Jean Henry Mead
Jean Henry Mead
is a national award-winning photojournalist as well as a mystery, Wyoming
historical and children’s novelist. Many of her 19 books have occupied various
Amazon bestseller lists and she has served as a news, magazine and small press
editor. She’s currently working on the fifth Logan & Cafferty mystery, A Murder in Paradise, due out this fall.
Her website is www.JeanHenryMead.com
Patricia:
Jean,
please tell us, where did you grow up and did your childhood contribute to your desire to be a
writer?
Jean:
I
was born in Hollywood, California and spent my formative years on Cameford
Avenue, a block and a half from Paramount Studios. I remember sitting on the
front porch with my mother and waving at the movie stars who drove by in their
limos. I’m not sure whether that influenced me to become a writer, but I did
write stories from a young age. My first book was written at age nine—a chapter
a day to entertain classmates. Years later I interviewed actors and screen
writers for several of my interview books.
Patricia:
Where
do you live now? Do you use that locale for settings in your novels?
Jean:
We have a small ranch in Wyoming’s Laramie Mountains at 7,000 feet. It’s
beautiful during the spring, summer and fall, but cold (and pristine) during
the winters. I’ve set two of my Logan and Cafferty mysteries in Wyoming, one of
them here in the Laramies (Gray Wolf
Mountain) as well as one of my Hamilton Kids’ mysteries (Ghost of Crimson Dawn).
Patricia:
What
inspired you to write your most recent novel?
Jean:
Because
I started my writing career as a news reporter, I wrote five nonfiction books
before I attempted my first novel. I spent two years behind a microfilm machine
during the 1980s researching a centennial history book of central Wyoming (Casper Country: Wyoming’s Heartland),
which became a college textbook. During my research I came across newspaper
articles about a young couple who had been hanged by cattlemen who claimed they
had been running a rural brothel and accepting stolen cattle as payment for
their services. However, another article said that they were respectable
people, the husband appointed by the governor as justice of the peace and
postmaster of Sweetwater Valley. I spent over 25 years attempting to research
the story that was reported around the world in 1889. Fortunately, George
Hufsmith was commissioned to write an opera about the murders and spent the
next 20 years interviewing people in the area who knew the truth. When his
nonfiction book was published I finally had the missing puzzle pieces to begin
writing my historical mystery-suspense novel, No Escape, the Sweetwater Tragedy.
I also researched single woman homesteaders of
that era—some 200,000 of them—and created a composite, Susan Cameron, a young
Missouri woman seeking independence and the right to vote and hold office well before
the rest of the nation. I didn’t want to end the book with the murders so Susan
experiences the aftermath of the story when her new friends, Ellen and James Averell
are killed. Ellen, by the way, was known as “Cattle Kate,” and movies, books,
songs and poetry have depicted the innocent young woman as a rustler and prostitute.
Patricia:
When
did you “know” that you wanted to be a writer?
Jean:
When
I was in elementary school. I dabbled in both writing and art and was placed in
a special class, skipping the fifth grade, to work on advanced projects. That
helped my creative talents immeasurably.
Patricia:
Name
three of your favorite authors in the mystery/suspense genre. What makes them your
favorites?
Jean:
I
learned to write fiction by studying the books of Dean Koontz. I like the way
he strings his words together although I didn’t really didn’t care for his
horror novels. Agatha Christie lured me into the mystery genre, where I stayed,
also reading all of the alphabet series written by Sue Grafton. I’ve read many
other mysteries written by a variety of authors, but Koontz, Christie and
Grafton remain my favorites.
