Write What You Want to Know

There is an old adage: Write what you know.

I’d like to change that to: Write what you want to know.

I know all about designing computer systems for the banking industry, growing (and eating) tomatoes, driving long distances, and reading crime novels.

All of which hardly makes for fascinating fiction. 

I have no background in law enforcement whatsoever. But when I decided I wanted to write a police procedural series set in Canada, I knew I had to learn. Nothing annoys me more than reading a book supposedly set in Canada where the cops are called DCI or carry their guns off-duty.

So I set about learning about how Canadian police work, and have now written eight novels in the Constable Molly Smith series, set in a small town in the Interior of B.C.

I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time on two occasions in South Sudan. I realized very quickly that I wanted to write a book set there.  It wouldn’t work for a Molly Smith novel, partly because that series is so closely associated with Trafalgar, British Columbia as well as her family, friends, and co-workers. I thought of a standalone novel, but I was unsure about having enough material from a three-week visit for an entire novel.  In addition I felt that the setting of Juba, South Sudan, would require a darker novel that I am accustomed to writing.

Then I met an RCMP officer working for the UN in South Sudan. I pelted the poor guy with questions.  I learned what I wanted to know.  And I left with the idea for Juba Good, the first Sgt. Ray Robertson Rapid Reads novella from Orca Books.

When the nice people at Orca asked me for another Robertson book, at first I felt that I couldn’t do it. The security situation has deteriorated substantially in South Sudan since the last time I was there. I don’t know enough of what’s going on. And, this time, I had no way of learning. (My contact had since left).

But – ta da – it just so happened that I was already planning a trip to Haiti, where the RCMP is also working with the UN to train and mentor Haitian police.  So Ray Robertson came along with me to his new posting!  Again, I was able to speak to some RCMP officers and learn about out their work and personal lives in that country.

The result was Haitian Graves, which was released by Orca in August.

What’s next for Ray?  I am thinking it’s time he had a vacation.  A Caribbean island would be nice. Of course, I’d have to learn about the place I want to write about.

“Write what you want to know” and you’ll meet some wonderful people, and learn some marvellous things along the way.

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers, author of the Constable Molly Smith police procedural series, standalone Gothic thrillers, and the Klondike Gold Rush books, as well as Rapid Read novellas including Juba Good, shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award for best novella, and Haitian Graves, published in 2015. Under the pen name Eva Gates she writes the national bestselling Lighthouse Library cozy mystery series from Penguin Random House. A former computer programmer and systems analyst, Vicki lives and writes in bucolic Prince Edward County Ontario. She is the current President of Crime Writers of Canada.