Meet Sandra Gardner

The Write Way Café welcomes Sandra Gardner, who shares her seeming fated pathway to writing fiction.

When did you first have the thought you'd like to write a book?
     I’ve been writing since high school. Back then, it was poetry, especially during Algebra class! Needless to say, I didn’t do well in Algebra. Or any kind of math or science class. I also started writing for the high school magazine. I guess you’d call them short essay pieces. Always humorous. The best thing that happened to me in high school was my senior English teacher. She had us write what she called “a theme” a week. I’d lock myself in the bathroom at home and write until I was done. She told me that I could write.
     When I got to college (Boston University), my friend and I used to cut class and hang out at a local cafeteria and critique each other’s poems. I also wrote poetry for the college magazine.
     Eventually, I began writing nonfiction articles for magazines, later articles for The New York Times. Because of the articles, I was able to get contracts for four Y/A non-fiction books (Simon & Schuster & Franklin Watts) and an agent. When it came time to write another what I thought would be a non-fiction book, it turned out to be a Y/A novel. I never thought I could write fiction. Then I wrote another Y/A novel. Neither was ever published, though they both received critical acclaim from contests, etc. Following was a coming-of-age novella, Halley and Me, which went through many incarnations: a novella (adult); a Y/A novel; a novel in two voices. Nobody liked this book: critique group, agent, editor. I was shocked when I got the phone call that Halley and Me had won the Grassic Short Novel Prize from Evening Street Press, published in 2013. 

What was your path to getting Dead Shrinks Don't Talk written and published? What type of research did you do?
     The road to publication for Dead Shrinks Don’t Talk was a complicated one. Originally titled Mother, Murder and Me, I entered it into two contests and won both. I accepted a contract from the first contest I heard from --- wow, was my book really going to be published? This was a very small publisher, Swyers Publishing, who published it in 2012. (Six months after signing the contract, I heard from the second, good-sized publisher, that I’d won that one, too. Sigh.)
     After I’d gotten the rights back from Swyers, and had written two more books in the series, I submitted the books to Black Opal Books and received a three-book contract for the series. Dead Shrinks Don’t Talk was published in May, 2018.
     As for research, I did tons. (Having been a journalist, I was used to it.) Took a trip to Rikers Island (women’s detention in NYC), consulted with a lawyer/judge writer friend, got lots of information online about legal and judicial issues, etc. 

Where did the idea for your story come from?
     Ah, the idea for my story. I was laid up on the living-room sofa with bronchitis, when I felt -- something – a mother – hovering over me. (Definitely not my own deceased mother, maybe a tiny bit like my mother-in-law.) I dragged myself off the sofa, went to my computer, and typed up 20 pages of a deceased mother and her daughter’s tangled relationship. A few days later, feeling better, went back and read what I had and decided it wasn’t going anywhere. Long an avid mystery-reader, I decided to throw in some bodies – and make it a mystery.

Why did you pick the setting you did?
     The setting – New York City – was one that I’d spent a lot of time in: graduating from Hunter College, seeing a therapist, commuting to work from New Jersey, being a member of a writer’s group at the 63rd St. YMCA.

Are your main characters completely imaginary or do they have some basis in real people? Do they reflect aspects of yourself?
     My main characters are pretty much totally imaginary, but, of course, writers use everything as grist for the mill, including characteristics of people they know or have met. However, the M.C. (Marabella Vinegar), I’m afraid, sounds a lot like me. (At least, my friends think so!) Super-nose, able to sniff out pizza – or garbage!—blocks away. Hates fish (except canned tuna). Mathematically impaired. Can’t drink. Worries about weight. And writes for a living…

Did you face any blocks while writing the book, and if so, how did you handle them?
     Blocks. Of course! Went around the house groaning to my husband (also a writer, who understands), swearing (not at him), ready to take to drink (except I don’t drink). I stopped and started (while carrying on a job) and stopped and started. I was in critique groups and was lucky enough to be able to trade manuscripts with my lawyer/judge mystery-writing friend. When I finally got through the worst of it, and saw that it was going to work (maybe), I was able to finish it. Also, as my mother-in-law used to say about my horrible attempts at learning to knit, “Well, at least you’re persistent.” (She was a knitting teacher and my adoptive mother, whom I loved.) She also told me to stick to my writing… Oddly enough, the second book in the series, Grave Expectations (due out later this year), almost seemed to write itself. But the third book (Death of a Nuisance) was almost as hard a slog as the first.

What have been surprises you've encountered while writing the book and after?
     Surprises. Um. I realized when reading it over, that it was really funny! I know my friends had told me that they laughed so hard …. Anyway, I never realized it while I was writing the book. Maybe it’s hard to do that at the same time?

What did you learn? For instance, what did you learn about yourself, your process, the writing world; about killers and ghosts?
     What did I learn? Well, I learned that mystery-writing seems to be my thing, my niche, my whatever. It seems to come pretty much naturally. Is it because I’ve been reading mysteries forever? Don’t know. As for killers and the way they do their victims in—my husband has asked me: How do you know about all this? As if I’d experienced it… I reminded him of all the mysteries I read. And the noir and other crime movies I watch on TV. (BTW, for those who like noir, TCM Sunday 10 am – Noir Alley—it’s great.) As for ghosts, we live in a 175-year-old farmhouse, with lots of interesting spaces. Unfortunately, no spirits (yet). But I think it was the character of the mother that drove me into this. That she happens to be a ghost, just happened.

Tell us about your writing space and how or why it works for you.
     My writing space: my husband and I are lucky enough to each have our own study. It’s where I can lose track of time and everything else except the story I’m creating. When my friend saw my study, she said, “So this is where the magic happens.” She’s right. I have my PC, printer, desk, and lots of books. Plus my neglected knitting basket. And a sewing machine, which I keep forgetting how to thread….There’s a small air conditioner above my PC. A print of The Lady of Shallot up above me on the wall. On the other wall there’s a lovely old print of two 19th century women, one of whom is painting at an easel. Next to that is my wolf calendar. (NY Wolf Conservation Center). Oh, and there’s a sign outside my door (which I hardly ever close because mostly nobody bothers me—hooray!) that says “Please do not disturb, crime writing in progress.” And another sign, Rosie the Riveter: Woman at Work.
     So what else would I ever need? Except my baby grand piano, which is in the living room (wouldn’t fit in my study!).

What are some of your favorite books and why?
     I’ve probably read every Agatha Christie at least once. Only figured out whodunit twice. (I love puzzles, do crosswords.) Love Megan Abbott, she really gets inside adolescent angst, sometimes very painfully. Really loved The Magic Men series, Ellie Griffiths. I have a thing for British mysteries – and magic. Wonderful combination. Speaking of magic, loved Jonathan Norrell and Mr. Strange. Read all 800? 900? pages and watched the PBS series. Especially loved the footnotes that she created from whole cloth, very clever. Loved Caleb Carr’s first two. And Music of the Spheres, Redfern. I know there’s lots more, but that’s all I can think of right now.

What are you working on now?
     I’ve been working on a whole new kind of mystery, very different from my cozy paranormal series. The Murder Blog features an investigative reporter who also hosts a crime-solving blog. And there’s a serial child killer. And a psychic.

Would you like to try your hand at writing a different genre? Which one and why?
     I guess I have been doing that – trying a different genre. If I were to categorize The Murder Blog, it would probably be suspense. Or thriller. Definitely not cozy! Why I started writing this: my husband was reading a novel that had been ghostwritten. I said, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if an actual ghost (there I go again!) were writing a book?” That turned into not-a-ghost who blogged about crimes. It’s been a real challenge, especially since there are multiple POVs. But it’s been interesting to try something new.

If you were not a writer, what would your dream job be?
     I have a hard time imaging myself doing anything that doesn’t involve writing. I’ve been a journalist, an editor, a public relations writer, a writing teacher, and have written a lot of poetry… hmm, seems to follow a pattern. The only thing I can think of is having Richard Engel’s (NBC) job: foreign correspondent. (Oh, that’s a writing job, too…)

What aspect of writing gives me the most trouble? 
     I think the original creating, getting it down, would be the most difficult. Editing is a breather compared with the actual creating. Oh, and making myself put butt in desk chair. Are all writers inherently lazy, or is it just me? Maybe it’s not so much laziness, but scary. What if I can’t do it? What if it isn’t any good? No matter how long one has been writing, the fear always seems to be there. 



When Marabella Vinegar finds her psychotherapist's bloody corpse, she becomes the NYPD's perp of choice. Her recently deceased mother -- the bane of her existence in life -- comes back to help get her daughter out of trouble and find the real killer.


Things get even worse when, thanks to Marabella and her mother's sleuthing, someone tries to kill her. Another body is found and Marabella is thrown in jail, awaiting trial for two murders.


Can she and her mother-the-ghost-detective find the killer before Marabella becomes corpse number three?

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About Sandra:  I am the author of six published books, fiction and non-fiction. Dead Shrinks Don’t Talk, the first book in the three-book Mother-and-Me mystery series, was published by Black Opal Books in May, 2018. Grave Expectations, book 2, and Death of a Nuisance, book 3, are scheduled for publication later in 2018. Halley and Me, a coming-of-age novel, won the 2012 Grassic Short Novel Prize and was published by Evening Street Press in 2013. Non-fiction books include Teenage Suicide and Street Gangs in America, published respectively by Simon & Schuster and Franklin Watts. I am also a former contributing writer and columnist for The New York Times.


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