Nancy Lynn Jarvis: Backyard Bones
Book Club Discussion

January 31, 2010. Nancy Lynn Jarvis, author of Backyard Bones,
chats openly about her book in an interview with Queenie D.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Lynn Jarvis

Tell us a little bit about how you combined your career in real estate with a passion for writing? How many real situations and/or stories do you include in your novels?

Real estate and writing have been more serial endeavors than combined activities. As the real estate market started to collapse in 2007, my husband and I who, like Regan and Tom, own a small real estate company, decided to experiment with being semi-retired or at least taking a time out to avoid what I knew would be a vicious and painful place to work. That left me with too much time on my hands. I started writing as a game, to see if I could devise a plausible mystery---like playing Sudoku, only more challenging.

The characters in my books are based on real people. Anything real estate-related in the books is real even if it seems implausible. Except for the central murders, everything that happens to Regan has happened to me or to friends of mine. Realtors do find bodies. It is a dangerous business; I've heard being a Realtor ranks only behind police and firefighters for deaths on the job. Of course Realtors have many funny experiences, too. Some of mine find their way into the books.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Lynn Jarvis

Are you Regan? Is there any part of her life based on and around yours? Can you explain the disclaimer written by Regan at the beginning of the book?

Am I Regan? Well, yes and no. She quite literally started out as me, only younger, thinner, and more successful than I am. We share values and experiences, work really hard for our clients, often going above and beyond what's called for in business because we care so much about them, prefer telling the truth, have a bit of "Crusader Rabbit" in us (for those of you old enough to remember that Saturday morning TV cartoon), and don't like answering machines.

Both of us have similar reactions to dead bodies as well, which is why we have diverged. The first time Regan found a body, she was still very much me. I was so upset by that experience, it became necessary to separate us so I could safely watch what happened to Regan but not have to live it in the first person. Now she has become much faster thinking on her feet than I am and, I think, much braver than I would be in similar situations. She is increasingly becoming her own person as I write her.

The disclaimer at the start of the book is my joy and part of the game. In any work of fiction it seems necessary to put in a disclaimer that any similarities to real people, places, and events are coincidental, and I do...I've been in real estate for over twenty years working in the highly litigious state of California, after all. But Regan gets to take some of that back before the story begins. I want the reader to wonder what really is true. In Backyard Bones I also wanted the reader to be just a bit ahead of Regan in solving the mystery. That, too, was part of the game.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Lynn Jarvis

I wondered why Regan's boys weren't in the novel more. Will there roles increase as the Regan series continues?

Regan's sons by her first husband will be in the books when it's appropriate, but right now they aren't central characters mostly because of their ages. Ben is just out of college and living in LA trying to be an actor. Alex is twenty, in college, and away much of the year. During the summer, he tours with his band for at least six weeks during the break. The characters of Ben and Alex are very close to my sons, especially at that time of their lives. I see much more of my sons now that they are older; Regan may see more of her sons later as well.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Lynn Jarvis

By the same token, I want to hear a little bit of "juice" about Reagan's past! She must have some skeletons in her own closet. Any chance one of the mysteries will revolve solely around her own life?

There is a bit of Regan's past in the first book, The Death Contingency, but it's about meeting and marrying Tom than being "juicy." One of the most interesting things I've discovered writing is that the characters tell me things I didn't know about them. I imagine Regan will do that, too especially as she becomes less like me.

I'm in the thinking about phase of the fourth book and it will be very much about Regan and Tom. Keep reading.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Lynn Jarvis

How could a woman like Joan, a good mother and wife, tolerate a husband as horrible as Rick?

She's also well educated and capable of being financially independent, so go figure. But think of all the wives, especially political wives like "The Good Wife" on CBS, who put up with so much and stay. Hillary Clinton, Silda Spitzer and Suzanne Craig come to mind immediately. Joan tolerates Rick because she loves him, has children with him, takes her marriage vows seriously, and believes he will do good things if he can pursue a political career; the hardest thing for her is that she can't trust him.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Lynn Jarvis

I was unnerved by the number of deceptive adults. Do you think most married people, men especially, have something to hide?

"My first marriage ended when my husband had an affair so I certainly think some do," she replied, tongue in cheek.

Anyone who reaches the age of forty, the age of all the men in the book, probably has something in their past they'd rather not advertise, but hide. That's too strong a word to apply to most people, I think. For the sake of the story, however, all the men in the book needed to have guilty secrets. I would love to go into this topic in depth with book club readers after they've read the book because I think it warrants real discussion. Unfortunately I can't be specific enough here to do that without giving away too many of the plot twists and the murderer's identity.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Lynn Jarvis

Can you tell us anything about your current writing projects?

I'm three quarters of the way through the third book, Buying Murder which will be out later this year. It begins when a body is discovered in a house Regan and Tom buy at her insistence. I'm also rolling the fourth book around in my head, which is the way I work. I don't yet have an outline let alone a timeline for it, but I do have a rough draft of the first chapter. It's going to start with a really creepy bang.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Nancy Lynn Jarvis

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