Interview: Joyce T. Strand,
Author
The Judge’s Story
Q: In what
genre is The Judge’s Story?
I place The Judge’s Story in the mystery genre,
but it is also historical fiction. It is set in a small town in California
(Ventura) in 1939 where a Superior Court Judge enlists the help of his
colleagues and a precocious teenager to uncover the identity of a murderer. I
typically write current-day mysteries set in Silicon Valley or California wine
country. This is my first historical mystery, and I enjoyed researching and
imagining how it was to solve a crime in 1939. Even though it’s set in a past
time period, it is still a mystery.
Q: What
inspired you to write it?
Inspiration
for The Judge’s Story occurred one
day several years ago when I was having lunch with a friend. Knowing that I was
an author of mysteries, he said that he had just printed copies for his family
of his grandfather’s autobiography dated 1941, which they had discovered in an
attic. His grandfather had been a California Superior Court Judge and also a
law partner of – “maybe I was familiar with”—Erle Stanley Gardner. Well, of
course, I knew the creator of Perry Mason and I’m sure I’ve read every “Case of
…” that he ever wrote. Gardner had recommended that my friend’s grandfather
write his autobiography because he had such an interesting life.
Well, I was
definitely intrigued, and my friend sent me a copy. What an interesting person!
He was a hero-judge, supporting current-day causes and the poor. I knew I had
to write about him—I didn’t need to repeat his autobiography. What I craved was
to write a mystery using his persona as my protagonist. So in between writing
my current-day who-done-its, I made time to research the town’s history and
created a mystery around the Judge.
Q: How
supportive was the setting of a small town in California to tell the story?
I find that
setting definitely supports the telling of a mystery. Weaving location and
trends of the period into the plot offers the opportunity to develop characters
and plot, which was the case in The
Judge’s Story. By reading a daily newspaper in 1939, I was able to pull out
many incidences and locations that enhance the tale. Ventura, California is a
small seaside town just north of Los Angeles. The real Judge lived there, and I
used events and places in Ventura and Los Angeles to advance the plot and flesh
out the characters. For example, the fictional Judge loves to go for walks on
the Ventura pier to listen to and smell the ocean, which helps him think and
solve problems. The L.A. drive-in theater offered a unique location to advance
the plot with a robbery.
Q: Why do
readers care about your characters?
I write for
readers who prefer real people who make mistakes, don’t always perform as they
should, but eventually do the right thing. Mostly they succeed, but
occasionally they do not. As for villains, well, I try not to make them too
villainous, but sometimes I just can’t help myself.
When developing the Judge, I had an advantage
given that I based him on a real person—although I hasten to add that most of
the events around him in the book are fiction. I used his beliefs, mores, and
ethics and some of his biography—but the mystery and all of his friends and
colleagues are fictional. Nonetheless, I had quick insight into a real person
and could reflect his faults as well as his heroic tendencies.
Many readers
find Clara, the 16-year old precocious teenager, almost as compelling a
character as the Judge. She is the witness who we learn early in the book is
testifying against a 14-year-old boy who participated in a robbery murder. She
has strong beliefs, and through the Judge’s tutelage she evolves as someone who
makes a difference, although she does trip a few times.
Q: The Judge’s Story involves juveniles and
juvenile crime. Did you target youth readers?
Although The Judge’s Story does involve juveniles
and juvenile crime I wrote it for adults. The actual Judge and news reports of
the 1930s were concerned with juvenile crime, and for the sake of the mystery, I
needed to portray that trend and some of its consequences and tragedies.
Q: Did you
write The Judge’s Story to entertain
and/or to deliver a message or educate?
I wrote The Judge’s Story to entertain, but,
quite frankly, the Judge and his friends had much to say about juvenile crime
and the merits of rehabilitation versus punishment and the value of reading.
Literacy was another trend of the 1930s, and it had to be part of the story.
But the messages evolved from the 1930s and from the Judge’s cases and his
comments on them. I did not set out to deliver a message or educate.
Q: Was it
more difficult to create characters who lived in 1939?
Creating
characters in a different time period requires an understanding of what it was
like living then. Obviously transportation and communication were
different—there were no Cell phones or internet. In fact, many people didn’t
have phones at all. But Hollywood was producing movies and cars were becoming
more prevalent, resulting in the growth of roads, and air travel was beginning
to take shape. So, when creating a 1939 character I had to keep in mind what
life was like in a small town in California. This required research, and I was
fortunate enough to find the Ventura County Museum with its library and helpful
librarians.
But people
are people and I found that expressing their feelings, emotions, and
motivations were not unlike those of my 21st century characters.
Q: Do you
write other mysteries? Are they all historical?
I write
current-day who-done-it murder mysteries that typically feature an amateur
sleuth who gets herself into lots of predicaments. In the first three, a public relations executive,
Jillian Hillcrest, works at a small biotechnology company in Silicon Valley,
encounters murder, and becomes involved in solving the mysteries. Although
standalone, the three books include repeat characters, including Jillian’s
boss, Brynn Bancroft, who becomes the protagonist in Hilltop Sunset, the first of a trio of mysteries starring her.
Brynn evolves from financial executive to winemaker. The second book in this series
is scheduled for release in November 2015.
Q: What do you
like to do for fun?
I am an avid
Broadway musical fan—or any live theater performances—so I attend productions
whenever I have the opportunity. I also like to go to live orchestra
performances, particularly classical and jazz. And I love to go out to dinner
and go wine-tasting.
Title: The Judge’s
Story
Published: June 23, 2015
Genre: Historical Mystery
About The Judge’s Story
A Superior Court Judge with a passion for social justice as well as
the law strives to discover
the truth behind the mystery of a robbery-murder in
a small California town in 1939.
When the Judge hears testimony against a 14-year-old
teenager, he realizes that the boy participated in a robbery-murder. However,
the accused did not actually pull the trigger. But unless the boy identifies
his partner, the Judge must sentence him as a murderer, which would result in
prolonged jail time. The Judge’s investigator, along with the precocious
16-year-old girl who identified the boy as one of the thieves, explore
different approaches to uncover the murderer. In the backdrop of escalating war
in Europe, the financial scarcities of the Great Depression, and the Judge’s
caseload, their attempts to find justice for the accused boy and unmask the
killer lure the Judge and his friends into sordid criminal activities.
Inspired by a memoir of a real California Superior Court
Judge
About Joyce T. Strand
Joyce T. Strand
is the author of who-done-it mysteries.
Her newest
novel, THE JUDGE’S STORY, published June 23, 2015, is a historical
mystery set in a small California town (Ventura) in 1939 and features a
California Superior Court Judge.
Her most recent
contemporary novel, HILLTOP SUNSET, is the first of a trio featuring
protagonist Brynn Bancroft, a financial guru in transition to winemaker from
corporate executive. Brynn Bancroft is a minor character in Strand’s novels ON
MESSAGE, OPEN MEETINGS, and FAIR DISCLOSURE—three mysteries
solved by Jillian Hillcrest, a publicist whose boss was Chief Financial Officer
Brynn Bancroft.
Much like her
protagonist Jillian Hillcrest, Strand headed corporate communications at
several biotech and high-tech companies in California’s Silicon Valley for more
than 25 years. Today, in addition to creating mysteries, Strand writes and
publishes a blog, Strand’s Simply Tips, is a writer for a regional wine magazine, and is working on the
second Brynn Bancroft mystery, to be published in November 2015.
Strand lives
with her two cats and collection of cow statuary in Southern California, and
seeks out and attends as many Broadway musicals and other stage plays as she
can.
Links
Purchase Links
for The Judge’s Story
Author Links:
Twitter:
@joycetstrand
