Q&A: 'Snake Jones' Mystery Authors to Visit Galaxie Library

Twin Cities authors Michael Allan Mallory and Marilyn Victor knew each for 18 years before they began writing together and came up with the concept to create a murder mystery—"Death Roll," released in 2008—that also showed what happens behind the scenes at a major metropolitan zoo.

The duo's second murder mystery, "Killer Instinct," was released this year, and also features zoologist Lavender "Snake" Jones as its protagonist. Victor and Mallory are scheduled to visit the in Apple Valley at 7 p.m. Wednesday to talk about the second book.

Apple Valley Patch asked a few questions about their work prior to their visit.

Apple Valley Patch: What made each of you want to write, and how did you get your start together?

Marilyn Victor: I’ve been writing since I can remember. When I was in grade school, I would write stories for my favorite television shows …. And then it just evolved into really loving mysteries and wanting to write mysteries. We met at Once Upon a Crime bookstore. They had a class on writing mysteries … several people from the class started a writers group, and that went on for a lot of years. So Michael and I have known each other for a long, long time.

Michael Allan Mallory: I like to say that … Marilyn and I both did things independently and nothing clicked and nothing happened …. So it took us, like 18 years to figure out that maybe if we did something together something would happen, and it did. I’ve been an avid reader … since I was a kid. I read everything—all genres—but I particularly loved mysteries. I’m a storyteller .... So there’s a point where you’re verbally saying things and now you start writing them down. And you just have to write your own stories because you can’t find enough stuff that you want to read.

Apple Valley Patch: How do you go about thinking of ideas for your books?

Mallory: Well for the Snake Jones series, it’s a little more direct. It’s kind of easy in that sense. Our protagonist is a zookeeper, so it's ... a mystery that involves animals. We try to emphasize the animal aspect of it … for the first book, “Death Roll,” which takes place in a fictional zoo in Apple Valley. Marilyn was a volunteer there for 10 years, and I have two friends who work there … that was the impetus for the first book, to show what goes on behind the exhibits at the zoo. And at that time nobody else had done that …. That kind of propelled the first book, and in part the second, is that we want to … emphasize conservation, talk about wildlife and of course then have hopefully a good mystery in there, too.

Victor: And as for where ideas come from, I think it’s … a question of the cosmos. I don’t think anyone really knows. Ideas, they just pop up in your head and it’s hard to say where they come from. And lots of different things can inspire you.

Mallory: I know for some of the characters … in the second book that just came out this year … maybe half the characters in the book are people I know. You work with people, you have friends, you see people that have sort of interesting personalities, and you go “I want to use that.”

Apple Valley Patch: How do you prepare to write your books? Especially since you’re working together, what’s your writing process like?

Victor: We’re still working on that. [Laughter] For both books we’ve gotten together and brainstormed as to where it was going … and then one definitely took the lead and started writing the first draft. And then we just passed chapters back and forth … and it just keeps snowballing.

Mallory: Marilyn would, for the first book, write five or six chapters …. We knew how the book was starting, we kind of new how it was ending, it was just the squishy middle …. Marilyn would shoot me … five chapters, and then I’d play with them and send them back and I’d add additions or delete things. And we did that back and forth for both books. Sometimes the other person would inspire the other …. As Marilyn mentioned, we had a writers group, and so if we had any uncertainty about where we wanted to go … we let our readers, our group, see how they liked it …. The first readers are vital.

Apple Valley Patch: Did you find that your voices and writing styles fit together pretty well naturally?

Victor: We have a similar writing style, definitely.

Mallory: Because we knew each other … for 18 years before we started the first book, and we had read each others’ stuff …. Marilyn was writing mainly British-style mysteries, and I was writing … classic, detective-type stories …. We were already familiar with each others’ style, and so that’s why I think we both knew this could work.

Victor: And I think when we’re writing, we read over and over and over the manuscript to the point where you’re constantly fine-tuning until it does sound like one voice and … there comes a point where we forget who wrote what anyway …. It’s a nice blend.

Apple Valley Patch: What elements do you think make your books appealing, and different from other books or authors out there?

Victor: Well definitely the animals and the zoo, and I think we have … some insight into what goes on behind the scenes in a lot of institutions, like zoos and wildlife sanctuaries, things like that …. That’s definitely got a strong appeal. And you mix that up with a good mystery and try to teach people a little something without interfering with the enjoyment … of a good piece of fiction, too.

Mallory: The first book shows what goes on behind the exhibits of a major metropolitan zoo, with a murder. And the second book—and I actually volunteered at the International Wolf Center in Ely and although it’s called something else, it shows what goes on behind a facility like that. Plus there’s sort of a pro-wolf, anti-wolf factions going on … the book touches on that. And so its sort of timely in that it’s touching on maybe social elements, wildlife and conservation elements that you don’t necessarily get in other mysteries. And they’re fun.

Apple Valley Patch: What advice do you have for people who think they might want to write professionally?

Victor: Don’t quit your day job. [Laughter]

Mallory: Well you have to be realistic. Just keep at it, but don’t have inflated expectations. I think everybody who starts has … dreams of grandeur, like “I’m gonna write this thing and it’ll be a bestseller.” Even when you finish [a manuscript] you have to rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. You have to be able to take criticism …. You have to be flexible and compromise and be willing to change things, but again, keeping true to your vision through all of that. And be persistent.

Victor: Only 10 percent of published authors are able to make a living at it. It’s a hard business. With the funk that the publishing industry is in right now I think it’s even more difficult.

Mallory: You don’t do this to make money. We’d love to. But you do this because you love to write, and you’re producing something that … you think is art …. And if it makes money, great. But if the goal is “I’m gonna write to make money,” then you’re going to be disappointed.

I have one last thing to mention … it’s kind of an interesting tie-in. The Minnesota Zoo has a new penguin exhibit that just opened. The avian supervisor for that is Jimmy Pichner … he’s actually a friend of mine …. He provided a true wild wolf story for the second book …. He’s one of the people it’s dedicated to, so that’s another tie-in to the Minnesota Zoo.