Haunting Jordan: An Interview with P.J. Alderman

In 2006, P.J. Alderman steamrolled onto the writing scene with RITA-nominated A KILLING TIDE. Now she's back with HAUNTING JORDAN, the first book in the Port Chatham mystery series. Described as "The small-town charm of Jan Karon meets the time-bending crime solving of Kate Atkinson. Haunting Jordan hit the bookshelves yesterday, and P.J.'s spreading the word. Please welcome her to The Five Scribes.

Here's the blurb! Jordan Marsh left L.A. for the quaint Pacific Northwest town of Port Chatham in pursuit of some much-needed R&R. As the prime suspect in her cheating husband's murder, she had been hoping to immerse herself in the restoration of the charming Victorian she'd just bought--and put all talk of homicide investigations behind her. But as she soon discovers, the coldest of cases cry out to be solved, too.

For this old house comes fully furnished--with two garrulous ghosts who have a century-old murder of their own they'd like her to look into. Now, if Jordan can keep the L.A. police at bay and sort through a suspect list of shady characters circa 1890, she might just clear a wrongly accused man's name--and her own.

D.B.: P.J., it's so good to talk to you again. I've been looking forward to this book since I read the draft pages and had lunch with you and another writer friend in the beautiful Northwest. Obviously Port Chatham is a fictional town. Where did you get the idea for your book, how is it like A Killing Tide, and how is it different?

P.J.: Hi, everyone! It's great to be here chatting with you.

My fictional town, Port Chatham, is based on the real and very charming town of Port Townsend, Washington. I've always been fascinated with the town's history. For most of the 19th century, it was the largest seaport in the Pacific Northwest; in terms of crime its reputation rivaled San Francisco's Barbary Coast. And yet today, Port Townsend is a charming, sleepy seaside resort, filled with beautiful gardens and Victorian homes, and host to world-renowned jazz and wooden-boat festivals. I ask you, what author can resist such a contrast, LOL? I dove into several local history books, rubbed my hands with glee, and started typing!

For those of you who read A Killing Tide you'll find my addictions to research, dark and dangerous settings, and suspense heavily indulged!

D.B.: Bantam has turned this book into a mystery series. Was that your intent to develop the series, or did you write it first as a stand-alone novel?

P.J.: I originally proposed the book as either a stand alone or a series. A few years ago, I had jotted down the idea for a book with parallel plots running concurrently in two different centuries. When editors began asking agents for more historical fiction, I pitched the idea to my agent, Kevan Lyon, as a melding of the kind of suspense I love to write with the current demands of the market. She loved the idea, and we agreed to send it to both romance and mystery/suspense editors. I was thrilled when Kate Miciak, editorial director for Bantam Books, pre-empted. Kate edits suspense and mystery authors, and she has been looking for a mystery series like mine for a number of years.

D.B.: The evolution of Haunting Jordan meant you had to delve into the contemporary setting of the Pacific Northwest and the historical aspects of the area--the draft I read felt like it was two different stories. And then, of course, there was the paranormal element. How difficult was this to transition through? Do you outline, do you write the book in order, or did you write two separate stories and then incorporate?

P.J: I write the book in the order the chapters appear, and I only have a general idea of the story as I begin to write. For Haunting Jordan, I knew the high-level definition of each plot, who the suspects probably were for each murder (there are two murders, one in each time frame), and what each solution to the crime might be. I also knew I wanted ghosts in present day, because I couldn't write about that setting without including a few, LOL.

As I wrote the book, I basically followed the flow of the story back and forth in time as it seemed most natural to me. When I felt that readers needed to know what was happening next in current day, I left history behind and wrote about what Jordan was up to. If someone in present day asked Jordan about her research or pressured her to find more answers to the questions her research had uncovered, I moved back in time to write the next historical chapter.

D.B.: I imagine there are quite a few legends and ghosts stories surrounding this region. Did you bring any into the book? Talk about what was the most difficult aspect of writing Haunting Jordan, and on the flip side, what was the most fun?

P.J.: Yes, most of the small port towns in the Pacific Northwest have local legends about haunted houses and ghosts, and I draw on these to come up with the paranormal elements in my book. I decided that two of the characters, the sisters, would appear as real characters in history, yet ghosts in present day. When I proposed the series, I had only a general understanding of how intricate the plotting would be as I interwove the two stories throughout the book. I banged my head against my desk a lot, sorting through the tangle of clues and events, but in the end, I had a lot of fun writing about characters who lived in the past but loved their home so much that they never wanted to leave, even after they died!

D.B.: Haunting Jordan addresses sailors being shanghaied. Obviously, this was the case in the 1800s. What kind of research went into Haunting Jordan, and did you have an opportunity to tour the tunnels? Were there any other aspects of that time period you put into the book, and will you give us a glimpse?

P.J.: Port Townsend, as well as many of the seaside towns in the Pacific Northwest, is very anchored in its history. During the latter part of the 19th century, the West Coast from San Francisco all the way up through Portland, Oregon, to Pugent Sound, was comprised of bustling seaports that came with their own brand of lawlessness. Shanghaiing was the most notorious of the criminal activities that occurred, but the region was also rife with smuggling, which is the subject of my next book in my series.

The tunnels used by shanghaiiers run for six square blocks under the waterfront, and though you can still find entrances to them today, they are blocked off and unavailable to the public. Therefore, unfortunately, I wasn't able to tour them. However, I did locate maps and descriptions of them that were very detailed. For my research, I rely on a variety of sources from books written about shanghaiing and smuggling, to local historical documents and newspaper articles chronicling Port Townsend's history and development, its waterfront, and its most influential citizens.

D.B.: Your ghosts who haunt Jordan are quite the characters. I found myself laughing as well as empathizing. How did you develop them? Are they based on any historical characters you read about?

P.J.: Hattie and Charlotte's backgrounds are partially based on a movement at the time to bring eligible women of good families from back East out West to marry the region's businessmen. It was easy to imagine the culture shock for a young woman coming from the larger, civilized cities of the East Coast to a town so lawless that one couldn't walk safely down the streets. What would happen, I wondered, if one of those women were to lose the only protection she had, the husband who had married her and moved her out West? Could she survive?

In terms of humor in the present-day story as the ghosts try to deal with their new homeowner, well, I admit it came mostly from my own twisted mind, LOL.

D.B.: How much is Jordan like P.J. Alderman?

P.J.: We may have a few personality traits in common! I have an educational background in psychology, and Jordan is a therapist. Also, my friends will tell you I lean toward a dark and sarcastic sense of humor.;)

D.B.: What have you been up to since A Killing Tide was published, and what else have you been working on?

P.J: A Killing Tide was published in December, 2006. Haunting Jordan, along with the second book for the mystery series, tentatively titled Ghost Ship, was contracted in 2007. I'm currently working on Ghost Ship, due to be published in 2010. In addition, I'm working on proposals for romantic thrillers and a second mystery series.

D.B.: Any advice for aspiring novelists?

P.J.: If I have one bit of advice for aspiring novelists, it would be a paraphrase of Woody Allen's quote, which is that most of the job of a screenwriter involves simply showing up every day. What Woody was trying to say--and I've found to be the case--is perseverance is 9/10ths of the job. Continue to write, continue to enter your stories in contests and continue to study the craft of writing. Make every story you write better than the last, even after you are published. I never take for granted how much I have yet to learn.

D.B.: Thanks for joining us, P.J. Before I let you go, fill us in on any signings you'll be attending.

P.J.: For those of you living in the Pacific Northwest, I will be signing Haunting Jordan at the Emerald City Book Fair on October 10th. Details about this book fair can be found on the Greater Seattle RWA website, www.gsrwa.org. I will also be appearing as a guest on several blogs. To find out where and when, visit my website early next week at www.pjalderman.com

It's been great to be here! Please feel free to ask questions and I'll try to answer them.

There you have it, readers. Ask a question or comment and you'll be entered in a drawing to win HAUNTING JORDAN. Winner to be drawn on Friday October 2nd. Thanks, everybody!

ATTENTION PAT: PJ ALDERMAN DREW YOUR NAME AS THE WINNER OF HAUNTING JORDAN. PLEASE CONTACT ME AT BELLSON@COMCAST.NET TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE