Casinos, Outrageous Characters, and Crime Capers with Gretchen Archer

Gretchen Archer, author of DOUBLE WHAMMY, joins Fresh Fiction to chat about casinos, outrageous characters, and crime capers!

Jen: Hi, Gretchen! I’m thrilled to have you join us at Fresh Fiction! From the first book, DOUBLE WHAMMY, to the newest, DOUBLE MINT, your writing is so much fun. It’s so easy to get caught up in your stories and forget everything else going around! The Davis Way Crime Capers follows Davis Way after she lands a job at the Bellisimo Resort and Casino as a super-secret security agent. The Bellisimo is such a wonderful location for all the trouble and predicaments Davis finds herself in. (I laughed until I cried reading about the Davis’s hair growth treatments in DOUBLE STRIKE.) Is there a casino or casinos that inspired the Bellisimo?

Gretchen: You bet. The fictional Bellissimo Resort and Casino was inspired by the very real Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. Before I started writing the Davis Way series I actually had time to go to the Beau, a little less than four hundred miles from my Tennessee home. My first visit to the casino was when my husband took me for my 40th birthday. Then left me at the pool with the kids while he played blackjack for two days. (Happy Birthday, Gretchen.) He tracked me down at the Kiddie Arcade, I was pulling my 40-year-old hair out, gave me $200 and said, “Go to the casino. Try your luck.” I won $8000. By the next day I’d won $40,000. We went home and totally finished out our basement. I’m a BIG believer. Some say Problem Gambler. In my defense, $40,000 will get anyone’s attention, right? Sadly, Davis keeps me busy and I don’t get to sneak away to the Beau very often. A whopping one time this year. I’d like to suggest a book club meeting at the Beau Rivage. I’ll meet you there. Who’s in?

Jen: I really like Davis’s family. Although they’re not a large part of DOUBLE MINT, her family has definitely shaped Davis’s character. Will you take readers back to Pine Apple in the future?

Gretchen: After four books with the same setup—Davis lives and works in Biloxi, but saves small oddly-named Alabama cities—I’m taking Davis on the road for the fifth installment, but not to her Alabama home. It’s a HUGE secret; you’ll have to stay tuned. For Davis Six, already in the plotting stages at red lights, until I get honked at, Davis will go back to Pine Apple. I can tell you this: Davis will fill in on the Pine Apple police force for her vacationing father. Let’s keep this quiet, okay?

Jen: DOUBLE MINT truly tests the bonds of a new marriage because Bradley is Davis’s boss at the casino. It leads to some concern, but there’s a considerable change in Davis from the first book to this one. Has Davis’s character growth surprised you in any way or did you always know she’d end up with this growing confidence and trust?

Gretchen: My intent, from DOUBLE WHAMMY on, was to fast-track Davis’s life on the page to somewhat mirror real life. With the addition of DOUBLE MINT I’ve covered roughly four years of her life and much can happen in four years. Given her age, early thirties, I wanted Davis to marry and have a family (hint hint), because I want to write a character whose life I can relate to. I’m married with a family. That’s where it stops, though, because Davis wears much nicer clothes than I do. (She never shops at Target.) When it comes to character growth, I strive to keep Davis’s personality on the same track from book to book, her principals and ethics, her interaction with others, and her extreme irritation with her ex-ex-husband, Eddie. To take that one step farther, Davis being twice divorced has always been a part of my master plan to write real life (if you will) (I’m not twice divorced from the same man) into my series. Divorce is just one touchy subject I deal with. You’ll find other taboo subjects reserved for darker commercial fiction in (life) all my cozy mysteries. (Actually, I write crime capers. But Barnes & Noble doesn’t have a Crime Capers This Way sign.) Because divorce, teen pregnancy, elder abuse, discrimination, and health issues happen in our lives. They happen in Davis’s life too.

Jen: The secondary characters in the Davis Way Crime Capers are fabulous! I’m actually quite fond of all the scenes with Bianca (and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that one day she and Davis’s mom will have a scene together!). I know you love all your characters, but who is your favorite and why?

Gretchen: You wouldn’t believe how much fun these characters are to write. Honestly, I crack myself up. My husband is forever threatening to hide a nanny cam in my office so he can catch me writing Bianca (one of my absolute favorites), Eddie (so much fun), Eddie’s mother, Bea (OMG), and even Baylor. I love writing Baylor. My hardest character to write? Bradley. Because he’s so close to perfect. I believe strongly in a huge story with huge characters. When I write boring characters, they’re so boring that they end up being fun to write. (These characters are personal entertainment on my part. That readers love these characters too is icing.) I have fun with the celebrity guest appearances—Jay Leno, Dionne Warwick, David Hasselhoff—and I love the popup quirky characters too. In DOUBLE STRIKE, Missy, who said, “Right?” all the time, and in DOUBLE MINT, Cooter Platt, with the big ears. One of my all-time favorite popup characters is Smerle T. Webb, Pine Apple’s only attorney. The straight characters are the hardest to write. The quirky characters are the reason I do what I do.

Jen: Can you give us a peek at what’s coming next for Davis, Bradley, and the Bellisimo? I’m looking forward to seeing more of Pine Apple.

Gretchen: I have a short story, DOUBLE BLAST, in which Davis is in Pine Apple for the 4th of July, but we shelved it to release DOUBLE MINT in July. (Timing is everything.) I should send it to you! One of these days when I have a minute, I’ll dust it off and release it to my readers for free/fun. It’s all Pine Apple. As for what’s up next, you won’t BELIEVE it! My goal is (to entertain myself, I think I covered that point) take readers where they’ll never really get to go, behind the scenes in a secret world. Davis #5 is an adventure so unlike anything I’ve ever seen/lived/dreamed of, I find myself writing it slowly because that way I get to stay longer. Hint: A Vacation Like No Other.

Jen: I can't wait!! Thank you so much for joining us, and if you do want to send DOUBLE BLAST, I wouldn't mind. *wink*

Gretchen: Thanks so much for having me, Fresh Fiction, and I’d love to send one of your fans—pick a winner!—a signed set of the Davis Way Crime Capers series. xoxo Gretchen

Giveaway

Are you in for a book club meeting at a casino? Leave a comment below for a chance to win a signed set of the entire Davis Way Crime Capers series!

About Gretchen Archer

Gretchen Archer is a Tennessee housewife who began writing when her daughters, seeking higher educations, ran off and left her. She lives on Lookout Mountain with her husband, son, and a Yorkie named Bently. Double Whammy, her first Davis Way Crime Caper, was a Daphne du Maurier Award finalist and hit the USA TODAY Bestsellers List.

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About DOUBLE MINT

“Seriously funny, wickedly entertaining. Davis gets me every time.” – Janet Evanovich

It’s convention season at the Bellissimo Resort and Casino and Davis Way Cole barely notices. It’s hard to pay attention when you live in a Jambalaya Junkyard. But when Special Events Coordinator Holder Darby walks off the job just as five hundred Alabama bankers pour in the front door, Davis steps up.

Or would that be in? Definitely in. Davis steps in.

It.

Not only has the convention director vanished, but a certain Bellissimo guest is missing. One who forgot to pack the million dollars he left in the bathtub. It looks like our redhead newlywed Super Secret Spy’s lazy summer is over when the Bellissimo vault is robbed. Can Davis connect the dots before it’s too late? Can she get her Taser gun back from Bianca Sanders? Will she be stuck with Eddie Crawford’s 1962 Cadillac forever? What Davis needs is a little faith. And a lot of luck.

Read an Excerpt