Interview With Ann Rule, Author Of Too Late To Say Goodbye - Page 4

What are the best and worst parts about writing true crime books?

Ann: The best parts are the writing itself, and the research. I love to go to homicide trials, and I truly enjoy reading through detectives' files, and interviewing witnesses. And those are also the worst parts. Writing becomes onerous when a tight deadline approaches, and everyone around me is having fun, going on vacation, enjoying holidays, planting flowers and going out to eat — and I have to stay chained to my computer. Trials get boring in parts, oak courtroom benches get harder and harder, and if the courtroom is too warm after lunch, it's difficult to stay awake!

And approaching those who have lost loved ones, or who have been witness to murder or preparations for murder is challenging. I don't want to hurt them any more than they have been hurt. I don't want to reopen old emotional wounds. And, frankly, sometimes the District Attorneys and Detectives are kind of scary at first. Almost always, we become friends — and that's the best part. It's also wonderful to see a new book in print. I never get over that thrill. I truly enjoy book signings, and meeting my readers. I often think that I have the best career in the world, and about how lucky I am.

How has your popularity helped and hurt you?

Ann: I think it's only helped me. I start my days reading really nice comments in my email. How many people can say that? I don't mind being approached in restaurants and stores; I'm not popular enough to be mobbed. When I'm starting a new book, it helps if people have heard of me or have read my books. When I first published The Stranger Beside Me in 1980, I often sat at a table in bookstores for a couple of hours without selling one book. It was like my days as a wallflower in junior high school and high school when nobody asked me to dance. Humiliating. I'll take "popular" any time, and I will happily sign books until my hand hurts and my neck gets creaky. I am so happy to see people who enjoy reading my books.

I’m going to excerpt this part below because I think it says a lot not just about this story but all murders.

"Jennifer Corbin's secrets would be opened up for the world to see, but inevitably Bart Corbin's own private life would also be held up to the light - all of his secrets, his misdeeds, his past and his present. That's what a murder investigation was, is, and has to be - an ongoing invasion of privacy, not just for the victim and the suspect, but for those who worry about friends on both sides of a case, strangers who have some kind of connection, and witnesses. The net spreads out and they are all caught up in it, their private thoughts and actions explored relentlessly.
It's the only way a death investigation can proceed. When a life is stolen prematurely, truth is the one path to justice."

People who lose someone they love to murder suffer so much. They never really find "closure," although others like to think they come to a place where they go back to normal. And they face such tight scrutiny that it makes their losses even more painful. Police investigators have to ask personal questions and even look into secret places like diaries, journals, letters, and extra-marital affairs. A murder victim has no privacy, and that seems somehow unfair to me. But it's necessary, too, if the victim is to be avenged, and the killer is to be convicted and locked away from society. In my research, I often find out things that would be embarrassing for the victim and her (his) family, and I choose not to include that information in my books. They would not make the books that much more interesting; it's not worth the hurt it might cause. 

Article Author: Scott Butki

Scott Butki was a newspaper reporter for more than 10 years before making a career change into education... then into special education.

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