Special Guest – Winona Kent – Author of Bad Boy: A Jason Davey Mystery #Interview / #Giveaway – Great Escapes Tour @winonakent

Bad Boy: A Jason Davey Mystery
by Winona Kent

I am delighted to welcome Winona Kent to Escape With Dollycas today!

Hi Winona,

Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

I find it very difficult to believe, but I’ve just turned 70. I know I don’t look it, and I certainly don’t feel it. I keep thinking I’m about twenty years younger than that. I remember, when I was a teenager, reading a tongue-in-cheek story which portrayed a future where elderly people were lounging around care homes, listening to the Rolling Stones and Frank Zappa. I thought it was bizarre and a little bit crazy at the time—but, of course, now it makes complete sense. I grew up with that music and I love rock and roll from the 1950s and 1960s. I do water aerobics to the sounds of the British Invasion.

I’ve now published eleven novels and book of short stories, which I’m quite proud of because most of those books were written while I was working full-time in jobs that had nothing at all to do with writing. I was very disciplined and did it all in my spare time, on days off, during vacations, on weekends, and at night. I retired from my last job in 2019 and I’ve been a full-time author ever since.

Also, I’ve just become the Chair of Crime Writers of Canada, which is a national non-profit organization for Canadian mystery and crime writers, associated professionals, and others with a serious interest in Canadian crime writing. It’s a little bit scarey, but I’m quite excited about what the next year or two will bring my way. While I’m sitting in that chair, I also hope to get a start on my next Jason Davey mystery—which is going to take place on the west coast of Canada.

Which, coincidentally, is where I live (in New Westminster, a little city which is part of Greater Vancouver).

What are three things most people don’t know about you?

1. I have a yellow belt in Judo
2. When I was 12, I ran a fan club for The Monkees.
3. For many years, I ran a semi-official website for the British actor Sean Bean. Sean was notorious for portraying characters who always got killed off in films. I compiled a list which I called Death by Cow—because in the film The Field, Sean’s character was run off the edge of a cliff by a herd of rampaging cows. That list has become legendary among Sean’s fans. And the website’s still out there –it hasn’t been updated since about 2012—but I didn’t want to take it down because it’s got so much good info on it. http://www.compleatseanbean.com

What books/authors have most inspired you?

When I was 12, in 1967, I saw the BBC TV adaptation of John Galsworthy’s Forsyte Saga, and I fell in love with the series—and the books. I was in England the following year and I bought the entire collection of nine novels and read them all, cover to cover. My very serious Lit profs at the university where I was doing my BA didn’t think much of my favourite author—they probably would have cringed if I’d told them I’d also read quite a few of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books by the time I was 16, as well as most of Agatha Christie’s Poirot novels. When I was working in London as a temp in the 1970s, I discovered Monica Dickens—the great-granddaughter of Charles. I found we had a similar philosophy about employment—she’d had a number of jobs which had absolutely nothing to do with writing, and I really admired the way she was able to take her real-life experiences and incorporate them into her stories—both fiction and nonfiction. In 1970, she wrote a novel called The Listeners, which was based on her experiences working with The Samaritans, the crisis helpline organization. It had quite a profound effect on me—in Bad Boy, a Samaritan volunteer actually helps my main character, Jason—not because Jason is himself suicidal, but because he’s just witnessed someone else taking their own life, which can have a devastating emotional toll on someone.

I think it was important for me to go the “literary” route when I was at university, to study all the classical and contemporary authors, to understand why they wrote what they wrote, and how they interpreted their world and the so-called “human condition” through their novels and poetry. I think it was just as important for me to read books that fell a long way outside those boundaries, to study the art of storytelling without necessarily creating something that literary scholars might want to forensically dissect.

My other favourite author is John le Carré. His stories of espionage—especially the drudgery of George Smiley’s British secret service—both intrigued me and inspired me.

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

I’m a capital-P Plotter, so I spend a lot of time researching and planning my stories in advance. The planning part definitely goes hand-in-hand with the research, so by the time I’m ready to actually start writing, I’ve usually spent at least six months, sometimes up to a year, immersing myself in the world where that story is going to take place.

I have to say that the internet has made my life, as a writer, six thousand percent easier than it was back in the old pre-www days. My first novel, Skywatcher, was published in 1989, and the research for that was excrutiatingly slow. It involved physical visits to libraries (constrained by their opening and closing hours), and digging through the old paper card catalogues (I still remember the smell of those little cards in their little wooden drawers). And then hunting down books (and being incredibly frustrated to discover someone else had checked them out). And microfilm—because sometimes the only way to read old newspaper and magazine stories was to ask for the physical microfilmed roll, then hope that a machine reader station was not occupied, then suffer through the equivalent of motion sickness while you scrolled through the pages, looking for that one article that you’d discovered listed in the Periodical Index from June 1969. By the time my second novel, The Cilla Rose Affair, was published in 2001, we’d had the internet for about six years, and I was able to find the answers to my questions instantly. My research time was a fraction of what I’d spent with Skywatcher.

Now, as I plot out my novels, I’m constantly online, checking details. And even after I begin to write, I’m continuing to research. For example, in Bad Boy, Jason climbs up Primrose Hill, which is a well-known spot in Hampstead where you can get a panoramic view over London. I know it well. I was born not far away from there. I’ve visited it every time I’ve been in England. But since Jason’s in England, and I live in Canada, I need to get it right. So I’ll describe what he sees, and what happens to him, and how he has to basically run back down to Chalk Farm tube station in order to extricate himself from a bad situation. Google Maps Streetview is my best friend.

So, to answer the question, my research involves absolutely everything that I’m writing about. Like Monica Dickens, my stories tend to reflect a good many things I’ve experienced in my own life. My sister and I travelled to England in 2022 to scatter our mother’s ashes, but while we were there, we visited some cousins in Derbyshire. And then, back in London, I went up The Shard (I knew I was going to write Bad Boy, so it was literally high on my list of places that I needed to research). I also spent time exploring the South Bank. And taking a four-hour walking tour of London’s Lost Music Venues in Soho. All of those journeys were part of my research, but it wasn’t until I was back in Vancouver, writing the chapters where Jason visits Denmark Street (the heart of London’s modern musical history), that I discovered there’d been a devastating fire in 1980 in Denmark Place, a little alley just behind Denmark Street. It had hardly generated any press at all, in spite of killing 37 people. That fire then became an important part of the plot of Bad Boy, but all of the research was done online and by consulting a newly-published book (Denmark Street: London’s Street of Sound, by Peter Watts).

So, I guess I can honestly say that the preliminary research usually takes about six months to a year before I start actually writing, but then, it doesn’t stop. It’s ongoing as I write, because I’m always discovering details which need to be verified, or places that need to be described, history that has to be accurate, addresses that need to be fictionalized…

Do you ever suffer from Writer’s Block?

I’ve only ever had it once. It was when I was writing my second novel, The Cilla Rose Affair. I had the basic story—a tongue-in-cheek spy caper involving the London Underground and a nefarious plot to destroy the city using focused sound waves. I’d done all of the research, and I was, at the time, completely obsessed with not only the Underground but also its abandoned and disused stations. It was very early on in my writing career, and, while I recognized that my own obsessions were getting in the way of the actual telling of the story, I didn’t know how I was going to be able to fix it. So, for months and months, I ended up writing the same three chapters over and over again, unable to move the plot forward because my creative brain was refusing to cooperate.

When I finally discovered the answer, it was completely by accident. I was watching the movie Field of Dreams, which is a story about a man with an obsession. In fact, Ray Kinsella’s quest to turn his cornfield into a baseball diamond is at the heart of the entire film. The light went on in my mind. Of course. I needed to write about my obsession. But in order to do it successfully, I needed to transfer the obsession to one of my characters, and let him use all that knowledge—along with many seemingly useless bits of trivial anecdotes—to help move the plot forward.

To this day I have a soft spot in my heart for obsessives. I love writing about them. And I owe it all to The Cilla Rose Affair…and Field of Dreams.

What advice do you have for someone who would like to become a published writer?

First of all, ask yourself why you want to write. Is it because you feel it in your bones? Is it because, of all the things you could be doing with your time, writing makes you the happiest? Is it because, when you don’t write, you’re miserable and irritable until you do write? Or is it because you want to sell a gazillion books and retire on your royalties?

The last answer, retiring on your royalties, honestly and truly isn’t likely to happen. It’s not that it doesn’t happen—it’s just that it’s pretty rare. We only usually hear about the big name authors. We don’t hear much about the vast majority who sell a few hundred or a few thousand copies of their books, rather than millions.

By all means, aim for the stars. But if you’re only doing it for the money, have a backup plan in place before you start. And if you’re writing because you feel it in your bones, don’t give up. Pitch to agents and pitch to publishers, but be realistic. It’s a tough gig to land. Sometimes really good writers don’t get taken on by traditional publishers because what they’re writing isn’t what’s currently selling. There are other choices. Publish your book yourself. Being an indie author used to have terrible connotations, but a lot of that has disappeared now. Many traditionally published authors turned to self-publishing when their publishers went out of business, or pivoted to a different focus, or their sales numbers weren’t high enough to satisfy the accountants and their contracts weren’t renewed. Back when I was first starting out, getting a contract with a major publishing house was pretty much the only way you could sell books. But times have changed. Do your homework, join writers’ groups, read as much as you can about the industry and make your choices wisely.

When you are not writing what do you like to do?

I have a few things that I like to do on those rare occasions when I’m not up to my eyeballs in research, writing, or writing-related work. I’ve been known to resort to knitting as a way of relaxing and focusing my brain. I have quite a collection of berets as a result. I’m wearing one of them in the picture on my social media accounts and on the home page of my website (http://www.winonakent.com). I’m also really into family tree research. I have a mysterious great-grandfather who seems to have appeared out of nowhere. I’ve got lots of verifiable information about him after he married my great-grandmother. But I can’t find his birth record, and it’s become a bit of a quest for me to try and figure out where he actually came from.

If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go and why?

I’m going to be a bit odd and say, I’d love to go back to London, where I was born…but not the London of today. I’d love to go back to the London I knew in 1973. I was 18 years old when I spent that summer there. It was the first time I’d travelled on my own, and although I was staying with my grandmother, I was also experiencing life as an independent adult for the very first time. I started to explore the city, and then I ran out of money, so I got a job working as a temp for Brook Street Bureau. Since I’d grown up on the Canadian prairies, London in 1973 was fabulously exciting. Too soon, I had to go home—university beckoned and I needed to finish my degree. But I would love to go back to that time and experience it all again, and perhaps not return to Saskatchewan at the end of the summer. I wonder what adventures I would have…

What is next on the horizon for you?

My next Jason Davey novel, the sixth in the series. I haven’t started outlining it yet—I don’t even have a title—but I know what it’s going to be about, and I know it’s going to take place here on the west coast of Canada, where I live.

Thank you, Winona, for visiting today!

Keep reading for more information about Winona Kent and her new book!

About Bad Boy

Bad Boy: A Jason Davey Mystery
Musical Mystery
5th in Series
Setting – UK: London and Derbyshire
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Winona Kent / Blue Devil Books (September 26, 2024)
Print length ‏ : ‎ 278 pages
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D9PFYXB4

Fresh from a 34-day, 18-city tour of England, professional musician and amateur sleuth Jason Davey accepts an invitation from a fan, Marcus Merritt, to meet at Level 72 of The Shard to sign one of his band’s programs. Marcus hands him the booklet, then leaps to his death from the open viewing platform. Thus begins a week-long quest, during which Jason is tasked with retrieving a stolen collection of scores by England’s most famous composer, Sir Edward Elgar.

Marcus shared Elgar’s love of eccentric puzzles and games, and the challenging clues he’s assembled for Jason seem to mirror the 14 themes in Elgar’s renowned Enigma Variations. Jason’s journey takes him to Derbyshire and then back to London, and a four-hour walking tour of Soho’s lost music venues where, in Denmark Street, he faces a life-threatening battle with two adversaries: a treacherous Russian gangster who is also hunting for the stolen collection, and Marcus’s sister—who holds the key to a decades-old mystery involving a notorious London crime lord’s missing daughter.

Bad Boy is the fifth book in Winona Kent’s mystery series featuring jazz musician-turned-amateur sleuth Jason Davey.

More About Winona Kent

Winona Kent is an award-winning author who was born in London, England and grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan, where she completed her BA in English at the University of Regina. After moving to Vancouver, she graduated from UBC with an MFA in Creative Writing and a diploma in Writing for Screen and TV from Vancouver Film School.

Winona’s writing breakthrough came many years ago when she won First Prize in the Flare Magazine Fiction Contest with her short story about an all-night radio newsman, “Tower of Power”.

Her debut novel Skywatcher was a finalist in the Seal Books First Novel Award and was published by Bantam Books in 1989. This was followed by a sequel, The Cilla Rose Affair, and her first mystery, Cold Play, set aboard a cruise ship in Alaska.

After three time-travel romances (Persistence of Memory, In Loving Memory and Marianne’s Memory), Winona returned to mysteries with Disturbing the Peace, a novella, in 2017 and the novel Notes on a Missing G-String in 2019, both featuring the character she first introduced in Cold Play, professional jazz musician / amateur sleuth Jason Davey.

The third and fourth books in Winona’s Jason Davey Mystery series, Lost Time and Ticket to Ride, were published in 2020 and 2022. Her fifth Jason Davey Mystery, Bad Boy, was published in 2024.

Winona also writes short fiction. Her story “Salty Dog Blues” appeared in Sisters in Crime-Canada West’s anthology Crime Wave in October 2020 and was nominated as a finalist in Crime Writers of Canada’s Awards of Excellence for Best Crime Novella in April 2021. “Blue Devil Blues” was one of the four entries in the anthology Last Shot, published in June 2021, and “Terminal Lucidity” appeared in the Sisters in Crime-Canada West anthology, Women of a Certain Age (October 2022). “On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Dog”, will appear in the upcoming Sisters in Crime-Canada West anthology, Dangerous Games (October 2024).

A collection of Winona’s short stories, Ten Stories That Worried My Mother, was published in 2023.

Winona has been a temporary secretary, a travel agent , a screenwriter and the Managing Editor of a literary magazine. She’s currently the national Vice-Chair and the BC/YT rep for the Crime Writers of Canada and is also an active member of Sisters in Crime – Canada West

Author Links
Website: www.winonakent.com
Facebook: @Winonakentauthor
Twitter/X: @winonakent
Instagram: @winonakent

Purchase Links –

TOUR PARTICIPANTS – Please visit all the stops
September 26 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT
September 26 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT
September 27 – Deal Sharing Aunt – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
September 27 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT
September 28 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
September 28 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
September 29 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – CHARACTER GUEST POST
September 30 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
October 1 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
October 2 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST
October 3 – Cozy Up With Kathy – AUTHOR GUEST POST
October 3 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
October 4 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
October 4 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
October 5 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
October 5 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

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