Guest Post: An Interview with Carolyn Haines by Joan Leotta

  

Earlier this week, Joan Leotta reviewed the new book, Joy to the Bones. Today, she has an interview with the author, Carolyn Haines.

 

 

An Interview with Carolyn Haines by Joan Leotta

 

 

Author, Carolyn Haines, was gracious enough to expand on the small paragraph that appears in the back of Joy to the Bones through an interview for this blog. I found her replies to my questions a lot like a guide to starting and finishing a mystery series.

 

Q: What made you decide to stop writing this very successful thirty-odd book series? Are you planning another mystery series?

CH: Age made me decide. I have always felt awful that Sue Grafton never got to finish the alphabet books. I also wanted the resolution of what happened to Sarah Booth’s parents to be the final book. At 73, I wanted to make sure it ended the way I envisioned. I owe Sarah Booth and the gang that much. They have been loyal friends and characters.

No, I am not writing any other series at this time. I’m going to venture into supernatural thrillers, I think. Just for a change. I love humorous mysteries, but I am keenly feeling the loss of Sarah Booth and her friends in my life. They have been with me for over 30 years, a big part of each day. I love what I call British horror (no gore). And the challenge of melding that into the structure of a thriller fascinates me. And if I’m going to do it, I’d better get in the saddle and ride.

 

Q: So, this new book you are working on, is that going to be a singleton then? Will you expand your use of supernatural characters like the” haint”, Jitty, or will aliens take over the page? Or maybe you will use both or haven’t you decided yet?

CH: I am co-writing with Daryl Marcus, a former student of mine. He and I both love horror. We are writing a book with space to go into a series or one that can be a single title, depending on what the publishers are looking for.

It melds the world of the Fae with a very real South Mississippi local and a serial killer. It’s a handful, but we are enjoying the process.

 

Q: Back to Sarah Booth! One of the things that made reading Joy to the Bones so much for me is how much I immediately related to Sara Booth. She is feisty and fun in ways that made me wish I could sit down and meet her. Is she a lot like you?

CH: Sarah Booth is very much like I was when I was 34--except she is far more limber! I do have a 501c3 animal refuge where I take care of old, unwanted animals in their final years. I've done this my whole life. I have, right now, eight dogs, twelve cats, and two horses. A few crows hang about, but no ravens. I love this so much, but I am getting older now and I am responsible enough to know I have to stop taking in animals. Sarah Booth also adores her friends and, boy, have I been blessed in the friend department. A lot of my friends have died in the last decade, and that is a huge, huge loss. And ending Sarah Booth is another emotional blow. As crazy as it sounds, she was a best friend to me.

 

Q: Are some of the larger issues Sarah Booth addresses, also issues that you find interesting and have worked on?

CH: There is much emotional truth in the Sarah Booth books. She focuses on issues that I am interested in, afraid of, or concerned about. She has more courage than I do. But she is connected to the land, the natural world, and the people around her, just as I am. I wrote a book in 1994, SUMMER OF THE REDEEMERS. In that book I gave Bekka the emotional fabric of my childhood. Not factually true, but emotionally true. Horse crazy, wild in the woods, ghost stories, adventures not far from home. But Sarah Booth is more the grown up me, only a better version.

 

Q: So, Summer of the Redeemers was a single book, not part of any series? Did the experience with that book lead you to Sarah Booth?

CH: It was a two-book contract with Dutton for SUMMER and then followed by TOUCHED. Learning plot and structure took some time, and I loved writing both of these books. They could both be classified as Southern Gothic mysteries, but I didn’t know that when I wrote them. They were published as general fiction.

 

Q: Would you share a bit about how you developed Sarah Booth over the course of the series and how you handled the timing/aging of your cast of characters? When she started out, how old was Sarah Booth? How old is she when the series ends? And if the books cover only a few years, how did you work in the twenty- year past death of her parents?

CH: When the series opens, she is 33. Thirty-one books later, she is only 34 and ½. It is criminally wrong that when I started the series I was 45 and now I am 73? The math isn’t mathing (sic) for me. The whole series arc covers 1and ½ book years--though twenty-eight “human” years.

The car wreck (that caused the death of her parents)happens off screen and years in the past. The books pick up when Sarah Booth is grown and has just returned home to Zinnia from NYC. The thirty-one books cover roughly, twenty months.

 

Q: Has Sarah Booth’s cast of friends been consistent since the beginning of the series? Was Sarah Booth always a PI? If not, when in the series does Sarah become a PI (this last book of yours is my first read in the series) How does that choice of profession help shape her?

CH: Yes, the primary characters are in the first book and continue throughout. But the relationships grow and change. In THEM BONES, Sarah Booth does a really bad thing out of desperation. She steals Tinkie’s little dog, Chablis. (Jitty supports this plan) and ransoms her back to Tinkie. Tinkie is so impressed, she hires Sarah Booth to solve a mystery. In the third book, SPLINTERED BONES, Sarah Booth and Tinkie begin working together to solve mysteries. Prior to being, a detective, Sarah Booth was in NYC attempting to be a stage actress. Things didn’t work out. (The not working out of her acting career is what prompted Sarah Booth to return to Zinnia)

 

Q: What prompted you to make the word “Bones” your title “Signature.” Can you tell us a little about how the titles help shape the series and, in your opinion, do the titles help add to its success?

CH: THEM BONES was the first title and when Random House bought the first book at auction, they wanted a 3-book contract. I thought Bones would be a good way to brand the books. And it’s an easy word to work with for titles. Yes, I think titles are really important.

 

Q: You once mentioned that Zinnia, MS is modeled on your own hometown. Are there any specific places in Zinnia that have real life counterparts with deep meaning for you?

We had a terrific restaurant in Lucedale, my hometown, called The Coffee Pot. Millie’s Cafe is loosely based on that diner. It was a treat to go there for a hamburger steak and coconut pie.

 

Finally,

Q: Is there anything else you would like to tell your readers, fans of the Sarah Booth Delaney mysteries??

CH: I love to write both light/humorous fiction and also dark fiction. I have a 4-book series called the Pluto Snitch: series which is set in the 1920s and deals with a woman who can talk to the dead and is hired to solve mysteries involved paranormal elements. The first title is THE BOOK OF BELOVED and is set in Mobile, Alabama.

 

I am in mourning for Sarah Booth and the gang. They have been such a big part of my life—28 years. It’s hard to voluntarily let go of these stories which I love telling. But the art of life is knowing when to let go.

 

Thank you so much, Carolyn, for your willingness to spend time on these Questions! I am sorry the series is ending since I just discovered it, but I plan to start reading the whole series starting with the first, Them Bones, and work my way back to Joy to the Bones, number 31—that should keep me busy and happy for quite some time.

 

I do hope you enjoy the books. I have loved every minute of writing them. And thank you for your time in doing this interview. I really appreciate it. --Carolyn

 

Joan Leotta ©2026

Joan Leotta offers encouraging words on page and stage. Internationally published as essayist, poet, short story writer, novelist, she’s a multiple nominee for Pushcart and Best of Net. Publications include Synkroniciti, MacQueen’s Quinterly,  One Art, Gargoyle, The Lake, Lothlorien, Ovunquesiamo, The Mackinaw, Ekphrastic Review, Yellow Mama, Impspired, and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

 

She also performs stories for youth and adult audiences with programs that highlight food, kindness, family, and strong women. Her one woman show as Louisa May Alcott focuses on Alcott’s development as a writer of many genres and her time as a Civil War nurse. She also teaches storytelling and writing and has done so for the North Carolina Poetry Society,  NC Writers Network, ND Humanities, and the London Arts-Based Research Center. Contact Joan at Joanleotta@gmail.com