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A Conversation With Mystery Writer Erin Hart

Kelly Engebretson '99 M.A. — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:01:39 +0000

Local mystery author Erin Hart will be at St. Thomas from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 26, for a discussion of her fourth and latest novel, The Book of Killowen. The book is the June selection of the Luann Dummer Center for Women’s monthly book club. The meeting will be held in the center’s lounge, Room 103, O’Shaughnessy Educational Center, and is free and open to the public.

Killowen continues the story of Hart’s crime-solving pair, American pathologist Nora Gavin and Irish archaeologist Cormac Maguire. Set again in Ireland, Hart’s novel has Gavin and Maguire investigating the puzzling connection between two men, born centuries apart, whose murdered bodies are discovered together in the trunk of a sunken car in a bog.

Hart earned an M.A. in creative writing from the University of Minnesota, a degree she earned attending one evening class every other quarter for eight years. She worked as a freelance arts journalist and theater critic – contributing to the Star Tribune, Minnesota Monthly and Minnesota Public Radio, among others – when she enrolled in graduate school strictly “to keep my brain from shrinking,” she said. Never intending to pursue a career as a novelist, she studied and wrote mainly essays, articles and memoirs.

Literary agents began knocking on her door soon after she won Glimmer Train journal’s Short Story Award for New Writers in 1996 (for the first and only short story she has ever written, “Waterborne”). But she had already decided she would pursue a novel idea that had been percolating since graduate school.

“The day Glimmer Train called me I was in bed with pneumonia, reading mysteries. And when I hung up the phone, I said, ‘I need to write this novel.’ And I did,” Hart remembered. The book became Haunted Ground, published in 2003, based on the real news story she read of a girl’s severed head found perfectly preserved in an Irish bog. It remains her bestselling novel to date.

Her other novels include Lake of Sorrows (which was copy-edited by New York Times bestselling author Tana French, still a freelancer in the publishing world at the time) and False Mermaid.

Hart spent some time away from promoting Killowen to answer questions via email and phone with the Newsroom.

Your career in crime fiction began relatively late in life, in your early 40s. Was it difficult to write your first novel, Haunted Ground, while working full-time?

I’m not sure I’d describe the process as difficult, but it did take quite a long time! I started thinking about Haunted Ground in 1986, and didn’t begin writing it until 1996. I did spend eight years of those intervening years getting a master’s degree in creative writing, going to school in the evening and working during the day. From the time I started writing, it took about four years until the manuscript was ready to send out to publishers, and another two years before the book was finally launched. The great thing was that I wasn’t under any deadline, so I could really take the time to write the book I wanted to write; the difficulty was squeezing in writing time on evenings and weekends. My husband cooked a lot of dinners while I was out wandering imaginary bogs! Two things kept me going: I didn’t know how the story ended (and wanted to find out), and I figured that the market was good. In other words, if I could manage to write a really absorbing, entertaining, suspenseful mystery, someone would buy it.

Had I known the depth of my own ignorance I may never have started! I was teaching myself how to write a mystery while I was writing Haunted Ground. I’m a big fan of P.D. James. To me, she’s the master mistress of the genre. I used her work as my textbook for how to write compassionate characters, interesting settings and good psychological motivation. I used A Taste for Death in particular and studied her structure, how she painted characters, etc.

Describe the moment you realized you could make a career of writing fiction for a living. Was it a leap of faith?

In early 1999, I was more than halfway through the manuscript. I had an agent waiting for it, and I guess I experienced a moment of clarity. I remember thinking, “I don’t want to be 85 years old and kicking myself for never finishing this novel.” So I asked for a six-month leave of absence from my job, and at the end of the six months, we were surviving on my freelance income at the time, along with my husband’s income as a professional touring musician. And we still had cable. My husband was a big inspiration, actually. He’d made a living for 20 years playing Irish traditional music on the accordion, and with his support I made the great leap to living as a creative artist before my book was even sold. I won’t lie – it is a challenge to make a living as self-employed artists, but we’ve managed to keep body and soul together thus far, and hope to continue.

How much archaeology, forensics and Irish history research did you do before you began writing Haunted Ground? And do you find you still have to do a lot of research for each successive novel?

Each novel is connected to a different period in history, and the field of archaeology keeps changing with new technology, so I do have to delve pretty deep into research for each new book. I read plenty of history, and I approach archaeology and forensics by reading books and journals, but also by using my journalistic skills (I was a freelance theater critic and feature writer for years), interviewing people who actually work in those specialized fields: archaeologists and antiquities experts, pathologists, police officers, DNA experts and other forensic scientists, whatever the story demands. Some of the same people have helped me for each story in the series. I’ve been so fortunate to have good contacts, and people have been very generous with their time and knowledge. It helps that Ireland is a small island, and everyone I know there is apparently connected to someone I’d like to interview.

Do you feel like an expert on those subjects now?

I don’t feel that I’m a real expert on any of the subjects I write about. But I don’t think that’s really necessary, given the level of detail required in a gripping crime novel. I do take care to read a lot about a subject before interviewing a real expert. One of my biggest fears is that one of the scientists I’ve interviewed will read one of my novels and fling it across the room, so I do try to get the scientific detail down cold. But I have learned so much. It turns out that’s my real reason for writing novels – it’s an excuse to keep learning. I get to dig into so many interesting subjects.

How do you begin a novel (i.e., do you outline; do you just plow right into the writing, chapter by chapter; do you jump between chapters, etc.)?

I tend to write a novel straight through, start to finish, rather than jumping around too much. It helps me to follow a thread, and as I mentioned earlier, I don’t know how the story ends. And I do get stuck. Sometimes it takes a few days (or even weeks) of pacing and plotting before the story takes the correct turn. But writing a novel to me is almost like doing an archaeological excavation. With each chapter I’m digging further down into my characters and into the complex situations in which they find themselves. I don’t know what’s at the bottom of the pit until I get there! Once I’ve worked out how the story ends (usually pretty far into the writing process), I do go back through and make sure that all of the hints and clues and suspenseful bits dovetail neatly.

Has the dwindling influence and sales reach of book publishing changed book promotion since Haunted Ground was published in 2003?

Hart traverses a stile at Dysert O’Dea chapel in County Clare, Ireland, 2012. (Photo by Carey Sidla)

Yes and no. There are a few really bestselling authors who always tour, and the people who get the most support for touring are the people who need it least. All the midlisters like me, we don’t get that. Publishers can’t justify sinking a lot of money into touring because there’s no visible return. I’ve done some national tours in the past at my own expense. Recently I’ve toured some libraries around Minnesota, but I’m waiting to see if I can get some support from my publisher (Scribner) to do more. The whole book universe is shifting, and no one really knows where the ground is any more. The transition between real books and ebooks is a revolution. Everybody’s waiting to see how the dust settles.

Publishers will do the traditional publicity they’ve always done – sending out copies for review, but even that’s tough. The New York Times is now the only paper to print a separate section for book reviews. High-exposure, respected outlets have really dwindled. Publishing houses are just starting to get into online marketing, and a lot of the promotion now is up to the writers. I’m in charge of keeping up my own website, and social media is expected of authors now. I enjoy Facebook and I have a Pinterest account, but I’m still getting the hang of Twitter. I thought at first I’d have nothing to say, but I enjoy posting about writing, Sisters in Crime, publishing, archaeology, cool places in Ireland … .

After J.K. Rowling “killed” Dumbledore, she said she needed a private moment to cry and mourn his death. Now that you have written four books with the crime-solving duo Nora Gavin and Cormac Maguire, have you become similarly attached to and familiar with them?

Cormac and Nora have become like old friends – although I haven’t finished with them yet, not by a long shot. I know that there are things about each of them I’ve yet to discover. And I’m probably just as attached to some of the supporting players as well. I remember my agent suggesting that I get rid of Garrett Devaney, the Garda detective in Haunted Ground, and I thought, “I can’t get rid of him – I have to know how he’s going to get on with the wife, and teaching his daughter to play the fiddle.” So Devaney actually returns in False Mermaid, the third book in the series. And fortunately, things keep turning up in Irish bogs, so I’ll never run out of material. One of the advantages to having an archaeologist as a main character is that I can dip into any period in history.

If your books were made into films, which actors would you choose to play Nora and Cormac?

Hard question! I have my own mental pictures of Cormac and Nora, and they’re not quite like any of the actors who might be chosen to play their parts. So I usually leave it up to readers. But if forced to choose… It’s been so long since I started writing the series that some of the actors I first imagined – Gabriel Byrne, Aidan Quinn – are now a little old for Cormac. So maybe Colin Farrell or Michael Fassbender, or even Jeremy Northam? And I’ve always seen someone with particularly Irish features for Nora – like Maura Tierney, or perhaps Anna Friel. Whoever the actors are, they’ve got to have a bit of chemistry!

How did your life change once you devoted your career fully to writing novels?

Hart (right) with her agent, Sally Wofford-Girand, at the book launch for Haunted Ground, November 2003. (Photo by Susan Van Baerle)

I’d say there’s a much greater flexibility in my life that I really enjoy. And a greater solitude as well, working alone so much of the time. But I really enjoy that. And the writing part of being a writer is not actually full time. About half the time, I’m doing a lot of what I used to do at my old communications job, i.e., publicity, marketing and promotion, things that are required of all writers nowadays. One of the lovely perks has been taking a tour group to Ireland – I’ve led a tour for the past three years, visiting many of the locations in my books – museums, castles, bogs, pubs. We’re taking a break this year, but I hope to do another tour in 2014.

Are you a night owl or morning person as far as writing style?

Definitely a morning person. I can’t work much at night, or even in the late afternoon! I like to work in the quiet mornings, with pen and paper, staring out the window and pretending that I’m in Ireland.

How often do you write? (Are you structured and write at a certain time for a certain length of time a certain number of days a week, or not?) And why does this work for you?

I’m afraid I’m completely undisciplined. I’d love to have a set ritual, but I don’t. But when I’m working on a book, I try to write at least three pages a day. For a long time it feels as if you’re not making any progress, but eventually those pages add up to a few chapters, and before you know it, half the book is written.

How do you celebrate the completion of a novel?

Paddy (my husband) and I usually treat ourselves to a lovely dinner out to celebrate any big project being finished at last. In addition to his music CDs, my husband has undertaken a huge documentary project, The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection (so far containing 1,000 tunes from his repertoire of traditional music), and he has also written a book, a memoir called The Road From Castlebarnagh, about growing up playing traditional music in rural Ireland in the 1950s and 60s. It’s great – and yes, I am totally biased, but others agree!

Alumni Share Stories of St. Thomas’ Most Influential Community Members

Kate Metzger — Mon, 06 May 2013 21:32:07 +0000

In the first half of 2012, the St. Thomas Alumni Association conducted a survey to gain insights on how to further engage alumni in its programs and services.

What the association discovered was that alumni appreciate St. Thomas traditions, that continuing to be involved with St. Thomas is important to alumni, and that it is essential that the value of a St. Thomas degree is continually affirmed and improved.

The survey also revealed that alumni have a deep sense of loyalty to faculty, a characteristic that became apparent when more than 800 stories about faculty members who had strong positive effects on alumni’s educational experiences were shared by the respondents.

Faculty and administrative staff members from departments across the university were mentioned, in addition to some of St. Thomas’ most notable personalities.

Of the 800 names listed, here are the five who appeared most frequently:

Monsignor James Lavin

Monsignor James Lavin

Lavin arrived at St. Thomas in 1936 as an undergraduate student and earned a degree in English in 1940. He returned to campus in 1946 after his ordination and taught religion until 1967, when he became an academic counselor. He went to work for the St. Thomas Alumni Association in 1988 as a special assistant to the president and a university ambassador who attended countless events, funerals, weddings and baptisms. Known widely as “Scooter,” he lived in Ireland Hall as an undergraduate and from 1946 to 2002. He began the practice of offering peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, also known as “Lavin Burgers,” to residence hall students in the evenings. Scooter’s restaurant – the original in Murray-Herrick Campus Center and the new version in the Anderson Student Center – carries his name, as does an award for volunteer service to the Alumni Association.

Monsignor Lavin died on Sept. 17, 2012. The first Monsignor Lavin Day was celebrated on Nov. 12, 2012, at Scooter’s on what would have been Lavin’s 94th birthday. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were served.

A respondent to the alumni survey said Monsignor Lavin “Accepted me for the person I was. As a woman in a primarily male college, his classes were critical in my development as a professional.” Another noted his kindness and recalled a time when Lavin “Gave my wife and me money out of his pocket because we had very little.”

One respondent who lived in Ireland hall for three years said, “I will tell you without hesitation that the personal relationship and experiences I had with Father Lavin were far and away the most valuable of my college years.”

An Angel in Africa

Doug Hennes '77 — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:57:57 +0000

KAMPALA, UGANDA – Nine years ago, Father Dennis Dease was preparing to leave for an international conference of Catholic university presidents in this east African country when he got a phone call that changed his life.

And, as it has turned out, the lives of thousands of other people.

The caller, arts patron Roberta Mann Benson, knew he would be in Uganda, and she had an idea.

“She gave me a sizable check,” Dease recalled, “and said, ‘This is for a qualified student who might come to St. Thomas.’ My first thought was, ‘How am I going to identify a qualified student when I am going to be there for five days in meetings?’

“But a member of the faculty at a Catholic university there approached me and said, ‘I have a qualified student who would love to come to St. Thomas. Is there any way you can help make this happen?’

“I said to myself, ‘It looks like somebody up there is looking out for this student.’”

For Dease, too. For the more than 40 other Ugandan students who have matriculated at St. Thomas. For the dozens of St. Thomas students who have traveled to the country called the “Pearl of Africa” for community service work. And for thousands of poor Ugandans who have received care at two Hope Medical Clinics, which Dease helped to open in Kampala, and next year will be patients at a newly constructed maternity and pediatric hospital.

These programs and many others are part of a partnership between a Minnesota university and a former British colony separated by nine time zones and 8,000 miles of air space. Dease is the first person to admit that he had no expectations Benson’s scholarship offer would evolve, in less than a decade, into the most ambitious international venture in St. Thomas history. But he finds it a nearly perfect fit for one simple and, to him, obvious reason.

“This outreach program in Uganda reflects very clearly the Catholic mission of St. Thomas and the educational mission of St. Thomas: to contribute to the common good,” Dease said. “I can’t think of anything that is more on target with our mission.”

It is a sunny Saturday morning in Kampala, and Dease is sitting outside the Serena Hotel, where a 15-person St. Thomas delegation is wrapping up a weeklong trip during which it visited the medical clinics and participated in the blessing of the hospital. As he reflects on what he calls “the perfect trip,” his eighth to Uganda, Dease talks about vision, persistence, patience and, perhaps most importantly, a certain kind of “connection.”

“Sometimes the challenges here can seem overwhelming, but I always remember Sister Yvonne, who taught me physics at St. Michael High School,” he said. “She always used to remind us that the first law of physics is that everything is connected. She would write these long, long equations on the blackboard, and if she made a mistake on one little fraction, the conclusion would not come out right. She would erase everything and get chalk all over her black habit, and she would say, ‘Students, remember, the first law of physics is … ’

“And we would answer, ‘Everything is connected!’

“So you see, you correct one tiny fraction and the whole equation changes. That’s all we have to do – fix one little piece and somehow I’m confident the world will never be the same.”

Dease is quick to point out that St. Thomas isn’t the only change agent. The young men and women from Uganda have had an equally significant role.

“When I see how these students are involved in every aspect of college life – sports, clubs, research with professors, tutoring, going on to graduate school – it makes me very grateful we have been able to see that kind of enrichment on our campus,” he said. “They help to fulfill our mission – to do exactly what we were founded to do.”

African students, he added, “enrich the education of our students here and better prepare them for the increasingly international community in which they will work. …

“They are going to change the world – one fraction at a time.”

Besides Dease, the biggest change agent has been Charles Lugemwa.

The Uganda native and statistics graduate of Makerere University in Kampala came to Minnesota in 2001 on the advice of his college roommate, who had moved here with his fiancee and enrolled in the master’s program in software engineering at St. Thomas. The roommate, Victor Lukandwa ’02, thought the program would benefit Lugemwa in his job at the Uganda Revenue Authority.

Lugemwa faced a difficult choice. He was married with a young son and lived in Kampala. But his wife Maria, a veterinarian, encouraged him to follow Lukandwa’s advice and he moved to Minnesota. He was amazed at what confronted him – not just the weather, which all Ugandans joke about in a wry manner, but the nature of the education he was about to receive.

“It was totally different from the kind of education I was used to,” Lugemwa said. “At Makerere, we did computing, but most of the programs we wrote on paper because we did not have computers. At St. Thomas, everybody had a computer! It was amazing. The professors were friendly, always willing to help. They exposed me to a new teaching style. They were interested in making you what you actually wanted to be.”

Lugemwa and Dease met at an African students dinner on campus and the president later sent him an email about his trip to the Kampala conference. When Lugemwa graduated in December 2003 and returned to Uganda, Dease knew he had to stay in touch with his new friend.

“He’s our man in Kampala,” Dease said. “The first time I saw Charles in Kampala, I was walking in the parking lot of the hotel and I saw a car that had, in the back window, a University of St. Thomas sticker. I thought, ‘Here I am, on the other side of the world, and there’s a car with a St. Thomas sticker in the back window.’ It was Charles!”

Lugemwa kept asking Dease how to create change and provide opportunities for Ugandan students so they, too, could live out the university’s tagline: “Challenge yourself, change our world.”

The potential of enrolling more undergraduate students from Uganda intrigued Dease. Humphrey Tusimiirwe enrolled, and his sisters, Doryne Tunanukye and Mavreen Ananura, also funded by scholarships from Benson (who died in 2010), soon followed.

Dease conferred with Lugemwa about a more structured way to recruit students, and he suggested they explore a relationship with St. Henry’s College, a Catholic junior and senior high school for boys near Masaka, 90 miles southwest of Kampala. Lugemwa, a St. Henry’s graduate, introduced Dease to its headmaster, Brother Francis Brian Matsiko.

“Charles took me to St. Henry’s and we were touring the campus,” Dease said. “You could hear the birds singing, like in a cemetery. Charles said, ‘But it is a totally different place when the students are here.’ Then the bell rang and 1,000 students were outside, chatting and laughing as they scurried to another building for their next class. Three minutes later, once again, silence.”

Matsiko, a member of the Brothers of Christian Instruction order, promised to identify up to three St. Henry’s graduates a year and Dease agreed to provide full-tuition scholarships. Benefactors have funded many of those scholarships.

The St. Henry’s-St. Thomas pipeline “just kind of grew, naturally,” Dease said, and this year 10 St. Henry’s alumni were enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programs (two of them have St. Thomas bachelor’s degrees). “I wanted to provide an education to students who had lots of good qualities and good character. The students from St. Henry’s have been tops – extremely well prepared for university studies, with self-discipline, a thirst for learning and great study habits.”

Ugandan students also have what Dease called “deep, deep gratitude.”

“For them, it’s a one-in-a-million chance to get a university education in the United States, which they recognize as still the best in the world,” he said. “They often say they still feel like they are dreaming and they are afraid they are going to wake up, so they make use of every learning opportunity the university provides.”

Dease said the Ugandan culture has a special reverence for a residential university such as St. Thomas – as a family – and with that understanding come certain responsibilities.

“The faculty and staff are regarded as in loco parentis, as we used to say in the United States,” he said. “We would say mentor figures, but they use the image of father figure and mother figure. We’ve all been humbled by that – the way they look to us for guidance, and you’ll find that’s a common feature of the culture here in Uganda.

“They have great respect for elders. They looked to elders, especially before education became more common, for answers regarding the appropriate time to plant a certain crop or how to deal with an illness. There is an African proverb that an elder dying is like a library burning.”

He paused and added, “I have found it very satisfying to find people looking to me for advice.” He leaned back and roared in laughter.

Dease also admires the Ugandans’ genteel, unassuming personalities and the uncanny way they use proverbs to address issues. When a student arrived late for a lunch one day, others admonished him by saying, “Latecomers eat bones.”

During a disagreement a student had with a professor, friends advised her to wait until the end of the semester, when she had her grade in hand: “Do not insult the crocodile before you cross the water.” And Dease finds comfort in the counsel he once received when he was criticized during a controversy: “The lead cow always gets whipped the most.”

Dease cites Alex Migambi and Alexander Ssengendo as two undergraduate students who have taken utmost advantage of their St. Thomas experience.

Migambi, a St. Henry’s alumnus, will graduate this May with degrees in political science and international business and will enroll in the St. Thomas School of Law. He wants to work in government in Uganda.

“There are not many people in the world, especially Africa, who get this kind of opportunity,” Migambi said. “It’s given me a special appreciation for St. Thomas, and I am going to do my best for my country and to make St. Thomas proud of me.”

Migambi, 25, has been a whirlwind on campus. He has served on the Undergraduate Student Government, Globally Minded Students Association and African Nations Students Club, worked in Residence Life and Academic Counseling and studied in the London Business Semester. Last fall, he helped to organize an event that raised $10,000 to build a medical clinic at St. Henry’s.

“I felt I had to prove I could do well at St. Thomas and could compete with American students,” he said. “I worked hard to keep my dream of going to law school.”

Ssengendo is a junior majoring in communication and journalism and would like to own a business in special events planning or advertising. He has organized trips for students to Chicago, New York and Notre Dame because, “coming from a different culture, we don’t want people to be isolated. We want them to explore new things.” He has been back to Uganda only once.

“Some people back home said I had changed a lot – that I had become more social,” he said. “Here, I say, ‘Hey, how are you?’ You wouldn’t do that in Uganda. People are more open here. They want to know how I came to America, and to St. Thomas.”

At St. Henry’s, Matsiko carefully chooses the students who will go to St. Thomas; Migambi, for example, was head prefect there. Matsiko refers to the relationship between the two institutions as “a partnership, a family,” and believes it reflects the St. Henry’s tagline: “For Greater Horizons.”

“We look at students who have been here for six years and those who have three other characteristics: a wonderful reputation, academic performance and the right economic background,” he said. “They need scholarships, and many of them work (at St. Thomas) to send money to their families in Uganda to help out.”

As the family has grown, so has St. Thomas’ involvement in St. Henry’s, located on 36 acres on a hill overlooking Masaka. The school has 40 buildings, mostly single story. One newer building is a computer center with three laboratories, furnished with 800 used computers donated by UnitedHealth Group and shipped by Hope for the City, a Minnetonka-based nonprofit that gives away surplus goods. Dease facilitated those gifts as well as another rather unusual gift in 2006.

“Brother Francis gave me a list of the school’s needs,” Dease said. “I took them to Sandy Grieve (then a St. Thomas trustee) and asked him if anything on the list interested him. He said, ‘Yes, the bus.’ The school had an open cattle truck at the time to take students places, so we provided a bus.”

Lugemwa and Dease kept the bus a secret.

“Then on St. Henry’s Day, which we celebrate every year, a guy drove it in and presented it to the headmaster,” Lugemwa said. “It was a surprise to everybody.”

Matsiko gleams with pride as he shows off the 80-passenger bus and points out that Grieve and his wife, Flo, mail him $1,000 every year to pay for gas. The printing on the back of the bus notes the Grieves’ contribution and says, per the couple’s request, “Go With God.”

That kind of attitude, enthusiasm and embrace of St. Thomas’ programs in Uganda buoy Dease’s spirits and affirm for him the decision to become involved in the country – as a university and as a person. He insists the benefits are mutual and he believes the Ugandans have helped to change a campus culture that a generation ago was perceived as less than welcoming for students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds.

“The Ugandans really enrich our classrooms,” he said. “They bring that perspective of what a rare gift a university education is and they help our students better appreciate what we have. They bring a profound respect for the person – old-fashioned manners – and I just love the way they deal with people. They bring a rich cultural heritage that our students find rather remarkable and fascinating.

“They also bring a sense that the world is developing in ways that some of our students might not have been aware. I fully expect our Ugandan students and American students will be engaged in businesses where their paths may cross again and again in the future.”