Heather Weidner is a cozy mystery author known for the Mermaid Bay and Jules Keene Glamping mysteries.
Her books, set in Virginia, are fun and charming.
We had the pleasure of visiting with Heather at Malice Domestic 36, and the following is an edited transcript of our conversation.
All errors are our own.
CozyMystery.com: Just to be clear, how do you pronounce your name?
Heather Weidner: Weidner. [CM Note: Wide-ner]
CM: When two vowels go walking the last one does the talking.
HW: I love that, I’m gonna start using that. Because I always say, like Budweiser, and then they look at me, and this is my husband’s name. Mine was Baker, it was so much easier.
CM: Did you ever consider a pen name?
HW: No, I wouldn’t answer somebody who would be yelling whatever the name is.
On Childhood
CM: So tell us about yourself.
HW: I’m a CK, which is a cop’s kid. So I thought everybody talked about murder and mayhem at the dinner table, and true crime before it was popular. They do not. I found that out in college. People were grossed out by talk about murder at the dinner table.
CM: That’s funny.
HW: So that started it. And my first job was to pick up shell casings on the range as my dad practiced. And we had a police dog who was sort of the family dog, even though he was working most of the time.
CM: I’m imagining you as a kid telling cop stories in the schoolyard.
HW: We didn’t have paint ball back then, so he melted down my crayons and I made bullets. So what five year old knows how to make bullets? But I thought everybody did this stuff. They don’t. I learned. So I didn’t have a normal childhood.
Career Day
CM: But it’s cool having a cop for a parent, right?
HW: The best part was, I felt bad for the kid in first grade, whose dad was the insurance agent, because he did Career Day first. And my dad came second. And he arrested the teacher and put her in the back of the police car. He had the helicopter show up. And so it was way better than the poor insurance guy.
CM: That is even funnier! Has he helped you with your writing?
HW: There’s some things when you’re doing your research and insight that you just don’t want to Google them. So it’s nice to be able to say Hey, Dad, what’s a meth lab smell like? Or what kind of caliber pistol put a hole this big? So he’s still my best resource even though he’s retired. That’s always helpful.
On Home
CM: You are from Virginia?
HW: I’m in Richmond, Virginia. I grew up in Virginia Beach.
CM: Very close to Malice [in Washington DC].
HW: Yes, we’re in the foothills sort of. But I can get to Washington or the beach.
CM: And you love Virginia?
HW: It’s beautiful. And it’s pretty moderate. I mean, it’ll snow maybe once and it’s 20 degrees. And then the next day is 50.
CM: Not so cold where you are then.
HW: I mean, I’m only two and a half hours from here [DC] but it’s a good 15 degrees colder up here than it is down there.
On Writing
CM: How did you get started in cozy mysteries?
HW: I started with Nancy Drew, and that was the gateway.
CM: How do you manage your writing?
HW: I still have a day gig. I’m an IT Quality Assurance governance manager. So I do probably about 50 hours. But I get up at five in the morning every day.
CM: Too early for me!
HW: And we’re now in a hybrid schedule, which is lovely. Because the days that I don’t commute, I use my commute time to write so I if I don’t finish it then, I can finish it at lunch and set a goal.
CM: You get up early, you must go to bed early?
HW: I’m spent by eight o’clock and so please don’t ask me to think or do anything else after eight.
Planner or Pantser?
CM: Do you plan your books or make it up as you go along?
HW: I’m an outliner. I plot it all. I do that so that I can write small chapters and chunks.
CM: But you have it all before you start.
HW: I get stuck in the middle when I don’t plot.
CM: And how easily are you distracted?
HW: It’s not that I don’t get distracted all the time, because I have two crazy Jack Russells and a husband who thinks, “It’s not working, I need you to do this, hold this.” I love you, but you don’t need to test your cameras right now.
CM: He distracts you from the writing.
HW: My biggest distraction is the internet, because I’ll go to look at something. Oh, there’s a cat video. Oh, there’s a llama. Did you know giraffes have purple tongues? You know, and then I’ve gone down this rabbit hole.
On Malice Domestic
CM: How long have you been coming to Malice?
HW: Seven years.
CM: What keeps bringing you back?
HW: The camaraderie, the support, it’s just wonderful. Yeah.
CM: How do you feel about Malice compared to some of the other conventions?
HW: It’s welcoming and supportive. And if you’re sitting there by yourself, someone will say, come join us. And it’s just nice to be included.
The Books
CM: You have several series going on right now.
Jules Keene Glamping
HW: Lets see, I have an October book in the Jules Keene Glamping series, which is glamorous camping.
CM: Do you do that for real?
HW: My husband gets really excited about hanging food up in the trees so a bear doesn’t get it. I need a door and a bathroom. We’re gonna glamp. Yes.
CM: I’ve never done it.
HW: Well, it’s really like a hotel. It’s not much different from a hotel. It’s fun to write, because she refurbishes vintage trailers, so I give them all a theme. We have an Elvis one, we have an Area 51 one, and just anything that seems cool and pop culture I’ll do that.
Mermaid Bay
CM: One of your series is set in Virginia?
HW: I have one beach series called The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shop series. It’s a fake beach near Virginia Beach.
CM: Lots of opportunity for action at the beach.
HW: I am going to do a hurricane story. So the body shows up and there’s a hurricane so it delays some of the response.
CM: A beach is pretty open though?
HW: My little town is sort of the locked room. We don’t venture too much from the little made up town.
CM: And the next book is?
HW: The third one is A Tisket A Tasket, Not Another Casket.
CM: A great name. And something new is coming?
Pearly Girls
HW: I have a brand new series, and it’s set in the Blue Ridge Mountains. And that one comes out next March. And it’s the Pearly Girls Mysteries. And in my head, it’s Veronica Mars meets the Golden Girls. Because her grandmother’s friends help her with her business. And she’s inherited it from her grandmother. And she has a dog named Elvis. He’s a Chihuahua. That was fun to write.
CM: That’s a second Elvis reference. Are you an Elvis fan?
HW: I am. We went to Graceland. And I was shocked because we stood in line and got our tickets, and there were so many men that looked like Elvis. I think they look like this all the time. And they do. But it it was fun. It was definitely over the top.
Thank you to Heather Weidner for taking the time to talk to us!
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