Candace Haven interviews Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown took time out of her busy schedule to chat with Fresh Fiction about her new book “Smoke Screen.” News reporter Britt Shelley wakes up next to Charleston detective Jay Burgess, who happens to be dead. The reporter has no idea what happened the night before and begins a journey to find the truth and to prove her innocence. The closer she gets, the more twists and turns she discovers. It’s a powerful story that holds you in your seat until the very end.

Candace Havens: I thought about titling this interview, Sandra Brown kept me up all night and almost made me miss my deadline. “Smoke Screen” is that good. I couldn’t put it down. What do you have to say for yourself?

Sandra Brown: I love being told that my book kept someone up all night because I love books like that myself!

CANDACE HAVENS: Talk about how you came up with the idea for this book?

Sandra Brown: I started with Britt’s dilemma: waking up in bed with a dead man and no idea of how she got there. What would happen if she’d been given a date rape drug, had no memory and of course, was the prime suspect in his murder investigation.

CANDACE HAVENS: I love how you put so many twists on the waking up with a dead guy can you talk about that?

Sandra Brown: I really started off with Britt’s problem. As horrifying as it was, it went downhill from there. I believe that a good story is one where the main character gets into trouble right off the bat and then things worse (and worse) before they get better.

CANDACE HAVENS: I also liked the fact that you have all of these interesting threads and somehow you weave them all together, and each part of the story has a different twist. How do you keep all those balls in the air when you are writing? How do you keep it all straight?

Sandra Brown: This book actually was very difficult in that respect because there were so many characters. Each character had their own story going on and a secret—besides the BIG SECRET, which was, who is the villain. At times it was a headache keeping everyone straight, especially in regard to the timeline. On the other hand, it was good for pacing because if things got dull with one character, I always had another character to go to.

CANDACE HAVENS: Is it true you and your husband were lost in the backwoods while trying to research the book?

Sandra Brown: Yes! We had a roadmap but the river wasn’t where it was supposed to be. So there we were one Sunday morning in the south, driving aimlessly. We finally backtracked and found three old men in a small town who were kind enough to point us in the right direction.

CANDACE HAVENS: How is that you make these characters come alive? From the very beginning the reader is pulled into the individual stories and you have to know what comes next for these people.

Sandra Brown: To me, the characters are real when I see them in my mind, so it’s nice to know that I’m also making them real for the readers. Characters are defined by their looks, certainly, but also by their personality traits, their goals and their fears. I really spend more time developing those latter three than describing how they look because they make up the essence of your characters.

CANDACE HAVENS: Actually, I’ve noticed that with all your books it’s very easy to become emotionally invested with the characters, is this a conscious effort on your part?

Sandra Brown: Absolutely! I might make the reader mad at me, but the worst thing I can do is to bore a reader. I definitely seek emotional involvement, and whether it’s fear, laughter, tears or anger, I want their reaction to be visceral.

CANDACE HAVENS: Everything centers around a big fire that happened, can you talk about the tragic coincidence that happened as you were writing Smoke Screen?

Sandra Brown: While I was writing Smoke Screen, the city of Charleston had a fire similar to the one in the book. Nine firemen died fighting the blaze. Needless to say, I immediately wanted to change the story’s setting, but none of the other cities I explored fit the way Charleston did. I finally decided that I could do more to honor those who lost their life by dedicating the book to them.

CANDACE HAVENS: What do you have coming up next?

Sandra Brown: I’m presently plotting my book for 2009 but I’m not ready to talk about it yet!

Candy is a nationally syndicated entertainment columnist, who has interviewed just about every celebrity there is in Hollywood and written thousands of articles. She is the author of the Charmed & Dangerous series including Charmed & Ready Charmed & Dangerous and Charmed & Deadly. Her latest book Like A Charm" is available now!

Her non-fiction prose includes Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy, and essays in Alias Assumed: Sex, Lies and SD-6, and Five Seasons of Angel. She's also the entertainment critic providing the latest on TV, film and celebs for the radio station 96.3 KSCS. And she's the managing editor for FYI Television.

You can visit Candy daily at her blog or her website