Prolific mystery series author G.B. Pool has published 28 books and taught several masterclass courses on writing.
She has published short story collections and is included in multiple anthologies. She has penned three books on how to write after a career as a newspaper reporter, a private detective often working undercover, and as a banker, a draftsman, and the creator and builder of miniature doll houses and furniture.
In 1922 she published her autobiography, A Scrapbook Life.
G.B. lives in Ohio, U.S.A.
Jill: Do you have a literary background?
G.B: I was going to major in English Literature in college since I wanted to be a writer, but my first professor changed all that because she bored me to tears. I switched my major to Art. That switch allowed me to take
numerous other courses like History, Science, Religion, and a terrific Philosophy course. Those classes provided me with all kinds of knowledge about many of the things that added background to my writing. That education, and life in general, gave me enough material for the 28 books I have in print so far. All I ever wanted to be was a writer. When I was twelve our teacher asked us to write down three things we might want to be when we grew up. I put down writer, writer…and writer. I might have had a lot of jobs before I got my first book in print, but it happened. I’ve been in anthologies with other mystery writers as well.
Jill: What inspired you to write mysteries?
G.B: My inspiration came in a rather interesting way. The first book I wrote was a disaster. It was about huge rats carving out massive caverns underneath the high-rise buildings along Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive and their pending tumble into that lake. The title is CAVERNS. I couldn’t find a publisher, so I decided to write a few spy novels based partially on what my dad did during World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. Not that he was a spy, but he was a pilot, and he did some rather interesting things. There were several times when he would fly off in a small plane provided by the government but not tell my mom or me where he was going. Bless his heart, he named the plane The Miss Gayle. One time he came back from parts unknown with a piece of sugar cane and gave it to me. The only place I knew that sugar cane came from was Cuba. This was right before the Cuban Missile Crisis happened. Well, I took those bits and pieces and put them in three different spy novels. While writing them I would need background information of little things like WWII, Vietnam, politics, etc. My husband, Richard, who majored in History and Political Science in college, handed me books that he had on those subjects and told me to read them. It took me ten years to write those spy novels, but again, I couldn’t find a publisher. That’s when Richard said these immortal words… “You used to be a private detective. Why don’t you write a detective story?” And yes, I was a detective years earlier. I didn’t do it for long, but I went undercover in lots of businesses to catch the bad guy. So, I wrote a mystery based on being on a jury, which I actually had done, and published it. That was the beginning.
Jill: Have your careers crept into your books?
G.B: Oh, yeah. I worked for five years in a store selling miniature dollhouses. I got to design miniature rooms for customers and the shop. We also had a holiday room where we sold lots of Christmas decorations. I got the idea for my first Christmas book about a Polar bear who helped Santa Claus when I saw a holiday card that we were selling that featured a bear with a Santa hat. It might have taken me ten years before I wrote the story as I had to build the miniature castle featured in the book and craft the characters that I used in the illustrations, but I got the book published and two others in the series. Then I worked in a bank dealing with stocks and bonds. That’s where I met my husband. I used that background in that first mystery series featuring a female private detective and her husband who just happened to work in a bank. Many of the people I know, the places I’ve lived, and the jobs I’ve had have found their way into many of my books. As one of the characters in my spy novels says: The facts are true. I make up the rest.
Jill: How many mystery series do you write?
G.B: I have three mystery series. The first was the Ginger (Gin) Caulfield book, MEDIA JUSTICE. I got the idea when I served on that jury. Of course I took the story in a very different direction. The second, HEDGE BET, had its roots in the fact I worked with stocks and bonds, but the initial idea came when we received free tickets to the racetrack in a city near us in California. Of course, there had to be a dead body which got the ball rolling, but Gin Caulfield got involved.
Jill: What inspires your stories?
G.B: Writers get their inspiration from many things. Life around them, the news, things they hear that trigger their creative juices. CAVERNS came about in the mid-70s when a co-worker who had recently moved to Los Angeles from New York City told me about an article she had read about a cop in the wharf area one night. The officer heard a noise down an alley and thought someone was going through the garbage cans. He investigated and realised it wasn’t human. He thought it was a dog. Nope, it wasn’t a dog, but it was big. He shot it and called for a hazmat unit, which took it in. You see, ideas come from everywhere.
Besides CAVERNS and EDDIE BUICK’S LAST CASE, which are stand-alones, I also wrote CLOSER, a police detective story. The other novel is a light romance with a twist. A young girl meets someone when she’s twelve who reminds her of a character out of an historical novel. He’s wearing what looks like a costume. No one believes that she met him; she’s laughed at by her schoolmates and teachers, but she knows she saw him. When she grows up, the thought of the fairy tale guy haunts her until she manages to get back into that house and discovers who he really is and why he was trapped there. It’s called ENCHANTED: THE RING, THE ROSE AND THE RAPIER.
Jill: Do you belong to writers’ organizations?
G.B: I have learned that writers really need to talk with others who are pursuing the same goal: sell their books. I joined Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime to do just that. I became Speakers Director of the Los Angeles branch of SinC and set up 80 events with our members while I was there. I only put myself on two of those panels because you aren’t supposed to hog the spotlight. (Not everyone in that position followed that rule.) But I got to know the other writers so I could introduce them at those events. And I wrote out the questions the moderators would ask each writer. It helped us all learn how to face an audience and not freak out. I learned a lot. But there is a lot more a writer must do to get their book in front of an audience. That publicity part is not my strong suite. I paid a publicist a nice piece of change to promote my first book. She got me on a radio station in New York. Not New York City. It was a station in up-state New York that didn’t reach the Big Apple. That was all she did. It was a waste of money. I sold books at book conventions and at the two events I did for Sisters in Crime. I got to meet people at women’s clubs and sold quite a few books when I did events with them. I also sold books at various libraries when I was asked to do an event. But I should do more. I do post on The Writers-in-Residence blog, but most of the people who read the articles are writers and not so much readers, so few buy our books. I might try TikTok if I can figure that out.
Jill: Do you teach writing?
G.B: Along with my fiction work, I have three books on how to write. I got the idea when I taught classes as Speakers Bureau Director of Sisters in Crime. I gave the class a handout that covered the points I was making in the workshop. I got the idea from the Philosophy class I took in college. We read Aristotle’s THE POETICS. Good ol’ Aristotle said there were five basic elements in writing a story: Plot, Character, Dialogue, Setting, and the Meaning of the story. I used that philosophy and came up with the book: THE ANATOMY OF A SHORT STORY WORKBOOK. It’s by far my best seller. I sell it on Amazon and they must do a little promoting, because it sells well. Once in a while someone will buy a dozen books. They must be teaching a class. That is exactly what I want them to do. If people don’t write there will be nothing to read, and I want people to read. The other two books are: SO YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER and WORDS, WORDS, WORDS-THE ART OF WRITING. These last two books consist of various articles I wrote telling fellow writers how I get those words on paper.
Jill: Where do you get your ideas?
G.B: That’s easy LIFE. What’s interesting to know is that everybody has a different life. We all have been, done and seen hundreds of things. I tell not only writers, but other people I meet, that they all should write their own autobiography. I did. I tell them it only took me 75 years to write it. It was published on my 75th birthday. We all have a story to share. Remember: Life is research but reading a book on a subject broadens your knowledge
because no matter what you think, you don’t know everything. It took me ten years of research to understand what I was writing about in my three spy novels that cover some fifty years of history. I put a great deal of facts in those books and let my characters run around in all those intriguing events. I also watched old movies from those times to see how people lived, how they talked and what the environment was like back then. That was a history lesson in itself. What was also cool, the mystery groups I belonged to also had tours of various places like police stations and the morgue. When my dad was in the Air Force, he took me to work long before “Take Your Daughter to Work” was even thought about. I got to see some really interesting things. And when I was a private detective, I had to occasionally check in with the local police stations in various cities, so they knew a P.I. was in their area. And I lived in France for three years while my dad was stationed there. We travelled all over Europe on vacation. So, I did research even before I knew I would be using a lot of that stuff in one of my books.
Jill: Do you have any hobbies?
G.B: I collect Santas and other Christmas decorations. I have around 2,000 Santas. My three Christmas books feature many photos from that vast collection along with the castle I built. A few other dollhouses sitting around the house are just waiting to appear in a book or two. I build them in my spare time.
Jill: How would you describe your writing style?
G.B: it depends on the book. My Gin Caulfield books are in Third Person, but the Johnny Casino and Chance McCoy books are in First Person, but those two series are written as short stories, so the First Person style fits the story. All the novels are in Third Person because there is a lot of background being described and the main character can’t be everywhere. I also am asked whether I write an outline first or am I a “pantser.” That’s someone who just sits down and writes. They’ll go back and edit later. That’s what I do. I might change something when I’m writing if I realize it wasn’t exactly where I wanted to go, but usually I finish the first draft and then go back to edit the work. Editing can take longer than the initial writing. I always have a rough idea what the story is about when I begin a new work, but a few times when I thought I knew who the bad guy was, I added another layer when that character is killed off because there was someone else pulling the strings. Even I was surprised by that. And I had another character that I was going to kill off at the beginning of the story, but I liked him too much and kept him on as one of the heroes. Sometimes I have to wonder who’s writing the story: me or the characters. I’ll ask them sometime and see if they give me an answer.
Jill: How do you handle writer’s block?
G.B: I don’t think I ever really have writers’ block. Sometimes I just need to do something else like paint a picture or build a new miniature house or scene, or make something for the house I live in. I like doing those things, too. And I need to occasionally “get a life” because I do spend a lot of time writing and alone and I should get out a little more since my wonderful husband passed away five years ago. I’ll have to work on that. And maybe find ways to publicize my work a little better. I’ll work on that, too.
Jill: Tips for beginning mystery writers?
G.B: If I had to give a few pointers to writers, I would tell them this: WRITE. I remember years ago when I was writing my first novel. I was working at that bank and had mentioned to co-workers that I was writing a book. One of the guys I worked with mentioned this to another guy and he wanted to ask me questions about writing. He said he was a writer, too. I didn’t know all that much back then, but I told him I had written quite a few chapters of CAVERNS and explained the overall plot since I had a rough idea what the story was about. I asked him what he had written. He said he had written nothing. Not a word. He just thought he was a writer. Sorry, he wasn’t …yet. He had to put a few words on paper, have an idea for a story, have some characters, a setting. I didn’t tell him that. Maybe he figured it out. But a writer writes. So, if you want to be a writer or you have actually written a ton of things, keep writing. Read other writers’ work in the genre you like to see what they did. Some will be good, some will be bad, some will be terrific. Learn from them all. Read a few books on writing. Keep a notebook of ideas for stories. I have one I have been adding to for years. I’m currently turning some of those bits and pieces into a book of short stories called… BITS AND PIECES. Remember, we all have a story in us, whether it’s that autobiography, or The Great American Novel, or a short story you get published in an anthology. Write. Then you’ll be a writer.
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