Let's Do Lunch! Interview with Dana Cameron

Thanks for stopping by the Lunch Room today to "listen in" on my chat with Dana Cameron, real-life archaeologist and author of six books in the Emma Fielding archaeological mystery series. Ashes and Bones will be released August 2006.

JB: Given the rather detailed information in the FAQs section of your website, I'm going to try to ask some different kinds of questions. Inquiring minds want to know!

You've traveled extensively throughout your life, not only for book tours and conferences, but also with your family as well as for both work and pleasure. Where are some of the most interesting and/or exotic places you've visited and why did you go there?

DC: The most exotic was Moorea, in French Polynesia, which was stunningly beautiful: incredibly clear water, jagged volcanic peaks — even the rainstorms were exquisite. We stayed in the first hotel ever built on the island and our room was a little hut over the water, with no A.C., no television, no radio, no clocks, no telephone. Perfect.

The most culture shock I experienced was the year I spent in England studying archaeology. We really are two cultures separated by a common language. It was a tremendous — and fun — learning experience, fueled by cheese, beer, and Latin epigraphy.

Spain was fantastic and I love Paris. Wherever I go in Europe, I try to find Roman ruins. It's amazing to see how much impact they had on the world, and to see their imprint on the landscape 2000 years later.

JB: What's the most unusual or fascinating thing you've ever found on a dig? What was its historical significance?

DC: No gold or jewels, alas; the things an archaeologist gets excited about tend be pretty mundane looking. The most unusual was probably a scale weight I found, which would have been used to measure precious metal or drugs, anything small and valuable. It was tiny, only about a centimeter square, and beautifully made, so it was a fitting artifact to find on a rich merchant's property when Salem, Massachusetts was a busy port. I also found a reference to a scale and weights it in his probate inventory, so I could date it to before the 1740s. It was a great example of connecting what you find in the ground to the actual person who used it! [awesome!]

The most historically significant was also one of the most ordinary. A tiny white trade bead (it looked a lot like a Tic-Tac), was found near the remains of a post. The post by itself, could have been any period. But the bead right next to it helped date the structure to the early 17th-century, confirming the early nature of the site.

JB: (Wow. That is so cool.) You developed a love for reading at an early age. Who were some of your favorite authors?

DC: The library had this series of biographies of historical figures that I devoured in grade school. Thing is, I realize now most of the anecdotes I remember from them were probably made up; I'm not sure there is any way of knowing those things could have happened! But those books made a huge impact on me. Loads of Nancy Drew. I read Louisa May Alcott's books over and over, mostly because I liked the sense of history, but also because she showed there was no one way of being a girl, and there were no "all bad" or "all good" characters. Andre Norton and Shakespeare I discovered in junior high, and I read a lot of science fiction, especially Robert Heinlein and Harlan Ellison, in high school. I read tons of plays, too; I liked trying to figure out how to translate words to actions — and vice versa. Still do.

JB: Let's talk about Emma Fielding for a minute. You delineate several distinctions between the two of you in your FAQs, but I'm going to ask you the same question I asked Susan McBride - can you tell us some things about Emma that aren't in the books?

DC: That's an interesting question — and hard, because Emma is usually pretty open with other people, and brutally honest with herself, so the reader gets to see a lot of what goes on in her head. Emma probably hasn't told anyone that after her breakup with her boyfriend in college, she was in a reckless state of mind: When the CIA was recruiting on campus, she went to an interview. Nothing came of it, obviously — at least, not back then. Also, she doesn't admit that when her husband, Brian, annoys her, she's thinking that people who've been dead for 400 years are more fun and less trouble to deal with.

JB: Are the Madam Margaret Chandler ideas still cooking on the back burner?

DC: More than cooking! "The Lords of Misrule," my first short story and Margaret's first appearance as a lead character, will be published in Sugarplums and Scandal (Avon) this November. It's a great collection: stories from three mystery writers and three romance writers, all with a holiday theme, a little romance, and a little mystery thrown in. I'm also revising the novel I wrote for Margaret, as well as planning the second and third. Every once and a while, I just need to take a trip back to the 18th century.

JB: Describe your ideal writing atmosphere.

DC: I do my best writing in my office with the door shut, my notebook computer and the A.C. on, and five hours of solitude with the iPod cranked to whatever playlist is getting me through the book I'm working on. Ashes and Bones, the sixth book, required music (from bands like The Killers, Bush, The Prodigy, or Echo and the Bunnymen) that evoked dark and wily thoughts, so it was best I was locked away from the world. Other than that, as long as I've got a notebook and a Pilot pen, I'm happy. I can work on ideas on the beach, on a train, in the theater, in a loud restaurant, but in writing the story, I hide myself away.

JB: What's your favorite kind of chocolate (dark, milk, light)?

DC: Dark. There's this amazing place in Harvard Square, L.A. Burdick's, that does ridiculously good dark chocolate. But I'm helpless, bereft of will and self-control, in the face of Rowan's Fruit Pastilles. It's a good thing I don't get to England all that often ...

JB: Do you consider yourself a movie buff? If so, what kinds of movies do you like best? If not, what other things do you do for fun?

DC: I don't know if "movie buff" is the right term; I'm not familiar with loads of old movies and classics, but I sure am opinionated about what I watch! Like the historicals have to have more than costuming going on and the action movies have to have a plot to match the fight scenes (though I will always make an exception for John Woo or Jackie Chan). I've mentioned in my blog, that my favorite movies, in no particular order, are: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Bourne Identity, Shakespeare in Love, Impromptu, and Sense and Sensibility.

We've actually already covered most of what I like to do for fun — books, travel, movies. I'm a foodie and am into wine. I adore museums and live for any kind of research, though lately, that's less about being lost in a library than it is learning how to shoot or doing interviews for the thriller I'm working on.

JB: I'm so glad we have more of your delightful and intelligent stories to look forward to! Thanks so much, Dana, for stopping by the Lunch Room today!

DC: Thanks for asking such great questions, J.B.!

Visit Dana's website at www.danacameron.com. Dana recently began blogging with the Femmes Fatales, of which she has been a member for about two years. She is also a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America and the American Crime Writers League.