S. 8, Ep. 21: Interview with Crime Writer Willa C. Richards

The Crime Cafe

This episode of the Crime Cafe podcast features my interview with crime writer Willa C. Richards. We talk about her debut novel The Comfort of Monsters, Milwaukee, and more! Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two eBooks for sale: the nine book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy inks for both on my website, debbimack.com under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Check us out on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/crimecafe Debbi (00:54): But first, let me put in a good word for Blubrry podcasting. I’m a Blubrry affiliate, but that’s not the only reason I’m telling you this. I’ve been using Blubrry Podcasting as my hosting service for my podcast for years and it’s one of the best decisions I ever made. They give great customer service, you’re in complete control of your own podcast, you can run it from your own website, and it just takes a lot of the work out of podcasting for me. I find for that reason that it’s a company that I can get behind 100% and say, “You should try this.” Try Blubrry. It doesn’t require a long-term contract, and it’s just a great company, period. It also has free technical support by email, video, and phone, so you can get a human being there. Isn’t that nice? If you want to podcast, try out Blubrry. No long-term contract, excellent distribution, and great technical support, too, by email, video, and on the phone. I’ve included an affiliate link on this blog. I’ve included an affiliate link on this blog. Download a copy of the PDF transcript of this episode here. Debbi: Hi everyone. My guest today is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, and other publications. She's also the recipient of a 2019 PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize for Emerging Writers, and her novel is called The Comfort of Monsters, and it's very good. I've read it and reviewed it and loved it. It's my pleasure to have with me Willa C. Richards. Hey Willa, how are you doing today? Willa: Good. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity to be on. Debbi: Excellent. Well, I'm glad you're here. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to talk to you, because I really did love your book. I thought it was great, and it touches on so many issues. I was listening to an old review I did of the book, trying to get back in touch with the issues that really stuck out for me. And it was like, wow! I'd forgotten just how complex and wonderful this book was. Willa: Well, thank you for saying that. Debbi: Oh, well, I mean it honestly. I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it. So, tell us about the book and what inspired you to write it. Willa: Yeah, I started working on the book because of a project I was actually working on with my mother. My mom is a historic archeologist. Both my parents are archeologists, but my mother in particular is a historic archeologist. She works in mostly in cemeteries, and her sort of life's project is working in a cemetery in Milwaukee, a pauper cemetery that was run by the city and then sort of forgotten and then ran into all of these sort of issues with construction and new development where they had sort of forgotten that these people were buried there. So my mom was tasked with excavating these graves and removing them from an area where they were in danger of being destroyed, so that's sort of her life's project. She got a call from a family—I believe this was in 2018—asking if she would excavate an area of the cemetery for them because they believed that their loved one was buried there, a recent burial, not a historic burial. And the reason that they believed this was based on a tip from a psychic. She did agree to work with them to excavate the...