Laurie Buchanan Interview - Indelible ~ JeanBookNerd

Photo Content from Laurie Buchanan

A cross between Dr. Doolittle, Nanny McPhee, and a type-A Buddhist, Laurie Buchanan is an active listener, observer of details, payer of attention, reader and writer of books, kindness enthusiast, and an unabashed optimist. A former holistic health practitioner and transformational life coach, she holds a doctorate in holistic health with an emphasis in energy medicine. Her first two books, Note to Self: A Seven-Step Path to Gratitude and Growth, and The Business of Being: Soul Purpose In and Out of the Workplace, are nonfiction titles designed to motivate, inspire, and transform. Laurie lives in the Pacific Northwest with her pilot-husband, Len, and their Irish Wolfhound, Willa. She enjoys yoga, long walks, bicycling, photography, and travel. To learn more, please visit her website at www.lauriebuchanan.com. She resides in Boise, Idaho.

Greatest thing you learned at school?
School supplemented my home-grown love of reading. It’s there I learned that reading wasn’t just something my parents wanted me to do, but that’s it’s cool!

Where were you born and where do you call home?
I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, but Boise, Idaho is my home.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
As an author, I have the opportunity to meet readers via email correspondence and virtually (Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, etc) who enjoy what I write.

Tell us your latest news.
My publisher, SparkPress, has signed me through FOUR books in the Sean McPherson series, so far. Indelible (2021), Iconoclast (2022), Impervious (2023), and Iniquity (2024). I’m over the moon with excitement!

Can you tell us when you started INDELIBLE, how that came about?
My inspiration for this series was based on my stay at a rural writing retreat for women. Imagine if you will—thick woods, individual cabins, and a handsome groundskeeper with a pronounced limp who I saw in the distance. My imagination took over and voilà, the rest is history.

What do you hope for readers to be thinking when they read your novel?
I want readers to think “I want to go to Pines & Quill. Where do I sign up?"

What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating Sean?
That our “flaw(s)”—in his case, survivor’s guilt—can be our strength(s)—in his case, the impetus to pursue justice)

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?
I would love for Sean “Mick” McPherson to meet Chief Inspector Gamache (of Louise Penny fame). They would have much in common to talk about. And their differences would add even more dimension to their conversation.

What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?
Nothing kept me from writing this book. BUT, I take three two-mile walks each day, and though it bites into writing time, the walks clear my head and help me to move the storyline forward.

What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives?
In my experience, international travel not only enhances knowledge and broadens our experience, but it helps expand our compassion and empathy.

Best date you've ever had?
My husband and I were pen-pals while he was in the military on a forward-deployed ship in the Persian Gulf. When he returned two years later, we had our first date. After that single date, we eloped and got married (my parents were livid at the time). That was in 1980. We’ve been married for 41 years.

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?
I would go back to before my mom died so I could be with her again.

What is the weirdest thing you have seen in someone else’s home?
It was more cool than weird—their bed was suspended from the ceiling. The woman’s husband is a builder so it was extremely secure.

What are 4 things you never leave home without?
(1). Cell phone (2) Credit card (3) Cash (4) Keys (5) Bonus item—Kindle

Where did you go on your first airplane ride?
My dad was a pilot, so we owned a little four-seater Cessna and we’d fly from home (Escondido, CA at that time) to Las Vegas, Nevada on a regular basis.

First Heartbreak?
That would be blond-haired, blue-eyed Jeff Forney in the fourth grade at Rose Elementary school in Escondido, CA.

Which would you choose, true love with a guarantee of a heart break or have never loved before?
No doubt about it—true love with a guarantee of a heart break.

TEN FAVORITE BOOKS READ THIS YEAR

I’m a voracious reader. From the books that I’ve read so far this year, these are my ten favorites:

1. ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE by Louise Penny
2. ELIZA WAITE by Ashley E. Sweeney
3. SUGAR BIRDS by Cheryl Grey Bostrom
4. THE FIRST TO LIE by Hank Phillippi Ryan
5. EVERY LAST SECRET by A.R. Torre
6. THE CIPHER by Isabella Maldonado
7. NOT ONE OF US by Debbie Herbert
8. DAYLIGHT by David Baldacci
9. THE UNSPOKEN by Ian K. Smith
10. THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley

Writing Behind the Scenes
When I sit down to write, I light a tea light candle—my personal “contract” to stay at it until the flame goes out of its own accord. I typically use a brand that burns for about five hours. I write for two hours. Take a two-mile walk (about 40-minutes), and come back and continue to write until the flame goes out. My favorite scent? McIntosh Apple.

When a sniper killed his partner, Sean McPherson was injured in the ambush. Now an ex-cop, he takes a job at a writing retreat in the Pacific Northwest. At Pines & Quill, he hopes to heal and put his life back together in the Zen-like capacity of groundskeeper and all-around handyman.

Sniper, Jason Hughes, blames McPherson for the loss of more than ten million dollars’ worth of heroin—and he wants revenge.

In the guise of a New York City limo driver working on a sizzling tell-all memoir, Hughes arrives at Pines & Quill along with three other writers in residence: a bohemian psychic taking a break from grueling work as a forensic intuitive, a bitter divorcée who wants to open herself to a new life, and a vibrant and resilient potter navigating life from a wheelchair.

With conflicting agendas, uncertain loyalties, and romantic entanglements at play, Hughes finds it difficult to get McPherson in his sights. Gradually, he forms a different plan, one that threatens the lives of everyone at the retreat.

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