast. The transcript is below, if you’d like to read it. Or download the PDF copy and read it later. Debbi: Hi everyone! This is the Crime Cafe. Your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I’m your host, Debbi Mack. Before I introduce my guest, a quick reminder that The Crime Cafe 9 Book Set and Crime Cafe Anthology are available for sale from all online retailers, regardless of what device you use. So, go to debbimack.com and click on “Crime Cafe” to find the buy links, subscribe to the podcast and buy awesome Crime Cafe merchandise. With that then, it’s my great, great pleasure to introduce the awesome fashionista crime writer, Ellen Byerrum. Hey Ellen, how you doing today? Ellen: I’m great Debbi. I’m so happy to be here. Thanks for asking me. Debbi: Sure thing! It’s wonderful to have you on and so let’s talk about Lacey Smithsonian. I had to laugh when I read your bio on your website and you described Washington, D.C. as “a city rich in history, culture, political drama and crimes of fashion”. Ellen: That is true. I absolutely believe that. Although now that we’ve moved to Colorado, I sometimes feel I owe an apology to Washington. I’m now living in a town, I’m living in a town where people when they dress up they have to wear their good fleece. So, that’s the difference in our towns. Debbi: Oh my gosh! Well at least their wearing something interesting like fleece. Ellen: Well, yes but everybody’s wearing it. Or you know, just your average gym wear because everyone here’s into, you know sports, gym wear, skiing and in Washington lots of people wear suits. Debbi: Right! And dull suits at that. Ellen: I know. We just want to perk them up a bit. Debbi: Well, D.C. is hardly the fashion center of the country or the world. Ellen: Well, I like to call it the city that fashion forgot. And I also think it’s the home of the congressional comb over and I often wonder why, why it is that congressmen and senators don’t have the typical male baldness patterns. I think that there’s a lot of plugs going on. That’s just a guess, and Botox. Debbi: You might have something there. I think you may be on to something. Before we actually start talking much about Lacey Smithsonian I wanted to talk about your days as a journalist. Tell us a little about your journalistic escapades. I think I spit that word out right finally, escapades. Ellen: Yes, that’s great. I was a reporter in Washington, D.C. for BNA, now Bloomberg BNA for 17 years and I mostly covered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration which is great if you’re a mystery writer because you learn all the horrible ways people die on the job. Debbi: Yeah absolutely, wow! Ellen: Yeah. Debbi: It’s funny how real cases like that can inspire so much can’t they? Ellen: They really can and you know I was horrified to find out that people have actually died in vats of chocolate. Debbi: Oh my gosh! Ellen: You think you make that stuff up but it turns out it’s real. So that was, yeah it was great and you know someone died in a vat of cherries. So, very tragic but odd you know. Debbi: It is. It’s just amazing! Truth truly is stranger than fiction. Ellen: Yeah, it really is. And of course I started out on a small western newspaper. And I think the highlight of my reporting days then is when I crawled through a massage parlor window. Debbi: [laughs] Ellen: To get inside to interview the girls as it were. Debbi: Whoa, very Brenda Starr. Ellen: [laughs] Debbi: Old reference. Ellen: Yeah, it was a crazy town, so I was happy to get back east. Debbi: Well, I have to ask you what inspired Lacey Smithsonian as a character. Ellen: Well, I love mysteries and I was reading them constantly and I love women characters, you know sleuths, the detective character and they were rough and they were tough and they were smart...