Interview with Helen Barer, author of Fitness Kills 

Fitness Kills

Lauren Smith. What inspired you to create a work of fiction?

Helen: One day, after a visit to a 'fitness ranch' in Baja California, I thought it would be fun to take myself back there in fiction. It was such a classic set up for a mystery: we all arrived on Saturday and left on Saturday;  there were only 100 guests, so in the course of the week we all became instant intimates; it was exotic and completely different from my 'regular' life. And it was a rich mine for jealousies  and competition. Something like a cruise ship. There's a magnet that I've had on my refrigerator for years: "It's never too late to be what you might have been." George Eliot wrote that.  And I'd always dreamed of writing fiction. 

Lauren Smith: What did you do to prepare for writing a mystery novel?

Helen: I read. A lot. My bedroom has an entire wall of mystery novels. I also read Mystery Scene magazine, attended mystery conferences, and found Marilyn Stasio's mystery book reviews  to be very instructive. 

Lauren Smith: How did you develop the plot for Fitness Kills?

Helen: I wanted to open the book dramatically, with a murder, then have the reader meet my protagonist in an aerobics class. I thought she should identify herself with a group of people who knew the victim, and took it from there. I confess that while I started out as a typical Virgo -- I made lists of characters, outlined chapters, figured out a romantic subplot, thought of a major red herring -- but it soon had a life of its own. It's a cliche, but once my characters had voices,  they took off in ways I hadn't anticipated.  But I always knew how the book would end. 

Lauren Smith: Is Nora Franke based on anyone – or any type of person - you know?

Helen: ME. Plus how I'd like to be. I was a food writer many years ago, lived in a 4th-floor walkup on Riverside Drive on New York City's Upper West Side, just like Nora, fought a weight problem. I wish I were as courageous and feisty as Nora, but maybe it will rub off. 

Lauren Smith: How long did it take you to write the book – (was it longer or less time than you expected)?

Helen: It took forever. I kept starting it and stopping. I couldn't get past the first chapter. I think I first got the idea for the book in the late 1980s, but didn't take it seriously until the late 1990s. By that time, all my friends thought I'd written two or three books. 

Lauren Smith: Did you seek the support of a writer’s group or class?

Helen: Absolutely. I took a class called "Starting Your First Novel," which I heard about serendipitously, at The New School in New York. The instructor, a fiction writer herself, gave us an excercise in which we had to rewrite our first chapter in the first person, if we'd written it in the third. And vice versa, of course. What a difference that made! Later, I joined a wonderful writing workshop.

Lauren Smith: What surprised you the most about this process?

Helen: Writing in the first person for the first time gave my protagonist a voice: I sounded like a smart-ass New Yorker, sassy and funny and yet vulnerable. I liked her! And I loved that the writers in the workshop -- many of whom were published -- took their (and my) work so seriously. And their critiques so seriously; they were never personal, only professional. 

Lauren Smith: What tips would you offer to anyone writing fiction for the first time?

Helen: Again, read:  all sorts of fiction, old and new, different genres. I've never found 'how-to' books that helpful, except maybe for Anne Lamott's "Bird on Bird." What's most helpful is feedback from other writers. 

Lauren Smith: What can we look forward to in Nora’s next adventure?

Helen: Nora's caught up in a family crisis or two in my next book, tentatively entitled "Families are Murder." She's back in New York, still made about Max, and cooking like crazy. 

Lauren Smith: Is there anything we haven’t covered that you would like to include?

Helen: People often ask me 'why mysteries?' I've  always been a fan of mysteries. They have a moral compass, and a beginning, middle and end. And I'm inspired by all of the women writing in the last 40 or 50 years who have created strong, independent, dynamic women who nevertheless remain women. I'd like to join their ranks. 

Lauren Smith: Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview!

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