Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. 

Today’s guest for the WHAT is M. L. Longworth, author of Disaster at the Vendome Theater (A Provençal Mystery) where calamity befalls the little Vendome Theater in the tenth installment of the sun- and wine-soaked Provençal Mystery Series.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

I have a very specific origin point for my books: my friend Juliette’s attic. It’s actually the attic in a very big old country house that belongs to her in-laws. I can’t remember why she asked me to help her fetch some items from the house’s attic; it had to do with her children: I think she was looking for some props for a school play. 

For years I had been mulling over the idea of how well suited our town, Aix-en-Provence, was suited to a mystery series. Like Morse’s Oxford, it is a celebrated university town. Like Brunetti’s Venice, it’s much visited for its picturesque well-preserved buildings. And the thrill of writing articles about Provence for magazines and newspapers was beginning to fade; so much time was spent pitching, more time than researching and writing the article. And I was longing to write a book, preferably an old-fashioned mystery, the kind I liked to read. 

But I was shy of starting, and needed that initial push. It came to me that afternoon, in the attic. 

When Juliette opened the attic’s door, it took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust. Dust floated around the immense room, and a sole bare light bulb made it difficult to make out the many odd shapes that filled the space. Juliette unlatched a thick wooden shutter and flung it open with a bang, allowing the bright light of Provence to come streaming in. Slowly I saw the treasures, as Juliette rummaged around in boxes for whatever she was looking for. There were two ancient gilded mirrors leaning against the stone wall, one of them over eight feet high. I lost count of the many rush-seated kitchen chairs, the ones common in Provence in the 19th century and so fondly painted by Cézanne. Stacks of delicate porcelain lied here and there, next to bunches of silver cutlery sets tied up with colored ribbon. There were sporting trophies, rolled up Oriental rugs, dozens of marble-topped tables and old commodes. 

Juliette began telling me stories of the family, how in 1900 one of the family’s Counts had to marry a wealthy young woman from Philadelphia in a marriage arranged by their parents: his noble status in exchange for her family’s money. We found photographs of them in Cannes, on the beach in the 1920s. Fascinated, I took the photographs towards the open window to have more light. “Be careful!” Juliette yelled. It was then that I saw that the window didn’t have any glass, and we were four floors up. The first scene of my unwritten book came into my head: a wealthy young nobleman from Aix falls, or is pushed, to his death out the attic window of his family’s château.

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

At that point I only had one scene, and a principal character. I built the plot beginning with the rest of the characters. He victim needed a brother, to whom he had been close as children but now rarely saw. One was good, the other bad. There would be a caretaker at the castle, one the same age as the brothers but without their advantages. The brothers would need wives, or girlfriends, and occupations. I then added my sleuths: the magistrate, Antoine Verlaque, a Parisian and not used to small town politics; and his on-again off-again girlfriend, Marine Bonnet, a law professor and native to Aix. She knew the brothers as children. Marine is devastated by the murder and begins asking old friends and colleagues about the family, giving me more characters and possible suspects. The plot grew from there. I added details about Aix, revealing its history and describing its beauty as best I could, rewriting and correcting as I went.

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

Yes! All the time. I write out character details before starting each book, and then very roughly the plot, but I change the plot as I write. I feel it liberating to be able to do that, and it makes the writing process longer but more fun!

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

Yes! Story ideas can come from so many places: conversations overheard in a café in Aix, reading an article in the local newspaper about a feud in a nearby village, or using Aix itself as a jumping off point (its buildings, famous sons and daughters, its fountains, its opera festival, its Roman and/or medieval past).

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

I’ve just completed book ten of the series, and so far it’s been a natural choice of which book to do next. I try to mix up the themes from book to book, and instinctively know which one I want to write next, which I hope means it’s the same one my readers would want to read next.

I have 6 cats and a Dalmatian (seriously, check my Instagram feed) and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting?

I would find writing with someone around very distracting. Sometimes I have a little classical music playing, on commercial-free stations, but often it gets turned off after an hour or so.

M.L. Longworth has lived full-time in Provence since 1997. She has written about the region for the Washington Post, the Times (UK), the Independent, and Bon Appétit magazine. She writes a mystery series, set in Aix-en-Provence, for Penguin USA: the tenth book, Disaster at the Vendôme Theatre, will be released in October of 2022. The books have been adapted by Britbox and ITV as a television series, Murder in Provence, starring Roger Allam and Nancy Carroll.