with Claudia Mair Burney
|
 |
Claudia Mair
Burney
Claudia is her first name, but she goes by Mair . . . and "Mair"
rhymes with "fire." (She tries to keep her last name fairly
uncomplicated.) Mair is the author of the popular Ragamuffin
Diva blog — her personal journal exploring the challenges of
broken believers. That blog led to Mair being discovered,
and allowed her to contract the Amanda Bell Brown mystery
series: Death, Deceit, and Some Smooth Jazz,
Murder, Mayhem, and a Fine Man, and Saints,
Suspicions, and a Ticking Clock.
Her work has also appeared in Discipleship Journal and The
Handmaiden, and her young adult series, The Exorsistah,
about a teenaged exorcist, is set to release the summer of
2008 with Simon & Schuster.
Mair wants her fiction to feature the best of her blog:
humor, unblinking honesty, and the courage to allow God's
strength to be made perfect in one's personal weakness.
Claudia Mair lives in Michigan with her husband, five of
their seven children, and a moody hamster.
Read a full excerpt of
Murder, Mayhem & A Fine Man:
Click Here
Read a full excerpt of Death,
Deceit, & Some Smooth Jazz:
Click Here
Author's Official
Site:
http://ragamuffindiva.blogspot.com
Author's Myspace Page: http://www.myspace.com/friarmair
Contact The Author:
Click Here
Order Your Copy of Murder,
Mayhem & A Fine Man:
Click Here
Order Your Copy of Death,
Deceit & Some Smooth Jazz:
Click Here |
 |
Urban Reviews: Tell us about
your books Murder, Mayhem And A Fine Man and Death, Deceit,
and Some Smooth Jazz.
Claudia Mair Burney:
They're the first in the Amanda Bell
Brown mysteries, a series about an amateur sleuth--a forensic
psychologist-- with a talent for getting herself in trouble.
The predicaments she finds herself in are even more
complicated because they keep her entangled with a certain
fine man she's crazy about. These aren't hard core murder
mysteries. They're really funny relationship dramas with Jesus
and dead people. And the cool thing is, each one is a psych
mystery. Bell unravels some mental pathology or another. There
are cult leaders in Murder, Mayhem And A Fine Man,
borderline personality disorders in Death, Deceit And Some
Smooth Jazz, and sociopaths in Saints, Suspicions and a
Ticking Clock coming next year. They're really fun,
compelling reads.
Urban Reviews: Is there anything you find
particularly challenging in writing your mystery novels?
Claudia Mair Burney:
Mystery writing itself is the challenge.
I don't consider myself a real mystery writer. In fact, some
people find the relationship between Bell and Jazz primary in
the books. And they'd be right. I'm a genre buster with this
series. And I'm truly all about love, even messy love. What
can I say?
Urban Reviews: Do you think Mystery has become
your favorite genre to write?
Claudia Mair Burney:
Mysteries are great fun, but all I know
of mystery writing is this series. I love Bell and Jazz. The
series is character driven and deeply personal to me. I have
no idea if I'd love writing mysteries without them. Probably.
I guess we'll see since another sleuth has emerged in my mind.
She's difficult to ignore.
Urban Reviews: You also have an interesting teen
series that will start this summer with the release of
Exorsistah. Can you tell us more about this book and what made
you want to write for the teen scene?
Claudia Mair Burney:
I had some literary envy, in a big way.
A friend of mine was writing a demon chaser series and I
thought, "Man! I wanna write some kick butt stuff." I starting
thinking about what I'd do if I wrote a kick butt demon chaser
book. I knew I'd make her a teenager with big attitude. Kind
of a black Buffy for the kids. I mean, we've got some black
Buffy the Vampire Slayers out there, but those are some very
sexy books. I wasn't trying give my young sistahs that. And I
so didn't want to write about vampires. The title,
The Exorsistah
dropped right out of heaven. I was only joking about it, but
it wouldn't let me go. So I tried my hand at it.
Urban Reviews: Surprisingly, there are even more
of your books being released this year. Can you tell us
a little more about these?
Claudia Mair Burney:
Yeah, I'm a book of the month club this
year. Okay, the publisher at David C. Cook is my former agent.
He knew when Murder, Mayhem was canceled by another publishing
house I was grieving, and he asked if I'd write a "race book"
for Cook. He wanted to explore the theme of race relations
among American Christians and I put the conflict in a very
unlikely romance and
Zora and Nicky: A Novel in Black and
White was born. Think
Creflo Dollar's daughter and Jerry Falwell's son, or something
like that. Yeah. See!
Wounded
is about a young, black woman who gets the five passion wounds
of Christ. She's not even Catholic! It's not so much about
that kind of stigmata however, it's about the myriad ways
people are wounded and stigmatized: mental illness, drug
addiction, isolation and loneliness. It certainly was a
stretch, but the story burned within me.
Urban Reviews: How did you feel when you first
inked your seven-book deal with Simon and Schuster? Did
you ever think in a million years you'd ever be signed to such
a deal with a major publisher?
Claudia Mair Burney:
I just wanted to write for Jesus and let
the bad girls who've made all the wrong choices, like me, that
they had God love, too. I started out simply blogging my
spiritual journey and I was such a hot mess I really had no
good reason to expect much more than that. God was magnificent
in His mercy. Extraordinary. Which just goes to show you what
grace is all about. It is amazing. It was an incredible
feeling to sign with both my publishers. Still is.
Urban Reviews: Who are some of your favorite
authors and what do you like most about their writing?
Claudia Mair Burney:
I love the classics, and I love many
Christian writers, fiction and non, so of course, now I'm
reading Christian classics! Two of my peers who keep Christ in
their fiction, but in very surprising ways are Lisa Samson and
Marilynn Griffith. I love how they take broken people,
ordinary people, and those folks become conduits for love and
grace. These gals are my best friends, favorite authors, and
so much like me it makes me laugh. I hold up their fiction
like a mirror and see more of myself and what I can be in the
work. They inspire me, and they're way better writers than I
am.
Urban Reviews: What words of advice do you have
for others aspiring to be published authors?
Claudia Mair Burney:
I think it takes a great deal of courage
to write, so be courageous. Take risks, and don't be afraid to
fail, because sometimes you will. It's part of the game. Be
authentic. A unique voice will raise your manuscript above the
slush pile. I always say write with great love. The readers
will feel it, and everybody wants love, whether or not they
know it. And finish what you start. Publishers have to know
you can get to "The End."
Urban Reviews: What are your long-term goals as an
author?
Claudia Mair Burney:
I'd
love to write timeless works, both fiction and non-fiction,
that informs every man and every woman about the love of God,
this tremendous, life changing love that has devastated my own
life. If I could do that, I may rest in peace one day after
all.
Urban Reviews: Name one thing that the world
doesn't know about Claudia Mair Burney...the person?
Claudia Mair Burney:
I
want to be a saint when I grow up.
|
Read our review of Murder, Mayhem & A Fine Man in the
AA Fiction section.
Read our review of Death, Deceit And Some Smooth Jazz in
the
AA Fiction section.
|
